Defense

The U.S. Marine Corps has taken the first step toward fielding a new Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) Family of Systems (FOS), releasing a request for information (RFI) on Oct. 21 to gather information on available options.

BRAZILIAN AIR FORCE is further reducing its KC-390 order from 22 to 19 (could fall to 15); original order was for 28.

An Israeli industry-led initiative to train Greek fast jet pilots has performed its first training flights.

The Brazilian government has trimmed its order for the Embraer KC-390 by another three aircraft.

Several space launch providers have joined a team led by Dynetics that has been selected by the U.S. Defense Department to accelerate the pace of hypersonic vehicle testing.

It is hoped the initiative will support a number of aerospace programs being pursued by India with support from British companies.

Following FMS approval, Japan is set to become the Raytheon-made munition’s first export customer.

Pratt & Whitney questions GE’s XA100 proposal, arguing its F135 upgrade plan is the more practical path.

While promising continued nuclear modernization, the White House aims to lower tensions by deemphasizing use of weapons.

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

New imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed an unexpected second trail of debris emerging from Dimorphos, the asteroid target for NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission impact on Sept. 26.

Portugal has taken delivery of the first of five Embraer KC-390 tanker-transports ordered in 2019 amid a broader increase in defense spending by Lisbon.

The U.S. Army has started looking for another supplier to increase the output and lower the price of the solid rocket motor that powers the Dark Eagle missile for the Long Range Hypersonic Weapon and the U.S. Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike programs.

Back on Earth from a 170-day mission to the International Space Station, NASA’s Crew-4 quartet of U.S. and European astronauts have some recommendations for developers of the commercial low-Earth-orbit successors to the ISS that is now in its final decade of planned operations.

An acquisition of a small force of Northrop Grumman B-21A Raiders could fill a gap in Australia’s long-range strike capabilities until a new fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines begins arriving in around 2040, an Australian defense analyst said on Oct. 19 in Washington.

Northrop Grumman has announced that the unveiling of the B-21 Raider will take place on Dec. 2 in Palmdale, California.

Warsaw is hiking defense spending to 3% of GDP, prompted largely by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Airbus has signed a cooperation agreement with Norway’s Andoya Space to make use of its ranges for live-fire exercises.

The Aerospace Corp. is expanding its footprint at Hill AFB in Layton, Utah, for work on nuclear modernization programs including the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel, the intercontinental ballistic missile set to replace the Cold War-era Minuteman III.

The crash comes only a week after Hill AFB confirmed that an F-35A that was damaged in 2016 is now classed as a write-off.

British intelligence-gathering flights over the Black Sea region were suspended following the incident on Sept. 29, which occurred in international airspace.

NATO nations are heeding air defense lessons from Ukraine and preparing to invest in their ground-based surface-to-air defenses.

The San Diego company’s next uncrewed aircraft system could be powered by a radical new engine design of its own making.

NASA is assessing a private initiative to boost and service the flagship observatory.

A six-member team—all from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland—will review SpaceX’s unsolicited proposal to send a Dragon capsule to the Hubble Space Telescope to boost its orbit, among possible other services.