With the shift to increased reliance on all-manner of unmanned aerial vehicles, more defense contractors are likely to take a run at current kingpins—General Atomics with its MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper and Northrop Grumman with its RQ-4 Global Hawk—to get in the game. USAF unveiled its long-range unmanned aerial systems flight plan last week and clearly sees UAVs as taking center stage, even potentially as a sixth-generation fighter. Boeing told Jane’s last week that it was in the midst of a “study phase” to undertake a next-generation replacement for the Reaper, which USAF has called MQ-X. General Atomics is planning a Reaper successor and, according to the Jane’s report, Northrop also may try to move into the hunter-killer UAV arena.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.