The Defense Department faces a future of high-price, sole-source contracts, reduced innovation, and possible critical shortages if it doesn’t take steps to increase competition and the number of suppliers in the defense industrial base, according to a new Pentagon report. But changing the conditions creating ...
The high cost of hypersonic missiles will likely drive the Air Force to build only small inventories of them, relying more heavily on other types of munitions such as lower-speed cruise missiles, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Feb. 15. “Hypersonics are not going to ...
The world’s largest defense contractor says it’s given up on trying to buy the only U.S. maker of certain propulsion components of missiles and missile defense kill vehicles. The Federal Trade Commission announced in January that it was suing Lockheed Martin to block the company ...
Finland finalized its $9.4 billion purchase of 64 Lockheed Martin F-35s and support services, signing a letter of offer and acceptance, announced Feb. 11, that calls for the jets to be delivered before the end of 2030. The agreement provides Finland with industrial participation on ...
Lockheed Martin will build its LMXT next-generation tanker from green Airbus A330 airliners in Alabama, then convert them to military tankers in Georgia, if it wins the KC-Y, or "bridge" tanker, competition set to to be selected at the end of 2024, the company said ...
A deal on the next three-lot buy of F-35 fighters is dragging out because Lockheed Martin and the Joint Program Office are struggling to agree on a new cost baseline, affected by inflation, the pandemic and a reduced buy from the military services, company officials ...
The Federal Trade Commission is suing to stop the planned Lockheed Martin/Aerojet Rocketdyne merger, saying the deal would give Lockheed Martin unfair advantages while harming competition and innovation. Lockheed Martin has 30 days to decide whether to defend the merger in court or drop the ...
BAE Systems will upgrade the F-35’s electronic warfare system for the jet’s Block 4 upgrade under a $493 million contract awarded by Lockheed Martin, BAE systems said Dec. 15. The new system will go into F-35 production starting with Lot 17 in 2024.
Lockheed Martin will offer a variant of its T-50A in the competition to build the Air Force's new tactical fighter trainer rather than a clean-sheet design, the company said Dec. 14, insisting it will achieve “competitive pricing” with the aircraft. The jet was second in ...
The Space Force’s “go fast acquisition” of three new missile warning satellites passed a system-level critical design review Oct. 28 that judged how the satellites and associated ground systems will work together and how the new equipment will work with existing missile warning systems. The ...
A new report by the Defense Department’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation found that Texas and Virginia were America’s top recipients of defense spending in fiscal 2020 at $83 billion and $64.3 billion, respectively. Among the states where the Air Force received the highest ...
Lockheed Martin plans to enter the Advanced Tactical Trainer fray to supply the Air Force with a new jet to bridge undergraduate flight instruction and fighter training units, but the company declined to say whether it will offer a T-50A derivative, a different non-developmental airplane, ...