Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

The MDA has released a solicitation for a new southern-facing radar to be operational within three years to support the Golden Dome for America missile shield.

The Ariane 62 rocket placed the Metop-SG-A1 satellite into Sun-Synchronous Orbit at an altitude of around 800 km (500 mi) about 64 min after liftoff.

Poland will spend $3.8 billion to upgrade its Lockheed Martin F-16 fleet to the Block 72 configuration, government officials have declared.

Elbit CEO Bezhalel Machlis has shed further light on the company’s work to turn the Iron Beam ground-based counter-drone laser system into an airborne application.

Blue Origin will offer a variant of its Blue Ring in-space platform to serve as a Mars telecommunications orbiter for NASA.

Switzerland says it is working to define a new strategic plan for local space company Beyond Gravity after parliament decided not to seek to privatize it.

Arianespace completed the second commercial Ariane 6 flight to deploy the first of Europe's next-generation polar-orbiting weather satellites.

United Launch Alliance successfully launched its Vulcan rocket on Aug. 12.

SpaceX expects its Starship launcher to break the company's previous rideshare launch record of 143 spacecraft when it begins flying such missions.

Global Technical Systems unveiled the unnamed missile in an Aug. 7 post on LinkedIn.

Aerial firefighting specialist Neptune Aviation Services is advancing its development plan for a next-generation air tanker based on the Airbus A319.

Belgian startup EDGX plans an orbital demonstration of an “edge AI computer for satellites” in 2026 in partnership with NVIDIA.

The U.S. Air Force faces a looming question with its plan to retire the E-3 AWACS and cancel the E-7 Wedgetail.

The U.S. Army is finalizing plans to buy a new medium-altitude uncrewed aerial system as it phases out its older MQ-1C Gray Eagle.

Even though the U.S. Army canceled the FTUAS program of record, the appetite remains to quickly field a similar system at the brigade level.

Castings and forgings have once again been fingered as the key limit on future large commercial and military aircraft build-rates.

NASA has initiated the second phase of a competition to recycle large quantities of trash during future long-duration human deep-space exploration missions.

Latvia says Russia is interfering with global navigation satellite systems from three sites, impacting flight navigation and airport operations in the region.

The first serial production-representative AW09 single-engine light rotorcraft, codenamed S6, took to the air on Aug. 8 from Leonardo’s Vergiate manufacturing facility near Milan.

KBR Wyle will acquire support services for several human health programs managed primarily at JSC, including the Artemis lunar initiative.

Indian space data company Pixxel is leading a local consortium to develop and deploy a hyperspectral Earth observation satellite constellation.

Vertical lift specialist Piasecki Aircraft plans to develop a larger-capacity version of the Kargo UAV.

Singapore says it has dropped plans to establish a permanent Boeing F-15SG detachment in Guam following a U.S. disclosure that the basing would not proceed.

United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket is poised to join SpaceX’s Falcon fleet in launching the country’s highest priority national security space missions.

The joint venture World Mobile Stratospheric is to deliver high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity from the stratosphere.