Lt. Gen. George Flynn, the Marine Corps’ top requirements officer, told reporters Tuesday in Washington, D.C., that he expects the service to field an unmanned cargo helicopter next year to support troops in remote locations. The Corps last year awarded contracts to Boeing and a Kaman Aerospace-Lockheed Martin team to demonstrate their respective unmanned vehicles. Boeing successfully completed its A160T Hummingbird demo in March at the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, while the Kaman-Lockheed team showed off its K-MAX there in early February. (See Expanding World of Unmanned Air from the Daily Report archives.)
A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes in the Middle East are flying with fresh modifications as the Air Force looks to make the plane more versatile amid America’s ongoing blockade of Iranian ports and a tenuous ceasefire in the U.S. air war against Iran.