In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Dec. 13, 2021

After years of reliability issues, Australia has finally decided that it will prematurely retire its entire fleet of 47 NHIndustries/Airbus NH90 helicopters, designated locally as the MRH-90 Taipan, almost a decade earlier than planned.
Instead, it has contacted the U.S. government for advice on the potential sale of 40 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks. Read the full story. 

The six-seater New Shepard—flying with a full cabin for the first time—lifted off from Blue Origin’s spaceport near Van Horn, Texas, at 9 a.m. local time. Read the full story.

The U.S. Air Force’s AFWerx innovation unit has narrowed the competition down to 11 companies for its challenge to identify potential high-speed vertical takeoff and landing concepts for special operation missions. Read the full story. 

Raytheon Missiles & Defense and the U.S. Air Force recently finished a series of captive flight tests of upgraded Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, with guided live fire testing planned for 2022. Read the full story. 

Boeing has decided to replace the service module that displayed multiple oxidizer isolation valve malfunctions while assigned to Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), the second attempt by the company at an uncrewed CST-100 Starliner orbital flight to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Read the full story.