Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

With a design goal of staying aloft for five days, the U.S. Air Force’s Orion medium-altitude, ultra-long-endurance unmanned aircraft demonstrator has

It remains a rather simple equation: if the U.S. wants its aircraft carriers and nuclear-missile-armed submarines, then the nation is going to have to

NEW DELHI — Honeywell Aerospace will allow Tata Power’s Strategic Engineering Division (SED) to produce the Tactical Advanced Land Inertial Navigator

U.S. Army Life Cycle Management Command failed to provide the Defense Logistics Agency with reliable forecasts of spare parts needed to support

HOUSTON — Japan’s Hayabusa 2 mission, a second effort by the Asian space power to gather samples from a near-Earth asteroid, is scheduled for a Nov

NASA and LOCKHEED MARTIN finished fueling ORION spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility and moved capsule to Launch

TORONTO — United Launch Alliance (ULA) likely will continue to use the Russian-built RD-180 kerosene-fueled main-stage rocket engine for its U.S. Air Force missions at least into 2017, and it remains unclear what propulsion system it will use for its next-generation Atlas V after that, according to two top Lockheed Martin executives attending the 65th International Astronautical Congress here.

Recently elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is meeting with President Barack Obama for the first time at the White House this week

RAF BRIZE NORTON, U.K. — Airtanker, the consortium charged with providing the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) with aerial refueling, is preparing to carry

With the spinoff of its military services business wrapping up over the weekend, Exelis CEO David Melcher tells Aviation Week that his company can

PARIS — Russia’s Proton M/Briz M heavy-lift launch vehicle successfully returned to flight Sept. 28, sending a Russian government satellite to

NEW DELHI — The long-awaited test flight of India’s next-generation Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-Mk. 3) has slipped into November

LONDON — The British army’s Watchkeeper UAV has been deployed to Afghanistan, to prove the system’s mettle before the end of combat operations later

Airbus is to help start-up Aerion with design, manufacture and certification of a supersonic business jet, aiming for availability of the $100 million

U.S. Africa Command will sponsor another Obangame Express military exercise in the spring of 2015 as part of its expanded focus in the Gulf of Guinea

Selected aerospace and defense contracts for the week of Sept. 22-26, 2014. Selected aerospace and defense contracts for Sept. 22, 2014 U.S. ARMY

RUSSIAN HELICOPTERS and KRET (both part of State Corporation Rostec) began testing Mi-171A2 advanced medium multirole helicopter with KBO-17 avionics suite; two aircraft (one flight/one ground) are now being tested with a third currently in assembly. GENERAL DYNAMICS ELECTRIC BOAT has $311m U.S. Navy contract for planning yard work, engineering and technical support for nuclear submarines; contract has total potential value of $1.5 billion over five years if all options are exercised.

RUSSIAN HELICOPTERS and KRET (both part of State Corporation Rostec) began testing Mi-171A2 advanced medium multirole helicopter with KBO-17 avionics suite; two aircraft (one flight/one ground) are now being tested with a third currently in assembly. GENERAL DYNAMICS ELECTRIC BOAT has $311m U.S. Navy contract for planning yard work, engineering and technical support for nuclear submarines; contract has total potential value of $1.5 billion over five years if all options are exercised.

Solar Impulse plans to start and finish its 2015 solar-powered round-the-world flights in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Testing and training is to begin in Abu Dhabi in January. The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft, which made its first flight from Payerne, Switzerland, in June, is scheduled to be shipped by cargo aircraft to Abu Dhabi by the end of the year. Local renewable energy company Masdar will be the host partner. The round-the-world flights are planned to take place over five months from the beginning of March to the end of July 2015.

MOSCOW — The Russian navy has begun operating the first serially upgraded Ilyushin Il-38N maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. The flights started recently at the 859th combat employment and retraining center of naval aviation in Yeysk, on the Azov Sea, Ilyushin says. This modernized aircraft was handed over to the military in July and is expected to be used for conversion training.

The U.S. Navy has developed a Deck Simulator Shock Machine (DSSM) that the service says improves shipboard electronics reliability while saving $75,000 per test. The machine evaluates state-of-the-art, vibration-sensitive electronics cabinets weighing up to 1,500 lb. on shock isolation mounts, Navy officials say. One of two such machines worldwide, the mechanism sits on 22,000 lb. of steel and concrete and records the effects of simulated underwater explosions on electronics equipment.

The FAA has granted six aerial photo and video operators permission to use small unmanned aircraft (UAVs) for filming on closed sets through a process the agency says provides a model for early approval of commercial UAVs for other applications. The six operators applied for exemptions to the ban on flying commercial UAVs in national airspace in petitions coordinated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). They are The FAA is still working to approve a seventh operator, says Administrator Michael Huerta.

The U.S. Navy’s Surface Maintenance Engineering Planning Program (Surfmepp) now has a better way for planning maintenance for surface ships. The program successfully completed its “baseline availability work package/availability work package” (BAWP/AWP) process earlier this month for all surface ships. With the new package, Navy officials say, “All surface ships now have an articulated, technically rigorous and engineered maintenance oversight process that supports each ship reaching its expected service life.”

Name: Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System (Uclass) Purchaser/User: U.S. Navy

HOUSTON – New U.S. and Russian crewmembers floated aboard the International Space Station (ISS) early Sept. 26, following a late-night sprint to the orbiting science lab aboard a Soyuz capsule with just one of two solar power arrays properly deployed.