The Navy plans to retire four Littoral Combat Ships and one Dock Landing Ship early in fiscal year 2021 as the service seeks to keep up with the new National Defense Strategy.
Unmanned Systems
February 10, 2020
The Air Force's $168.9 billion fiscal year 2021 budget request proposes a $4.1 billion realignment across the future years defense program to fund increases in future air and space dominance capabilities through cuts to legacy bombers and tankers, Block 20 and 30 Global Hawks, Guard and Reserve Component A-10s and planned missile procurements.
February 7, 2020
After the Defense Department inspector general's office found the Air Force wasted nearly $18 million from the Overseas Contingency Operations budget on a capability that was never delivered, the service's chief auditor is conducting a review of how this funding is used to develop "innovation projects."
February 4, 2020
The Pentagon's chief weapons testers say both they and the Navy have assessed a new unmanned aircraft as "not operationally effective, not operationally suitable, and not cyber survivable," and have revealed the service created a "Tiger Team" to fix those issues.
February 4, 2020
Pentagon weapons evaluators in their latest annual report criticized the Navy's testing of an unmanned undersea vehicle designed for mine countermeasures, saying the environment was too comparable to the conditions the vessels' original creators used when developing classification algorithms.
February 4, 2020
Huntington Ingalls Industries said today it has agreed to acquire Hydroid, which provides advanced marine robotics to the defense and maritime markets, in a $350 million deal.
February 3, 2020
The Air Force has selected variants of the Small Diameter Bomb I and Miniature Air Launched Decoy as the initial demonstration weapons for the Golden Horde swarming munitions vanguard program, according to a service spokeswoman.
January 27, 2020
Pentagon officials will meet with industry this spring to discuss a wide range of autonomous system developments in the coming years, according to a public notice which sheds more light on how Defense Department officials envision pairing machines and humans on the battlefield.
January 22, 2020
The Navy is expected to finalize next month a major new analysis of its future surface combatant fleet that recommends how many medium- and large-displacement unmanned surface vehicles to fold into fighting formations with destroyers, cruisers, Littoral Combat Ships and frigates.
January 17, 2020
The Navy plans to work with the Army and Air Force to expand the use of its developmental common system for controlling various unmanned vehicles, according to an officer overseeing the effort.
January 16, 2020
Navy officers this week expressed confidence the service can adapt to new legislation that prevents it from including a vertical launching system on a major unmanned surface vessel concept design.
January 14, 2020
The Navy's forthcoming integrated force structure assessment will not include unmanned vessels in the battleforce ship count.
January 14, 2020
Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord provided new details today on the U.S. effort to field counter-drone technology, saying the military is working with foreign allies to test and evaluate a variety of potential systems.
January 13, 2020
The admiral working to develop the Navy's concepts of operations for medium and large unmanned surface vehicles plans to submit a report about the effort in April.
January 9, 2020
The Army last week delivered to Ft. Sill, OK, the first three of 30 Leader Follower vehicles to be sent over this month. The 5th Transportation Company, 100th Brigade Support Battalion will now begin training with and evaluating the systems.
January 7, 2020
The Pentagon's advanced research arm recently announced a new three-year program focused on improving medium unmanned surface vessels' ability to move in formation through rough waters.
January 7, 2020
The Air Force Scientific Advisory Board in fiscal year 2020 is conducting three studies under the direction of the service's secretary that focus on modern communications technology, autonomous systems and space applications, according to a notice published in December.
January 7, 2020
The Navy last month transferred administrative control of the trimaran Sea Hunter -- an experimental prototype medium unmanned surface vehicle that helped launch plans for a fleet of medium and large USVs -- from the Office of Naval Research to Surface Development Command One, on behalf of the Unmanned Maritime Systems program office (PMS-406).
January 6, 2020
The Navy last month directed its top surface warfare officer to develop the concepts of operations for two major unmanned surface vessel programs, according to a Dec. 19 message to the fleet.
December 18, 2019
The Navy has canceled two prize challenges for its Marine Air Ground Task Force Unmanned Expeditionary program so the service can re-evaluate requirements.