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Another attempt to combine high speed with hover agility produces a unique solution combining tandem tiling wings, hybrid turbine-electric power and distributed electric propulsion.
Australia, finding itself unaccustomedly close to a major theater of potential hostilities, is inclined to offer more support to the U.S., including access to its territory.
Threats from small, armed UAS challenge radar developers to engineer air-defense systems that distinguish drones from the birds in flight they resemble.
Hackers earn top dollar to find security gaps in computer systems, but IT companies are slow to patch them, and government regulatory protections are uneven.
Despite many procurement disappointments, there are also many examples of defense programs which have worked as planned and have stood the test of time.
T here is a raft of companies in the unmanned vehicles sector, but one in particular is becoming a major player almost by stealth: Internet services giant Google. Google’s programs in unmanned systems go far beyond its high-profile work to develop a self-driving car. That initiative passed a milestone last month with the unveiling of a prototype, a 25-mph vehicle with only two interfaces, “start” and “stop.”
Fallout from the 2008-09 financial crisis continues to affect political decisions worldwide, leaving militaries to assess how best to plan and prioritize in an era of austerity. The British military, for one, has two goals as it restructures: to move from a decade of combat operations to a period of contingency; and to redesign a shrinking fighting force around a dramatically increased reliance on reservists. All three services are feeling the pinch of austerity pressures, but they are likely to impact the army acutely.
The Asia-Pacific region is a critical area that could soon be hotly contested, with Russia, China and India vying for influence and others determined to protect their interests and maintain the maritime status quo. Many factors could upset the balance of power. China's ambitions in the Pacific possibly include establishment of sea-denial boundaries up to 2,700 km (1,678 mi.) from its coasts.
Integrating interoperable open architectures (IOA) in new and existing platforms offers benefits across defense procurement. The time between identifying an operational requirement and getting it fielded would be minimized; subsystems could be integrated without bulking up platforms; and procurement costs could be cut, if only obsolete or superfluous components are removed and replace.
Despite repeated attempts to kill programs related to the acquisition and maintenance of U.S. aircraft carriers, the fleet continues to rule the seas and anchor naval strategy. But with sequestration, continuing resolutions and other budgetary concerns, carriers remain big financial targets. Rear Adm. Thomas Moore, the Navy's program executive officer for aircraft carriers, recently discussed the challenges of keeping CVN-78 Gerald Ford construction and other programs on track with Naval Editor Michael Fabey.
