The first Kaman Kargo in flight-testing at an undisclosed Pennsylvania site. (Kaman)

Kaman's Kargo medium-lift unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been in flight-testing since December 2023, the company's general manager, Romin Dasmalchi, told Janes in advance of Modern Day Marine on 24 April.

The UAV first flew while tethered to the ground for safety reasons. The tether has since been removed, Dasmalchi said, and the first Kargo is free-flying at an undisclosed UAV testing site in Pennsylvania.

Following a flight, Dasmalchi said, “You would make an adjustment – call it a tuning adjustment – and then you fly it for a short period. You give it some inputs manually to see how it handles, then you land and you make adjustments. We probably did hundreds of those evolutions.” The Kargo might undergo 20 to 30 flights per day.

As of 26 April the first Kargo craft had accrued around 50 hours of flight time, Dasmalchi said, and hundreds of ignitions of its Rolls-Royce RR300 engine. Aside from changes to antenna placement, Dasmalchi anticipated no major changes to Kargos in production based on the results of flight-testing to date.

RFA Cardigan Bay will support the US military personnel by providing temporary offshore accommodation as they build a new temporary pier to deliver aid directly into Gaza. (UK MoD/Crown Copyright)

The UK Royal Navy's (RN's) Bay-class landing ship dock auxiliary (LSD(A)) vessel Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Cardigan Bay (L 3009) has been deployed to the coast of Gaza where it will provide support to US military building a new temporary floating pier that will facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into the country directly by sea, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.

Cardigan Bay , which is en route to Gaza from Cyprus, will provide temporary offshore accommodation for personnel working on the offshore pier project, the MoD said.

The initiative will enable cargo ships to deliver pre-screened aid from Cyprus directly to the pier, where it will be loaded onto trucks to transfer across Gaza. It forms part of wider international efforts to expand the delivery of aid into Gaza and will complement efforts to get more aid in via land routes and the Port of Ashdod.

US military vessels, including USNS Benavidez,

One of four Boeing E-4Bs, which SAOC is intended to replace. (US Air Force)

The US Air Force (USAF) awarded Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) a USD13 billion contract to build the Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC), intended to replace the Boeing E-4B Nightwatch as the service's airborne nuclear command-and-control aircraft and primary transport for the secretary of defence. The contract was announced on 26 April, and is set to run through July 2036.

The contract covers ground support systems, including mission trainers, maintenance trainers, and system integration laboratories, among other necessary equipment.

“To satisfy operational requirements, the weapon system will be comprised of a commercial derivative aircraft that will be hardened and modified to meet military requirements,” said the USAF in the contract announcement. “Additionally, the mission system will integrate secure communications and planning capabilities on modern information technology, infrastructure, based on a Modular Open System Approach (MOSA).”

The number and type of aircraft included in the contract are publicly undisclosed, but the USAF currently operates four E-4Bs, which entered service in 1980 according to Janes C4ISR & Mission Systems: Air and are approaching the end of their service lives.