Defense

The U.S. State Department has approved a potential sale of the P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to New Zealand.

Astrophysicist John Grunsfeld accepted the 2017 Rotary National Award for Space Achievement on April 28 with notes of inspiration, confidence and caution.

In the first foreign military sales request for the helicopter type, Slovakia wants its Model 429s equipped with Wescam MX-10 electro-optical cameras and additional communication and navigation equipment.

Harlow Aerostructures has acquired the businesses of Aerospace Holdings.

The two-seat version of the Avic Chengdu FC-1 export fighter is a combat aircraft as well as a trainer, the state manufacturer says following the first flight.

SpaceX launched its first satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, the classified NROL-76, on May 1.

Wesco Aircraft Holding is suddenly changing CEOs and warning Wall Street of disappointing earnings to come.

The Army’s “No. 1 priority” for Future Vertical Lift is an armed scout platform, despite moving forward with a Black Hawk replacement.

Boeing has secured a $541 million contract for 15 heavy-hauling CH-47F Chinook rotorcraft for the Netherlands as it eyes other opportunities with Saudi Arabia, Israel and Germany.

The U.S. Army wants to move past its legal dispute with Leonardo Helicopters (formerly AgustaWestland) over the sole-source purchase of UH-72A Lakota helicopters from Airbus.

Ignore the European financial sector’s rumors, says the chief executive of Leonardo DRS, the U.S.-based branch of Italy’s national aerospace and defense champion—the company is not on the auction block, for now.

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has carried out a series of successful weapon drops with its Anka medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle.

A year after the fatal loss of a CHC Helikopter Service-operated Airbus H225, Norwegian air accident investigators are still working to find the root cause.

China has achieved its first in-orbit transfer of propellant, from the Tianzhou 1 freighter to the Tiangong 2 orbital laboratory.

The alliance adds air policing missions to Bulgaria and Romania as need for reassurance grows.

Trump and NATO defense spending; investor calls on Musk to stop cooperating with the president; the F-35’s air show prospects; and goodbye to a government shutdown.

Development of new engine for the U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk and AH-64 Apache could grind to a halt if Congress cannot reach a budget deal for fiscal 2017.

Airbus has begun negotiations with A400M customers in a bid to resolve the airlifter’s ongoing delays and technical issues.

Saab’s Gripen looks likely to become Bulgaria’s next fighter after a government working group gave the aircraft a thumbs up.

The U.S. Air Force Sustainment Center has more data scientists under its purview than the Air Force Research Laboratory, the center’s commander told MRO Americas.

The Cassini spacecraft emerged apparently unbattered from its first ring plane crossing at Saturn.

AVX has proposed a Cobra-style low-drag airframe coupled with the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor’s plug-on wing and rotor system as an armed Osprey escort.

Aerospace component and structures manufacturer GKN Aerospace is looking toward Asia for its next major acquisition, chief executive Kevin Cummings says.

India is working to increase the number of its satellite launches to 12 per year from about the current eight.

Getting most or all NATO members to spend the alliance goal of 2% each of GDP on defense would be laudable, but do not expect that to translate into too much revenue for the defense industry, an analyst says.