Defense

Thailand has contracted Saab to upgrade the country’s national command and control system for air defense, which is based on the company’s 9AIR product.

A second Bombardier Global 6000 business jet modified for electronic and signals-intelligence-gathering missions has made its first post-conversion flight.

Spire has chosen Arianespace to launch “a significant number” of its cubesats on a Vega rocket in 2019.

Airbus’ Zephyr S high-altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS) has broken its flight time record by flying nonstop for almost 26 days.

In the past four years, companies have worked on 101 different small sat launchers, with 34 in development today, a Northrop Grumman industry survey says.

The DOD has renamed its innovation unit that focuses on attracting nontraditional companies to work on artificial intel, autonomy, human systems, info tech and space.

NASA has selected six U.S.-led enterprises to advance the development of 10 promising new space technologies on three broad fronts.

Fresh off a string of business unit divestitures, Triumph Group expects to slice off several more units this quarter.

Guest star Fred Kennedy, the director of Darpa’s Tactical Technology Office, talks to Aviation Week about ways to revolutionize satellites, space launch and the U.S. Air Force’s reliance on stealth.

Maxar to build prototype missile defense space-sensor architecture; Latvia approved to buy Black Hawks; UK gets more F-35s, and Malaysia’s Su-30s need repair.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency conducted a precision tracking demonstration with a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper in the Pacific late Aug. 8, an official said.

The head of the Pentagon’s research and engineering arm says it is premature to determine if the country’s hypersonics technology programs are redundant.

A senior DOD official says a space-based interceptor to go after ballistic missiles is a “relatively easy technological challenge."

Aerojet Rocketdyne expects to win its “fair share” of a potentially $5-6 billion amount of propulsion work for the DOD's GBSD program, a top executive says.

The Pentagon is assessing how Lockheed Martin’s F-35 can be used to deliver kinetic weapons to aid with boost phase intercept.

Rocket Lab on Aug. 7 added 10 missions to its growing flight manifest for Electron, a small-satellite launcher.

Inadequate funding is exacerbating the low serviceability of the Sukhoi Su-30MKM of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), the head of the service said.

Paramount Group has donated a Mirage V airframe to Rhodesfield Technical High School to mark the official launch of the first Engineering School of Specialisation in Aviation and to celebrate its partnership with Gauteng’s Department of Education which encourages learners towards careers in aviation.

TransDigm has signed a new master contract agreement with leading customer Boeing.

The director of Darpa’s Tactical Technology Office is following through on his promise to disrupt the way the military does business in space.

Military and cargo carriers will fly without pilots first, but commercial airlines will follow.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Aug. 7 he supports creating a combatant command for space.

The fleet leader of SpaceX’s growing cadre of reusable Falcon 9 Block 5 boosters will launch for an unprecedented third time later this year, following its second successful launch and landing early Aug. 7.

The Pentagon has awarded Lockheed Martin a contract for the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), now designated the AGM-183A hypersonic missile.

Consulting company Frost & Sullivan says it expects launch demand for smallsats to increase to 11,740 units total by 2030 with revenue reaching $70.1 billion.