Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to continue talks on military cooperation in Syria, a discussion that Kerry has said is nearing an end. Kerry and Lavrov will meet over Kerry’s two-day visit to Geneva, Switzerland, from Aug. 25-27, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said during a Wednesday briefing. The two leaders spoke by phone on Wednesday, with the Russian government saying the discussion came at the request of the US. The officials discussed “possibilities for coordinating Russian and US efforts to combat terrorism, building on earlier agreements,” the Russian foreign ministry said in statement. Kerry visited Moscow last month and met with Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kerry and Lavrov are also expected to discuss the ongoing situation in Crimea, according to the State Department.
Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.