Michael Marrow

“It’s not just a single issue," said Lockheed executive Steve Sheehy. “We want to keep our suppliers at a steady rate."

“To be honest with you, my perspective is that for the C-390, there is no way to have two completion centers in the region,” said Bosco da Costa Jr., the CEO of Embraer’s defense business.

“We already know the F-22 will play a critical role in crewed-uncrewed teaming operations, and General Atomics is in a unique position to get this started now,” company spokesman C. Mark Brinkley told Breaking Defense.

A new vision system for the Boeing KC-46 has taken its first flight, a company exec said during the Dubai Airshow.

The new partnership for the US-based Anduril and UAE-based EDGE Group has chosen the UAE as a customer for its first drone, a Group 3 system called Omen.

Joby plans to manufacture the hybrid electric vertical takeoff aircraft while L3Harris will provide its mission systems to pitch to military customers.

The announcement marks the first official partnership for GE on a drone wingman platform.

"I can’t even get a response, and we’re on your team!” an exasperated Sen. Dan Sullivan told a Trump administration nominee.

The tech startup’s YFQ-44A is the second of two drone prototypes to take flight under the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.

The former head of Air Combat Command will now lead the Air Force as its next top uniformed officer, following the surprise retirement of Gen. David Allvin.

A congressionally mandated review of the Air Force’s fighter force obtained by Breaking Defense finds that as many as 1,558 combat-ready jets are needed to fulfill global obligations, requiring greater procurement of aircraft like the F-15EX and F-35.

“We have really capable systems, like JASSM for example, that [are] already qualified on a whole bunch of airframes and can actually be turned into a modular system that could grow or shrink,” Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control President Tim Cahill told Breaking Defense.

"When you see it, I believe that you'll probably think to yourself, 'Holy s--, that thing is f--- cool,'" said Shield AI President and Co-founder Brandon Tseng at a Tuesday event.

Anduril’s win paves the way for the defense tech firm to replace Northrop Grumman’s FAAD C2 system, which provides a common picture for operators to detect and defeat air-based threats.

The service has permitted furloughed employees to return to work “to ensure continuity of operations and avoid any potential delay” for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, according to an Air Force official.

The decision creates a new Chief Modernization Officer, but deals a blow to a key initiative started under the Biden administration to change how the service sets requirements for buying weapon systems.

“We have about 12 vendors out there showing us their kit,” Army Col. Guy Yelverton said of an ongoing competition for soldier common equipment. “And if they're all good, we'll select all 12, because we need a lot of capability in the counter UAS [unmanned aerial systems] environment.”

The planemaker is developing a “conceptual design” of a potential Group 4 or 5 size tiltrotor drone that could team with aircraft like the AH-64 Apache or CH-47 Chinook, according to a company engineer.

“That’s something that is kind of out of my control. I can’t fund the government,” Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey said.

The defense firm rolled out a new Switchblade design dubbed the Switchblade 400, as well as an update to its VAPOR vertical takeoff and landing drone.