From the Middle East, to India, Canada and Europe, our editors take stock of recent deals and announced sales of fighter aircraft, and size up how that will impact upcoming competitions.
United Launch Alliance will have some breathing room in its ongoing competition against SpaceX for national security space launches if Congress adopts the consolidated fiscal 2017 defense authorization bill.
Russia’s Progress MS-04 resupply mission to the International Space Station experienced a third-stage Soyuz launch vehicle failure 382 sec. after a Dec. 1 liftoff.
The compromise defense policy bill would mandate the Pentagon’s top weapons tester complete comparison tests of the F-35 and A-10 and report to Congress on the findings.
The U.S. Defense Department is on the cusp of beginning an analysis of alternatives of future wideband satellite communications options as the eighth of 10 Boeing-built Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) space vehicles is prepped for launch this month.
Congress has decided not to completely hamstring U.S. Air Force programs to replace the antiquated EC-130H Compass Call electronic attack turboprop and E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.
A new Chinese air-to-air weapon is comparable to a long-range surface-to-air missile in size and appearance and therefore can probably reach well more than 200 km (120 mi.).
Czech aerospace firm Aero Vodochody says it is close to completing its first new-build L-159 Advanced Light Combat Aircraft (ALCA) since production of the type ended 13 years ago.
Iraq has requested a potential purchase from the US of 5,000 AGM-114K/N/R Hellfire missiles; Ten 114K M36E9 Captive Air Training Missiles; associated equipment; and defense services at a value of around $800 million.
In this week’s roundup, Norway looks to upgrade its maritime patrol fleet, Singapore looks toward operations of a surveillance aerostat, Japan receives its first F-35, Raytheon scores a new Patriot sale and Poland buys Lockheed’s extended-range missile.
Electrospray thruster technology demonstrated on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Lisa Pathfinder gravity-wave mission is moving to more generic applications, including cubesat deorbiting, formation flying and long-distance laser comms.
The FAA’s UAS test sites across the U.S. are carving out hundreds of linear miles of airspace for proving out the technologies and procedures needed for widespread beyond visual line of sight operations.
Although the reconciled 2017 defense policy bill drops proposed plus-ups for fighter aircraft procurement, the House Armed Services Committee chairman is hopeful the incoming President Donald Trump administration will boost funds to pay for the additional hardware.
The first developmental flight of India’s heaviest rocket—the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-Mk. 3-D1)—is expected in the first quarter of 2017, a senior government official says.
Singapore is set to deploy a radar-equipped aerostat that will provide continuous surveillance of air and sea some 200 km (120 mi.) beyond its borders.
House and Senate negotiators have finalized a $618.7 billion defense policy bill that increases funding for military readiness and higher troop levels at the expense of proposed fighter plus-ups.
Compromise defense authorization language would provide more money for readiness and higher troop levels instead of plus-ups for fighter aircraft procurement.
Lawmakers have essentially rejected a Senate effort to kill the F-35 Joint Program Office and split the fighter's upgrade effort into a separate acquisition program.
The U.S. Air Force is asking Congress for relief from a likely continuing resolution (CR) for the next-generation KC-46 tanker to avoid paying a steep penalty to Boeing.
