Aircraft & Propulsion

Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston says in an interview how the RAF is adapting to COVID-19 and looking ahead to transformative initiatives such as ASTRA.

Manned-unmanned teaming and combat cloud technologies are key disruptors in Europe’s Future Combat Air System.

Airbus Defense & Space CEO Dirk Hoke talks with Aviation Week about COVID impact, Europe’s big defense initiatives and other challenges.

Italian and Swedish industry will begin joining discussions on Tempest later this year.

A country-by-country look at who will benefit from the alphabet soup of European defense and aerospace programs in progress to bolster industry.

The UK is preparing to advance to the next stage of its Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft technology demonstrator project.

Committee backs increased F-35 buy; fixing drag on F-18 readiness; Austria to retire trainers; and Brazilian Gripen production starts.

The improved version of the Klimov RD-93, which is likely a candidate to power the JF-17 Block 3, has been shipped to a Moscow-based test center.

Aero-engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce has taken a £3 billion ($3.8 billion) hit to its finances as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is looking at suborbital flights.

A U.S. emergency medical services (EMS) helicopter operator has become the first commercial customer to order an instrument flight rules (IFR)-certified AW119 single-engine light helicopter.

Near-term acquisition programs are hardly altered. Most proposals will go ahead late in the 2020s or in the 2030s.

The Japanese defense ministry proposes to fly the first prototype of the Next Generation Fighter (NGF) in 2028 and begin deliveries to the air force seven years later.

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has published the first photograph of the first KF-X airframe.

Completed structures will be delivered to the Saab final assembly line in Linköping, Sweden.

Part-cruise missile and part-unmanned aircraft system, Skyborg is set to redefine air combat operations.

U.S. Navy instructor pilots have begun learning to fly the TH-73A helicopter trainer at Leonardo’s facility in Philadelphia.

The Serbian government has lifted the lid on its new armed unmanned air systems sourced from China, the first nation in the Balkans to acquire such a capability.

Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences is the first company to receive a contract under a new DARPA program to build an X-plane designed around active flow control.

Niel Golightly resigned on July 2 as Boeing’s chief communications officer after an employee complained about his 1987 article in the Naval Institute’s Proceedings journal that argued against allowing women to serve in combat.

The Multinational Multirole Tanker and Transport Fleet narrows Europe’s aerial refueling gap, but more will be needed to address shortfalls.

Australia plans to acquire an enlarged fleet of naval logistics helicopters, probably late this decade, to be followed by long-range rotorcraft for the army.

Indian defense officials have approved the purchase of more than $5 billion in defense equipment, including deals to buy and upgrade Russian fighters.

Moldovan authorities have closed down an illegal helicopter factory that was clandestinely producing rotorcraft with a similar configuration to Kamov’s Ka-26 co-axial helicopter.

NATO has initiated the Alliance Future Surveillance and Control project only eight months after awarding Boeing a $1 billion contract to complete the final modernization program for the E-3 fleet.