Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.
Defense

The Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KT-1 Woongbi is a South Korean turboprop basic flight trainer powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-62 engine supplying 950 shp (708 kW) to its four-blade propeller.
AWIN Knowledge Center

By Steve Trimble
Anniversaries are for taking stock, so the 10th anniversary of the Boeing X-51A’s first flight on May 26 is a good time to inspect the finances of the experimental scramjet-powered vehicle’s successor.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Tony Osborne
Piaggio Aerospace has been given a €125 million ($137.2 million) maintenance contract by the Italian defense ministry to look after the country’s fleet of P.180 turboprop utility aircraft.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
The Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands has performed its first unmanned air system delivery to a ship in a demonstration that could reduce pressures on the transport network around Europe’s largest seaport.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. Air Force’s top general in Africa Command warned on May 26 that Russia’s next move in Libya could be to deploy permanent, long-range air defense systems.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Tony Osborne
The UK has begun firing trials of Thales Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) from the Leonardo AW159 Wildcat naval helicopter.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Mark Carreau
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) ninth resupply mission completed a 4-ton cargo delivery to the International Space Station (ISS) early May 25.
Space

By Tony Osborne
Scotland’s National Health Service (NHS) is to trial deliveries by unmanned air systems to speed up logistics between remote medical centers.
Advanced Air Mobility

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.
Defense

Selected U.S. military contracts for May 18 U.S. AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Redondo Beach, California, has been awarded a not-to-exceed
Defense

By Irene Klotz
SpaceX is looking to shave development time for Starship crewed flights to less than half of the six years it has taken to get the Falcon 9-Dragon system ready to fly people for the first time.
Space

By Guy Norris
Space company Virgin Orbit is reviewing telemetry data from the first LauncherOne launch vehicle orbital test flight attempt, which was terminated after an anomaly occurred shortly after launch May 25.
Commercial Space

By Irene Klotz
Work on SpaceX’s prototype Starship spacecraft has eased up while the company focuses on launching its first people into orbit, says CEO Elon Musk.
Space

By Bill Carey
Training and simulation provider CAE believes it has plumbed the depths of the business decline it has experienced from the coronavirus pandemic
Maintenance & Training

By Bill Carey
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its controversial order granting Ligado Networks access to radio frequency spectrum for a ground-based 5G network near the GPS allocation.
Safety, Ops & Regulation

By Irene Klotz
NASA completed a two-day Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for the Demo-2 test mission, confirming a launch attempt on May 27 for SpaceX’s first human spaceflight and NASA’s first launch of astronauts on a U.S. system since 2011.
Space

By Tony Osborne, Jen DiMascio
NATO and European nations have expressed regret at the Trump administration’s decision to exit the Open Skies Treaty but have said they share U.S. concerns about inconsistent flight restrictions imposed by Moscow.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
British aerospace services company Marshall Aerospace and Defense Group says it withdrew from participating in a program to convert Boeing 737s into E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft for the UK Royal Air Force because the work was not “commercially viable.”
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Craig Caffrey, Bradley Perrett
China will increase its military budget in 2020 despite the possibility of dramatically reduced economic growth, maintaining pressure on neighboring countries to keep increasing their defense spending.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble, Tony Osborne
Satellite imagery obtained by Aerospace DAILY confirms the presence of MiG-29s on an airfield reportedly controlled by a faction in the Libyan civil war supported by the UAE and a Russian mercenary group.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Jen DiMascio
The Space Force is moving forward in its effort to unify the Pentagon’s architecture for missile defense.
Space

By Steve Trimble
Russia’s arms export agency on May 21 announced that a radar capable of detecting hypersonic objects can be sold on the export market.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Jen DiMascio
The U.S. Air Force has submitted a report to Congress on an alternative acquisition system for the Space Force.
Space

By Tony Osborne
A document published by the Italian Senate appears to confirm the sale of Leonardo AW149 and AW189 twin-engine transport helicopters to Egypt.
Aircraft & Propulsion