Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

A senior U.S. Air Force general warned on April 16 that the Defense Department cannot afford some of the long range strike programs funded by other services.

Over vehement objections, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Paj circulated a draft order on April 16 that would allow Ligado to use L-band spectrum allocation originally approved for satellite communications for a terrestrial network to support 5G and internet of things services.

The Pentagon’s Space Acquisition Council will hold an emergency meeting to support the space industrial base in the wake of the novel coronavirus.

Heico leaders said late April 15 they have laid off “some” employees across their aerospace and defense supplier portfolio and have cut work hours and pay at subsidiaries, but they are trying to avoid mass-layoffs as the COVID-19 pandemic rolls back the worldwide aerospace business.

Russia has adjusted the dates for resumption of its Moon exploration efforts, an official says.

Russia’s space activity is likely to be limited due to coronavirus restrictions, officials say.

A review of Britain’s defense capabilities has been paused in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

South Korean military equipment acquisition spending will suffer from a shift in allocations from the defense budget to COVID-19 relief efforts.

AVIATION WEEK NETWORK forecasts that from 2020 to 2029, Western-built aircraft performing military C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers

A 20 mm cannon, 360-deg. visibility in brownout conditions and a sensor-fused cockpit are among the items on the U.S. Army’s wish list for the Future

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

A 20 mm cannon, 360-deg. visibility in brownout conditions and a sensor-fused cockpit are among the items on the U.S. Army’s wish list for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft.

U.S. Space Command is tracking a Russian direct-ascent anti-satellite missile test, it said April 15.

With the country focused on stemming the spread of the coronavirus, legislators have asked the Federal Communications Commission to suspend work on proposed rulemaking for mitigating orbital debris.

A new electronic warfare upgrade for the U.S. Air National Guard and Reserve F-16 fleets establishes Elbit Systems of America in the U.S. market for fixed-wing aircraft survivability equipment and opens the door to follow-on sales, the company’s CEO said during an April 14 interview.

News in brief

Morocco is seeking 10 BOEING AGM-84L Harpoon Block II air-launched missiles at a cost of about $62 million, to equip its F-16 fighters. The Foreign

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

No one uses the words apocalyptic or cataclysmic—yet—but without a doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on aerospace and defense manufacturing will

A network of wide-area persistent surveillance missions, executed in large part by unmanned aircraft systems, can help provide an affordable deterrent to Chinese and Russian aggression, a Washington think tank argues.

The U.S. Air Force has started a new phase of integration and electromagnetic interference testing on a $3 billion electronic warfare upgrade for the F-15E and F-15EX fleets, the service announced in an April 14 news release.

Osiris-Rex, NASA’s first-ever asteroid sample return mission, successfully carried out a 4-hr. series of spacecraft maneuvers and deployments on April 14, preliminary data show.

The White House has selected the chief executives from General Dynamics, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Technologies to serve on the “Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups.”

Howmet Aerospace has eight mostly smaller manufacturing plants that are closed because of the coronavirus, the company’s chief executive said late April 14, and more were shuttered in March when the Pittsburgh-based supplier was still part of Arconic.

Spirit AeroSystems—the primary supplier to Boeing including for much of the 737 MAX and which does substantial defense industry work—warned Wall Street on April 14 it will record a roughly $160 million loss for the recently ended first quarter of 2020, as well as a pretax loss of around $102 million.