Lockheed Martin awarded $928 million to help US catch up in hypersonic missile race

Every so often, a new kind of weapon comes along that fundamentally shifts the way humans conduct warfare: bows extended the range of the battlefield, airplanes created air support, and the atomic bomb made “total war” too terrible to conduct with the regularity of conventional warfare. Increasingly, hypersonic missile platforms are beginning to look like […]

Exercise Chesapeake 2018: Integrating a French Navy Air Wing with the US Navy

Exercise Chesapeake 2018 is the first-ever training to fully integrate a French Navy air wing into a single, unified carrier air wing, Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8). This historic first in naval aviation is another demonstration of the Navy’s implementation of the National Defense Strategy and its direction to strengthen alliances and deepen collaboration to […]

Repairs on the USS Gerald R. Ford engines and elevators to cost another $120 million

Last week, SOFREP reported on a previously undisclosed breakdown of the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, that took place in during sea trials in January of this year. The issue, determined to be a manufacturing defect in the GE sourced main thrust bearings, resulted in two separate breakdowns, the second of […]

More problems for the Navy’s newest carrier — now it’s the propulsion system

A previously undisclosed issue with the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, forced it to return to port during shakedown testing in January, the branch admitted this week. For the second time, an issue with the carrier, which cost just short of $13 billion to build, has raised questions […]

Lockheed Martin unveils stealthy, offensive variants for their tanker drone

As the competition for the Navy’s MQ-25 tanker drone heats up between Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics, it would seem at least two of the contenders believe the decision could come down to which platform offers the most versatility beyond the contract’s requirements. Last week, SOFREP reported on Boeing’s decision to base their MQ-25 […]