Defense

BlackSky Spectra is enlarging its network to include a fleet of additional Airbus satellites to make it “the largest network of high-resolution sensors accessible from an online catalog."

Introduction of Japan’s new airlifter into service is greatly boosting capacity, because the type is replacing the much smaller C-1. A proposed civil version has been dropped, however.

"Robust," "effective" and "versatile" are three words that come to our test pilot’s mind after two sorties in this new-generation counterinsurgency aircraft.

No matter how vital space power becomes to the U.S., if it is relegated to a supporting role inside the Air Force, or any other service or agency, it will always receive short shrift.

The milestone was 11 years in the making.

COLORADO SPRINGS—Igor Komarov, director general of Russia’s Roscosmos state space corporation, agrees with other non-U.S.

Several representatives of leading-edge aviation and commercial space companies marched to Capitol Hill on April 4 to try to catch up lawmakers on what is needed in the next FAA reauthorization measure—assuming Congress can provide it.

Sikorsky is claiming that its CH-53K King Stallion would be a cost-effective option if it was selected to meet an upcoming German requirement for a heavy-lift helicopter.

Orbital ATK, United Launch Alliance and NASA are targeting April 18 for the launch of Orbital’s seventh NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station.

The two candidate sites just north of the planet’s equator are believed to be at a suitably low level so that there is sufficient atmosphere to help slow the landing module’s parachute descent.

The midlife upgrade being planned for the U.S. Navy MH-60 “Sierra” and “Romeo” Sea Hawk fleets will include new rotor blades and engine improvements to boost speed, range and lifting capacity.

The new Space Fence will be the world’s largest S-band digital array radar, capable of seeing objects the size of a marble in low Earth orbit.

Czech aerospace firm Aero Vodochody has declared itself ready to return the L-159 light attack aircraft to production.

Swedish aerospace and defense firm Saab has carried out a successful flight test of its JAS-39 Gripen fighter run on rapeseed oil-based biofuel.

India will soon buy more than 100 additional Barak-I missiles from Israel for about 5 billion rupees ($77 million).

India plans to launch five communications satellites by December.

The service must weigh risks posed by a short-term capability gap against moving more rapidly to a modern combat air fleet.

Aurora Flight Sciences builds confidence in its XV-24A LightningStrike high-speed VTOL design with subscale flights showing the configuration can convert between vertical and forward flight.

Aviation Week has won top honors in the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards, the business-to-business media equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes.

Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency has formally commenced search-and-rescue operations with the Leonardo AW189.

Andalusia may be best known to most North Americans as a prime Spanish vacation destination, but increasingly, economic development officials want to make it the same for U.S. and Canadian aerospace manufacturers, too.

The U.S. Air Force is researching “cyberimmune system” technology enabled by artificial intelligence.

Gen. John Hyten, who oversees all U.S. nuclear forces, backs arming surface ships with devastating new types of super-fast, long-range missiles.

The government will choose the winner for the $27 billion Future Frigate program next year.

Scientists assigned to NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft have quantified the red planet’s loss of atmosphere to the forces of the solar wind and radiation.