Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Tony Osborne
Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK have signed a contract for part of the LTE Technology Maturation Phase.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Robert Wall
The program will be the first integration of such an infrared countermeasure system on an A350, Lufthansa Technik said.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
The aircraft achieved a 24-hr. flight from New Mexico’s Spaceport America in October.
Satellites

By Robert Wall
The Finnish defense administration will develop the new strategy while also trying to identify how space impacts other parts of the defense system.
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Robert Wall
The German government has signed an agreement with industry to modernize its MBDA Taurus cruise missile, with the aim of keeping the system viable long term.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Tony Osborne
The UK is ratcheting up efforts to sell Eurofighters to Turkey with a visit of two Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft to Ankara.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Robert Wall
The UK and partners are including more counter-uncrewed air systems (C-UAS) and loitering munitions in a new £225 million ($284 million) package for Ukraine.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Robert Wall
The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed €350 million ($363 million) in contracts with Avio to further evolve the Vega launcher family.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Chen Chuanren
The Royal Australian Air Force has now received all 72 of its ordered Lockheed Martin F-35As that it started taking delivery of in December 2018.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Thierry Dubois
Stephane Israel is stepping down as Arianespace CEO and member of ArianeGroup's executive committee on Dec. 31, to be succeeded by David Cavailloles.
Commercial Space

By Graham Warwick
LQMs are sophisticated machine-learning models that are trained on vast amounts of data generated using physics-based methods.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Steve Trimble
The contract for the Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) Recapitalization program calls for Northrop to deliver the first three engineering and manufacturing aircraft.
Multi-Mission Aircraft

By Vivienne Machi
The seventh and eighth O3b mPOWER satellites were launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 5:26 p.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Satellites

By Irene Klotz
Nelson, who was appointed by President Joe Biden to head NASA in 2021, will be leaving the agency on Jan. 20.
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Irene Klotz
The funding cut will mean that NASA will have to reallocate $180 million from its current space operations budget.
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Brian Everstine
The Senate passed the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 85-14.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Robert Wall
In total, legislators approved 38 projects with a combined value of about €21 billion ($26.7 billion).
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Guy Norris
The Venus Detonation Rocket propulsion system combines a rotating detonation rocket engine with a ramjet.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Tony Osborne
The FMV says the first step is an order placed with the Swedish Space Corporation.
Satellites

By Mark Carreau
The fixed-price contract listed a maximum value of $140 million over a five-year base period with an additional two-year option.
Space Exploration

By Robert Wall
The pace of growth is down slightly from the 11% seen between 2022 and 2023.
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Guy Norris
The 777-200ER was acquired in 2022 to replace a long-serving DC-8-72, which was retired in May after nearly 40 years with NASA.
Space Exploration

By Robert Wall
Member states are expected to provide €4.8 billion and the European Union €1.7 billion, with an additional €1.2 billion coming from other sources.
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Tony Osborne
The new company, Pulse, will be headquartered in Abu Dhabi.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Tony Osborne
DLR is gearing up for flight trials of an AESA radar for German and Spanish Eurofighter combat fleets using a modified Airbus A320 testbed.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare