Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Regular operations of the Akatsuki/Venus Climate Orbiter are targeted for April 2016, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency reported.

Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, the U.S. Navy Surface Force Commander, is starting to better hone his concept on distributed lethality.

Key members of the U.S. Navy and Royal Malaysian Navy sub forces met at Polaris Point, Guam, to review and establish plans for joint training and exercises.

India is preparing for the first test of an electric propulsion technology that will help shrink the size of its rockets and increase the life and payload capacity of its satellites.

HUNTINGTON INGALLS has been awarded a $200m U.S. NAVY contract for ...

The U.S. Army has awarded Lockheed Martin Corp., Orlando, Florida, a $318.3 million contract modification

Selected U.S. military contracts for Nov. 30, 2015 ARMY Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Connecticut, was awarded a $106,510,258 modification

The aircraft will transform the way the country thinks about air power and prompt bilateral and trilateral discussions among other European operators.

Overseers at the Google Lunar X-Prize competition have verified the launch contract of Florida-based Moon Express.

The Russian air force has taken into service the first modernized Ilyushin Il-76MD-90A heavy airlifter.

PARIS and HOUSTON -- France has repaired a vacuum-chamber leak in a key science instrument that will fly aboard the NASA-led InSight lander mission slated to launch to Mars in early 2016. Engineers at French space agency CNES are now testing the repair to the InSight lander’s SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) instrument to ensure it will maintain the degree of vacuum necessary to carry out its mission.

India is likely to sign an agreement with France to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft off the shelf during a visit here by French President Francois Hollande in January.

Japan has progressed far in researching supersonic use of weapon bays as it prepares for its next fighter program.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen have signed an enhanced defense cooperation agreement.

LOCKHEED MARTIN MISSILES & FIRE CONTROL (Fla.) has $302m U.S. AIR FORCE contract modification for Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) production, system upgrades, integration, sustainment, management, logistics support; work expected complete by June 29, 2019. Contract includes foreign military sales to Poland, Finland.

Irregularity in Washington has become the status quo. Since October, the government has been running on stop-gap funds provided by a so-called continuing resolution. And even though the White House and Congress have agreed to a budget for the next two years, an actual spending bill that is supposed to replace the continuing resolution for fiscal 2017 has not yet become law. Defense industry officials do not seem worried about a government shutdown at this point.

To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Dec. 1—Human Spaceflight, “U.K. Strategy in the Run-Up to Tim Peake’s Flight,” Royal Aeronautical Society, London, United Kingdom. For more information go to www.aerosociety.com/Events/Event-List/2147/Human-Spaceflight

JAXA experts are assessing the orbital characteristics of the Akatsuki/Venus Climate Orbiter spacecraft following a 20-min. firing of reaction control system thrusters.

The South Korean forestry agency has launched development of a firefighting version of the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) Surion helicopter.

The U.S. Navy is closing in on an alternative missile for its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) as well as trying to resolve some speed and weight issues.

Australia’s defense department has rejected a proposal to buy a squadron of Bell Boeing MV-22 Ospreys, a government source says.

A Japanese program to buy nine naval utility helicopters has been suspended while an investigation team looks into the management of the competition.

The French Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, one of three key instruments planned for launching aboard the NASA-led 2016 InSight Mars lander mission, has experienced a vacuum chamber leak.

BAE Systems has been selected as a partner to Turkish industry to help Ankara in the development of an indigenous fighter for the 2030s.

The U.S. Navy’s proposed Ship-to-Shore Connector program reached a production milestone recently when the first hull, LCAC 100, was turned over at Textron Systems Marine & Land Systems.