By Agence France-Presse on Monday, June 17th, 2013 Three top European defence firms called Sunday on governments to launch a program to fabricate drones that European countries are currently having to purchase from Israel or the U.S.. France’s Dassault Aviation, European aerospace giant EADS and Italy’s Finmeccanica argued this sort of joint program would “support the aptitude needs of European military while optimizing the difficult budgetary situation through pooling of study and development funding”. They said in a press release they were prepared to interact at the creation of a ecu MALE (medium-altitude, long-endurance) drone, which permits surveillance of vast... Read More »

By Agence France-Presse on Friday, June 21st, 2013 The US military has destroyed greater than 77,000 metric lots of military equipment — including mine-resistant troop transport vehicles — because it prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan in late 2014, the Washington Post reported Thursday. More than $7 billion worth of military equipment isn’t any longer needed, or will be too expensive to ship back to america, and far of it’s being shredded and sold locally as scrap metal, the Post reported, citing US military officials. Donating the gear to the Afghan government is hard thanks to complicated bureaucratic rules, plus US... Read More »

By Raytheon on Tuesday, June 18th, 2013 The U.S. Air Force and Raytheon Company recently completed a four-year development program of the Miniature Air Launched Decoy-Jammer (MALD-J) under budget. As portion of the event program, the MALD and MALD-J flew a complete of 30 successful engineering and operational flight tests with a super 30-for-30 record. The MALD-J’s flight test record was 15-for-15 of that total. “The MALD program continues to surpass expectations in performance and capability,” said Harry Schulte, vp of Raytheon Missile Systems’ Air Warfare Systems. “The MALD-J provides significant improvement in strike survivability and tactical electronic attack, giving... Read More »

By Army News Service on Wednesday, June 19th, 2013 What all of it comes all the way down to is keeping Soldiers’ minds on their missions in Afghanistan, instead of on their feet. That’s how Ben Cooper views the event of the new Weather Mountain Combat Boot, or HWMCB, at Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, which began in spring 2011. Cooper thought it was so important that he got permission to continue engaged on the boot after leaving the Footwear Performance Laboratory at NSRDEC to become a senior materials engineer for the Air Force, still situated at Natick.... Read More »

By UK Ministry of Defence on Tuesday, June 18th, 2013 An RAF Tornado Squadron is being put through its paces at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland this week because it makes final preparations for a deployment to Afghanistan. Dubbed ‘War Week’, the exercise is the culmination of months of educating for 12 (Bomber) Squadron who will soon depart for a 4-month tour at Kandahar Airfield. The RAF Tornados provide vital support to ground forces in Afghanistan including the collection of reconnaissance imagery using sensors carried aboard the aircraft. Challenges have come thick and fast for all personnel involved. Insurgent rocket attacks,... Read More »