Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Tensions over the potential workshare within the Franco-German-Spanish FCAS program resurfaced on the second day of the Paris Air Show.

RTX says they have achieved positive thrust with a rotating detonation combustor in a turbine engine in a relevant thrust class for a weapon.

The China Manned Space Engineering Office has completed the first zero-altitude escape flight test of its next-generation Mengzhou crewed spacecraft.

France and Spain have committed to accelerate Airbus A400M purchases in a bid to underpin the long-term production outlook for the military transport.

Diehl says it would expand work with defense electronics specialist Hensoldt to evolve its air and missile defense equipment as battlefield requirements change.

Safran detailed some upgrades it is making to the M88 engine under the T-REX program to boost thrust and address the power needs of the new Dassault Rafale F5.

Airbus is establishing interconnected teams between its defense and commercial business as it looks to establish the A320 family for special missions.

Selected U.S. military contracts from the past week.

News in brief.

BELL sells 412EPX to Tunisia... SAFRAN, BOMBARDIER team on defense work... GA-ASI introduces “Pele” small UAS...

Merlin Labs appears on track to launch into certification flight testing early next year for a modified Cessna Caravan with autonomous flight capability.

Multi-industrial provider Eaton, a key middle-market provider of aerospace parts to airframers, announced June 16 that it will buy Ultra PCS.

MBDA has lifted the lid on a low-cost, long-range, one-way attack drone concept used to saturate an adversary’s air defenses.

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy are in the midst of a series of upgrades to the MQ-4 Triton uncrewed aircraft fleet.

The U.S. Space Force’s CSCO anticipates starting the acquisition process to buy commercially derived maneuverable satellites for use in GEO by early next year.

Astroscale UK and Open Cosmos have won a contract from the UK Ministry of Defense to develop two formation-flying satellites that would track space weather.

United Launch Alliance scrubbed the launching of the second batch of Kuiper satellites for Amazon’s broadband constellation on June 16.

Israeli air strikes have taken out about one-third of Iran’s ballistic missile launcher capacity.

BlackSky Technology plans to expand its Gen-3 high-frequency monitoring constellation with new satellites designated AROS.

Russia has conducted large-scale trials of new laser systems against UAVs, the country’s government reported June 13.

Boeing’s win of the U.S. Air Force F-47 fighter program may have answered one of the longest-running questions hanging over the aerospace giant.

NASA, Axiom Space and SpaceX are looking to no earlier than June 19 for the thrice-delayed launch of Axiom's fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS.

Baykar’s Akinci uncrewed air system will be assembled in Italy by Piaggio as part of the Turkish company’s new joint venture with Leonardo.

With the Boeing E-7A Wedgetail facing a cancellation threat in the U.S., the AEW&C aircraft has demonstrated a new ability to control multiple uncrewed aircraft systems in flight.

ESA and French space agency CNES have not paused any activities potentially affected by proposed U.S. cuts to NASA’s budget, but are developing backup plans.