Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

NEW DELHI — India plans to develop advanced launch vehicle systems and improved Earth observational and communication satellites by 2020, a senior

HOUSTON — The Planetary Society is targeting May 2016 for the launch of its LightSail mission, a two- to three-month solar sail experiment that will

PARIS — Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) of Guilford, U.K., will build the medium-resolution Alsat-1B remote-sensing satellite for the Algerian

HOUSTON — The $1.1 billion joint U.S./German Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia), already caught in a budgetary crossfire, faces

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Lockheed Martin officials remain hopeful they can display the F-35 at air shows in the U.K. despite the ongoing grounding of the combat aircraft. With

PARIS — Greece has signed an agreement to purchase commercial satellite communications capacity through the European Union’s SatCom Market, joining

FUTRON BUY: Avascent, a Washington-based consultancy catering to “clients operating in government-driven markets,” has acquired the well-established

HOUSTON — The German Aerospace Center, DLR, has signed a launch services agreement with Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc., for the 2017 launch of Eu

PARIS — Russia debuted its new Angara-1.2 light launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia on July 9, after a technical glitch delayed a

BEIJING — Following Japan’s decisions this year to drop its arms export ban and let its armed forces defend allies, the country is seeking to build up

PARIS — French lawmakers said July 8 that the nation’s €190 billion ($258 billion) military spending plan for the period 2014-19 is short €1.5 billion

A worldwide group of public organizations will be able to use hyperspectral imagery collected on the International Space Station as the result of a

HOUSTON — Experts from federal, state and local agencies will converge in Denver on July 16 to complete a three-year effort organized to improve North

LONDON — A U.K. government committee investigating the operational safety of offshore helicopter operations has called for regulatory change in light

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LONDON — The U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) has begun operations with its second batch of General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles over Afghanistan. The five-strong batch doubles the size of the RAF’s fleet to 10, increasing the number of MQ-9 combat air patrols to which the RAF can contribute.

The U.S. Army is seeking industry input on a cognitive decision aiding system (CDAS) to help crews manage cockpit workload in the latest AH-64E Apache

Boeing could face “long-term credit risks” if the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the official export credit agency of America, is not reauthorized before

WEBB MIRROR: The composite backplane structure designed to support the 18 beryllium mirrors that will give the planned James Webb Space Telescope

SEATTLE — Boeing’s new Maritime Surveillance Aircraft, based on a Bombardier Challenger business jet, will make its first public appearance at the

Japan has delayed entry into service of the Kawasaki Heavy Industries C-2 airlifter by two years to 2016 following an airframe’s failure in a strength

India has signed a £250 million ($428 million) contract with European missile maker MBDA to provide advanced short range air-to-air missiles (Asraams)

PARIS — A Russian Soyuz-2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage carried a Russian weather satellite and six small spacecraft to orbit July 8, lifting

China’s new Kunming Class destroyers are roughly equivalent to advanced multirole warships elsewhere but still have shortcomings, a Chinese naval