Defense

Moroccan and French military successfully completed the 2021 Tafilalet exercise – the biennial joint manoeuvre between the two nations' land and air forces.
Maintenance & Training

Saudi Arabia has completed a two week exercise featuring participation from Oman, UAE, Jordan, Egypt, in addition to Kuwait and Bahrain, as observers.
Maintenance & Training

Leonardo is under contract to provide its Miysis Directed Infrared Countermeasure (DIRCM) for a Middle Eastern government customer’s new VVIP transport aircraft, a Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft.
Business Aviation

By Jay Menon
In June’s review of defence matters affecting the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, we look at the changes at the top of South Africa’s armed forces with a new Air Chief and a new head of the defence force.
Defense

By Chen Chuanren
The six-year development phase of the UH-2 program has now been completed, paving the way for the rotorcraft to enter service with the Japan Ground Self Defence Force (JGSDF) where it will replace the Bell/Fuji Heavy Industries UH-1J helicopter.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
Pegasus—short for Persistent German Airborne Surveillance Systems—will see Hensoldt equip a trio of Bombardier Global 6000 business jet platforms with a signals intelligence system called Kalaetron, a development of the company’s Integrated Signal Intelligence System (ISIS) which was developed for the failed Eurohawk program.
Multi-Mission Aircraft

By Chen Chuanren
South Korea will develop and acquire an artillery interception system akin to the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system to protect the country against rockets, artillery and missiles (RAM) from North Korea.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Chen Chuanren
The V15 is a fixed-wing UAV featuring four vertical lift propellers for vertical-take-off-and-landing operations and a piston-powered propeller engine for conventional flight.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Jen DiMascio
The commander of the 45th Space Delta on improving launch ranges in the future.
Space

By Steve Trimble
The General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) MQ-20 Avenger performed a Skyborg test flight on June 24 during the Orange Flag large force exercise at Edwards Air Force Base, California
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Lee Hudson
For the first time in years, the House Appropriations defense subcommittee has proposed funding only the number of F-35s that the Pentagon asked for in fiscal 2022 instead of providing dollars for extra aircraft.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Chen Chuanren
With sights on lunar and deep space missions, China has firmed up its road map to develop heavy-lift rockets based on the Long March 5 and the new Long March 9.
Space

The U.S. Navy has cleared the service’s first new standoff jamming system in more than 50 years to enter production. The Raytheon ALQ-249(V)1 Next
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Tony Osborne
Airbus has flown its C295 turboprop airlifter with a range of precision-guided munitions as the company looks to develop an armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability for the platform.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Lee Hudson
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) has vowed not to kill the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent and is urging lawmakers to fully fund the Adaptive Engine Transition Program to mitigate F-35 woes.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Mark Carreau
Northrop Grumman’s 15th Cygnus resupply mission spacecraft departed the International Space Station on June 29 filled with trash and prepared for an orbit-raising maneuver for five small satellite deployments prior to making a destructive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
Space

By Tony Osborne
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace has suggested that the number of F-35s purchased by the UK will depend on how industry reduces operating costs and whether domestically developed weapons are integrated onto the aircraft.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
Ukraine’s Motor Sich is to provide a batch of engines for Turkish Aerospace’s new ATAK-2 heavy attack helicopter.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
A new way to process data from older radars might allow NORAD to operate the airborne early-warning system above the Arctic for years.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Lee Hudson
The Pentagon wants to begin negotiations on an administrative agreement with the European Defense Agency to further U.S. involvement in Permanent Structured Cooperation projects.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
To meet the Air Force's schedule goal, a decision is due by the end of the year on a transition strategy for the Skyborg program. Aviation Week assesses two likely options to receive the autonomous control system.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
An accident probe into the loss of a Canadian Sikorsky Cyclone anti-submarine warfare helicopter has concluded that a bias in the fly-by-wire flight control system prevented the pilot from making a corrective input, resulting in the aircraft crashing into the Mediterranean Sea.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
Unions representing French workers at Airbus and Safran are urging the Eurodrone partner governments to adopt a European engine for the medium-altitude, long-endurance uncrewed air system.
Aircraft & Propulsion

CAE

By Tony Osborne
Turkish Aerospace has flown its latest prototype T625 Gokbey twin-engine medium helicopter, increasing the pace of the flight-test program for the indigenously developed platform.
Aircraft & Propulsion