Ground tests of a proposed initial core upgrade package for Pratt & Whitney’s F135 Joint Strike Fighter engine have confirmed the potential for fuel reductions up to 6% and as much as 10% higher thrust.
The Senate Armed Services Committee last week unanimously voted to report 818 pending military nominations in U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.
The Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) successful May 30 intercept of an intercontinental ballistic missile (IBCM) target by the Ground-based Midcourse Defense System will help the U.S. outpace the threat of ICBM attacks from Iran or North Korea—at least through 2020, the agency’s director says.
Lockheed Martin’s potential new arms deals to Saudi Arabia could include integrated air and missile defense systems, helicopters, naval ships, radars, aerostats and space-related “elements”.
Indonesia looks unlikely to induct into service a $55 million Leonardo AW101 helicopter that it received in February but now says fails to meet its specifications and was acquired in a corrupt process.
Australian defense scientists are trying to nail down what happens if aircraft are kept in service with composite structural damage that exceeds the conservative allowances set by manufacturers.
But on May 30, the Missile Defense Agency declared victory in its first test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system since June 2014, and the first time firing against an ICBM.
Bigelow Aerospace’s bedroom-sized, experimental expandable habitat module crossed the midpoint of its planned two-year stay aboard the International Space Station over the Memorial Day weekend.
A helicopter final-assembly plant that Airbus and Chinese partners have begun building here will have room for double its designed capacity of 18 deliveries a year.
Leonardo has formed a consortium with Canada’s IMP Aerospace and Defense to bid for the upcoming modernization of Canada’s CH-149 Cormorant search-and-rescue helicopters.
The wreckage of an Indian Air Force (IAF) Su-30MKI fighter that went missing May 23 was found in a thick forest near Tezpur in the northeastern state of Assam on May 26. No traces were found of the two pilots. A search for the flight data recorder and missing crew will be undertaken by ground personnel after they reach the crash site, the IAF says in an official statement. The fighter had taken off from the IAF’s Tezpur air base, located about 172 km from the India-China border, for a training mission.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN has $13.9m U.S. Navy contract for additional hardware to integrate Navy large aircraft infrared countermeasures on combat aircraft for the Navy and the governments of the U.K. and Australia.
In observance of the Memorial Day holiday in the U.S., Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not be publishing on Monday, May 29. The next issue of Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will be dated Wednesday, May 31.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. For a complete list of Aviation Week Network’s upcoming events, and to register, visit www.aviationweek.com/events (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) May 31-June 1—ap&m Europe, Olympia London, United Kingdom. For more information go to www.aviationweek.com/events
