Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Rocket Lab is building a new headquarters, mission control center and production complex in Long Beach, also home to rival Virgin Orbit.

Startup ABL Space Systems is working with AFRL to develop and test propulsion elements for unspecified launch vehicles.

The Pentagon plans to award contracts in April for three to five counter-small unmanned aircraft systems for use in the Middle East.

Airbus conducted the first untethered flight of its CityAirbus eVTOL air-taxi demonstrator at the end of 2019.

Opener, developer of the BlackFly personal eVTOL aircraft, is testing an initial batch of 30 vehicles ahead of a planned North American sales tour.

A custom-made anti-drone system has been deployed at London Heathrow Airport (LHR), using technologies from different manufacturers.

Boeing says it expects Berlin to issue a contract award for a fleet of 44-60 helicopters plus sustainment and training in 2021.

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EUROCONSULT predicts four-fold increase in satellites launched worldwide by 2028, reaching yearly average of 990. Market will reach $292b over next

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

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has invited Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to a Tuesday morning hearing in Washington to review the administration’s Iran policy.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

The investigation into Iran’s Jan. 8 downing of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752 is beginning to take shape, with participants from affected countries urging transparency and a thorough probe into the disaster.

Leonardo has won another key program in the U.S. Defense Department helicopter inventory.

First flight of Sierra Technical Services' Fifth Generation Aerial Target (5GAT) is scheduled for early 2020.

Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), a leading air freight services provider to Amazon, will try to raise up to $400 million in corporate debt to pay down revolving loans, the company said Jan. 13.

An Air China Boeing 737-800 recently completed a trial flight using China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system, which is nearing global coverage.

Thales and Leonardo, plans to study potential military uses of the Stratobus as part of a contract issued by the French defense materiel agency, DGA, and announced on Jan. 8.

The U.S. military is looking for an affordable, ground-based radar system to monitor deep-space activity.

"These astronauts could one day in fact walk on the Moon as part of the Artemis program," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said.

Britain’s Royal Air Force is gearing up to establish a squadron that will fly the air arm’s first swarming drone unit.

Woodward andHexcel have proposed a stock merger to create one of the largest independent aerospace and defense supplier.

Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) president Yevhenii Dykhne said airlines from all over the world were sending their aircraft to and from Tehran airport on Jan. 8, when a UIA-operated Boeing 737 was shot down by missiles.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has tested a wind tunnel model of a high-speed compound helicopter designed to cruise at 500 mph (270 kt