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.)
More than 100 B-21s will be needed if the nation is to avoid creating a high demand/low capacity capability, panelists said on a Hudson Institute webinar. The B-21's flexibility, stealth, range and payload will be in high demand for a wide range of missions, both traditional and new.