Aircraft & Propulsion

Japan and Britain are assessing the likely performance of an AESA-equipped Meteor in separate but coordinated studies. Expense and development time are also being weighed.

Cultivating true pilot autonomy in unscripted scenarios takes decades to hone and demands honest assessment of mistakes.

Deemphasis of maneuverability in the 2013 25DMU concept design is one of several signs that the defense ministry’s engineers think Japan’s next fighter should engage its targets at great distance.

Poland opts for Black Hawks after withdrawing from Airbus helicopter deal.

Now that the new tanker’s bumpy design phase is over, the U.S. Air Force is looking forward to bringing the fly-by-wire Pegasus online.

Russia is upgrading tanker fleets with modernized Il-76 and Il-96 platforms.

The new air force platform is based on the IL-76.

Norway’s 2017 budget blueprint includes plans for participating in the second and third years of the proposed joint buy.

The U.S. and 44 nations across the globe have signed on to a set of international standards for the export and use of armed UAVs.

In this week’s Washington Outlook, research funding for advanced helicopter engines; the SpaceX-ULA spat; managing risk at the border and the hunt for counter-UAV technology.

How airframe and engine contractors are responding to the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift plans. Oh, and a bit about the F-35, too.

Air Education and Training Command chief Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson talks with Aviation Week about the Air Force’s perspective on the T-X competition.

In this week’s roundup, the U.S. Navy awards the first of two MQ-25 Stingray contracts; Europe takes another step toward a combat UAV; UK Defense Ministry backs space-based manufacturing; and Draken International helps the Japanese test a surface-to-air missile.

Air Combat Command’s EQ-4B and E-11A Battlefield Communications Node fleet have served as high-flying combat comms relays for eight years and counting.

The contract between France and India is welcomed by French officials as a diplomatic coup, but it also looms large as part of the arms race between India and some of its neighbors—namely Pakistan and China.

Bell’s V-247 unmanned tiltrotor; NASA seeks electric ideas; quieter approaches with DLR’s LNAS; JP Aerospace flies Ascender airship.

Japan's defense ministry says it will “acquire high-autonomy technology to realize an unmanned wingman for the F-3 in 15 to 20 years.”

Bell has unveiled the smaller V-247 Vigilant tiltrotor, aimed at an emerging U.S. Marine Corps requirement for a ship-based expeditionary, endurance unmanned aircraft system.

A jet trainer free from International Traffic in Arms Regulations could grab a significant chunk of that market.

New Aero Vodochody CEO Giuseppe Giordo charts path to aircraft production.

Although the U.S. Air Force has been fighting for years to sunset the A-10 attack plane so it can move resources to newer fighters, Secretary Deborah Lee James tells Aviation Week the air arm may once again delay plans to retire the Thunderbolt II.

Boeing is taking no chances on the U.S. Air Force’s T-X trainer competition, which may save its St. Louis factory when F-15 and F/A-18 production ends.

In this week's defense roundup: Belarus testing weaponized UAV, Antonov to fly light airlifter before 2017, NRO focuses on ground systems and algorithms, and Indonesia test flies first of five retrofitted C-130Bs.

Among 16 Tigers in Australian Army squadron service, an average of only 3.5 were serviceable in 2015.

Announcement of the new bomber development is a further sign that China is seeking to project force beyond ranges necessary for immediate national defense.