Defense

By Graham Warwick
Flight decks of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers are to be protected from damage by the exhaust from Lockheed Martin F-35Bs using a U.K.-developed metal coating.
Defense

Japan and Italy are partnering with NASA to fly three CubeSats beyond Earth orbit on the U.S. space agency’s inaugural flight of a new Space Launch System (SLS) in 2018.
Defense

The U.S. Navy successfully validated significant progression in the Fire Control Improvement Process (FCLIP) program through a live-fire test involving the Ship’s Self Defense System (SSDS) and Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Guided Missile Weapons System at Point Mugu, California, Naval Sea Systems Command (Navsea) says.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Bitter experience led the U.S. Army to plan a 20-year program to field an advanced high-speed rotorcraft. Industry insists it can move faster—and needs to, to protect the program from budget changes.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
In too much of a coincidence, Washington and Canberra both want Gulfstream G550s for hush-hush operations.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Once classified, the U-2’s Senior Year Electro-optical Reconnaissance System—UTC Aerospace Systems’ SYERS—has added capabilities while spawning derivatives that equip a range of platforms.
Defense

By Jen DiMascio
Raytheon’s MTS is the sensor ball on a wide range of platforms. Now the company is leveraging that real estate to bring onboard new targeting capabilities.
Defense

By Jen DiMascio
Technology and supply-chain issues are causing another delay of at least six months for Boeing’s KC-46A aerial refueling tanker program.
Defense

By Jen DiMascio
Tanker woes continue; Boeing 737 deal follows end of Vietnam arms embargo; lawmakers order F-35 to break out modernization effort.
Defense

By Jen DiMascio, Guy Norris
Boeing’s KC-46A aerial refueling tanker program is facing another delay—of at least five months—due to technical and supply chain problems.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
NASA and Bigelow Aerospace halted a first attempt to extend the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module early May 26 when the flexible enclosure grew only a few inches before exceeding the anticipated internal pressure.
Defense

The U.S. Navy is struggling to meet traditional service readiness needs for aerial missions, says Capt. Randy Stearns, commodore for the Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
General Electric has won the competition to supply engines for the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) KF-X fighter, beating rival Eurojet for a program that may require more than 300 combat turbofans.
Defense

The U.S. Army should be used for more “coastal artillery” missions, including attacking enemy forces at sea in places like the Asia-Pacific region, says Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the Pacific Command (Pacom).
Defense

By Graham Warwick
The first aerospace challenge to be launched by Airbus Group and Local Motors has produced the biggest response yet seen by the U.S.-based global crowdsourced vehicle design specialist.
Defense

By Jen DiMascio
The winner of the contract, worth $2.9 billion, would be in charge of some of the nation’s most vital national security work —the non-nuclear engineering development of all U.S. nuclear weapons and systems of integration of the weapons with delivery vehicles.
Defense

By Byron Callan
The defense industry has seen some very impressive stock price moves due to investor willingness to fund growth.
Defense

By Graham Warwick, Jen DiMascio
DARPA uses machine learning advances to improve automatic target recognition, helping pilots make decisions in high-speed combat against enemy air defenses.
Defense

By Jen DiMascio
Sandia lab management contract is up for grabs; F-35 arrives in Netherlands for noise tests; U.S., Germany train against electronic threats.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Chinese researchers are developing a vision-based system for autonomous aerial refueling (AAR) in which both the tanker and receiver are unmanned aircraft.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Agricultural aviation is a market expected to be affected more significantly that most by growing use of unmanned aircraft for task ranging from aerial mapping to crop spraying.
Defense

LCC 20 USS Mount Whitney, the U.S. 6th Fleet’s flagship, became the first amphibious command ship to have an MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor land on its flight deck earlier this month.
Defense

When a small plastic component broke recently in a vital piece of calibration equipment used to maintain readiness aboard a U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship, it looked like the pilots and air crews were out of luck.
Defense

NASA has entered an unfunded Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NanoRacks to attach a private airlock on the International Space Station (ISS).
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Raytheon U.K. is partnering with Babcock, QinetiQ and Leonardo (Selex) on a U.K. defense ministry directed energy weapon research program.
Defense