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Americas Swedish company has opened a new 100,000-square-foot production facility in West Lafayette, Indiana, to build T-7A Red Hawks. The Boeing-Saab team is producing the new advanced trainer for the US Air Force, with Saab providing the aft section to Boeing’s forward fuselage. Currently the aft section is built at Saab’s factory in Linköping, Sweden, then shipped to the United States. Raytheon has presented GhostEye MR, a new medium-range radar for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or NASAMS. GhostEye MR was displayed at the Association of the US Army’s annual meeting and exhibition, held last week. Middle East & Africa In the first bilateral …

Americas BAE Systems won a $24.6 million deal for the Military Global Positioning System User Equipment (MGUE) Increment 2 Miniature Serial Interface (MSI) contract. The modification incorporates MSI Engineering Change Proposal-1 into the baseline and provides continued MSI with Next Generation Application-Specific Integrated Circuit Technology Development capabilities. The goal of MGUE Inc 2 is to develop, integrate, and produce M-Code capable, GPS receivers for the service requirements specified in the Joint Requirements Oversight Council approved MGUE Inc 2 Capability Development Document. Work will take place in Iowa. Estimated completion date is August 31, 2025. Th…

Service selection. Warfare speciality. Rating/MOS. When you sign your name on the bottom line, except for certain circumstances, you really don't know where the "needs of the service" will take you. You fill out your wish list and hope for the best. We all know someone who wasn't all that excited about what their service had in store for them. I had a peer who came from a family of fighter pilots. He didn't pass the pilot physical for eye reasons, so wound up on the naval flight officer pipeline. This was when we still had A-6 and F-14, and that is where he thought he would save face. Where did the Navy decided he was needed? E-2. He cried. He then didn't tell anyone for…

Americas General Atomics won a $65.5 million order, which provides for the procurement, transportation, and installation of Ground Control Stations (GCSs), materials, support equipment, as well as associated training, engineering, non-recurring engineering, and integrated logistics support. Additionally, this order procures 18 mission kits, spares, ground support equipment, and communications gear for site setup in support of the operational capability of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Unmanned Aircraft System Expeditionary Medium Altitude Long Endurance MQ-9A Block 5 Reaper air vehicles and GCSs for the Navy. Work will take place in California. Expected completion will…

Americas The US Army will receive more next-generation thermal weapon sights from Leonardo as part of a new $134-million deal. According to the company, the device provides rapid target acquisition capabilities to soldiers, especially during missions in low-light environments. BAE Systems has landed a $5-million contract to develop electronic warfare solutions for the US Navy’s Common-architecture […]View the full article

Americas Northrop Grumman will collaborate on the US-Japan counter-hypersonic missile system development program. Along with the US Missile Defense Agency, Northrop will team up with the Japanese Ministry of Defense and its industry partners to develop elements of the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI). This stems from the 2023 US-Japan bilateral memorandum of understanding for research, […]View the full article

Americas The Pentagon has awarded QinetiQ a $13.3-million contract to supply its Vindicator II uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) target support services to the US Navy (USN). As QinetiQ Target Systems is based in Canada, the deal was facilitated by the Canadian Commercial Corporation as the prime contractor together with Public Services and Procurement Canada. The five-year deal – with a six-month extension provision – came into effect in December and includes Canadian personnel deployed to provide services to the USN. Lockheed Martin won a $678.4 million modification to support the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft retrofit and modification efforts for the Air Force, Marin…

Thailand’s Air Force has conducted its first known combat use of South Korea’s KGGB precision guidance kits, adapting standard Mk.82 bombs for long-range strikes during ongoing clashes with Cambodian forces. According to reports, a Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) F-16 fighter jet used the KGGB—a GPS-guided glide bomb kit developed by South Korea’s LIG Nex1—to […] The post Thailand uses South Korean precision bombs in border fight first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

