Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Michael Bruno
Fresh off unveiling its partnership with Silicon Valley venture capital firm Shield Capital, L3Harris Technologies announced a new internal innovation office, the Agile Development Group, to meet Pentagon demands to provide advanced technology products and offerings quicker.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. military’s next generation intercontinental ballistic missile has a name: the LGM-35A Sentinel.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Brian Everstine
As Russian forces began to substantially build up on the border with Ukraine, the U.S. intelligence community went to commercial satellite imagery providers with a favor to ask.
Space Symposium

By Brian Everstine
The Space Development Agency’s upcoming Tranche 0 Transport Layer will be the military’s communications backbone, and the agency is planning a series of exercises with each service’s Joint All Domain Command and Control efforts, including the U.S. Navy’s highly secretive Project Overmatch.
Space Symposium

By Tony Osborne
The AUKUS defense pact between Australia, the UK and the U.S. is to expand its scope to hypersonic weapons.
Missile Defense & Weapons

Rocket Lab will attempt its first midair capture of a returning Electron booster later this month, a key step in the company’s quest to turn what was an expendable small satellite launcher into a partly reusable booster.
Space Symposium

By Brian Everstine
The Space Development Agency wants to ensure that all bidders will have an equal shot at awards under the upcoming Tranche 1 Tracking Layer decision, though another recent SDA award has shown the “optics” of incumbents getting a leg up.
Space Symposium

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei says his U.S. record-setting 355-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will help provide valuable insights into the physical and mental challenges of future human expeditions to Mars and other deep space destinations.
Space Symposium

By Tony Osborne
Finland and Norway have made substantial increases to their annual defense budgets in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
DARPA has confirmed new details of a previously secret test of the Lockheed Martin version of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, a scramjet-powered cruise missile demonstrator.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Jen DiMascio
The U.S. Air Force has selected Redwire and other select companies to compete to win task orders and contribute to its Advanced Battle Management System.
Space Symposium

By Graham Warwick
Helicopter leasing company Lobo Leasing has signed a letter of intent with Pipistrel that includes deposits for the acquisition of 15 Nuuva V300 hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing unmanned cargo aircraft.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Irene Klotz
The largest commercial procurement of launch vehicles in history has seen Amazon sign contracts for a fleet of up to 83 heavy-lift launchers to send its Kuiper constellation into orbit.
Space Symposium

By Chen Chuanren
Concerned about the military build-up in the Indo-Pacific and threats against Australia, Canberra is spending A$3.5 billion ($2.6 billion) to accelerate deliveries of two types of missile.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Jen DiMascio
Lockheed Martin plans to launch two self-funded satellites by 2023 that could be used in military exercises that year to demonstrate parts of the military’s vision for joint all-domain operations.
Space Symposium

By Graham Warwick
As it works to establish design and manufacturing operations in Montreal, Jaunt Air Mobility has secured two new Canadian investors and advisors, retired Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu and entrepreneur Mitch Garber.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Steve Trimble
The “Modular Advanced Missile” program appears for the first time in the Pentagon’s fiscal 2023 budget request documents.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Graham Warwick
Helicopter and commercial aircraft brokerage Blueberry Aviation has signed an agreement to support Swiss startup Dufour Aerospace in securing launch customers for its Aero2 and Aero3 hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Mark Carreau
The test was scrubbed at 5 p.m. EDT while the Mission Management Team and Launch Control Team assessed their options
Space Symposium

By Graham Warwick
GE Aviation will develop and test a megawatt-class hybrid-electric powerplant under a $5.1 million contract from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory that will further develop technologies applicable to Future Vertical Lift, GE says.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
The U.S. State Department has approved the sale of an additional eight Block 70 Lockheed Martin F-16s for Bulgaria. A second batch made up of four single-seat F-16Cs and four twin-seat F-16Ds and a package of weapons have been requested by Sofia, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced April 4.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Michael Bruno
Employment in the core U.S. space industry workforce is at a 10-year high, climbing past 2011’s last peak of 149,818 to reach 151,797, according to preliminary 2021 U.S. data cited by the Space Foundation on April 4.
Space Symposium

By Garrett Reim
Lockheed Martin on April 4 released online an open-source interface standard for on-orbit satellite docking.
Space Symposium

By Graham Warwick
Sikorsky is in discussions with the U.S. Army on its requirements for modernization of the legacy UH-60 Black Hawk fleet that will continue in operation after the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft enters service in the early 2030s.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Michael Bruno
Maritime Launch Services, a six-year-old startup looking to operate Canada’s first commercial spaceport and offer low Earth orbit launch services via the Ukrainian Cyclone-4M system, has taken another step toward becoming a publicly traded company in Canada after a reverse merger with an investment group.
Space Symposium