The Littoral Combat Ship's mine countermeasures mission package will start its operational assessment in about a week, spending most of the month of February testing all the various components of the package in realistic at-sea conditions.548 words

The Marine Corps' short-takeoff, vertical-landing variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter likely will require only software adjustments to the aircraft rather than a spoiler to improve the aircraft's handling, according to the program office, dodging what the Pentagon's top testing official said last year would be a "major change" to the aircraft.399 words

The Navy will highlight its reliance on DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Littoral Combat Ships in the first budget since Congress mandated the Pentagon cut $487 billion over a decade, while allowing its cruiser and support ship fleet to shrink, defense officials said last week.665 words

For its "new afloat forward staging base," the Defense Department will overhaul one of three Mobile Landing Platforms -- ships long a part of the Navy's modernization blueprint -- to meet a "longstanding" U.S. Central Command need, according to officials familiar with Navy plans.611 words

The Navy announced last week that it had kicked off test flights of the Multi-Function Active Sensor -- the much-vaunted 360-degree radar meant to go on the service's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance unmanned aerial system. The Jan. 25 Naval Air Systems Command statement said the first two-hour flight had taken place a month ago aboard a Gulfstream jet in California, and it would be the first in a series of tests to take place through October for the new BAMS radar. The tests will "focus on maturing the performance of maritime surface surveillance modes of the radar," the statement reads.101 words

The decision to delay the procurement of a Virginia-class attack submarine in Block IV could result in a cost increase, but that won't be clear until a thorough analysis takes place, according to Robert Hamilton, a spokesman for builder General Dynamics Electric Boat.393 words

The Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services program office will down select Feb. 1 in preparation for a limited deployment, according to a Navy official.305 words

The Navy will have a contractor conduct a thorough business case analysis for the sustainment of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter which will be completed by the end of the year, according to the JSF joint program executive office.354 words

The Light Armored Vehicle program office is being asked to extend the service life of its vehicles until 2035 -- about three decades beyond the original retirement date for the baseline LAV, which first entered service in 1981, Matthew Koneda, LAV director of engineering, told Inside the Navy Jan. 23.256 words

Despite the fact the Defense Department has publicized its decision to retire seven CG-47 Ticonderoga-class cruisers early and slip numerous ship schedules to the right, the Navy will not publicly announce a new ship floor -- if there is one -- until a force structure review wraps up this spring, well after the budget comes out, according to the service.247 words

The Marine Corps continues to upgrade its MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle fleet as part of its modernization program, according to two January contract awards totaling $990 million.247 words

Northrop Grumman and the Navy recently undertook some flight tests to demonstrate an autonomous aerial refueling capability for the Unmanned Combat Air System-Demonstrator program using a Learjet as a surrogate platform, the company announced last week.217 words

The Navy and Marine Corps completed four successful live-fire tests for the AGM-65E2 Laser Maverick missile in August, and the results were validated this winter, according to a Navy official.375 words

The Government Accountability Office is questioning the Navy's move to rely on the restart of the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer line as its preferred surface combatant of the future, saying the service's pick of the ship over the DDG-1000 may not have "a sufficient analytical basis for a decision of this magnitude."724 words

The Defense Department's inspector general has certified that a Navy assertion of audit readiness is valid and provides some guidance on how the service might improve its future auditing capabilities, although some Navy processes were called into question.358 words

A House Armed Services subcommittee chairman voiced concerns about the level of risk the Obama administration is accepting with its new defense strategy and criticized the lack of transparency regarding those risks in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon to request a 2012 National Security Strategy report.460 words

The Pentagon wants to design a long-range conventional strike weapon that could be launched from submarines, claiming the necessary technology has developed enough to assuage concerns about prior concepts -- including the fear that such a missile might be mistaken for a nuclear weapon.498 words

The Pentagon's decision last year to put the Marine Corps' Joint Strike Fighter variant on probation created a false impression that the F-35B faced impending doom, a perception that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently sought to fix by ending the trial period, according to Frank Kendall, the department's acting procurement chief.1092 words

The Pentagon's decision to end the probation that has loomed over the Marine Corps' F-35B Joint Strike Fighter will not necessarily help the U.S. government persuade more countries to join Spain and Italy in buying the aircraft's short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) variant, according to a senior Pentagon official and an industry analyst.271 words

The Defense Department could need to conduct a major restructuring of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program to meet deficit-reduction targets mandated by Congress, a Navy contract notice warns.590 words

The Pentagon projects the Joint Strike Fighter program will avoid $1.1 billion in previously estimated production and sustainment costs as a result of investments made by the Navy and Air Force in technologies designed to improve the manufacturing of a handful of components, according to the Navy three-star admiral overseeing the F-35 program.429 words

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert has launched a series of classified discussions, including secret-level meetings last week, to update the 2007 maritime strategy signed by the chiefs of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, according to sources and documents.628 words

The Defense Acquisition Board is slated toward the end of February to consider approving the start of engineering and manufacturing development for the Navy's Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC) program.177 words

A story in the Jan. 23 issue on ship commonality incorrectly listed one of the primary contractors on the Independence variant of the Littoral Combat Ship. Those companies are General Dynamics and Austal USA.35 words