Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Japan plans to launch the Himawari-8 geostationary weather satellite on Tuesday atop a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima

By Graham Warwick
Northrop Grumman is not revealing its concept for a sea-based long-endurance unmanned aircraft, but says its work under the Defense Advanced Research

By Graham Warwick
Insitu is bench-testing a clean-sheet engine developed by Perth, Australia-based Orbital for the ScanEagle UAV aimed at providing higher reliability

Exelis is launching a new family of electronic warfare (EW) systems that it expects to offer better detection and jamming capability against emerging

By Bradley Perrett
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is proposing to develop an unmanned disaster-monitoring aircraft with a ceiling of 18,000 meters (59,000

PARIS — France and Germany are planning a joint operation to monitor a month-old cease-fire between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists in

By Mark Carreau
HOUSTON —The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-led Deep Space Climate Observatory (Dscovr), originally an Earth imaging NASA

A technological breakthrough will allow any unmanned surface vehicle (USV) to not only protect U.S. Navy ships, but also, for the first time

Selected aerospace and defense contracts for the week of Sept. 29 - Oct. 3, 2014 Selected aerospace and defense contracts for Sept. 29, 2014 U.S. NAVY

AAR AIRLIFT secured 1-year, $15m contract extension from U.S. Military Sealift Command to perform vertical replenishment (VERTREP) services, including search and rescue (SAR) and pax transport, for U.S. Naval vessels in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. NORTHROP GRUMMAN’s Hand Held Precision Targeting Device (HHPTD) completed developmental test with U.S. Army Rapid Equipping Force.

TORONTO – Engineers helping NASA develop a solar-powered mission to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa have concluded the proposed spacecraft, with a solar array/magnetometer boom combination 22 meters wide, could pass through the plumes of water ice that may be erupting from cracks in the frozen surface and stay on course. Thomas Magner of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory told a symposium on Solar System exploration at the 65th International Astronautical Congress here that the “Europa Clipper” project passed i

By Tony Osborne
LONDON — The U.K. is rethinking its strategy of downsizing its fleet of Panavia Tornado GR4 fighter bombers as operations against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq intensify. A decision to reduce the Tornado fleet to two squadrons from three next April has been postponed by a year, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Oct.

By Guy Norris
LOS ANGELES — As Boeing moves into the final few months of C-17A assembly at its soon-to-close airlifter production line in Long Beach, California, the Australian government has requested pricing and availability data on two additional aircraft to take its fleet to eight. The Royal Australian Air Force began flying its first C-17A in 2006 and currently operates six from Amberley in Queensland.

The U.S. Navy successfully completed a critical design review (CDR) earlier this month for a new command, control, communications, computers and navigation (C4N) suite for the Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) vehicle. The LCAC C4N suite, also known as the command module electronics package, is the equipment the crew uses to operate the craft.

HOUSTON—U.S. and European astronauts are prepared to resume NASA-managed maintenance spacewalks outside the International Space Station (ISS) next week, following a lengthy wait to overcome difficulties with shuttle-era spacesuits that surfaced during a July 2013 excursion when the helmet worn by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano leaked internal cooling system water. U.S.

By Tony Osborne
LONDON — The Danish government is deploying F-16s to Kuwait as the country joins U.S. air strikes against Islamic State (IS) fighters in Iraq. Some 140 personnel with four F-16 Fighting Falcons, along with three in reserve, are being sent to an air base in Kuwait after the Danish Parliament voted in favor of contributing to the military action against IS on Oct.

TORONTO — NASA has issued stop-work orders to Boeing and SpaceX pending a resolution of Sierra Nevada’s legal challenge to the agency’s contract awards to the two companies in its Commercial Crew Transportation Capaiblity (CCtCap) competition. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) will have until Jan.

Having weighed the “strategic, operational, and environmental consequences,” the U.S. Navy has decided to base the F-35C aircraft at Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore, California, which was listed as Alternative 2 in the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for U.S.

To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Oct. 6-9 — Homeland Security Week, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. For more information go to www.homelandsecurityexpo.com/ Oct. 7-9 — Aviation Week Events, Brazing Symposium, Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa, Phoenix, Arizona.

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AEROVIRONMENT booked $27.2m in new orders from U.S. Army to supply spare parts for RQ-11B Raven and RQ-20A Puma AE. ROCKWELL COLLINS demonstrated its

By Graham Warwick
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Sikorsky has rolled out the first S-97 Raider high-speed armed scout helicopter prototype and is beginning ground tests

The U.S. Defense Department’s Inspector General says the U.S. Air Force did not properly justify its planned $76.8 billion purchase of 401 General