Defense

India’s navy will phase out its Sea Harrier fighter aircraft fleet this week, making way for a new generation of advanced fighters and marking a significant shift in the history of the country’s naval aviation.

The complex, $1.9 billion engineering services contract strategy employed by NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has challenged efforts by facility managers to provide cost-effective oversight, according to the NASA IG.

The International Space Station partnership named a half dozen U.S., Russian and Japanese astronauts and cosmonauts to missions aboard the six person orbiting laboratory scheduled to launch in late 2017.

Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile (NSM) is set to deploy on a U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship as part of a second round of testing that could eventually see the Norwegian-made weapon become the standard anti-ship missile for the vessels.

Perhaps it is time to consider a rocket defense as part of an overall strategy for lowering the hazards to operational satellites posed by growing levels of orbital debris, says Darren McKnight, the technical director for Integrity Applications, Inc.

SpaceX orbited the JCSat-14 commercial communications satellite atop a Falcon 9 rocket on May 6, after which it successfully returned the vehicle’s first stage booster to an upright landing on an ocean barge off the eastern coast of Florida.

Challenges remain as Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) gets ready to test the new aircraft carrier CVN 78 Gerald R. Ford, but work on the follow-on new-class carrier, the John F. Kennedy, is meeting schedules, the company says.

The U.S. Navy’s plan to coordinate the Ohio-class replacement (ORP) submarine work with Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Newport News Shipbuilding unit and General Dynamics’ Electric Boat will help the service keep its attack sub program on course, HII CEO Michael Petters says.

One thing holds as true today as it did in 1916: It’s all about the future.

Starting 13 years after Kitty Hawk, Aviation Week has been there to document almost the entire history of the aerospace industry.

We reveal what you deem to be the top five Aviation Week covers of all time in defense, space, commercial aviation and business aviation.

The U.S. Navy staff director brings a special perspective to the operations and politics of the Asia-Pacific region.

The U.S. Navy steams ahead with new and occasionally controversial concepts in destroyer and amphibious ship design.

London and Paris will continue their cooperation on the development of advanced naval weapons for air, surface and undersea deployment.

A guide to the aircraft and spacecraft featured on the cover of our 100th anniversary issue and a look at the artist, Ted Williams.

Military flight reports covered major U.S. and Soviet aircraft

Reports tell how new night-fighting and terrain-avoidance systems operate.

Boeing’s CEO sees the F/A-18 and F-15 fighter production lines being extended into the early 2020s – maintained by international orders and the U.S. Congress.

India is working to prepare a national space policy that acknowledges the importance of space in the country’s defense.

The Royal Malaysian Navy is hoping for authorization to buy 18 vessels that would simplify its fleet and undertake constabulary missions.

The U.S. Defense Department needs to consider new Chinese or other regional locations for U.S. Navy aircraft carrier port calls following China’s refusal to allow the USS John C. Stennis to conduct a long-scheduled stop in Hong Kong, U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) says.

Helicopter operator CHC Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 5, just days after the fatal crash of one of its helicopters in Norway.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently upheld the protest of a contract for adversary aircraft operations awarded by the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Navy is still having trouble keeping to maintenance schedules under its new plan, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.

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