Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

NATO’s Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Unit has taken delivery of its second Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon will compete for the U.S. Air Force's future hypersonic cruise missile program.

Israel has stood up its second front-line F-35 squadron and taken delivery of an aircraft to be used for flight testing new systems.

Bell unveiled plans for a new 140,000-ft.² manufacturing technology center Aug. 10 to support the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) effort.

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

News in brief

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

A hypersonic glide vehicle program led by DARPA is now combined with the U.S. Air Force's AGM-183A program as the 419th Flight Test Sqdn. completes the last step ahead of powered booster flight tests later this year.

The service wrapped up its business case analysis and is pushing for Next Generation Air Dominance to become a program of record.

The U.S. national security space agencies will remain with incumbents United Launch Alliance and SpaceX for medium and heavy-lift launch services over the next five years

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation to block President Donald Trump from loosening a treaty obligation that restricts the export of large U.S. unmanned aerial systems.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 7 carrying 57 new Starlink broadband satellites—all outfitted with visors to cut Sun glint that interferes with astronomical observations—and two BlackSky Global imaging satellites.

The U.S. Space Force has wrapped up a major upgrade to its GPS Military-Code signal that will improve its anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities.

As the push to return to deep-space exploration becomes more international and commercial, so too do concerns over norms of behavior among those who venture beyond Earth’s orbit.

South Korea’s defense ministry and Hanwha have rolled out a prototype for the radar of the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KF-X fighter, following delivery of a ground-test unit in April.

The new Mi-8AMTSh-VN military helicopter intended for Russian special forces has started flight tests, Rostec Corp. subsidiary Russian Helicopters says.

Hydrogen could be introduced for niche airport applications as early as 2025 and enable deeper decarbonization of aviation by 2035, a Boeing-supported report by Australian researchers concluded.

This fleet snapshot is excerpted from Aviation Week's Fleet Discovery Database. To learn about Aviation Week fleet data products and services, go to pgs.aviationweek.com/FleetDataServices.

Conferences and events for professionals in the aerospace & defense community

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office is pursuing an “integrated hybrid architecture” for its constellation of intelligence-gathering satellites

During a three-day exercise, the U.S. Air Force assessed F-35 tactics and the viability of the fifth-generation fighter to provide access for friendly forces behind enemy lines in support of the B-2 and RQ-170.

A Purdue University spinoff is to test an improved propellant for solid-fuel ramjet propulsion systems in hypersonic weapons under more than $1.1 million in contracts from the U.S. military.

Bell has opened a facility here to support multiple company programs and business areas, including engineering, supply chain, professional manufacturing and corporate services.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett officially swore in Gen. C.Q. Brown Aug. 6 as the 22nd Air Force chief of staff and the first African-American to hold the position.