Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Steve Trimble
Area-I has unveiled a new Air Launched Effects design that adds 300% more payload and 20% greater endurance than the Altius-600, the Anduril Industries-owned company said.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office is planning to release 20 solicitations to industry for commercially provided satellite services over the next year—starting with nine requests for proposals in the next two months.
Space

By Graham Warwick
Startup SkyDrive has become the first Japanese company to formally initiate the type certification process for an electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicle.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
A European project to demonstrate a modular hybrid-electric propulsion architecture for future small short/medium-range regional aircraft has been completed with flight tests of a second power train demonstrator.
Emerging Technologies

By Brian Everstine
The White House has nominated Adm. Christopher Grady, the current commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, to serve as the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after a delay that raised concerns about a gap in the position.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Graham Warwick
U.S. researchers have developed a technique to manipulate satellites and orbital debris magnetically for repair or removal.
Commercial Space

By Mark Carreau
A crew medical concern has joined a weather issue in delaying the anticipated launch of NASA’s SpaceX-contracted Crew 3 Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) until Nov. 6 at the earliest.
Space

By Brian Everstine
A U.S. Air Force A-10 is returning to service more than three years after it was severely damaged during an inflight emergency and belly landing in Michigan, after an extensive rebuild that required remanufacturing components of the attack jet.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said President Joe Biden was “positive” toward the possible sale of new F-16s and upgrades to existing aircraft after the two leaders met over the weekend, as U.S. and Turkish officials separately meet on military cooperation after Turkey was kicked out of the F-35 program.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Michael Bruno
Spurred by rising space business opportunities, reinsurance and risk management service provider Applied Underwriters on Nov. 1 said it was taking on former PartnerRe Direct and Facultative Space staff for a new Washington-based joint venture called Applied Underwriters Aerospace.
Commercial Space

By Steve Trimble
U.S. naval aviation will need to field a next-generation stealth fighter, a carrier-based unmanned combat air vehicle, advanced rotorcraft and an assortment of new long-range missiles and directed energy weapons in 2030-2035, a newly-released vision document shows.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Michael Bruno
Amazon said Nov. 1 it will launch the KuiperSat-1 and KuiperSat-2 prototype satellites for its low Earth orbit-based broadband offering via two ABL Space Systems RS1 rockets from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in a year.
Commercial Space

The UK defense ministry has put out an urgent call to industry for an adversary air service to support the Royal Air Force’s air combat aircraft.
Light Attack and Advanced Training

By Brian Everstine
Boeing delivered the first KC-46A refueling tanker to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force on Oct. 28, marking the first international delivery for the program.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
Barely a month after completing a $100 million series A fundraising round, Chinese startup Autoflight has flown a prototype of its V1500M three/four-passenger electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing air taxi.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Mark Carreau
Launched late Oct. 27 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Soyuz 2a.1 rocket, the MS-18 freighter—designated Progress 79 by NASA—docked to the ISS on Oct. 29 at 9:31 p.m. EDT.
Space

By Mark Carreau
The planned SpaceX Crew-3 Dragon launch of four U.S. and European astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed to early Nov. 3 from Oct. 31 due to predicted rough winds and sea conditions along the flight corridor off the U.S. East Coast.
Space

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force on Oct. 29 selected GE Aviation to power the F-15EX fleet with the award of an almost $1.6 billion contact.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs on Oct. 28 conducted the second successful test of the First Stage Solid Rocket Motor, which will power the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike and the U.S. Army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Steve Trimble
An extended legal battle over the fate of a major electronic warfare program will continue after the U.S. Navy defied an official recommendation and reaffirmed a disputed contract award to L3Harris for the Next Generation Jammer-Low Band pod.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Tony Osborne
The Swedish government has given a green light for the country’s armed forces to order Saab’s GlobalEye airborne-early-warning platform.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Mark Carreau
NASA and Russian’s space agency are about a year away from implementing a flight crew swap agreement, Kathy Lueders, the agency’s associate administrator for space operations, told an Oct. 29 Crew-3 preflight news briefing.
Space

By Brian Everstine
The Pentagon’s approach to stop the threat of counter-small UAS has been bogged down in Defense Department bureaucracy and laws that approach the problem in the wrong way, while commercial drone developers have outpaced the military’s efforts, the No. 2 uniformed official said.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Graham Warwick
Swedish Space Corp. has partnered with Bradford Space to offer a commercial orbital-debris-removal service beginning in 2024.
Commercial Space

By Graham Warwick
The U.S. Air Force has established a detachment to develop training methods and standards for electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles.
Advanced Air Mobility