Megan Eckstein

Megan Eckstein

Naval warfare reporter

Megan Eckstein is the naval warfare reporter at Defense News. She has covered military news since 2009, with a focus on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps operations, acquisition programs and budgets. She has reported from four geographic fleets and is happiest when she’s filing stories from a ship. Megan is a University of Maryland alumna.

All Stories By Megan

Navy expeditionary forces eye counter-drone, offensive unmanned ops

Navy Expeditionary Combat Command is considering its future -- and that might include offensive drone operations.

3 days ago

The Pentagon in Washington, March 27, 2008.

Continuing resolution would slow military modernization, services warn

The Navy, for example, would have $26 billion in the wrong places, and would need Congress to approve $13 billion in formal reprogrammings.

4 days ago

Lockheed Martin blends AI decision aide, virtual Aegis combat system in drill near Guam

A pair of Lockheed Martin tools recommended offensive and defensive firing solutions to joint force commanders at Valiant Shield 2022, and a second system digitally sent the targeting data to shooters on the ground.

Sgt. Austin Radke, an aircraft maintenance crew chief assigned to the 122nd Fighter Wing, Indiana Air National Guard, performs a preflight inspection on an A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft June 24, 2020, at the 122nd Fighter Wing in Fort Wayne, Ind.

A-10 retirements, more Air Force F-35s in Senate defense policy bill

This could finally break a years-long impasse between the Air Force and Congress over the iconic attack plane.

New bill would establish AUKUS submarine training program

A new training program would enroll young Australian naval officers in U.S. nuclear propulsion and submarine officer schoolhouses, and then send them to sea on a U.S. boat, ahead of Australia developing and fielding its own nuclear-powered sub.

Five years later: Inside the Navy’s data-driven quest to avert a future Fitzgerald or McCain collision

The surface navy has worked since 2017 to avoid future fatal collisions. But Navy-wide, there's evidence of failure to learn. The service is now turning to data to ensure it never has another Fitzgerald or McCain disaster again.

Defense spending plan for next year will see a significant hike, lawmakers say

Rep. Adam Smith said he'll push for smart spending instead of mere budget boosts, but an increase over the White House plan appears inevitable.

House Democrats rebuke calls to raise spending in defense bill

House Democrats sided with the Biden administration by allocating $762 billion in the first draft of their fiscal 2023 defense spending bill the Appropriations Committee released Tuesday.

HII develops unmanned launch and recovery system for amphib ships

The Marine Corps wants the option to covertly launch unmanned boats out the back of its amphibious ships. HII has tested that enabler for the first time.

Amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4), Fleet replenishment oiler ship USNS Tippecanoe (T-AO 199) and amphibious transport dock ship USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26) transit the Strait of Hormuz on Aug. 12, 2019.

House panel sides with Marine Corps in protecting amphibious fleet size

A House panel aims to protect the amphibious fleet from cuts and bolster the sealift fleet in its proposal for the fiscal 2023 defense authorization bill.

Navy’s Unmanned Task Force turns to a venture capital-inspired process to find investments

The Unmanned Task Force is hyper-focused on finding solutions to specific warfighter problems that can be solved with unmanned technologies in a five-year timeframe.

What’s new in Navy and Marine Corps unmanned boats

The more the Navy experiments with unmanned systems, the more it's learning what it needs — and what it doesn't.

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