Defense

The Australian Defense Department has signed an A$500 million contract with Lockheed Martin Australia to build the Joint Air Battle Management System.

The opening of the 1989 Paris Air Show was marred by the crash of a Soviet Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter during a flight demonstration in front of thousands of spectators, but the pilot was able to steer the doomed aircraft away from the crowd and safely eject, averting a major tragedy.

Each linkage features special adhesive similar to the feet of a gecko that allows the arms to grip objects.

LOCKHEED MARTIN had $1.5b net income on $17.2b sales in 1Q24 vs $1.7b on $15.1b in 1Q23; Aeronautics earned $679m on $6.8b vs $675m on $6.3b. It delivered three F-16s and four C-130Js vs five F-35s, an F-16 and two C-130Js.

Hexcel reported first-quarter 2024 results including net sales of $472 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.44 per share.

Lockheed Martin posted better-than-expected results in the first quarter, but delivered no F-35s as its ongoing software problems have yet to be resolved.

The U.S. Army has awarded Leidos a major sustainment contract for its future high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) fleet.

AeroVironment has launched its new Autonomy Retrofit Kit for its small, fixed-wing UAVs such as the Puma 3AE or Puma LE.

Air Mobility Command plans to complete a year-long analysis in the hopes of resolving several fundamental questions about the U.S. Air Force’s next tanker.

Lockheed Martin has announced a $100 million reach forward loss on an early production lot of a classified missile program with a fixed-price contract.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to raise UK defense spending to the equivalent of 2.5% of GDP.

RTX’s sales and net profit beat Wall Street’s expectations in the first quarter on the back of strong demand for both its commercial and defense products.

The NASA Voyager 1’s mission engineers report continued progress toward restoring the transmission of scientific data to Earth from a distant human-made object.

MBDA Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles are at the heart of a major new transfer of defense equipment to Ukraine pledged by the UK.

MARSS has signed a multi-year contract in excess of $70M to deliver an integrated logistic support contract with a leading Middle East client.

Separate midair collisions within the space of three days have claimed the lives of at least 11 crewmembers who were onboard the four helicopters.

TEXTRON AVIATION delivered first two of 64 King Air 260 Multi-Engine Training System (METS) aircraft to US NAVY.

Spain is to bolster its aerial firefighting capacity by purchasing seven new De Haviland Canada DHC-515 amphibious fire bombers.

Canada plans to spend more than C$5 billion ($3.65 billion) on the acquisition of airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft, defense officials have confirmed.

The 6,000-lb., MQ-8C will soon be gone, but the requirement will not be forgotten.

The FAA gave Varda Space permission to launch in June 2023 without a reentry license, and the regulator does not want to repeat the situation.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has taken over operations of its new missile defense radar in Alaska, which is also tracking objects on orbit for the Space Force.

Turkey’s indigenous aircraft developments have been bolstered by contracts from the country’s military and government agencies.

The service has been relying on the X-62 Variable In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA).

Spanish defense firm Grupo Oesia will support production of components for Patriot Advanced Capability — 3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) weapons.