Defense and Space

The U.S. Army's aggressive goal of fielding 24 prototype systems by the end of fiscal 2023 has reshaped the service’s acquisition process in positive ways.

Boeing on Oct. 11 completed the first flight of an upgrade to its AH-64E Apache about two years after an award from the U.S. Army.

The 6,000-shp T55-GA-714C, which includes a new compressor module, has components in different stages of validation testing.

Planet Labs has delivered its Pelican-1 Earth imaging satellite to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California ahead of a planned launch in November.

A request for information posted on Oct. 11 seeks options for an “emerging requirement” for surveillance platforms capable of sustained flight above 60,000 ft.

The UK Royal Air Force has re-formed a squadron to fly the General Atomics Protector uncrewed aircraft system.

Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder has told Belgian radio station RTL on Oct. 11 that Belgium would be able to send F-16s to Ukraine after 2025­.

Denmark, Finland, Germany and the UK announced their intentions Oct. 10 ahead of the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group being held in Brussels.

Tom Burbage, the former EVP of the F-35 program during its first decade of development, discusses what it took to get the fighter program off and running.

The test campaign saw more than 500 dry and wet contacts between the Airbus A330 MRTT and Singapore's receivers, including F-15SGs and Lockheed Martin F-16s.

Amazon becomes a satellite operator.

New details reveal the heritage embedded in the new U.S. bomber design.

A microcutaway of what we think we know about features on the U.S. Air Force’s next stealth bomber.

Azerbaijan has agreed to join the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) program.

An MQ-20 Avenger uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) has taken a small step on a flight test path to an inflight recovery of another small UAS.

The U.S. Army plans to complete its analysis of alternatives (AOA) on the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft by year’s end.

A pair of privately owned Iranian cubesats are slated to launch as secondary payloads aboard a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket in December.

The National Reconnaissance Office plans to quadruple the number of satellites it has in orbit.

The U.S. Army has selected Sierra Nevada Corp. to provide two contractor-owned, contractor-operated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.

An external coolant leak from a backup radiator on the International Space Station’s Russian segment Nauka multipurpose laboratory module has ceased.

The Pentagon plans to allocate $240 million under the CHIPS and Science Act to set up eight regional innovation hubs that will serve to beef up domestic microelectronics manufacturing.

U.S. financial analysts do not see the latest Middle East conflict rising to the same level for a long-term arms buildup like the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Flight testing will resume next fall after a two-year hiatus on a new version of a U.S. Navy- and Norwegian military-funded Nammo SFRJ missile.

A Boeing/Saab team is on track to deliver the first Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb and a new launcher to the Ukrainian military, a company official said on Oct. 9.

Ukraine’s Antonov could be granted licensed production of the French-developed Aarok medium-altitude, long-endurance uncrewed aircraft system.