In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Oct. 11 2022

Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/Hubble. NASA has declared its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission a major success in its demonstration of a “kinetic impact” strategy that could be used to change the trajectory of a large asteroid on a course to impact the Earth.

Credit: Bell and Sikorsky-Boeing. The U.S. Army’s much-anticipated decision on who will build its next-generation helicopter is likely to slip even more, with the service’s top officer saying it will now come in a matter of months.

Credit: Jan Kouba, Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces of the Czech Republic. The Czech Air Force is another example of an Eastern European air arm gradually transitioning from a legacy Soviet-era inventory towards a more Western-oriented fleet. 

Credit: USAF. U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) rebounded to about $50 billion in fiscal 2022, driven largely by assistance to the Ukrainian military’s fight against Russia.

Credit: Northrop Grumman. New standardized mechanical interfaces for grappling and connecting spacecraft are critical to enabling growth of the in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing industries, a panel of industry players says.

Credit: US Army. Northrop Grumman wants to start experimenting with a new software application that is designed to steer the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) fleet through holes in an enemy’s advanced air defenses by stitching together threats detected by multiple onboard and offboard sensors. 

Cosmic Girl

Credit: Pratt & Whitney Canada. Raytheon Technologies has made a minority investment in Swiss electric propulsion startup H55, a technology spinoff from the Solar Impulse solar-powered, around-the-world aircraft project.

Credit: Russian Defense Ministry. Russian supplies of munitions are being drained and the country’s forces are being exhausted by Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the head of the UK’s signals intelligence agency has indicated. 

F-16

Credit: Tony Osborne - Aviation Week. A joint UK/Qatari squadron set up to train personnel from the Arabian Gulf state on the Eurofighter Typhoon has deployed to the Middle East to protect the upcoming World Cup football tournament.

Credit: National Institute for Aviation Research. Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) and Solvay hosted the opening of Solvay’s new Manufacturing Innovation Center within NIAR's facility in a former Boeing facility in south Wichita. 

Credit: Surf Air Mobility. U.S. regional air travel provider Surf Air Mobility has agreed to the main terms of a $450 million deal with leading turboprop lessor Jetstream Aviation Capital to fund the growth and electrification of its aircraft fleet.

Credit: Joby Aviation. Delta Air Lines is getting into the urban air taxi market.

Credit: U.S. Army. U.S. Army officials said on Oct. 11 that they will soon launch a competition for industry to supply a batch of contractor-owned, contractor-operated business jets.