British Royal Air Force invests in space capabilities 2 hours ago The Royal Air Force, represented in this photo by its Red Arrows aerobatic team, is prioritizing space investments under the recently released U.K. defense guiding document. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) WASHINGTON The United Kingdom’s recent guiding plan for its military included both cuts to existing systems and investments in new technologies, with a special emphasis on increasing the U.K.’s capabilities in space. During an April visit to Washington, Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston, the head of the Royal Air Force, sat down with C4ISRNET to discuss some of those investments outlined in the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
‘I'D LIKE TO MODIFY MY ORIGINAL ASSESSMENT’: By his own account, Chris Miller, installed as acting defense secretary by President Donald Trump after he fired Mark Esper for insufficient loyalty, was itching to testify before Congress and set the record straight.
NATO gives industry aim points for next-gen rotorcraft
By Dawn Zoldi | May 13, 2021
Estimated reading time 6 minutes, 6 seconds.
NATO has published an unclassified list of required and desired attributes for its Next Gen Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) and has invited industry to pitch ideas for meeting those requirements and partner with the alliance to build the future speedy vertical-lift aircraft.
NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) will host its industry day, currently scheduled for Sept. 20-21 in Capellen, Luxembourg. The agency recently launched an open invitation to the defense alliance’s 30 nations seeking industrial collaborators to manufacture relevant capabilities for the aircraft and its systems with these required and desired attributes. The deadline to register was May 12, but missing the cut will not preclude a company from future involvement in the project, according to NATO officials. The invite states the event “is neither a pre-qualificatio
U.K. reaches $2 billion deal to upgrade Chinook fleet
By Dan Parsons | May 13, 2021
Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 49 seconds.
The U.K. has reached a deal worth nearly $2 billion to upgrade 14 of the Royal Air Force’s H-47 Chinook helicopters with a beefed-up airframe and modern avionics over the next decade.
Announced May 13, the £1.4 billion ($1.96 billion) order is part of a larger £85 billion ($119 billion) investment in military equipment over the next four years to reform and renew the U.K. armed forces.
RAF Chinooks during Exercise Decisive Manoeuvre in 2019. U.K. Ministry of Defence Photo
All 14 aircraft will be purchased from the U.S. through the foreign military sales (FMS) program including development and manufacture over the next decade.
Jack Reed vows to get defense budget done despite delays from the White House Jamie McIntyre
BUDGET CRUNCH, ‘HARD CHOICES’: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman
Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, says he and the committee’s top Republican,
Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, are hoping to finish work on the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act before the next fiscal year starts, despite a late start forced by the late budget submission by the White House.
“Both Sen. Inhofe and I are determined to get our bill to the floor and then get the conference done and get a bill to the president s desk,” Reed said yesterday at an event sponsored by the Reagan Institute. “It s going to be difficult. We re going to have to make some hard choices, but our intention is to get the bill done. And to do so in a way that enhances our security.”