Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

View the Aviation Week Forecasts: Western Military Tanker Aircraft In-Service Fleets 2018-2028 chart in PDF format.

LOCKHEED MARTIN has $264.7m U.S. Navy contract for operation and technical services for South Korea’s F-35 Lightning IIs.

Brazil and the U.S. have signed an agreement that may pave the way for U.S. access to space launches from Alcantara Launch Center.

India’s defense R&D agency has successfully tested its latest indigenously-developed man-portable anti-tank guided missile (MPATGM).

The U.S. Air Force’s next tanker aircraft will probably be autonomous, the service’s top acquisition official says.

Sikorsky and Boeing accomplished the delayed first flight of the SB-1 Defiant high-speed helicopter on March 21 at West Palm Beach, Florida.

The quad-national EuroMALE UAS program looks set to secure the lion’s share of €500 million ($567 million) in funding from the European Union.

A pair of Bombardier Global 6000 business jets have been delivered to Turkey in readiness for conversion into standoff jammer (SOJ) platforms.

Turkish Aerospace has completed the surprise first flight of a twin-engine version of its Anka medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAV.

NASA has outlined a three-step strategy for achieving a sustained human return to the Moon’s surface by 2028.

The Philippines Air Force will return at least one grounded UH-1 helicopter to service within five weeks as the service begins receiving parts donated by Japan.

The Defense Department has found that the top 10 states by total defense spending in fiscal 2017 received accounted for $239.7 billion of $407 billion total tracked that year.

NASA’s 2020 budget proposal seeks a $109 million investment in a Mars sample return mission.

Leonardo is working with Simplex Aerospace to develop a new firefighting-capable version of its C-27J Spartan turboprop airlifter.

The Swiss government is to split state-owned aerospace and defense company RUAG into two separate operating units, one of which will later be privatized.

DARPA plans to demonstrate a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) system that can be assembled on orbit to expand U.S. operating presence in cislunar space.

What the JAXA Hayabusa 2 science team members have witnessed from their spacecraft at the asteroid Ryugu is making them more eager to study samples of its surface and subsurface.

The British defense ministry has shelved plans for industry to provide a fleet of former military aircraft for more realistic training.

Japan will extend the range of the Mach-3 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) ASM-3 air-to-ship missile.

European missile manufacturer MBDA says it has no plans to adjust missile work shares despite the export challenges of Germany’s arms embargo on Saudi Arabia.

DARPA is seeking a significant increase in funding in fiscal 2020 for the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) hypersonic weapon demonstration program.

Britain’s Meggitt has received third-country status from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

Leonardo says there is a “strong desire” for Italy to join the UK-led Tempest Future Combat Air System Technology Initiative (FCAS TI).

Demoing an aircraft that can fly and maneuver with no moving control surfaces, instead using active flow control, is the objective of a new program DARPA plans to begin in fiscal 2020.

Engineers from BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and missile manufacturer MBDA have begun work to integrate the Meteor beyond-visual range air-to-air missile and the SPEAR III network-enabled missile onto the vertical takeoff and landing version of the F-35.