Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

NASA plans to introduce a new International Space Station sensor experiment designed to study interactions in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Operational introduction of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning in Australia is so far going more smoothly than expected.

Australia is likely to decide within a few months whether its General Atomics MQ-9 should be common with those of the U.S. or British air forces.

A U.S. agency has produced the first low-yield nuclear warhead.

India has test fired its indigenously developed Quick Reach Surface-to-Air Missile (QR-SAM), intended for service with the country’s air force and army.

Australia expects to launch a second experimental defense satellite next year, building on the reliable performance of one that went into orbit in November 2017.

The size of the global Western civil turbine rotorcraft fleet is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.6% over the next 10 years, Aviation Week Network’s 2019 Helicopter Forecast says.

The USAF has revealed its life cycle cost estimate—$18.5 billion—for the new helos to guard nuclear missile sites and transport VIPs around Washington.

The Turkish government has signed off on an agreement with Turkish Aerospace to develop a new indigenous attack helicopter.

Rolls-Royce plans to make parts and assemble a military version of the BR725 turbofan engine in Indianapolis, if the company later this year wins a USAF competition to re-engine the B-52H bomber fleet.

Firefly Aerospace, a startup developing small sat launchers, will build a manufacturing facility at KSC and launch its rockets from Cape Canaveral.

Raytheon will develop and deploy a powered and extended-range variant of the JSOW-ER to attack land and maritime targets from within the weapons bay of the F-35A and carrier-based F-35C fighters, the U.S. Navy says.

An RAF Eurofighter Typhoon has performed its first strikes using MBDA’s Brimstone 2 low-collateral, air-to-ground missile against Islamic State militants.

The USMC is seeking a mounted organic precision fires capability for its Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalions.

ALGERIAN AIR FORCE Su-24 crashed on training mission from Aïn Oussera AFB Feb. 20, killing both pilots.

Russian manufacturer Kalashnikov unveiled a new small loitering munition during the IDEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi.

View the Aviation Week Forecasts: Top Western Trainer & Light Combat Aircraft MRO By Family 2019-2028 chart in PDF format.

FINLAND has chosen RAYTHEON’s Evolved Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile system for its Pohjanmaa-class corvettes.

Europe has launched a research program to address the need for reliable detection and discrimination of different types of icing condition, to protect aircraft against supercooled large droplets (SLDs)

The U.S. Air Force absolved the Embraer A-29’s flying characteristics from blame after investigating the cause of a crash during the Light Attack Experiment last June that killed a U.S. Navy pilot.

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The flight was crewed by Virgin Galactic chief pilot Dave McKay alongside lead trainer pilot Mike Masucci, with Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor, monitoring conditions in the passenger cabin.

After U.S. President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to a establish combatant command for space the department has determined it is not feasible unless a law is repealed and is petitioning Congress for help.

NASA has selected a dozen small science and technology demonstration payloads that could be launching to the surface of the Moon using new commercial launch transportation services as soon as the end of 2019.

An Earth-imaging satellite owned by Egypt reached orbit on Feb. 21 despite a glitch with its Russian Soyuz-2 launcher, a problem that is delaying next week’s flight for OneWeb.