Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

The U.S. Navy has deactivated the Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 101 and consolidated the unit’s Lockheed Martin F-35Cs at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California.

The LEO Knight robotic microsatellite would support in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing.

Due to the U.S. Memorial Day holiday, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish on May 28.

In a May 23 memo to employees, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said aerospace executive Mark Sirangelo left after Congress nixed plans for an agency reorganization that would have created a Moon-to-Mars Mission Directorate.

Ruag is diversifying its space equipment business into thermal insulation for launcher engines, in addition to thermal insulation for satellites.

Senior RAF officers revealed that the A400M fleet is struggling with issues relating to the Europrop International TP400 engine, its associated gearbox, heat detection systems and an electronic data system.

TransDigm Group is paying back the $16.1 million it allegedly earned in “excess profit” selling aftermarket aircraft parts to the Pentagon.

The U.S. State Department on May 24 approved an arms export package to the UAE that includes up to 20 RQ-21 unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), 331 avelin anti-tank missiles and 20,004 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) II rockets.

The U.S. Navy has deactivated the Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 101 and consolidated the unit’s Lockheed Martin F-35Cs at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California.

The Pentagon is sending a Patriot anti-missile battery, reconnaissance aircraft and an additional 1,500 U.S. troops to the Middle East to deter Iran.

Saab is preparing to deliver the first of three new GlobalEye airborne earning warning aircraft to the United Arab Emirates next April, company CEO Hakan Bushke has disclosed.

After Sikorsky received a $1.3 billion contract for 12 CH-53K King Stallions, the company is “bullish” about the future and recently invested $4 million in one machine to support the production ramp, the company’s president said.

Nearly a year after a propellant leak suspended Boeing CST-100 Starliner launch abort motor tests, the company successfully put the repaired system through a series of static firings.

The British Royal Air Force (RAF) has quietly begun testing Leonardo’s BriteCloud active decoy on its Eurofighter Typhoons.

The Philippines says it is hoping to acquire at least two Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrollers from the U.S.

The Planetary Society’s experimental LightSail 2 (LS 2) small satellite is ready for a high-altitude orbital test of a sunlight-propulsion technology for CubeSats.

Danish CubeSat manufacturer GomSpace is to design what could be the first standalone nanosatellite to rendezvous with an asteroid.

Thermal management devices for spacecraft that use graphene to improve heat transfer are undergoing testing in a zero-gravity parabolic flight campaign funded by the European Union’s Graphene Flagship project.

Electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) air taxis will need places to operate from if urban air mobility (UAM) is to take off.

Nine teams have been selected to develop artificial intelligence for high-speed drones and compete in the first racing series for autonomous aircraft.

Two pillars of NASA human spaceflight—Christopher Kraft, Jr., the agency’s first flight director, and retired astronaut Peggy Whitson—have been inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame.

TURKEY has sent military personnel to Russia to undergo training on S-400 anti-air missile systems, TASS reports.

The Angolan National Air Force reportedly has taken delivery of the final four of 12 Su-30K multirole fighters refurbished at the Belarusian 558th Aviation Repair Plant.

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The acquisition of Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missiles by Turkey will create a “new order” in the air spaces of the region, primarily affecting Israel and the U.S., Israeli sources said on May 23.