Defense

Chinese space engineers see navigation and landing stability among their main challenges in preparing for an historic unmanned mission to the far side of the Moon that they plan for 2018.

The order is the first step toward restarting operations on the oceangoing launch platform.

The Philippines is likely to order up to 12 more Korean Aerospace FA-50 light attack aircraft, taking the Philippine Air Force closer to its required numbers.

Northrop Grumman is getting to work on its fourth and potentially most important contract for the APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR), after securing a $244 million award from the U.S. Air Force to retrofit 72 Lockheed Martin F-16s.

The European Union has created a defense research and development fund.

For decades, Botswana has avoided social division and corruption, and has been widely praised as an “African tiger”, with a successful economy, an 85% literacy rate, and a Government rated 35th out of 176 countries in Transparency International's latest clean government rankings.

Heading into the Paris Air Show, the defense sector is hard to describe—full of contradictions, but also opportunities.

Among experiments reaching the International Space Station on the first SpaceX Dragon capsule to revisit the orbiting outpost is a 3.5-kg experiment provided by the Beijing Institute of Technology that will study the effects of the in-space environment on genes.

Bell Helicopter has nudged expected certification of its Model 525 back to the end of 2018 as it awaits NTSB’s report into the fatal loss of one of the prototypes in 2016.

Lockheed Martin says hypersonic technologies are now sufficiently mature to enable progress towards a demonstrator for its Mach 6-capable follow-on to the SR-71.

Four U.S. government agencies have received $71.5 million from the Office of Management and Budget to study whether they can auction a minimum of 30 MHz of L-band spectrum used for air traffic control radar and other cross-agency purposes.

Olivier Zarrouati will leave his position at Zodiac Aerospace after serving as its CEO for the past 10 years.

China’s plan for deep-space exploration up to 2030 is close to receiving budgetary approval, a senior program official says.

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has revealed a radically revised version of its concept for the Next-Generation Air Dominance penetrating counter air combat aircraft.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has rolled out the first of 38 Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightnings that the company is scheduled to assemble.

The Angolan Air Force is rebuilding its shattered helicopter fleet through a series of acquisitions of new and refurbished helicopters from Italy and Russia.

Dassault is optimistic that interest in its Rafale fighter could help counter the weakening sales of its Falcon business jet.

Lockheed Martin’s U-2 spy plane made its debut at the Northern Edge joint training exercise last month, demonstrating a new capability nicknamed the “Einstein Box.”

Thales is offering a new counter-UAV system to government agencies wanting to protect civil sites.

A diplomatic spat over Qatar’s alleged involvement in funding Islamic militants has resulted in Bahrain, Egypt, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates cutting diplomatic ties to Doha.

SpaceX’s first largely recycled Dragon resupply capsule successfully reached the International Space Station early June 5.

Orbital ATK’s seventh NASA-contracted Cygnus resupply capsule departed the International Space Station early June 4 for a week of solo science activities.

Five countries have closed their borders, territorial waters and airspace to Qatari registered ships and aircraft.

India has successfully launched its heavy-lift rocket, the GSLV Mk. 3, carrying communication satellite GSAT-19.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has issued an RFP for the production of maps identifying the locations of subsurface ice and hydrated mineral water deposits on Mars.