Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

The UK has finally confirmed that it has begun talks with Boeing over the potential purchase of the E-7 aircraft to replace the E-3 Sentry fleet.

“We’re working hard to get this done this year," a SpaceX official says. "At this time the Falcon might be ready, but we might still have some paperwork on the certification side."

The U.S. Navy is close to awarding Boeing a contract to deliver a redesigned cockpit for the Block III version of the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G aircraft.

General Atomics has performed the first flight of its second prototype MQ-9B SkyGuardian medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system.

Chinese state company Leobit plans to have all 80 satellites of its planned L-band communications constellation in orbit by about 2022.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has done it for a third time—successfully delivering a small lander spacecraft to the surface of an asteroid.

GE AVIATION SYSTEMS has $19.6m U.S. Air Force contract for C-130J R391 Propeller Depot Activation.

On Wednesday Japan’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid probe is due to deploy its third lander to the surface of the asteroid Ryugu—the German/French Mascot hopper/rover.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Littleton, Colorado, has been awarded a $1,362,089,314 contract for GPS IIIF Space Vehicles 11 and 12.

Bell’s experience with V-22 Osprey and V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft position the company well for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Group 5 UAS competition.

Industry may have won this round of defense acquisition reform for now after the Pentagon on Oct. 1 shelved a pay-for-performance scheme.

NASA and the NOAA have convened a mishap investigation board to seek the root or proximate cause of a cooling system anomaly aboard the GOES-17 satellite.

The latest 10-year, $33 billion U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF) agreement with Israel that took effect on Oct. 1 is worrisome to some in Israeli industry.

Italy, Sweden and the U.S. have submitted proposals to meet a much-delayed Bulgarian requirement for new fighters to replace Sofia’s aging Soviet-era fleet.

Northrop Grumman plans to wrap up its first round of ISS cargo delivery missions for NASA with a year-long demonstration of its Cygnus freighter’s abilities.

South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope array will join the privately funded Breakthrough Listen initiative to scan 1 million nearby stars for signs of a technically advanced civilization beyond Earth.

Weather radar is no longer specified for an ambitious radar replacement program that U.S. government agencies would fund using proceeds from a future spectrum auction.

The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit and outlined spinoff demands before United Technologies would be allowed to acquire Rockwell Collins.

Fears of rocket attacks and use of incendiary, explosive-carrying balloons is prompting new interest in laser defense systems by the Israeli defense ministry.

The International Trade Commission plans to investigate a complaint of patent infringement against China’s DJI, the leader in the commercial drone market.

The FAA next year will begin a phased evaluation of satellite-aided surveillance of aircraft flying over oceanic spaces, including use of the Aireon space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system scheduled to begin operating in 2019.

The Pentagon will finalize the Joint Strike Fighter acquisition strategy in a few weeks, and the service acquisition executives have signed the document.

Chinese private space-launcher developer Landspace aims to make the first flight of its main rocket in 2020, following a complete engine test late this year or early next.

General Electric investors are taking heart with a sudden shakeup of the corner office and board room at the beleaguered industrial giant.

Russia's space agency Roscosmos plans to conduct a spacewalk outside the ISS to collect additional information about a drill hole in a berthed Soyuz capsule.