In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Nov. 30 2022

Credit: Airbus. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury warned Nov. 30 that the aerospace industry is not moving fast enough to address climate change and promote its drive toward emission-reductions targets.

Credit: Amazon. Amazon Web Services has run a set of its compute and machine learning software programs on a D-Orbit satellite in low Earth orbit.

Credit: Dave Jenkins/Spacecom. The nascent plan to shift tracking of debris in space to the civilian U.S. Department of Commerce will give the military’s U.S. Space Command (Spacecom) the ability to increase its focus on the “why” of movement in space by freeing up heavily tasked national assets.

Credit: RSCC. The Russian Satellite Communication Co. (RSCC), a government-owned operator for communications and broadcasting services in the home country and abroad, will have to replace more than half of its satellite constellation by 2030, CEO Alexey Volin told Russian legislators Nov. 28.

Credit: Airbus Helicopters. Airbus Helicopters has revealed a demonstrator rotorcraft with which the company hopes to prove out technologies that could enable helicopters to reduce their carbon emissions by 50%.

Credit: EHang. Another foundation has been laid for advanced air mobility in the EU with the adoption of the European Drone Strategy 2.0, aimed at enabling large-scale commercial drone operations, including air taxis, by 2030.

Credit: Munich Airport. Turning commercial air travel into a sustainable, carbon net-zero industry will make flying more expensive, and airlines may have to change their business models, experts acknowledge. 

Credit: Andre Borges/AFP/Getty Images. Saab has received a military restricted type certification for the Gripen E fighter from military airworthiness officials in Sweden and Brazil, a company official said Nov. 30.

Credit: STS Aviation via Royal Air Force/Boeing. Supply chain issues have pushed back first delivery of the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft to the Royal Air Force (RAF) back 12 months.

Credit: Boeing. Japan is set to expand its Boeing KC-46A Pegasus tanker fleet from four aircraft to six. 

Credit: NASA. NASA has awarded ICON of Austin, Texas, a $57.2 million contract to develop a 3D printer for building lunar infrastructures such as landing pads, roads and habitats.

Credit: VPorts. Canadian vertiport startup VPorts and the U.S.-based Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR) have announced an agreement to establish a corridor for electric aircraft connecting Mirabel, Canada, and Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR) in New York.

MBDA’s Common Anti-Air Modular Missile-Extended Range is to move into production following Italy’s approval of the acquisition.

Credit: MBDA