Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Bill Carey
SpaceX successfully launched the Iridium-8 mission via a Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 11.
Defense

India has announced launch dates for the country’s two biggest upcoming space missions: its second Moon mission and its first manned spaceflight.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Croatia and Israel have agreed to cancel the sale of secondhand F-16 fighters to Croatia after Tel Aviv failed to secure U.S. OKs to transfer the aircraft.
Defense

By Michael Bruno
A survey of top executives in aerospace, defense and government services found industry leaders expect M&As to increase slightly or remain the same in 2019.
Defense

By Marhalim Abas
Laos has taken delivery of at least three Yakovlev Yak-130 twin-engine trainers.
Defense

BAE SYSTEMS has $78.8m U.S. Navy contract for maintenance/modernization of USS Shoup (DDG 86) Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer.

Dassault Aviation delivered 12 Rafale fighter jets in 2018.

By Steve Trimble
A newly-launched prototyping program could lead to a fleet-wide electronic warfare upgrade for the U.S. Air Force’s more than 900 F-16s.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Outgoing Airbus CEO Tom Enders has urged British parliamentarians to urgently agree on an orderly exit from the European Union.
Defense

By Michael Bruno
Textron Systems plans a significant strategy shift into unmanned military platforms, according to the division’s relatively new chief executive.
Defense

By Michael Bruno
The office of Brazil’s new president said he would not block Boeing’s proposed purchase of 80% of Embraer’s commercial business, or a separate joint venture to sell KC-390s.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Britain has declared an initial operating capability (IOC) with the short takeoff and landing version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
David Thompson, co-founder of Orbital Sciences, has been chosen to receive the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation’s National Space Trophy.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
The global market for autonomous urban air mobility (UAM) could be worth $2.9 trillion by 2040, according to Morgan Stanley Research.

By Lee Hudson
The USAF has accepted the first KC-46A from Boeing after it agreed to fix deficiencies discovered in developmental testing of the Remote Vision System.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Israeli drone delivery provider Flytrex has raised $7.5 million in a Series B investment round led by Benhamou Global Ventures.

UKRAINE’s state-owned Ukroboronprom delivered 50 aircraft to Ukrainian armed forces in 2018.

Airbus said it “achieved 800 commercial aircraft deliveries” in 2018, thus concluding the year in a close finish against Boeing, which handed over 806 commercial aircraft.

By Bill Carey
Transport Canada on Jan. 9 announced new rules governing the use of small unmanned aircraft that introduce basic and advanced categories of drone operations.

By Mark Carreau
Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 have been suspended due to a hardware issue.
Defense

By Guy Norris
Blue Origin confirms it remains on track to start crewed flights aboard its New Shepard suborbital vehicle early this year.
Defense

By Thierry Dubois
Arianespace is planning on “up to 12” launches from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana with the current launcher family in 2019.
Defense

By Jen DiMascio
Russia will begin to operate two electronic warfare units—one of which uses a ground-based system to disable satellites—in 2019.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
Indonesian Aerospace has received an order for eight Airbus H225M and nine Bell 412EPI helicopters from the country’s defense ministry, the company said.
Defense

By Steve Trimble
Boeing will likely not face competition to integrate a powerful new engine into the AH-64 Apache fleet, the U.S. Army says.
Defense