Washington Post
• Dan Lamothe, Tara Copp
The U.S. Navy is preparing to pull the USS Gerald R. Ford from the Middle East after a roughly 10-month at-sea deployment that left the ship needing repairs. The carrier’s departure reduces U.S. carrier-based firepower while the Trump administration presses Tehran for peace amid war risk.
The War Zone
• Thomas Newdick
By The War Zone: The MQ-58 with conventional landing gear will mark the beginning of the Marines’ operational Collaborative Combat Aircraft journey, with other types likely to follow.
Vertical Mag
• Oliver Johnson
By Vertical Mag: The two autonomous platforms — finalists in the U.S. Army’s Flight School Next program in their manned variants — are being developed by Sikorsky and Near Earth Autonomy.
Vertical Mag
By Vertical Mag: Explore the role of DroneBox in ORION 2026, a major military exercise in France with over 1,200 drones deployed.
SpaceNews.com
• Sandra Erwin
By SpaceNews.com: AE Systems WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded BAE Systems an $11.8 million contract to demonstrate satellite-to-satellite communications using Link-182, a radio-frequency data link standard adopted for its planned MILNET data relay network supporting the Golden Dome missile defense shield.
DefenseNews.com
• Vivek Raghuvanshi
By DefenseNews.com: Pressured by a possible price hike from Boeing in its planned purchase of 22 AH-64E Apache and 15 CH-47F Chinook helicopters for the Air Force, the Indian Ministry of Defence is considering inking the final contract before March 31 when the price set by Boeing will expire, said an MoD source.
DefenseNews.com
• Jeff Jeong
By DefenseNews.com: The mega competition to build South Korea's indigenous fighter jet, dubbed KF-X, kicked off on Feb. 9.
DefenseNews.com
• Aaron Mehta
By DefenseNews.com: The US Department of State has cleared the sale of nine UH-60M Black Hawk utility helicopters to Slovakia, according to an announcement by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).