NATO Air Command said on August 28 that two Italian F-35 fighter jets scrambled from Amari Air Base in Estonia to intercept a Russian military aircraft operating near Alliance airspace. According to the command, the jets were deployed under NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission after radar systems detected the approach of a Russian An-124 Condor […] The post Italian F-35s intercept Russian An-124 heavy transport aircraft first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a Patriot air defense system previously stationed in Israel has been operating in Ukraine for the past month, strengthening the country’s ability to counter Russian missile and drone attacks. He also announced that Kyiv will receive two additional Patriot systems this fall as part of ongoing efforts to expand […] The post Israeli Patriot now active in Ukraine, Zelensky says first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

Saronic Technologies has announced a strategic collaboration with NVIDIA aimed at accelerating the development of autonomous maritime systems and AI-driven shipbuilding. The partnership was disclosed on Friday in a company statement that outlined joint efforts to integrate NVIDIA’s advanced AI tools and compute platforms into Saronic’s naval technologies. “By combining Saronic’s deep expertise in maritime […] The post Saronic teams with NVIDIA on AI-powered ships first appeared on Defence Blog.View the full article

A new variant of China’s ZBD-04 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) equipped with an advanced active protection system (APS) has surfaced online, raising questions about the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) evolving approach to vehicle survivability and defensive countermeasures. Photos of the vehicle—reportedly the ZBD-04B—were released by the open-source monitoring group The Dead District. The images show […]View the full article

Turkish defense company ASELSAN has completed the integration and live-fire testing of two combat systems for Indonesia’s elite special forces. According to a statement published by ASELSAN Indonesia, the ASELSAN SARP 12.7 mm Remote Weapon Station and the ASELSAN SEDA Gunshot Detection System were successfully integrated on their designated platform and tested with live ammunition. […]View the full article

United States missile manufacturing is failing to keep pace with the tempo of modern warfare, raising concerns about how quickly the military can replace precision weapons in a high-intensity conflict. To examine where the bottlenecks lie and how they affect readiness, Defence Blog sought comment from John Borrego, Senior Vice President of Aerospace and Defense […]View the full article

Ukraine carried out a long-range strike overnight on February 21 targeting Russia’s Votkinsk Machine Building Plant in Udmurtia, a key facility tied to Moscow’s ballistic missile production program. Explosions were reported shortly before midnight local time, followed by a large fire inside the industrial complex located roughly 1,400 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The attack […]View the full article

Ukrainian military personnel reported that a Russian combat helicopter was struck by a first-person-view (FPV) drone on the Pokrovsk axis, with the incident supported by released photos and video showing burning wreckage at the crash site. The hit was attributed to fighters of Ukraine’s 59th Separate Assault Brigade, who said the strike occurred during ongoing […]View the full article

The U.S. Army gave its most ambitious rotorcraft program a name to match its ambitions on April 15, officially designating Bell Textron’s MV-75 tiltrotor aircraft the Cheyenne II during the Army Aviation Association of America’s annual Warfighting Summit in Nashville, Tennessee. The naming honors two federally recognized nations: the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana and […]View the full article

Helsing, a German AI defense company, has conducted the first launch of its HX-2 strike drone from a coastal vessel in the waters off Plymouth, UK, the company announced, marking a new operational environment for a system it has been developing and deploying on the battlefield in Ukraine. The trial took place off a fast […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy is doubling down on what it considers its most capable air and missile defense radar at sea, committing $516 million to keep the system integrated, tested, and ready across the fleet. Raytheon Missiles and Defense, the Marlborough, Massachusetts-based defense arm of RTX Corporation, secured a $515.8 million contract modification this week to […]View the full article

With the first operational B-21 Raiders scheduled to arrive at Ellsworth Air Force Base in 2027, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $44 million construction contract to build the permanent outdoor shelters that will protect America’s most advanced stealth bomber from the harsh South Dakota winters, extending its service life and keeping […]View the full article