AlaDefense.com

Alabama ranks 12th in DOD’s latest spending report, and it’s a shipbuilder topping the list

September 26, 2023

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AIR FORCE, ARMY, CONTRACTS, NAVY, SPACE FORCE

By Troy Turner [email protected] Alabama’s leading defense contractor in fiscal year 2022 Department of Defense spending isn’t either of the longtime industry giants Northrop Grumman, Boeing or Lockheed Martin, but a company that wasn’t even on the state’s Top 10 list just two years ago. International shipbuilder Austal, or specifically its Austal USA shipyard located…
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Huntsville company tapped for cybersecurity services to intelligence agency

September 26, 2023

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CYBERSECURITY, MARINES

The Department of Defense has announced an $86 million contract for a Huntsville-based company to provide cybersecurity support services to one of its intelligence agencies. Agile Decision Sciences LLC, a subsidiary of ASRC Federal, was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract to provide services for the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). The work will be performed…
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Alabama played a major role in destruction of chemical weapons stockpile

September 9, 2023

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ARMY

Related link: National Public Radio interview with journalist Troy Turner: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1418277 By Troy Turner Editor-in-chief [email protected] It was 20 years ago on Aug. 9, 2003, when the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility began destruction of more than 7 percent of the U.S. military’s chemical weapons stockpile. That’s how much of the military’s chemical arsenal was…
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The day weapons of mass destruction became lost in a cluster

September 8, 2023

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ARMY, OPINION

Troy Turner is editor-in-chief and senior consultant for AlaDefense.com. IT WAS, WHEN THE NEWS FIRST became public, a strangely quiet and subdued announcement, and somewhat ironic. Several days prior, an ongoing media frenzy began and remained in full feast mode as news organizations during the short-staffed July Fourth holiday week desperately scratched for anything to…
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Popular songwriter Jimmy Buffett donated aircraft to the USS Alabama battleship park

September 4, 2023

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AIR FORCE, ARMY, MARINES, NAVY

By Troy Turner [email protected] Much has been made of the late Jimmy Buffett’s ties to Alabama, including his brief time as a student at Auburn University, notable concerts that included the University of Alabama, and of course the beloved songwriter’s admired lifestyle along the Gulf Coast and beaches around the world, highlighted by his song…
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USS Mobile Bay decommissions, honors 36 years of service

August 25, 2023

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NAVY

By Julie Ann Ripley, DOD News SAN DIEGO – USS Mobile Bay (CG 53) honored more than three decades of naval service during a decommissioning ceremony at Naval Base San Diego, Aug. 10. Vice Adm. Roy Kitchener, commander, Naval Surface Forces served as the ceremony’s guest speaker and wished the current crew fair winds and…
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Selma company lands $155 million in new contracts to make Army coats, Marine apparel

August 23, 2023

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ARMY, CONTRACTS, MARINES

By Troy Turner [email protected] American Apparel Inc., a Selma-based company, landed in July a nearly $83 million five-year contract to produce men’s uniform all-weather coats for the U.S. Army. That contract came on the heels of a nearly $72 million contract in April to provide apparel for the Marines. The contracts represent continuation of a…
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DOD space plan includes protection of assets in orbit, says senior official

August 17, 2023

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ARMY, SPACE FORCE

John F. Plumb, the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, recently addressed a think-tank audience in Colorado to explain a change in how the U.S. uses and protects its assets in orbit, including a new approach to how it backs up critical satellite missions. His remarks regarding newly defined U.S. space strategy, most of…
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USNS Comfort revisits Alabama Shipyard

August 6, 2023

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CONTRACTS, NAVY

By Troy Turner [email protected] The USNS Comfort, one of the Navy’s two primary hospital ships along with its sister ship USNS Mercy, is making a return visit to Mobile for routine repairs and upgrades after a successful drydocking and overhaul in the port city a year earlier. Alabama Shipyard LLC in Mobile was awarded an…
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Officer stationed at Maxwell AFB talks about what lured her into Space Force

August 5, 2023

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SPACE FORCE

By Katie Lange DOD News As a military brat and a childhood fan of Star Trek, it’s no surprise that Space Force Maj. Alexa Eggert turned her fascination with space and engineering into a career. She spent a decade in the Air Force learning how new technologies are developed and used before switching to the…
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Boeing, Air Force tout new trainer jet, a project once sought for Macon County

August 5, 2023

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AIR FORCE

Alabama connection remains alive with T-7A Red Hawk By Troy Turner [email protected] Alabama officials in recent years hoped that the next generation of trainer jets for the U.S. Air Force would be built in their state. That isn’t happening, but efforts to land the contract did bring with it hope for new military aviation relationships…
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Mobile-made USS Canberra joins U.S. fleet… and already is making history

August 3, 2023

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NAVY

By U.S. Navy, Pacific Fleet SAN DIEGO — The USS Canberra (LCS 30) joined the U.S. Navy active fleet on July 22 with the U.S. Navy’s first international commissioning ceremony at the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Base East in Sydney, Australia. The USS Canberra was built by Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama. The ship is the…
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