Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, March 27, 2017

The price of a U.S. Air Force F-35A fell below $100 million for the first time in the latest low-rate initial production lot. But that’s not good enough, the Pentagon says.

Engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center hot-fire tested an RS-25 developmental rocket engine for the heavy-lift Space Launch System March 23 with an upgraded electronic controller intended to help lift an Orion capsule toward a flight around the Moon.

Russia had another strong year of defense exports in 2016, keeping its second-place spot on the global arms market, although new orders hit a five-year low.

Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace is expecting to sign its first export contract with an undisclosed country by year’s end.

Britain’s Royal Navy has retired the last of its Lynx helicopters.

Planetary scientists gathered March 19 for a "town hall” to discuss the proposed science objectives of a NASA-led robotic lander mission to search for life on the Jupiter moon Europa.

Spacewalking astronauts advanced efforts to equip the International Space Station (ISS) with a second U.S. segment commercial crew docking port on March 24.

NORTHROP GRUMMAN delivered Combat Electromagnetic Environment Simulator to SAAB AB to conduct testing on JAS 39 Gripen multirole fighter. PT DIRGANTARA INDONESIA delivered 50th H225 rear fuselage to AIRBUS HELICOPTERS.

China and Russia are engaging in hybrid warfare in space, a former member of President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council says. “They are conducting probing, provocative actions just below the threshold of any meaningful U.S. or allied response,” charges Roger Robinson, who heads RWR Advisory Group, a security and business consultancy. Like the “little green men” who helped provoke conflict in Ukraine, the techniques—using cyberattacks, radio-frequency interference and orbiting satellites that linger near U.S.

The U.S. Defense Department wants input from allies and industry on future global wideband satellite communications architectures.

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