From the commercial-aircraft ramp-up and small-UAV explosion to U.S. defense budget pressures and Europe’s response to Russian aggression, 2016 will be a dynamic year for the aerospace and defense industry.
The Office of Naval Research’s Laser Weapon System Demonstrator will be designed to protect the U.S. Navy’s DDG-51 Flight 2 destroyers from unmanned aircraft and swarming small boats.
Humans remain at the heart of the Pentagon’s evolving strategy to restore U.S. conventional deterrence, but machines will play a key and increasing role from intelligence analysis to combat operations.
A refugee crisis, the threat of terrorism and a militant Russia with anti-NATO rhetoric continue to dominate the strategic picture for European nations.
Pursuit of international sales pits U.S. missile manufacturers against their European rivals, but it is not always a two-way fight—or a definite victory.
Countering UAS, beating brownout, robotic copilots, communication by laser, and building-block satellites are among advances that could make the news in 2016 and beyond.
Will it or won’t it? Odds are favorable that Congress won’t change the basic structure of the FAA with next year’s reauthorization, but privatization will eventually arrive.
With predictions of a slight reversal in 2016 and a return to slow growth in 2018, the business aircraft industry puts its bets on sustained demand for larger, faster, farther-flying jets.
A320neo and C Series enter service; F-35A goes operational, JAS 39E flies; emissions measures and tracking mandates for aviation; contract protests and consolidation pressures; unmanned aircraft and suborbital spaceplanes—things will come in pairs in 2016.
SpaceX is celebrating the first successful touchdown on land of an orbital-class booster, the first step toward a potential paradigm shift in easing human access to space.
At least some of the improvements for the T-50 that KAI is developing for the T-X program, notably the inflight-refueling module, should become lasting assets for KAI, and not just for the trainer version of the type.
To counter distant threats, Israel has reinforced its “long arm”—first established to deter missile attacks—enabling the military to operate thousands of miles from Israel’s borders.
