SYDNEY, Jan. 31, 2012. Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) Rolling Airframe Missile Block 2 successfully completed two guided test vehicle flights within one week, demonstrating the system's upgraded kinematic performance, guidance system and airframe capabilities.

SAN FRANCISCO, 31 Jan. 2012. U.S. Navy and U.S. Army officials joined forces with aerospace and defense industry leaders, including executives from Lockheed Martin and Rockwell Collins, to help ensure warfighters can benefit from continued software innovations, both more quickly and more affordably, despite anticipated U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) budget cuts. The Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium has released the FACE Technical Standard, providing guidelines for creating a common operating environment to support applications across multiple DOD avionics systems.

NASHUA, N.H., Jan. 30, 2012. Skyler Frink reports on possible security breaches facebook can cause, along with the benefits social networking provides soldiers.

GREENVILLE, S.C., 30 Jan. 2012. Lockheed Martin [NYSE:LMT] engineers have delivered the fourth P-3 Orion with new Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) modifications to U.S. Customs and Border Protection two months ahead of schedule. Engineers at Lockheed Martin's Greenville facility completed the MLU installation and phase depot maintenance (PDM) in 11 months. 

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 29 Jan. 2012. U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare experts are buying 50,430 AN/SSQ-53F advanced passive sonobuoys from ERAPSCO Inc. in Columbia City, Ind. under terms of a $38.4 million contract modification announced Friday. In this order, 49,990 sonobuoys are for the Navy and 440 are for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington, which is the diplomatic representative of Taiwan to the U.S.

NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2012. L-3 Communications' Global Security & Engineering Solutions (L-3 GS&ES) unit was awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract to support the U.S. Air Force under the fourth installment of the Contracted Advisory and Assistance Services (CAAS IV) program.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., Jan. 26, 2012. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and the U.S. Navy have completed a series of flight tests to demonstrate technology that could help extend the operating range and flight duration of future carrier-based unmanned systems.

TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 24, 2012. The U.S. Navy completed developmental and operational testing (DT/OT) of the newest variant of the Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) laser-guided Maverick missile.

THE MIL & AERO VIDEO BLOG, 24 Jan. 2012. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has a few new anti-submarine warfare (ASW) tricks up its sleeve in the continuing struggle to counter the growing threat to U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups from quiet diesel-electric enemy attack submarines, as John Keller reports this week in the Mil & Aero Video Blog.

SPARKS, Nev., 24 Jan. 2012. Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) won a contract from Science and Engineering Services Inc. to fulfill the Degraded Visual Environments (DVE) Operational Needs Statement (ONS) under the U.S. Army Aviation Networks Mission Planning (ANMP) program directorate. The company will deliver 10 Helicopter Autonomous Landing System (HALS) with three-dimensional (3D) imagery and landing guidance symbology in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. HALS combines real-time 3D radar imagery with digital terrain map, satellite imagery, and DVE-specific guidance symbology for takeoff, approach, and landing operations in fog, brownout, and other challenging conditions.

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 23, 2012. The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] received a $126 million contract from the U.S. Air Force on Nov. 30 for approximately 5,000 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tail kits. Deliveries will begin in June 2013 and continue through May 2014.

EAGLEVILLE, Pa., 22 Jan. 2012. U.S. Navy aircraft specialists needed common fiber optic test kits for Navy aviation systems. They found their solution from military electro-optics designers at Clear Align in Eagleville, Pa. Navy officials awarded Clear Align a contract to develop what company officials say is the first common fiber optic test kits naval aviation. Clear Align’s complex kits integrate test fiber optic inspection equipment and aircraft specific adapters for fiber optic testing capability to naval aircraft operating from aircraft carriers or from remote bases, Clear Align officials say.

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 21, 2012. The first night flight in the history of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Program was completed Wednesday at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Piloted by Lockheed Martin Test Pilot Mark Ward, AF-6, an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, launched at 5:05 p.m. PST and landed after sunset at 6:22 p.m.

SAN DIEGO, 20 Jan. 2012. Embraer Defense and Security officials have selected Hamilton Sundstrand Corp., a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX), to supply the auxiliary power unit (APU) for the company’s new Embraer KC-390 transport aircraft. Embraer Defense and Security engineers are developing the Embraer KC-390 twin-engine, medium-lift military transport aircraft with the Brazilian Air Force. The aircraft, slated to enter service in 2016, is capable of transporting up to 23 tons of cargo, including wheeled armored vehicles, support equipment, and military personnel. The cargo aircraft also can be rapidly configured as a tanker.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Jan. 18, 2012. Boeing [NYSE: BA] has received authorization from the U.S. Air Force to produce and launch the eighth and ninth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellites. The WGS-9 authorization and the WGS-8 production option, which was authorized last month, have a combined value of $673 million and are part of the $1.09 billion contract modification announced by the Air Force in September 2011.

ARLINGTON, Va. Jan 18, 2012. BAE Systems received a $313 million contract modification for additional engineering design, logistics development and test evaluation support to complete the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase of the U.S. Army’s Paladin Integrated Management (PIM) program. PIM is the latest howitzer in the M109 family of vehicles.

RESTON, Va., 18 Jan. 2012. Leaders of the Australian Department of Defence in Canberra, Australia, needed small unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to equip the Australian Army. They found their solution from the QinetiQ North America Technology Solutions Group in Reston, Va. The Australian Department of Defence is ordering the QinetiQ Dragon Runner 20 (DR20) robot, which emerged as the top performing robot during a competition to equip the Australian Army, QinetiQ officials say.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., 17 Jan. 2012. The Boeing Co. Space and Intelligence Systems (S&IS) segment in El Segundo, Calif., will build the ninth U.S. Air Force Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite under terms of a $376.5 million contract modification announced Friday from the Air Force Space and Missile Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. WGS satellites are the key elements of a high-capacity system to provide advanced communications capabilities for deployed U.S. military forces. The WGS constellation is the highest-capacity satellite communications system for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Each WGS satellite can route data at 2.1 to 3.6 gigabits per second.

ARLINGTON, Va., 15 Jan. 2012. Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) experts in the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., have awarded their third industry contract for a program that seeks to develop technologies to help detect enemy submarines in shallow coastal waters and harbors without using traditional acoustic submarine-hunting technologies like sonar.