This new rocket is the company’s path to substantially reduce its cost to launch — a critical factor as the company’s monopoly over national security launches is eroding — and compete against SpaceX.
India is rethinking its long-delayed 126-aircraft Medium-Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal, and may opt to scrap the fighter purchase in favor of government-to-government sales.
SpaceX and NASA planned a second attempt to launch the sixth Falcon9/Dragon commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station on April 14, a 24-hr. delay, after a lightning threat late in the first countdown on April 13 forced a postponement.
Known as Global-Scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD), the heliophysics payload will fly aboard the SES-14 spacecraft under a five-year contract with the University of Colorado.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited France’s aerospace center in Toulouse on April 11, where Airbus Group said it is ready to increase co-production in the south Asian nation as part of New Delhi’s “Make in India” program.
The U.S. says it has raised concerns with Russia about the behavior of its fighter pilots after a U.S. Air Force RC-135 intelligence-gathering aircraft was intercepted over the Baltic Sea in what it called an “unsafe and unprofessional manner.”
The U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK) navies conducted a successful mine countermeasures exercise in March and earlier this month as part of Foal Eagle 2015.
The U.S., its allies and partners face a growing ballistic missile threat in the Asia-Pacific region, a recent Congressional Research Service report says.
The full-spectrum cyber potential of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) operations will drive the U.S. Marine Corps’ efforts to understand and leverage how to best collect, distribute and disseminate all of the data and information processing now being made available with modern sensors and computers, says Gen. Joseph Dunford, Corps commandant.
BAE Systems and the Australian defense ministry have completed trials of BAE’s Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) guided rocket from an Airbus Tiger attack helicopter.
China became the first export customer for Russia’s new S-400 long range air defense missile system, says Anatoly Isaikin, the head of government arms trade agency Rosoboronexport.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Apr. 13-15 — Sea Air Space 50th Anniversary, “50 Years of Maritime Excellence & Innovation,” Gaylord Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland. For more information go to www.seaairspace.org/
LOCKHEED MARTIN has $150.6m U.S. Navy contract to build, test, modify, and field F-35 Lightning II mission data files for Australia and the U.K. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, TX, and should finish by December 2018. BECHTEL NATIONAL INC. has $1.34b U.S. Army contract modification to destroy chemical weapons in Pueblo, CO. JAPAN ordered one H155 and one AS365 N3+ for delivery in 2017 for its National Police Agency.
The U.S. State Department has approved the $57 million Foreign Military Sale to Egypt of 356 Lockheed Martin AGM-114K/R3 Hellfire II Missiles and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress of this possible deal on April 7.
A CDN$155 million ($123 million) deal with Bell Helicopter is the second contract for helicopters placed by the Canadian Department of Fisheries & Oceans—the umbrella agency for the Coast Guard—following a May 2014 order for 15 Bell 429s.
The government’s fiscal year closes at the end of September, leaving little time to resolve the question of how to level the playing field between dissimilar competitors United Launch Alliance and SpaceX as they compete for launch contracts.
India plans to purchase 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition “as quickly as possible,” though both the Indian and French governments said further negotiations are still underway.
Canberra also has decided to add facilities at RAAF Amberley, the major Royal Australian Air Force base that accommodates the C-17 unit, 36 Squadron. The aircraft and new facilities will cost AUS$1 billion ($770 million), Defense Minister Kevin Andrews says, confirming the intention to order.
