Defense and Space

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will remain at Kennedy Space Center while ULA repairs their ride to space, the first Atlas V to launch crew.

Central to Italy’s defense plans are expeditionary capabilities that allow forces to deploy rapidly, operate across different domains and collaborate effectively with allied forces, which includes equipping the flagship Cavour aircraft carrier with a fleet of F-35B aircraft.

With the U.S. Army’s cancellation of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program, U.S. Special Operations Command is reviewing its A/MH-6 helicopter fleet

The No. 2 General Dynamics YF-16 lightweight fighter prototype, painted in sky blue and white camouflage, was featured on Aviation Week’s cover on April 1, 1974, a little more than a month before its first flight. The jet was powered by an F100 engine, the same used by the F-15. After a one-year flyoff against the Northrop YF-17 prototype, the YF-16 was chosen as the winner by the U.S. Air Force in January 1975 and became the F-16, entering service in 1979.

Data analytics firm Palantir posted a record net Q1 profit of $106 million and revenue of $634.3 million, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations.

Portugal has taken delivery of the first of four upgraded Lockheed C-130H Hercules aircraft, despite their imminent replacement by Embraer’s C-390 airlifter.

China has completed the first launch of the Long March 6C rocket, a new variant of the Long March 6A rocket.

Turkey is offering to expand its aerospace collaboration with Malaysia, including on the new Kaan fighter project.

Footage from Turkish Aerospace Industries of Kaan's second flight shows oscillation of the elevons during takeoff seen during the first flight has been fixed.

A fully costed, decade-long spending plan from the Australian Defense Department lays out its priorities in the coming years.

The first launch of Rocket Lab’s proposed medium-lift Neutron is slipping to no earlier than mid-2025 due to development of its Archimedes engine.

Upgrades and replacements are coming for the U.S. Marine Corps’ light- and medium-size rotorcraft fleet, along with advanced new uncrewed aircraft systems.

The long-awaited flight was scrubbed to address an issue with an oxygen relief value in the upper stage of the spacecraft’s Atlas V launch vehicle.

Selected U.S. military contracts from the past week.

Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) has partnered with Pyka to offer the startup’s electric uncrewed cargo aircraft to U.S. Defense Department customers.

The Pentagon’s push to adopt more commercial communications systems is raising concerns with the DOD's largest provider of resilient communications,

Muon Space plans a 2026 launch of its FireSat constellation, a group of small satellites designed to spot wildfires.

A Russian space weapon the U.S. claims is in development would occupy a unique orbital area and might threaten all other spacecraft in low-Earth orbit.

The Pentagon for the first time provided additional information on May 6 on what systems it is buying under a new initiative called Replicator.

NASA has selected six exploration concepts to receive up to $600,000 in additional development funding.

The Indonesian government reportedly is requesting to reduce its payments for Korea Aerospace Industries KF-21 fighter development by as much as 63%.

For more information about Aviation Week Intelligence Network’s (AWIN) 2024 Military Fleet & MRO Forecast and other Aviation Week data products, please see: https://pgs.aviationweek.com/forecast

U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on May 2 flew on a highly modified version of the Lockheed Martin F-16 that was operated by an artificial intelligence (AI) agent.

Unseenlabs, a French startup, plans to launch its Generation NexT constellation of radio frequency detection satellites in 2026.

The leaders signed a trilateral research, development, test and evaluation projects agreement.