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Northrop Grumman lands USAF deal for new long-range strike bomber
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced on Tuesday that the DoD has awarded Northrop Grumman the lead contract for the US military's upcoming Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRSB). The contract is valued $60 billion, making it the single largest airframe contract since Lockheed won the deal for the $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter over a decade ago. At that price, the 21 airframes on order are expected to cost roughly $564 million apiece (in FY2016 dollars).
America's mad science division wants to build a flying drone base
DARPA's mission is to look at insane concepts from science fiction and ask if they'd work in real life, and it's clear that the agency's staffers have recently gone back to playing StarCraft. Drones, you see, are small and don't require a pilot, but can't quickly cover long distances like a manned fighter jet. Imagine then, a flying airbase that could drop a legion of drones close to their target and swoop them up in a manner similar to the Protoss Carrier from the aforementioned video game. That's the project that DARPA is hoping you'll all help out on, and has put out a request for information from anyone with the technical, security and business brains to help bring the concept into reality. For now, the request envisages using a large bomber plane as the carrier, like a B-52 or C-130, but it's entirely plausible that as technology marches on, floating platforms could become involved. Oh, and before you ask, we have already sent the agency the footage of both Flite Test's homemade helicarrier and a copy of The Avengers on DVD.
Weekends with Engadget: Apple buys Beats, LG unveils the G3 and more!
This week we watched Apple buy Beats for $3 billion, explored the inspiration behind the newly-announced LG G3, learned about Samsung's new partnership with Oculus VR, investigated the benefits of solar energy and much more. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last seven days. Oh, and be sure to subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!
The US Air Force's oldest bomber is now a flying network
The B-52 may be one of the US Air Force's most reliable bombers, but it's not exactly a technology powerhouse; some of its systems were only fresh when Kennedy was President. The aircraft's newly-delivered CONECT (Combat Network Communications Technology) variant is finally catching up with the times, though. It's effectively a network hub with wings. A wideband satellite link keeps the machine in touch with other Department of Defense systems, letting it receive new mission plans and redirect smart weapons after they've launched.
