Aerospace & Defense Roundup: Oct, 7

The UK defense ministry says it is considering a purchase of BAE Systems’ Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS) II to equip the UK’s future fleet of AH-64E Apache attack helicopters.

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NASA astronauts on Oct. 6 successfully initiated a month-long spacewalk campaign to replace batteries on the International Space Station’s nearly 360-ft.-long solar power truss.

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It is high time the French and German governments launched the demonstrator phase of their joint Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, Airbus Defense and Space CEO Dirk Hoke and Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier said in an Oct. 7 joint statement.

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Avic is planning to develop a series of four successively larger pilotless cargo aircraft, an official of the state company said at a conference.

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The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for the near-term should apply existing interceptor missiles to shoot down hypersonic glide vehicles and avoid investing in a purpose-built, glide-phase interceptor until the technology matures, a Raytheon executive says.

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Airbus says it has successfully performed the dispatch of 80 paratroopers in a single pass using the side doors of its A400M airlifter.

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