Defense

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan Nov. 28, the U.S. Department of Defense announced, Pyongyang’s first missile launch since September.

XCOR Aerospace, which eyed a foothold in the suborbital market with its Lynx spaceplane, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Nov. 8.

The U.S. Air Force this month kicked off a $403 million competition to extend the life of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters built since 1988.

A Russian weather satellite and 18 smallsats—including 10 nanosatellites owned by Spire Global—failed to reach their intended orbits on Nov. 28.

Tecnam U.S. has completed delivery of the first three of 30 P2006T twin-engine aircraft to an unnamed geospatial data acquisition company.

The U.S. aerospace and defense industry cemented its position as a key provider to the United Arab Emirates during the recent Dubai Airshow, one official says.

SpaceX’s latest fundraising round has netted almost $450 million, according to a Nov. 27 regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The first four of its 27-total F-35 purchase are slated to arrive in Denmark beginning next year.

Velvet Wasp is an armed drone designed by the UK’s SteelRock to enable soldiers to provide their own close air support.

The Danish defense ministry has begun the process of purchasing its F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

Malaysia has fielded a locally developed threat simulator to train its fighter pilots to deal with ground-based defensive systems such as surface-to-air missiles and radar-guided guns.

The U.S. Navy is investigating the Nov. 22 crash of a Northrop C-2A Greyhound twin turboprop in the Philippine Sea.

Aircraft lighting influences birdstrikes, Facebook and Airbus team to advance stratospheric UAVs, Boeing backs new MIT wind tunnel, NASA supercomputers unlock flow secrets, and TsAGI’s air-cushion amphibian for the Arctic.

The NASA-led Mars InSight mission has successfully completed a prelaunch thermal vacuum test at a Lockheed Martin test facility in Littleton, Colorado.

Chinese carmaker Zhehjiang Geely Holding Group, the owner of Volvo and Lotus, has completed its acquisition of roadable-aircraft developer Terrafugia.

Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not publish Thursday, Nov. 23 and Friday, Nov. 24. The next issue of Aviation Daily will be dated Tuesday, Nov. 28.

The defense ministry says it has not decided on deciding: should it put off considering whether to develop an indigenous combat aircraft?

F-22 Raptor pilots say Russian fighters frequently fly within striking distance of coalition ground troops.

Conglomerates are prime targets because they have disparate business units—some with unrealized value—as well as redundant cost structures and excess fat.

Gluing detail parts together would reduce mass because the adhesive has little weight and pieces can be thinner than those connected by fasteners.

The main change relative to the previous design appears to be a reduction in the span of the wing and, as a result, its aspect ratio, or slenderness.

In this week’s Washington Outlook, a Senate chairman’s bill still has many hurdles to overcome and the Transportation Department brings an end to Eastern Air Lines.

Avio, the prime contractor for Arianespace’s Vega light launcher, is studying a mini-launcher derived from the upgraded versions of Vega it is currently developing.

Britain appears to be scaling back its F-35 ambitions as officials reassess the country’s defense plans.

Ahead of the Dubai Airshow, Remy Nathan, vice president of international affairs for the Aerospace Industries Association, sat down with Aviation Week to share his thoughts.