Army Hopes For $6.8B From FY18 Budget Deal: 70% For Modernization
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UPDATED: Adds SecArmy Esper Roundtable PENTAGON: The figures aren’t final, but the Army hopes to get about $6.8 billion in additional funding for fiscal year 2018 thanks to the recently concluded budget deal, Army Secretary Mark Esper said this morning. The service’s new plan would start delivering a Next Generation Squad Weapon to the infantry… Keep reading →
261 M1 Tanks Getting Trophy Anti-Missile System As Army Reorients To Major Wars
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PENTAGON: The Army’s 2019 budget will upgrade 261 M1 tanks, enough for three brigades, to carry Israeli-made Trophy Active Protection Systems (APS) to guard against anti-tank missiles, service officials said this morning. That’s just one of many funding changes — from buying more howitzer shells to intensifying training exercises — meant to reorient the Army… Keep reading →
Army Reserve Readies For Major War: Cold Steel II
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WASHINGTON: The Army Reserve is preparing 10,000 soldiers for major war with intensive training on machineguns and automatic grenade launchers. For many, these Cold Steel exercises held across the country are the first time they’ve touched such heavy weapons since basic training, said the chief of the Army Reserve, Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey. The Reserve… Keep reading →
CSA MiIley Bets On ‘Radical’ Tech, Promises No More FCS
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CRYSTAL CITY: The Army needs revolutionary technologies from robot tanks to a long-range super-rifle, the Chief of Staff said today — and it can get them without repeating the mistakes that doomed high-tech programs in the past. By reforming the acquisition bureaucracy, embracing commercial technology and rigorously prototyping new tech to work out bugs, Gen. Mark… Keep reading →
Armed Robots: US Lags Rhetoric, Russia
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AUSA: American military leaders talk how artificial intelligence will change the face of war, but the unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) actually in development are much more modest and less lethal. They’re mostly small, mostly unarmed, and fall short not only of Pentagon visions of future warfare, but of the tank-like machines the Russians are experimenting with today.… Keep reading →
Robotics: Qinetiq’s Titan Comes From MAARS
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AUSA: Qinetiq’s aptly named Titan is a big robot, but don’t be afraid of it — yet. The company built it to compete for the Army’s Squad Maneuver Equipment Transport (S-MET) contract, so its main function is to haul backpacks, ammunition, water, and other heavy, bulky supplies for human infantry. That said, Qinetiq’s also looking at an… Keep reading →
World War I Reenactor Shows Off Gear For Centennial At AUSA
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AUSA: 100 years after America entered World War I, the Army is honoring the service of its soldiers, complete with reenactors dressed in painstakingly detailed reproduction uniforms. Turns out a lot more science and engineering went into an infantryman’s kit than you might imagine.
Upgunned Strykers Open Fire At Aberdeen – But Fielding Will Be Slow
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ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND: Two years after the Europe-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment requested more firepower to deter the Russians, 30 millimeter shells and Javelin missiles thundered downrange here at the Army’s oldest proving ground. Even standing at a safe distance, 20 yards from the closest of the two Stryker vehicles, I could feel the muzzle blast… Keep reading →
Lockheed Exoskeleton Gives Troops A Leg Up, Literally
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It is not Iron Man. It isn’t even Iron Fist. Lockheed Martin’s newest exoskeleton is more like Iron Leg. But for a soldier humping his weapons, ammo and body armor up a mountain in Afghanistan or a high-rise building in a future urban battle, a device to take the load off would be welcome. And, unlike… Keep reading →
Drone-Killing Laser Stars In Army Field Test
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During a recent Army exercise, a prototype laser shot down so many drones that its operator started losing count. “I took down, I want to say, twelve?” Staff Sgt. Eric Davis told reporters. “It was extremely effective.” The Army has made air defense an urgent priority, especially against drones. Once icons of American technological supremacy, unmanned… Keep reading →