Although the U.S. Air Force has been fighting for years to sunset the A-10 attack plane so it can move resources to newer fighters, Secretary Deborah Lee James tells Aviation Week the air arm may once again delay plans to retire the Thunderbolt II.
LOCKHEED MARTIN is partnering with DERCO REPAIR SERVICES, INC. to expand Global Supply Chain Services and support to worldwide F-16 operators. GENERAL DYNAMICS has $15m U.S. Air Force Research Lab contract for software prototype that correlates geospatial intelligence, signals intelligence and cyber indicator and warning data streams for intelligence analysts.
Broadband satellite services provider Hughes Network Systems and Airbus Defense and Space have signed a deal to expand their business partnership to serve growing tactical military communications requirements around the globe, they said Sept. 13. Airbus will distribute all models of the Hughes HM System, a “flexible satellite networking technology” based on a software-definable modem and scrambled code multiple access waveform. HM’s terminals operate over Airbus’s Skynet X-band military communications satellite.
The pause in flight operations was ordered after technicians identified faulty cooling lines in the wings of the aircraft, according to a statement from the Norwegian government.
Rolls-Royce North America has won a $9.3 million contract to outfit U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command’s dozen AC-130W Stinger II gunships with engine heat suppressors as it also pitches another exhaust-cooling upgrade for the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey.
The FAA has selected Astronautics Corporation of America to develop and test methods to evaluate the vulnerability of aircraft onboard networks to cyberattacks.
Aviation Performance Solutions will certify CAE flight instructors to teach upset prevention and recovery training at the U.S. Army’s fixed-wing flight training program in Alabama.
Clay Mowry, who has headed the U.S. subsidiary of Arianespace for the past 15 years, is leaving the company to set up a Washington office for Blue Origin.
China launched its second orbital laboratory, Tiangong 2, on Sept. 15 as part of preparations for assembling a space station around the end of the decade.
As the Pentagon searches for the right platform for a future bomb truck to accompany its fifth-generation fighters into combat, a so-called “arsenal plane,” Boeing believes it has the answer.
Boeing is officially disputing the Danish government’s recommendation that Denmark select Lockheed Martin’s F-35 for its next-generation fighter fleet.
The U.S. Air Force will be appealing to the FAA for exemptions to its mandate that all aircraft be equipped with Next Generation air traffic management system equipment by Jan. 1, 2020.
