Defense

Russia’s largest helicopter operator, Utair Group, may ground 30% of its fleet this year due to a shortage of spare parts and components, the firm's CEO says.

NASA has selected a new mission to study high-altitude ice clouds that form daily in Earth’s tropical and subtropical regions.

Spain is planning to raise national defense spending steadily to 2% of GDP by the end of the decade, enabling expenditures on a range of new equipment.

The company has a $2.5 billion backlog but also fast-shrinking cash reserves.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded a contract to Ursa Major that will help it develop two key products.

While the U.S. and its partners have agreed to start training Ukrainian pilots on Lockheed Martin F-16s, the jets’ delivery will take several months.

ULA returned its first Vulcan rocket to the launchpad on May 22 in preparation for a static test firing of the booster’s dual BE-4 main engines.

Poland is to invest in airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft from Sweden, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak has revealed.

The demonstration flight was intended to give Peruvian military officials a sense of the KC-390 and the capabilities of Brazil’s defense industry.

Dueling AESA options for the F/A-50 show how far the technology has come in a short amount of time, thanks to the advent of gallium nitride semiconductors.

The Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia have selected the German IRIS-T SLM for a joint medium-range ground-based air defense requirement.

Axiom Space’s second, four-person private astronaut mission to the International Space Station docked to the space-facing port on the Harmony module on Monday.

South Africa-based Paramount Aerospace Industries has sold an unspecified number of Mwari turboprop intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and light attack aircraft to a range of unidentified and unnamed customers.

With an eye on China, Tokyo ramps up ambitions for selling military equipment abroad.

SWISSto12 has received a contract to build three small geostationary communications satellites for Inmarsat.

Blue Origin has succeeded on its second try to win a NASA contract to ferry astronauts to and from lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface.

The U.S. Air Force is designing its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program—uncrewed systems that will fly alongside future fighters—to be fielded in increments.

President Joe Biden said May 19 that the U.S. supports an international effort to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s and other fourth-generation fighters.

The NASA-funded Capstone has completed its six-month primary mission in orbit around the Moon with a successful autonomous navigation demonstration.

NASA’s electrified aircraft propulsion flight demonstration programs face cost overruns and schedule delays, the agency’s inspector general says.

Science Applications International has appointed Toni Townes-Whitley as its next CEO.

Aviation Week Intelligence Network’s (AWIN) data and analytical teams are providing the intelligence and insight our members need to stay on top of the market.

The acquisition of the cruise missile helps Australia recover some of the long range striking power that the RAAF lost when the F-111Cs retired in 2011.

Several upgrades are making the B-52 relevant for the 2030s and beyond, but they require sweeping changes to internal structures and electronics.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.