The fleet of V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, produced by a joint venture of Boeing and Textron‘s Bell Helicopter subsidiary, has recorded more than 400,000 flight hours to date. Bell Boeing-built V-22s have supported theater security cooperation, casualty evacuation, tactical aircraft and personnel recovery, disaster response and VIP transport operations worldwide, Boeing said Tuesday. The U.S. Marine Corps has used the […] More

The White House is on track to complete new policies that aim to facilitate the sale of U.S.-built military unmanned aircraft systems to international customers and help U.S. drone manufacturers compete with Israeli and Chinese counterparts, Reuters reported Wednesday. The Trump administration also intends to relax international restrictions on U.S. drone exports through the renegotiation […] More

The U.S. Army plans to implement a new technology designed to help the service branch’s AH-64 Apache helicopter operators communicate with up to two unmanned aerial vehicles, Defense News reported Sunday. The report said Manned-Unmanned Teaming X system will work to help AH-64E crews to operate the sensors and flight paths of Textron‘s RQ-7 Shadow and General […] More

BAE Systems has conducted initial flight tests of its see-through head-up display that works to show flight information directly in a pilot’s line of sight without blocking views. The company said Tuesday its LiteHUD platform was flown aboard the U.S. Special Operations Command‘s AC-130J aircraft, the Textron-made Scorpion jet and BAE-built Advanced Hawk demonstrator aircraft. LiteHUD has […] More

Textron‘s Bell Helicopter subsidiary has completed the prototype build of a tiltrotor aircraft platform designed for the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program under the U.S. Army‘s Future Vertical Lift initiative. Bell said Wednesday it aims to demonstrate its V-280 Valor offering this fall through a maiden flight test. Lockheed Martin built V-280’s cockpit, avionics, distributed aperture system […] More

The U.S. Army has released this year’s Superior Supplier Incentive Program list that ranks the top industry suppliers for the military in 2017 based on cost, schedule, technical performance, management, regulatory compliance and small business utilization. The service branch announced Tuesday that SSIP serves as a basis for companies to learn and improve on the areas that factor into their overall performance […] More

Industry participants in the U.S. Air Force‘s OA-X light attack aircraft demonstration are eyeing a separate opportunity to sell light attack planes to the U.S. Special Operations Command, Defense News reported. The Air Force released a presolicitation notice on FedBizOpps in July to gain industry feedback on “platform-agnostic” light attack aircraft technologies that can address the needs […] More

A team of L3 Technologies and Air Tractor will bring their light-attack aircraft to Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico to participate in the U.S. Air Force’s OA-X demonstration, DoD Buzz reported Monday. The companies will demonstrate their AT-802L Longsword aircraft through a two-day flight test that will kick off on Aug. 8. AT-802L […] More

The Center for a New American Security has launched a new project that aims to analyze how the U.S. joint force should adapt to technological innovations of potential state and non-state adversaries. CNAS said Monday the Evolving the Future Force project is part of the center’s Defense Strategies and Assessments program and seeks to explore the […] More

The U.S. Air Force has invited a team composed of Sierra Nevada and Embraer‘s defense and security business to participate in the service branch’s OA-X light attack aircraft demonstration in July at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Sierra Nevada said Friday the two companies will jointly showcase the A-29 Super Tucano light air support aircraft at the OA-X assessment. OA-X will inform the Air […] More

A joint Defense Department agency and a government-industry consortium inked a memorandum of understanding to help define open avionics standards for military aircraft. The Future Airborne Capability Environment Consortium (FACE,) a coalition of government and industry organizations which aims to determine open avionics standards for military aircraft, issued the memo with the DoD agency, Defense Systems reported Thursday. The memorandum will […] More

Leidos will offer global technical services and field support to the U.S. Army‘s tactical unmanned aircraft systems, universal ground control stations and universal ground data terminals through the company’s position under a potential $900 million contract awarded earlier this month. The company said Wednesday it will vie for contract work in the areas of non-repetitive development, analysis and corrective action, […] More