Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

After a partial fleet grounding earlier this year over safety issues, the U.S. Air Force still has concerns about the quality of Northrop Grumman’s J-Stars maintenance work.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
The British defense ministry has contracted with Raytheon UK to keep its fleet of Sentinel radar-reconnaissance aircraft in service until 2021.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Helibras president Richard Marelli said the company was “working hard to convince the Brazilian army,” to let the company fit the Hforce generic weapon system to one of the army’s Fennecs.
Defense

The U.S. Marine Corps hopes to introduce its MUX multi-mission UAV well ahead of the common Sikorsky H-60/Bell Helicopter H-1 replacement it is pursuing under the Army-led Future Vertical Lift Capability Set 3 program.
Defense

AIRBUS DEFENSE & SPACE delivered 11 A400M airlifters during first nine months of 2016, the company said in announcing third quarter results Oct. 26.

L-3 Communications has entered an asset purchase agreement to acquire some parts of bankrupt Implant Sciences for $117.5 million in cash.

View the Defense Market Intelligence Notes in PDF format.

The 13 CubeSat-class spacecraft set to ride piggyback on the first flight of NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System will serve as pathfinders for future unmanned missions into deep space on the big new rocket, including a Europa mission as early as 2022.
Defense

The U.S. Marine Corps wants to add new tricks to the 135-lb. Blackjack UAS.
Defense

The U.S. Army plans to jump-start the acquisition for its “runway-independent” Future Tactical UAS in the “late fiscal 2020” time frame.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett, Kim Minseok
Like the rest of South Korea’s efforts at developing and building bombardment missiles, the underwater element is wrapped in secrecy that has been broken by only a few local news reports, not all consistent.
Defense

The U.S. Air Force has asked the Silicon Valley-based Defense Innovation Unit-Experimental (DIUx), to look into the art of the possible for controlling mass numbers of tiny UAS.
Defense

COBHAM has BELL-BOEING Joint Project Office contract to develop palletized aerial refueling system for U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor.

Aviation legend Bob Hoover, dubbed “the greatest stick-and-rudder man who ever lived,” by Jimmy Doolittle, has died at age 94.

By Michael Tint
​View the Fleet Snapshot: Worldwide Sikorsky S-70/H-60 Fleets chart in PDF format.

The improved General Atomics unmanned aerial vehicle incorporates several engineering change proposals into the already-adopted MQ-1C Gray Eagle.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
NASA’s Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft emerged from several days in safe mode earlier this week and executed a maneuver to help set up its next close pass of the gas giant.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
International Space Station crews may have been lucky so far, but the time has come for NASA and its partners to equip the six-person outpost with a specially configured ambulance, according to former U.S. astronaut Steve Robinson.
Defense

The U.S. Army and Marine Corps will lead the introduction of next-generation rotorcraft under the multi-service Future Vertical Lift (FVL) procurement with a placeholder initial operational capability date of 2030-32.
Defense

The U.S. Marine Corps is embarking on a development program for a large, multi-mission UAV to conduct strike and surveillance missions from the decks of its amphibious ships.
Defense

GENERAL ATOMICS AERONAUTICAL SYSTEMS has $310m U.S. Army contract for MQ-1C Gray Eagle logistics support.

This week the crew of the International Space Station will begin unloading 5,100-lb. of new supplies from the unmanned Cygnus capsule.

Austal USA, Mobile, Alabama, is being awarded a $12,029,452 cost-plus-award-fee order against a previously awarded basic ordering agreement to provide engineering and management services ...

Lockheed Martin says the Pentagon’s $1 billion undefinitized cash injection into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in August to support Lot 9 production was not enough to offset expenditures in the third quarter.
Defense

NASA and Boeing kicked off negotiations this week on a contract for the Exploration Upper Stage designed to take the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) from a 70-ton lift capability to 105 tons on its second flight as early as 2021.
Defense