Alenia Aermacchi, and ATK announced today that the demonstrator of a fully configured MC-27J multi-mission tactical transport aircraft completed its first flight from the company's Turin test flight centre.
Textron is hoping to send its Scorpion prototype light attack, reconnaissance aircraft to an international coming-out at the U.K.’s Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough Air Show in July. RIAT is set for July 11-13. Farnborough is the following week.
TAMPA, Fla. — The U.S. Intelligence Community has “reached a consensus” on a recommendation to lift a restriction that forbids U.S. commercial satellite imagery manufacturers from releasing imagery with resolution of less than 0.5 meters. The proposal “bodes well for industry,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told an audience at the 10th annual Geoint conference here. Clapper says the intelligence community has forwarded the recommendations to an interagency group for review.
Aviation Week readers have been given an exclusive first look at the formation flight of the NEUROn unmanned combat air vehicle with a Rafale fighter and a Falcon 7X business jet, filmed and photographed by two chase planes.
Cubic Defense Systemshas been awarded a contract valued at more than $5 million from the U.S. Air Force to supply its P5 Combat Training System (P5CTS) to the Moroccan Air Force.
Australia is likely to commit to buying 58 more Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightnings this month, setting aside the alternative of consolidating its combat aircraft squadrons on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The decision will increase the country’s total commitment to 72 F-35s and expand the Royal Australian Air Force’s fast-jet fleet, counting a separate order for 12 EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft as additional to, not part of, the fighter force renewal.
Record-high operating profit margins being reported by U.S. defense prime contractors could be sustained for another year, perhaps even three, but later this decade and into next, margins may come under pressure. Of course, this has to be considered on a company-by-company basis, but there are some broader changes to consider
The U.S. Navy is preparing to conduct a new round of sea trials this summer with its X-47B stealthy aircraft to prove the unmanned system can clear the busy aircraft carrier deck in 90 sec. or less, just like its piloted counterparts. This would allow for a more seamless flow of manned and unmanned launches and recoveries on deck, a key step toward earning unmanned aircraft a coveted parking space on American carriers in 2020.
I n Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, there’s a scene where one of Mendy Melendez’s boys follows Philip Marlowe out of a bar. There might have been trouble, Marlowe says, “if this enormous man hadn’t got out of an enormous car” and thrown the kid one-handed against the wall. “What was that?” Marlowe asks the bruised gangster. “Big Willie Magoon. A policeman. He thinks he’s tough.”
Mubadala Development Company, Tawazun Holding and Emirates Advanced Investments (EAI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) expressing their intent to explore the synergy opportunities that could be created by the unification of their defence services businesses.
The identity of what appears to be a blended wing-body aircraft type photographed over Amarillo, Texas, on March 10 remains uncertain, with the U.S. Air Force declining any comment on the aircraft.
BEIJING — South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) will ask Lockheed Martin to invest up to 20% in the development of the proposed indigenous KF-X fighter, local media report. DAPA, which approved purchase of the Lockheed Martin F-35 on March 23, will begin negotiations next week with the U.S. Air Force on prices of the aircraft, to be supplied under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process, and with the manufacturer on offsets.
No matter the audience, U.S. Navy officials are making one thing clear: there is nothing more important to them than securing the nation’s program to build submarines to replace the SSBN Ohio-class fleet of nuclear-armed submarines. “The Ohio-class replacement is our priority,” says Sean Stackley, Navy assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition. “We are doing everything we can to protect the funding.”
