In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Feb. 15 2023

Credit: Sabrewing Aircraft. Part 135 cargo carrier Ameriflight has signed a letter of intent to purchase 35 Rhaegal-A drones from startup Sabrewing Aircraft following type certification of the aircraft, the companies announced.

Credit: Astranis. Astranis, developer of a small geostationary communications satellite, has won a $4.5 million contract to show its software-defined radio-satellite payload can transmit the U.S. Defense Department’s Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW).

Credit: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/HiRISE/University of Arizona/NASA. The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first interplanetary spacecraft is expanding its studies at Mars to include flybys of the planet’s small outer moon, Deimos.

Credit: BAE Systems. BAE Systems, Inc. and Leonardo UK have teamed up to develop a new defensive aid suite for aircraft against infrared-guided missiles. 

Credit: Brian Everstine/AW&ST. The U.S. Air Force has temporarily grounded its workhorse Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker fleet, along with reconnaissance variants of the airframe, until they can be inspected for a nonconforming part in the tail assembly.

Credit: NATO. Denmark and Sweden have become the latest signatories to a NATO initiative to overcome potential gaps in the alliance’s ground-based air defense systems. 

Credit: Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images. India will direct three-fourths of its defense budget to purchasing new equipment for domestic industry in fiscal 2023-24, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said here at Aero India 2023.

Credit: Babcock. British defense contractor Babcock has been awarded a contract to manage and operate the UK Defense Ministry’s communication satellite constellation Skynet. 

Credit: Indian Navy. The Indian Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) continues to test automated landings of its Light Combat Aircraft Tejas (N-LCA) following the Feb. 6 first launches and arrested recoveries on the Indian Navy’s INS Vikrant carrier.

Credit: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images. Virgin Orbit’s continuing investigation into the Jan. 9 loss of a LauncherOne rocket on its first mission from the UK has revealed a loose fuel filter could have caused the premature shutdown of the vehicle’s second-stage Newton 4 engine.