Aerospace & Defense Roundup: September 13

Rolls-Royce Sells Stake In RAF A330-Owner Airtanker

Rolls-Royce is to sell shares in the Airtanker consortium that owns the aircraft providing aerial refueling services to the UK Royal Air Force. Equitix Investment Management is paying £189 million ($261 million) for the engine-maker’s 23.1% holding in Airtanker Holdings Ltd. The purchase includes repayment of shareholder loans as well as accrued and deferred interest of £47 million. Credit: Cpl Dave Blackburn/Royal Air Force

Spirit Aero Wins Big With Federal Support For Aerospace Firms

The U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) has identified 313 aerospace businesses to be awarded $482.3 million in funding, with Spirit Aerosystems garnering the lion’s share at more than $70 million. DOT said the Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Program is part of the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan, and those funds will be awarded to companies in 37 states and Puerto Rico, helping to protect up to 22,500 jobs. Credit: William Campbell-Corbis / Getty Images

Vertical’s EVTOL Prototype Takes Shape As Merger Vote Approaches

UK advanced air mobility startup Vertical Aerospace is gearing up to begin assembly of its VA-X4 engineering prototype and expects the electrical vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft to fly in the first quarter of 2022. Credit: Vertical Aerospace

Vertiia EVTOL Team Secures Another Research Grant From Australia

An Australia-based startup’s plan to develop an electric air taxi for air ambulance and passenger transport in rural regions has received further funding support from the country’s government. Credit: AMSL Aero

Chevron, Gevo Tie Up On SAF Production

Energy giant Chevron and renewable fuel producer Gevo have signed an LOI to build one or more facilities to process inedible corn into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Under the agreement, Chevron would also have the right to take up to 150 million gal. a year of fuel for sale to its customers. Credit: Chevron

UK C-17s And Chinooks Benefit From Upgrade Splurge

The UK Royal Air Force is to spend £400 million ($553 million) on upgrades for its Boeing C-17 Globemaster and CH-47 Chinook fleets. The UK’s fleet of eight C-17s will enjoy the lion’s share of the funding, with a £324 million contract with the U.S. Air Force to upgrade the aircraft’s software and hardware, the UK defense ministry announced Sept. 11. Credit: U.S. Army

ArianeGroup Offers Tracking Service For LEO Objects

ArianeGroup has devised a tracking service for objects in low Earth orbit (LEO), offering satellite operators the ability to identify collision threats and maneuver accordingly. The company—better known as a launch services provider—is building on its expertise with GEOTracker, a similar service for the geostationary orbit. While GEOTracker uses passive optical sensors, its LEO counterpart will use laser ranging to create a catalogue of objects. Credit: ArianeGroup

North Korea Fires New Harder-To-Detect Cruise Missile

North Korea has claimed to have successfully fired a new locally developed cruise missile capable of reaching targets across the Korean peninsula and into Japan. According to North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the unnamed cruise missile traveled for 7,580 sec. (2.1 hr.) along an oval and figure-of-eight flightpath above the country’s territorial land and waters before striking the intended target 1,500 km (932 mi.) away. Credit: KCNA

New Sustainment Deal Moves F-35 Within 16.7% Of 2025 Goal

A contract award puts the Lockheed Martin F-35A on track to reduce cost per flight hour (CPFH) to $30,000 by 2023, still $5,000 short of the U.S. Air Force’s sustainment cost goal for 2025, a U.S. government office said on September 13. Credit: USAF

Greece To Order Additional Rafales From Dassault

Greece will purchase an additional six Dassault Rafale fighters on top of the 18 it already has on order. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the intention to order the six additional aircraft in a speech at the Thessaloniki International Fair on Sept.11. This was the same event where he had made public plans to purchase the French fighter a year earlier. Credit: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Hyten Outlines Areas For Improvement

As the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff nears the end of his term, he sees several areas for improvement at the Pentagon, including support for further development of hypersonic weapons and directed energy technology. Credit: U.S. Defense Department

MQ-9 Tests Communications Capability In The Arctic

General Atomics has completed a flight of one of its MQ-9 medium-altitude, long-endurance uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) over Canada’s High North. The demonstration flight, which took place on Sept. 7-8, saw what the company calls the MQ-9A fly to 78 deg. N. Lat., proving the ability of the aircraft at extreme latitudes. Credit: Tech Sgt. Ricky Best / 174th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

MDA Successfully Tests Selectable GBI Boost Vehicle

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and Boeing on Sept. 12 successfully launched a Ground-Based Interceptor, firing two of its three stages in a test designed to evaluate a new selectable boost vehicle. Credit: Missile Defense Agency

NASA’s Hopes For 2024 Human Lunar Return Fading

NASA is gradually acknowledging that efforts to return human explorers to the surface of the Moon in 2024 through the Artemis initiative are fading, now due primarily to legal challenges and the congressional appropriations process. The 2024 goal was set by the Trump administration and announced in March 2019 by then-Vice President Mike Pence, chair of the National Space Council. Credit: NASA

Green Motion Launches OEM-Independent Electric-Aircraft Charging

As the first electric aircraft enter service, with more on the horizon, airports and operators are coming to grips with the infrastructure required for recharging their batteries. So far, options on the market appear limited. Pipistrel delivers its Velis Electro electric two-seat trainer with a charging system it developed in-house along with the aircraft and its electric engine. Australian company Electro.aero has a mobile charger it has supplied to electric aircraft developers and operators. Credit: Green Motion

ESA Taps D-Orbit To Develop Deorbiting Kit

D-Orbit UK is to lead development of a “deorbit kit” for spacecraft under an initial €2.2 million ($2.6 million) contract from the European Space Agency. The objective is to demonstrate active debris removal with the propulsive deorbit of a Vega rocket payload adapter. Credit: D-Orbit

Next SpaceShipTwo Flight Delayed Due To Suspect Component

Virgin Galactic’s next flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity suborbital passenger ship will be delayed while the company investigates a potential issue with a supplier-provided component for the flight control actuation system. Virgin Galactic ordered additional inspections after the unidentified vendor contacted the company about a potential problem with its components, Virgin Galactic said Sept. 10. Credit: Virgin Galactic