Huntsville, Alabama-based Cummings Aerospace is readying its Hellhound for submission to the U.S. Army’s loitering munition competition set to kick off later this year, having recently wrapped up flight tests of its turbo-jet powered, 3D-printed kamikaze drone.
The company took its S3 version of its man-portable loitering munition out to the Pendleton Unmanned Aircraft Systems test range in Oregon this month and was able to verify and validate the system’s performance against the Army’s preliminary Low Altitude Stalking and Striking Ordnance, or LASSO, program requirements, CEO Sheila Cummings told Defense News in a Tuesday interview.
“We were able to successfully demonstrate that we could meet the range requirements for LASSO and then ultimately trying to make sure that we’re exercising the max flight speed and so we achieved that,” Cummings said. “We were also able to successfully integrate an inert warhead and conduct flights with that as we..
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The U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that collided midair with an American Airlines passenger jet above Reagan National Airport in Washington on Wednesday night was piloted by experienced aviators that typically fly VIP missions in busy air space, according to a retired Army chief warrant officer with over 30 years of flying experience, who serves in the Headquarters Department of the Army Aviation Directorate at the Pentagon.
The two aircraft crashed in a clear night sky right as the American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 people aboard, was approaching the runway flying over the Potomac River. The Black Hawk was on a training flight from Davison Army Airfield at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, carrying three service members.
The fuselage of the aircraft broke apart in three places and was discovered inverted in waist-deep water. The helicopter wreckage was found nearby. There were no survivors found. The recovery effort is ongoing.
Until the “black box” aboard.. -
PARIS — The Netherlands Ministry of Defence is investing in steel to defend NATO’s eastern flank. That means adding tanks and armored vehicles, but also expanding a fleet of railway wagons that allows Dutch military planners to rush armor and supplies across Europe.
The ministry’s Joint Support Command received 75 new wagons in December and January, a 20% increase of its fleet. That makes the Dutch less reliant on commercial providers, and shortens reaction times should troops need to deploy in anger, Defence Movement and Transport Organisation (DVVO) Commander Col. Merlijn Heiligers told Defense News.
As NATO has stepped up exercises and deployments in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there’s renewed emphasis on the role of rail to rapidly move combat forces in support of alliance members. Yet European armies looking to rent wagons face scarcity on rising demand and the legacy of falling spending on military rail after the Cold War – someth.. -
Japan has ordered 17 of the latest variant of the Boeing-manufactured CH-47 Chinook cargo helicopter, the company said Thursday.
The CH-47 Block II Chinook is an extended-range version of the aircraft that is used by the U.S. Army and U.S. Special Operations Command. Japan is the fourth customer for the new variant.
Germany purchased 60 of the helicopters in a$4 billion deal in 2022, and the U.K. finalized its deal for 14 Chinooks in early 2024.
The CH-47s will be co-produced by Boeing and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The Japanese company similarly provided elements for the CH-47 JA helicopters.
The helicopters purchased for the Japan Self-Defense Forces will replace some of its CH-47 JA aircraft, which were purchased in the 1980s and delivered by the early 2000s. The helicopters have been used, for example, to respond to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in 2011, with special lead plates attached to the floor to protect the crew from radiation exposure. The aircraft collected o.. -
RTX and Lockheed Martin are heading into flight tests this year in a head-to-head competition to develop a replacement for the U.S. Army’s Stinger missile.
The Army is pursuing a Stinger missile replacement for short-range air defense that can go faster, survive jamming and more easily hit tougher targets like drones.
The service awarded RTX and Lockheed Martin with contracts to competitively develop the Stinger replacement in September 2023. The RTX-manufactured Stinger missiles are currently used in the Army’s interim Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense, or MSHORAD, system and also in a man-portable configuration to provide air defense.
The Army has long planned to pursue a next-generation interceptor for short-range air defense, but the effort has become paramount as Stinger missiles were sent to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion of the country.
The service no longer builds new Stinger missiles, but it refurbishes old ones. To replenish its own stockpile, the Army wo.. -
The construction of four new solid rocket motor production facilities has begun at L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne campus in Camden, Arkansas, with a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday, the company announced.
The new facilities are part of a $215.6 million Defense Production Act program agreement between the Defense Department and L3Harris to increase rocket propulsion manufacturing capacity in the continental U.S. to keep pace with the rising global demand for tactical and strategic missile production.
“Expanding solid rocket motor production in Arkansas is a strategic investment in our nation’s security at a time when defense and deterrence are increasingly critical on the global stage,” Ken Bedingfield, president of L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne, said. “L3Harris is committed to ramping up production to support the defense of our nation, its allies and partners.”
Key production will be centralized under one 60,000-square foot, “state-of-the-art&rdq.. -
DONETSK REGION, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian intelligence soldier doesn’t know how long his clinical death lasted after an explosive detonated beneath him.
All Andrii Rubliuk remembers is overwhelming cold, darkness and fear. When he regained consciousness in his shattered body — missing both arms and his left leg — excruciating pain engulfed him, and hallucinations clouded his mind.
“It’s an experience you wouldn’t wish on anyone,” the now 38-year-old says.
Two years later, Rubliuk is again dressed in military fatigues, his missing limbs replaced by prosthetics — hooks in place of fingers, one leg firmly planted on an artificial limb.
From the moment of the explosion, Rubliuk knew his life had changed forever. But one thing was certain — he vowed to return to the battlefield.
“Fighting with arms and legs is something anyone can do. Fighting without them — that’s a challenge,” he says. “But only t.. -
WARSAW, Poland — Poland and Slovakia have signed a letter of intent to jointly produce ammunition and cooperate on the procurement of armored vehicles, tank, and air defense weapons.
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Polish deputy prime minister and defense minister, and his Slovak counterpart, Robert Kaliňák, inked an agreement that effect during a meeting in Warsaw on Monday.
Under the first initiative covered by the document, Poland is to benefit from Slovakia’s know-how and technology for 155-millimeter artillery shell manufacturing. In late 2024, Warsaw decided to set up new fund of around PLN 3 billion ($759 million) to support investments by domestic and foreign players in ramping up the country’s ammunition manufacturing capacities, with a focus on 155 mm rounds.
The second project concerns joint production of an armored fighting vehicle based on the eight-wheel-drive Rosomak, which is made by Poland’s state-run defense group PGZ under a license from Fin.. -
Following a lengthy delay as the U.S. Army and Navy struggled to test the round, the Army will field its long-range hypersonic weapon to the first unit by the end of fiscal 2025, a defense official confirmed Wednesday in a statement to Defense News.
The Army had planned to field the live, ground-launched hypersonic rounds to the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state by the fall of 2023. But the milestone continued to be pushed back after several aborted tests in 2023 due to challenges at the range, related not to the round, but the process of firing up the missile for launch.
Testing the all-up round was considered critical to ensure the system was safe, effective and ready for fielding, said then-Army acquisition chief Doug Bush.
The U.S. is in a race to field the capability and develop systems to defend against hypersonic missiles. China and Russia are actively develo.. -
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