The Army used a vehicle-mounted high-energy laser for the primary time to successfully engage greater than 90 mortar rounds and a number of other unmanned aerial vehicles in flight. The Army High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator, or HEL MD, underwent multiple test events between Nov. 18 and Dec. 10, at White Sands Missile Range. This was the primary full-up demonstration of the HEL MD inside the configuration that included the laser and beam director mounted inside the vehicle, in response to officials of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command. They said a surrogate radar, the... Read More »
The US military’s bureaucratic watchdog on Monday accused companies building the F-35 fighter of shoddy management that can jeopardize the reliability, performance and price of the aircraft. The Pentagon inspector general cited 363 problems within the design and manufacture of the costly Joint Strike Fighter, the hi-tech warplane that’s presupposed to function the backbone of the longer term American fleet. For america and 8 other countries backing the project, the report raises fresh questions on the technology and supreme ticket of the F-35, which has struggled with production delays and price overruns. The office that oversees the fighter project, the... Read More »
A B-1B Lancer successfully struck a waterborne target with a live warhead for the primary time Aug. 27. The 337th Test and Evaluation Squadron completed their first of 3 scheduled live-fire tests of a protracted Range Anti-Ship Missile, or LRASM, on-board a B-1. The mission sought to guage the separation of the missile from the aircraft and monitor the weapon’s flight route to its intended target. Assessment tracked and documented the missile’s in-flight data with an F/A-18 Hornet. Designed and developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research, the LRASM relies off the Joint... Read More »