Defense

Northrop Grumman has selected Airbus US Space & Defense as its satellite bus supplier for the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL) prototype constellation.

An entire wing of divested Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawks and some restricted airspace over northern Michigan may soon play a key role in a long-overdue revamp of U.S. hypersonic weapons testing.

Boeing is building a next-generation product support system for its military aircraft and building off experience garnered by the UK’s Royal Air Force.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force has acquired a secondhand Gulfstream G650 business jet for VIP duties.

Norway’s Kongsberg is to purchase a majority holding in Lithuanian small satellite integrator and bus manufacturer NanoAvionics.

Elbit Systems has announced another deal in Asia-Pacific, securing an $80 million contract to supply directed infrared counter measures (DIRCM) and airborne electronic warfare systems to an unspecific country in the region.

Germany and Sweden have joined France to study the future development of a new-generation European airlifter that could replace types such as the Lockheed C-130 Hercules and CASA CN235.

Tensions over the flight controls are holding up progress toward the development of FCAS’ demonstrator program.

The F-35 is beginning to make its mark on the UK’s Royal Air Force and Royal Navy who operate the aircraft.

News in brief.

NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (Capstone) small satellite successfully separated from its orbital Photon propulsion stage early July 4, beginning a pioneering journey to near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) around the Moon.

With a mostly successful tanking test complete, NASA sets its sights on Moon rocket’s first flight.

More data is emerging to support the U.S. Air Force’s creation of the F-35 Adaptive Engine Replacement program.

The U.S. Air Force is expected to issue a request for information (RFI) within the next week for the design of a large-scale prototype of a blended wing body, the first details of which emerged in President Biden’s recently announced fiscal 2023 budget request.

The Pentagon will send two advanced missile defense systems to Ukraine in its latest tranche of $820 million in aid for Kyiv.

The U.S. Army’s decision to delay its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program by pushing production milestones back up to four years gives Sikorsky more time to mature its Raider X design, and although some in Washington have raised doubts about the program’s future, the service and company are still confident in its permanence.

Leonardo’s AW149 super-medium military rotorcraft has scored its third export contract with an order from Poland.

NASA has completed construction of a record-tying large primary mirror for a telescope to be carried aloft by a high-altitude balloon.

Initial ground tests to integrate Stratolaunch’s Roc carrier aircraft with the company’s first captive-carry version of the Talon A hypersonic test vehicle have begun in Mojave, California, marking a major milestone toward a key drop test planned for later this year.

An Indian-made demonstrator for a future flying wing autonomous aircraft completed a first flight on July 1 at the Aeronautical Test Range in southern India.

OneWeb, in partnership with the European Space Agency and UK Space Agency, says it demonstrated a 5G link between low Earth orbit satellites, a geostationary satellite and a mobile ground terminal on June 28.

Greece has submitted a request to purchase Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has confirmed.

The USS George H. W. Bush Carrier Strike Group is certified to deploy after a large-scale, international and unique certification exercise that involved three nations and a Marine expeditionary unit.

Startup launch company Relativity Space has signed a multiyear, multiflight launch services agreement with OneWeb to deliver its next-generation broadband satellites into orbit beginning in 2025.

Lori Garver, out with a new book, Escaping Gravity, talks to Aviation Week editors about how the space industry ushered in a new era of private spaceflight, how