Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

TransDigm Group’s proposed $4 billion acquisition of rival Esterline Technologies could cement the former in the pantheon of top-tier Western aerospace and defense suppliers and aftermarket providers.

United Technologies Chairman and CEO Greg Hayes has made further comments in support of a potential breakup of his multi-industrial conglomerate.

Development by IHI and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency of the Epsilon solid-propellant space launcher is moving rapidly from one major revision to the next.

Argonne National Laboratory is creating a center to evaluate potential UAS design options, including battery technologies and hybrid architectures.

AeroVironment has teamed up with Washington-based Aerovel to enter the small tactical unmanned aircraft systems market to compete for a U.S. Army contract for a new fleet of Group 2-class UAS.

Aeralis, a British startup looking to develop a new-generation jet trainer, has begun crowdfunding to support the development of a concept demonstrator it hopes to display at a London defense show in 2019.

Britain’s decision to consider a single-source purchase of Boeing’s E-7 airborne early warning platform is being driven by concerns that the existing capability provided by the Boeing E-3 Sentry could soon be outmatched.

The milestone comes before the pending civil certification of the jet-powered, tactical tanker-transport aircraft by Brazil’s civil aviation authority, which is expected “very soon.”

Lockheed Martin has delivered the 300th Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system interceptor.

LOCKHEED MARTIN has $164m U.S. Missile Defense Agency contract for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Field Support Contract.

The British defense ministry’s procurement agency has contracted to develop an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that could rescue personnel who have fallen overboard from naval vessels.

AE Industrial Partners, a private equity investor, has acquired Wichita-based Aerostructures Acquisition, doing business as The Atlas Group.

DARPA wants to take robotics underground with a challenge to autonomously search tunnel systems and cave networks for foes in combat or victims of natural disasters.

Boeing has delivered the interim fix, known as a fail-safe collar, to the U.S. Army and half of the program’s international customers so far to ensure the helicopter's rotor blades don't separate from the aircraft.

NASA has established an anomaly review panel to investigate a gyroscope issue that triggered the 28-year-old Hubble Space Telescope into safe mode late Oct. 5.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students verified the accuracy of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) signals at high altitude in research supporting the integration of rocket launches and suborbital spaceflights in the U.S. airspace system.

The U.S. Army’s recently opened Futures Command in Austin, Texas, is aimed at fixing the service’s notoriously laborious weapons acquisition process.

A Sikorsky/Boeing team says the high-speed SB-1 prototype “remains on a path” to achieve first flight by year’s end.

As the Pentagon forms its next budget request, U.S. Army acquisition officials have asked Boeing to describe the impact of delaying the initial operational capability milestone for the CH-47 Block II by five years, the company says.

This week the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual symposium is underway near Washington.

FRENCH AIR FORCE marked formal service introduction of PILATUS PC-21 trainer Oct. 2.

Onvoi LLC, De Funiak Springs, Florida, has been awarded a $39,951,581 contract for base operating services at March Air Reserve Base, California.

Aerospace manufacturing and the supply chain continue to grow in South Carolina, economic boosters claimed Oct. 8.

The competition is between the Boeing CH-47 Chinook and Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion.

Investors see rotorcraft prevailing over legacy ground vehicles in long-term Pentagon planning.