News
U.S. Navy conducts first South China Sea navigation under President Trump –
The Pentagon conducted a Navy patrol in the South China Sea, U.S. officials said May 24, the first such operation under President Donald Trump designed to send a signal to China about U.S. intentions to keep critical sea lanes open in the Pacific Ocean.
Business
Lockheed Martin drops out of U.S. Navy missile competition –
Lockheed Martin, frustrated by changing requirements the company feels are skewed to a particular competitor, is dropping out of the U.S. Navy’s over-the-horizon missile program intended to give a lethal capability to littoral combat ships and frigates.
Boeing to build hypersonic space plane –
DARPA selected Boeing to design its Experimental Spaceplane, or XS-1, a new class of hypersonic aircraft that can launch to low Earth orbit in days, rather than months or years, the agency announced May 24.
Steep price rise hits Indo-Russian 5th-gen fighter project –
Just when its production was about to take off, the Indo-Russian fifth-generation fighter aircraft appears to be “lost” because Russians are demanding an “unaffordable price for the aircraft,” according to a senior Indian Air Force official.
Defense industry execs among top-paid female CEOs –
General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin are among the top-paid female CEOs, according to a report by The Associated Press.
Brazilian marines upgrade C4ISR –
Israeli firm Elbit has been awarded a $40 million contract to upgrade C4ISR systems for the Brazilian marine corps.
General Dynamics receives Aegis contract from U.S. Navy –
The $40.8 million contract modification is for production of the MK 82/MK 200 Missile Fire Control System director controller equipment.
Boeing wins contract for multi-object kill vehicle technology –
Boeing will test its evolved multi-object kill vehicle technology to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency under a received a $58.6 million, 35-month contract.
The rocket startup that’s about to eat Elon Musk’s lunch –
What’s special about Rocket Lab? The company is promising to put objects into space for less than $5 million per launch. That’s about one-tenth as much as its nearest rival, SpaceX, which claims an average launch cost of $57 million, and a tiny fraction of the $225 million price tag for a launch by United Launch Alliance, or ULA, the U.S. industry leader made up of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Boeing protests Air Force’s jamming-plane decision, alleging conflict of interest –
Boeing is formally challenging a U.S. Air Force decision that allows L3 Technologies to choose a new plane to replace the EC-130 Compass Call intelligence aircraft.
Defense
Why future years’ defense numbers are so strange in the fiscal 2018 budget –
When the Pentagon sends its annual budget request to Congress, it traditionally comes with five year’s worth of numbers, projections known as the Future Years Defense Program, or FYDP.
How Army wants to protect missiles from GPS jammers –
With GPS jammers proliferating, the Army wants to enable its missiles to ignore fake signals.
Army vehicles will get C4ISR upgrade –
The work is for the Army Program Office for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles and the Army Product Manager Light Tactical Vehicles, as part of the Army Network Modernization Plan.
Veterans
VA defends plan to cut thousands of dollars from elderly vets’ benefits –
Veterans Affairs officials May 24 defended plans to strip tens of thousands of dollars in unemployment benefits from elderly veterans as responsible reforms to the department’s growing budget, but opponents promised to fight the idea.
Three new names on Vietnam Veterans Memorial to be recognized as part of Memorial Day ceremony –
Three fallen service members whose names have been added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be honored as part of the May 29 Memorial Day observance in front of the panels of polished black granite, according to a recent news release from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
VA plans mental care for discharged vets, but at what cost? –
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin touted new efforts May 24 to expand urgent mental health care to thousands of former service members with less-than-honorable discharges, even while acknowledging his department isn’t seeking additional money to pay for it.