Defense and Space

NASA has launched a two-phase crowdsourcing competition to develop a Mars virtual reality testbed to help prepare for human expeditions there.

European countries need to “reconverge” their space efforts, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said as he reported lower profits for Airbus' Defense and Space unit.

The range of IAI’s LORA Weapon System would provide new options for India's armed forces.

A U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk on a training flight Feb. 15 crashed in Huntsville, Alabama, killing two people on board.

Virgin Galactic completed the first test flight of the VMS Eve carrier aircraft at Mojave, California, on Feb. 15.

Astranis has won a contract to show its software-defined radio-satellite payload can transmit the Defense Department’s Protected Tactical Wave.

The United Arab Emirates’ first interplanetary spacecraft is expanding its studies at Mars to include flybys of the planet’s small outer moon, Deimos.

NATO members are expected to agree to increase defense spending as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown a greater need to invest in militaries.

The U.S. government has approved BAE to integrate the AAR-57 Common Missile Warning System with Leonardo’s Miysis Directed Infrared Countermeasure system.

The U.S. Air Force is grounding its workhorse Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker fleet temporarily, along with reconnaissance variants.

Denmark and Sweden have become the latest signatories to a NATO initiative to overcome potential gaps in the alliance’s ground-based air defense systems.

India plans to direct three-fourths of its defense budget to purchasing new equipment for domestic industry in fiscal 2023-24.

A new wave of modernization priorities are set to be unveiled in the next U.S. Air Force budget request.

Babcock will manage and operate the UK Defense Ministry’s communication satellite constellation Skynet, winning out against competition from Airbus and others.

The Indian Defense Research and Development Organization has devised an automated landing system that is being put to the test on two N-LCA platforms.

Congress says no to U.S. Air Force buying electric aircraft, but the program continues.

Virgin Orbit believes it has identified what caused the premature shut down of LauncherOne’s second-stage Newton 4 engine over the Atlantic.

Demand for conducting experiments on the ISS National Laboratory remains strong after 75 payloads were sent to the orbiting platform last year.

The U.S. and partners must continue to deliver air defenses, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said following a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group.

Joby Aviation announced that it has begun final assembly of its first partially-conforming S4 electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi.

The leading explanation is that the three downed high-altitude objects were “benign” and tied to a commercial or other civilian purpose, officials say.

The U.S. sees a diplomatic and industrial opportunity in the number of countries looking for alternatives to their existing Russian-built platforms.

The UK Royal Navy is set to operate Schiebel’s Camcopter rotary-wing uncrewed air system from its Type 23 frigates.

The platforms will be used by the Polish Air Force with their operations likely focused along the country’s border with Belarus and Russian exclave Kaliningrad.

Australia ditches problematic European choppers for U.S. ones.