Defense

Lockheed Martin Chairman President and CEO Marillyn Hewson told President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 13 that the F-35 provider was close to striking another production-lot contract that would see “significantly” lower unit costs of future Joint Strike Fighters.

Italian aerospace and defense company Leonardo has signed deals with Rome to deliver a new attack helicopter for the Italian army, and an initial order for the new M345 High Efficiency Trainer (HET).

South Korea’s missile-defense system, Chunggung PIP, will go into production in 2017, a year early. Deployment of the predecessor Chunggung anti-aircraft system near the North Korean border is complete

The French armament procurement agency DGA this week announced it has ordered a fourth system of three General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper medium-altitude, long endurance (MALE) UAVs and an accompanying ground segment.

In a 62-page report that focuses primarily on delays and challenges for the F-35 program, one of the Joint Strike Fighter’s toughest critics highlighted progress toward fixing a safety issue with the aircraft’s ejection seat.

Italian industrial holding company Leonardo has withdrawn from Russian joint venture Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC), which designs and manufactures the Sukhoi Superjet 100.

In this week’s Washington Outlook, Mattis pledges to defend NATO, the continued scrutiny of F-35 costs and the FAA proposes a new way to navigate the East Coast.

The schedule for South Korea's Chunggung PIP anti-ballistic missile system has been .

President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, is firmly committed to modernizing the nation’s nuclear triad, but may not be on board with developing a new strategic cruise missile to arm the U.S. Air Force’s bomber fleet.

CEO Mauro Moretti spoke to journalists in London Jan. 12 as the company—previously known as Finmeccanica—formally revealed its new British identity, Leonardo MW.

The fire-and-forget JAGM was launched from an AH-64D Apache attack helicopter, striking a remote-controlled boat.

Roscosmos identified a possible breach of the Soyuz-U's third-stage oxygen propellant tank as the cause of a Dec.1 Progress resupply loss.

CAE has signed a pair of training services contracts worth more than C$1 billion ($760 million).

Airbus, which had a 49% stake in naval electronics firm Atlas Elektronik, is selling its interest to majority stakeholder ThyssenKrupp.

Islamic State terrorists are now using small drones to drop bombs on Iraqi security forces, a top U.S. Army commander in Iraq revealed.

In this week’s roundup, Pentagon allows Raytheon to sell SM-6 abroad, Malaysia to receive light scout attack helicopters, U.S. Air Force’s missile-warning satellite prepared for launch and Morocco to add electronic warfare system to its F-16s.

The outgoing U.S. Navy secretary indicates President-elect Donald Trump’s ongoing pledge to reduce the cost of the F-35 by stoking competition using the F/A-18 is an empty one.

NASA safety advisors are urging the agency to proceed with caution before accepting SpaceX’s plan to load densified propellant into its Falcon 9 launch vehicle with a crew already on board in a Dragon capsule.

The transition team that President-elect Donald Trump has named for NASA has “a very reasonable approach on climate change” and will proceed with the current program, says Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of French space agency CNES.

Airbus and Boeing guidance, until recently, indicated that they expect a 17-year supercycle, but the end came after 12 as the world economy slows.

British air accident investigators looking into the cause of an unstable landing of a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter onto a North Sea oil platform have focused their attention on a damaged tail rotor component.

New studies suggest the date for the formation of the Earth’s moon can be narrowed down to the first 60 million years following the birth of the Solar System.

Fleet pilots say the violent vertical oscillations seen during carrier launches of the U.S. Navy’s F-35 variant are a safety concern.

Sikorsky has called for Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) and tail rotor inspections of the S-92 utility helicopter following an incident on a North Sea offshore platform in December.

As the Pentagon postpones a final decision on the fate of the aging Warthog, the aircraft’s maintainers are challenged to keep up with demand from the field.