Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Tuesday will see the launch of SpaceX’s latest space station resupply mission, CRS-16, from Cape Canaveral.

The Boeing Co., El Segundo, California, has been awarded a $383,421,855 cost-plus-incentive-fee, award-fee contract for the Protected Tactical Enterprise Service.

By Steve Trimble
The approval ends a 16-month delay to the start of the stealthy fighter's formal initial operational test and evaluation program.
Defense

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. State Department has started a 60-day notification period to formally withdraw from the 31-year-old Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
Defense

Lee Hudson
Turkey not buying the Lockheed Martin F-35 will not have a “devastating impact” on the JSF enterprise, the head of U.S. Air Force international affairs said.
Defense

Arie Egozi
Operators of business jets are showing great interest in Israeli-developed systems that protect aircraft from shoulder-launched missiles.
Defense

Lee Hudson
White House policy loosening restrictions on the marketing and sale of armed UAS has not made it easier for the USAF to export the MQ-9, a service official says.
Defense

Graham Warwick
As concerns have grown that the exponential hike in computer power predicted by Moore’s law is slowing, the hype around quantum computing has risen.
Defense

Mark Carreau
The U.S. and Russia are preparing to restore long-term, six-person operations aboard the International Space Station by the end of February.
Defense

By Steve Trimble
Airbus and Lockheed Martin have teamed up in the air refueling market to offer services for the USAF and other militaries and “conceptualize” a next-gen tanker.
Defense

Bradley Perrett
The Japanese Ministry of Defense has unveiled an AESA for a radar it is developing as part of a technology-acquisition effort for its next fighter.
Defense

Michael Bruno
Lockheed Martin has invested $4 million in a small Canadian firm seeking to stand up a first-of-its-kind commercial plant for lipid-to-hydrocarbon tech.
Defense

Lee Hudson
The USAF has not seen more pressure from lawmakers to slow roll weapon sales to Saudi Arabia after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi because relations were already strained, a service official says.
Defense

By Lee Hudson
The U.S. Navy is seeking an autonomous cargo-unmanned aerial system and will host an experiment in March to transport a 50-lb. payload.

By Steve Trimble
Spain plans to invest €25 million ($28 million) in a two-year study with France and Germany to define an early concepts for the manned fighter component of a Future Combat Air System.
Defense

Lee Hudson
President Donald Trump tweeted that the $716 billion the U.S. is spending on defense in fiscal 2019 is “crazy” and believes he can begin a dialogue to bring a “meaningful halt” to an “uncontrollable arms race.”
Defense

By Mark Carreau
Osiris-Rex, NASA’s first-ever attempt at an asteroid sample return, reached the 1,640-ft.-wide near Earth object known as Bennu as scheduled on Dec. 3.
Defense

By Irene Klotz
SpaceX marked another milestone in its quest to develop a fleet of low-maintenance, reusable boosters with a third flight of a Falcon 9 booster on Dec. 3.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Airbus Defense and Space has opened an operating base for its Zephyr solar-powered high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft in Wyndham, Australia.
Defense

By Kim Minseok, Bradley Perrett
A planned South Korean order for two Elta ELM-2080 Green Pine Block C radars will reportedly give the country coverage against prospective North Korean SLBMs.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
The UK has decided to halt talks in pursuing access to the secure elements of the EU's Galileo sat navigation system post-Brexit, and will proceed with developing its own capability.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
Russia’s Soyuz, the world’s only means of transporting human crews to and from the ISS, launched with a three-person crew early Dec. 3.
Defense

Marhalim Abas
Saab is proposing an upgrade for Thailand’s current JAS 39 Gripen fighters as part of a deal for an additional batch of new aircraft of the type.
Defense

By Steve Trimble
Slovakia’s ministry of defense has signed technical agreements to begin a process to acquire 14 Lockheed Martin F-16V aircraft.
Defense

By Michael Bruno
Private equity firm Liberty Hall Capital Partners said it bought APG, which offers proprietary flight operations software targeted at the aerospace aftermarket.
Defense