The Navy is completing a reduction of total ownership cost study to scale back the operational support cost for Virginia-class submarines, and the service expects it will wrap up before a request for proposals for the Block IV contract is released, according to a service official.731 words

A roadmap for the Marine Corps' unmanned ground vehicle development is awaiting senior-level review and signature but is already beginning to shape work at the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab and elsewhere in the service, the roadmap's author said last week.628 words

The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization is beginning to look beyond the IED threat in Afghanistan and consider how it may assist combatant commanders around the globe, a JIEDDO official said last week.587 words

The Marine Corps is conducting an analysis of alternatives that will wrap up in the second quarter of fiscal year 2013 for the disable point target within its non-lethal weapons portfolio, according to a service official.579 words

The first-in-class Joint High-Speed Vessel, Spearhead, successfully completed its acceptance trials on Aug. 16, the last step before being delivered to the Navy later this year. The high-speed catamaran, to be used for intra-theater transportation of troops, vehicles and equipment, was tested in the Gulf of Mexico for two days. The trial included a four-hour, full-power run and demonstrations of main propulsion engineering and ship control systems, anchoring and crew support systems, according to a Navy announcement. The Choctaw County (JHSV-2) will be christened on Sept. 15 at Austal's Mobile, AL, shipyard, where two more are under construction, according to an Austal statement.103 words

The Navy has made a final decision to increase its training and access at the Silver Strand Training Complex after weighing the strategic, operational and environmental consequences, according to a Federal Register notice issued last week.365 words

Navistar Defense, one of the losing contenders for a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle contract, has filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office, Inside the Army has learned.322 words

The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization is moving forward with a lightweight reconnaissance robot that can be tossed ahead by troops, having wrapped up a field test this summer to get operator-feedback on three robots.1155 words

The Navy's Expeditionary Warfare Division is working hard to field a robotic system that would help explosive ordnance disposal technicians find and de-arm threats, rather than simply travel ahead of convoys and trigger any roadside bombs along the way, an official said at a military robotics conference last week.716 words

Though the Navy will never be able to fully "keep the man out of the minefield," as is the goal for robotics in mine countermeasures and explosive ordnance disposal efforts, robots are helping EOD technicians significantly collapse the time line of finding, identifying and disabling threats, a service official said at a military robotics conference last week. 743 words

The Navy has made a final decision to employ up to four sonar surveillance systems after weighing the operational, scientific, technical and environmental implications, according to a Federal Register notice issued last week.359 words

The Marine Corps has delivered the first 12 V-22 tiltrotor aircraft to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, where they will replace the service's CH-46 helicopters, though the Ospreys have yet to be flown, Commandant Gen. James Amos said Aug. 28 at the National Press Club.517 words

As part of its ongoing effort to increase interoperability for unmanned aircraft systems, the Pentagon is poised to update the software that helps integrate applications on drones' ground-control stations and engage in two demonstrations this fall, according to a defense official overseeing the effort.743 words

In light of findings that the Pentagon is underutilizing autonomous technology, the Defense Department's research and engineering chief should work with military services to develop a coordinated science and technology program that would strengthen key enabling technologies, a new Defense Science Board report recommends.477 words

Military intervention by NATO in the Syrian conflict could cause more collateral damage than good, according to Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow.548 words

Building on the previous establishment of a high-level Pentagon team to "resolve" requests from operational forces for urgently needed capabilities, the Defense Department has formally established the Warfighter Senior Integration Group, according to an Aug. 24 memo.463 words

Although a National Academy of Sciences report has recommended that the Defense Department copy the methods of Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works division to improve its recruitment of technology experts, the head of that division said the Skunk Works culture cannot be replicated on a large scale.460 words

The Pentagon is assessing its Cooperative Threat Reduction Program objectives and reviewing work with partner nations in light of recommendations made by the National Academy of Sciences, according to a report the Defense Department recently submitted to Congress.1324 words