Defense

The U.S. is seeking proposals to upgrade seven Thai navy Dornier 228 maritime patrollers under the Pentagon’s Building Partner Capacity Program.

New European fighter will maintain Europe’s industrial capability but come with a hefty price tag. Cover photo: Tony Osborne/AW&ST

The Trump administration’s new policies on conventional arms transfers and unmanned aircraft system sales are intended to ease commercial sales.

Russia’s unmanned helicopter, Fly Airbus, drive Audi; Aeryon’s defense drone, DLR’s new flying testbed, and insurer backs safer drones.

The U.S. Army will pursue a mix of long-range, high-speed, agile unmanned and optionally piloted manned aircraft in its attempt to regain aviation dominance.

Bahrain has asked to buy 12 Bell AH-1Z attack helicopters, outfitted with a suite of weapons and defensive systems.

Helsinki’s HX program looks set to be one of the largest fighter procurements in Europe in recent years, with a call for 64 aircraft for an estimated €7-10 billion ($8.4-12.1 billion).

The configuration results from a two-year definition study launched in mid-2016 backed by the governments of France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

The Army National Guard intends to be a “full player” in the next-generation Chinook and Future Vertical Lift programs.

Harris Corp. celebrated the delivery since 2001 of more than 1 million avionics components to Lockheed Martin for the F-35 Lightning II fighter during a ceremony April 26.

After a false start, the service has begun engaging with the 103-member Vertical Lift Consortium about how best to replace its long-serving Beechcraft C-12 Huron and Fairchild C-26 Metroliner fleets.

Germany’s defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, and French counterpart Florence Parly approved the sign-off of a joint set of requirements drawn up between the two countries during the ILA Airshow here April 26.

Dynetics to demonstrate the airborne launch and recovery of volleys of low-cost UAS under a DARPA program to expand the potential uses of unmanned aircraft.

To defeat near-peer threats, the U.S. must break down traditional barriers between services and hierarchy of command, according to the man charged with building the Army's Multi-Domain Battle concept, Brig. Gen. Mark Odom.

House lawmakers have moved to block the U.S. Air Force’s proposal to kill a planned replacement for the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.

Boeing will now submit the resulting data and reports to the FAA for review.

The U.S. Homeland Security and Justice departments seek congressional grant of authority to defend against rogue drones.

“We’re all-in, if we can get that capability at the appropriate cost," the vice chief of the Army says of Future Vertical Lift.

Raytheon is seeing its bottom line rise as the U.S. government turns once again to Cold War-style defense technologies.

The winning engine will replace GE’s T700 in the Army’s Sikorsky UH-60M/V Black Hawk and Boeing AH-64E Apache, and also could power the next generation of clean-sheet military rotorcraft in the lightweight category of Future Vertical Lift.

UTC Aerospace Systems is positioning itself as a key supplier for legacy U.S. Army helicopter upgrades and next-generation, clean-sheet designs.

Bell expects the V-280 Valor to meet all the key performance parameters set by the U.S. Army under the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator initiative “by the end of summer.”

A militarized derivative of the Glasair Aviation Sportsman monoplane, the Huntsman is being actively marketed for “gray zone” operations in places like Central Africa where there are few or no U.S. forward operating bases.

Up for grabs is a potential 90-aircraft order replacing on a one-for-one basis Germany’s Tornado IDS strike aircraft, and the smaller ECR electronic warfare version of the jet.

Boeing has teamed with ten German companies who will provide training, support and sustainment if the Chinook wins Germany’s STH heavy-lift helicopter competition.