After a generation of guerrilla warfare, the Army is issuing new, lighter body armor that can be tailored for a wider range of missions, from plainclothes advisor roles to high-intensity combat. It’s part of a new push to improve infantry equipment, from rifle calibers to targeting optics to augmented reality training, coming from the Secretary…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Modernizing our supply chain is a national security imperative
Closing supply chain gaps in innovating technology will reposition the industrial base to be a strategic source of value.
This kind of effort to get fighter-jock technology to ordinary grunts — who do most of the fighting and dying — has enjoyed some high-profile attention in the last 12 months. The efforts cover everything from developing a new, more powerful longer-range rifle to buying off-the-shelf quadcopters, from adding VR training simulations to eliminating tedious safety lectures.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
BAE System’s CV90 Mark IV is the latest upgrade of a 25-year-old vehicle widely used in Europe; the Rheinmetall-Raytheon Lynx is an all-new design, although individual components have a good track record; but the General Dynamics Griffin III is in the middle, combining a new gun and new electronics with the time-tested chassis from the European ASCOD family.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
While the current Army requirement is purely for transport, manufacturer HDT has carefully designed in enough horsepower and electrical power to handle a host of heavy upgrades, including the machinegun shown here.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
After the Army’s director armored vehicle modernization raises concerns about weight, the companies respond with new details.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Army plans to move at least $25 billion over the next five years from low-priority programs to preparing for major war. That includes developing a wide variety of new weapons, from high-speed aircraft, to partially-robotic armored vehicles, to a long-ranged 6.8 millimeter rifle to replace the venerable M16/M4 family and its controversial 5.56 mm round.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
PENTAGON: Of all the technologies and tactics that the defense secretary’s Close Combat Lethality Task Force has looked at, I asked one battle-hardened noncom here this morning, what’s the one thing you personally think has the most potential to save lives? His answer wasn’t a bigger gun or a new drone. Instead, Sgt. Major Jason…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Gray Eagle is the low-cost, low-risk answer to Army modernization
Gray Eagle STOL and Gray Eagle 25M are the best options for Army aviation as it assesses where to move from its current inflection point.
The CH-53 landed in complete dark 10 miles from the target, a terrorist stronghold somewhere in the Middle East. The back ramp was down in two minutes: 15 U.S special forces commandos with their gear and accessories for the planned operation headed out on their way to the target. An hour and 20 minutes later the commandos could see the enemy sentries through their night vision systems. They hadn’t done double time to the target. They crossed the 10 miles from the landing site riding on new, unique vehicles.
By Arie Egozi
“Recent guidance from Army senior leadership has us looking at, emphasizing, Bradley replacement,” Miller told reporters in a conference call. “What we have now done is moved to accelerate our optionally manned fighting vehicle, the Bradley replacement, and we want to be able to focus on that.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Army is just weeks away from awarding contracts to begin buying prototypes of new infantry weapons, with live-fire tests next year.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Lockheed Martin ONYX doesn’t seem particularly high tech when it’s surrounded by displays of mini-drones, wheeled robots, and VR simulators here. But lean in close and listen as the soldier bends his knee.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act came from freshman Congressman Jimmy Panetta, son of former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and a Navy Reserve veteran of Afghanistan.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“Everything that Marine wears — from their boots to their socks to their utilities to their helmet — is all going to be changed,” the Commandant said. “We’ve got money now to do that, and so we’ve got to make it happen now. We’ve got to make it happen now, because I’m not going to make the assumption that that money’s going to be there.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The Marines are plenty happy about getting more money in 2018 and 2019, but are nervously eyeing the potential return of sequestration in 2020. And it’s influencing how the Corps is spending that money today.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
