Defense

Lockheed Martin is touting its production-ready T-50A as the lowest risk – if not the lowest cost – solution for the service’s T-X program.

If NASA’s aspirations of reaching Mars with humans are to succeed, policymakers must address a demanding set of requirements, two agency mission architecture veterans say.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah James says the new bomber will be called the Raider, in honor of the Doolittle Raiders that fought Japan during World War II.

The U.S. Air Force's B-21 will be called the Raider, in honor of the Doolittle Raiders who took on the Japanese during World War II.

Airbus Helicopters and Denel Aviation have signed a cooperation deal to modernize South Africa’s fleet of Rooivalk attack helicopters.

An officially unspecified technical issue will delay the planned Sept. 23 launching of Russia’s Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft with a three-man U.S. and Russian crew to the International Space Station.

A consortium led by European missile manufacturer MBDA has been awarded a £30 million ($39.25 million) contract to develop and demonstrate a laser weapon for the UK defense ministry.

Algeria's substantial order for Russian combat helicopters indicates concern about both terrorists and international rivals, according to specialists on the region.

Israel’s ducted-rotor cargo UAS; distributed flaps improve efficiency; submarine-launched drone tested; Prodrone’s grasping, clinging UAS; DARPA’s counter-UAS Dragnet.

The British defense ministry has become the launch customer for Leonardo-Finmeccanica’s BriteCloud expendable active decoy, following successful trials of the system from a Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado GR4 last year.

The Aerial Dragnet concept is a network of surveillance nodes, mounted on tethered or long-endurance UAS, each covering a neighborhood.

The U.S. Air Force has increased the number of non-development helicopters it wants to procure to replace its 1970-vintage Bell UH-1N Twin Hueys.

Although the U.S. Air Force has been fighting for years to sunset the A-10 attack plane so it can move resources to newer fighters, Secretary Deborah Lee James tells Aviation Week the air arm may once again delay plans to retire the Thunderbolt II.

The pause in flight operations was ordered after technicians identified faulty cooling lines in the wings of the aircraft, according to a statement from the Norwegian government.

Rolls-Royce North America has won a $9.3 million contract to outfit U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command’s dozen AC-130W Stinger II gunships with engine heat suppressors as it also pitches another exhaust-cooling upgrade for the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey.

The FAA has selected Astronautics Corporation of America to develop and test methods to evaluate the vulnerability of aircraft onboard networks to cyberattacks.

Bell Helicopter plans to offer tiltrotors for almost every anticipated U.S. military requirement as its V-280 Valor prototype comes together in Amarillo, Texas.

India is expected to finally sign an intergovernmental agreement with France to purchase 36 Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft next week.

Aviation Performance Solutions will certify CAE flight instructors to teach upset prevention and recovery training at the U.S. Army’s fixed-wing flight training program in Alabama.

Clay Mowry, who has headed the U.S. subsidiary of Arianespace for the past 15 years, is leaving the company to set up a Washington office for Blue Origin.

AeroVironment’s Blackwing small unmanned aircraft system has been launched from a sonobuoy-sized tube in waters off Rhode Island.

China launched its second orbital laboratory, Tiangong 2, on Sept. 15 as part of preparations for assembling a space station around the end of the decade.

India has tentatively planned to launch ScatSat-1—an indigenously developed weather forecasting satellite—in late September.

Boeing is taking no chances on the U.S. Air Force’s T-X trainer competition, which may save its St. Louis factory when F-15 and F/A-18 production ends.

In this week’s Washington Outlook, the U.S. will provide $38 billion in military to Israel over the next 10 years; business groups want to restore Ex-Im bank’s ability to approve major deals; and the Air Force needs more time to upgrade its air traffic avionics systems.