Defense

The decision late Dec. 22 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office blocks Raytheon’s repeated attempts to force the SDA to start over by issuing a new request for proposals.
Space

Aviation Week Staff
Japan approved its fiscal 2021 defense budget of ¥5.34 trillion ($51.6 billion) on Dec. 21 with a sliver of an increase at 0.5% over the fiscal 2020 amount.
Budget, Policy & Operations

Aviation Week Staff
The Japanese Defense Ministry on Dec. 18 formally announced it has selected Lockheed Martin to provide “system integration support” to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in developing its F-X fighter.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The authorization for the possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) valued at $128.1 million came after the State Department accepted a letter of request from the Kazakhstan government.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Tony Osborne
NATO is hoping to declare an initial operating capability for its Alliance Ground Surveillance fleet of Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawks in early 2021 after plans were delayed by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
Saab is studying life extension options for Sweden’s Gripen fighter fleet after the country’s government approved plans to keep the type in service beyond 2030.
Aircraft & Propulsion

Media outlets in Somalia have reported that the Somali National Army (SNA) had engaged a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) fighter jet with anti-aircraft fire along the Mandera-Gedo border region separating the two countries.
Defense

By Steve Trimble
A new contract to replace five CC-150 multirole tanker-transports operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force has started a process to qualify companies to enter a competition.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Maksim Pyadushkin
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported on Dec. 21 that the Bureau of Industry and Security would add nearly 40 Russian companies to a new “Military End User” list limiting their access to U.S. technologies.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Michael Bruno
Aerospace supplier Moog has acquired avionics provider Genesys Aerosystems of Mineral Wells, Texas, from McNally Capital and Genesys managers for about $77.7 million, the companies announced late Dec. 21.
Supply Chain

By Michael Bruno
Axiom Space, the space station startup, on Dec. 22 announced plans to create a 14-acre headquarters campus at Houston Spaceport to train private astronauts and begin production of its Axiom Station.
Commercial Space

By Lee Hudson
Lawmakers are becoming more stringent with how the Pentagon can spend future funding, included on the services’ unfunded requirements list, according to a joint explanatory statement accompanying the fiscal 2021 defense appropriations compromise bill.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Lee Hudson
Congress is allowing the U.S. Air Force to say farewell to 17 B-1Bs and the RQ-4 Block 20 fleet, but is blocking the retirement of KC-135s, KC-10s and A-10s in the latest fiscal 2021 defense appropriations compromise bill.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
The latest challenge from Raytheon again risks delaying the schedule for fielding the first tranche of the SDA’s Tracking Layer of missile-warning satellites in low Earth orbit, but agency officials say the program remains on track.
Space

BELGIAN AIR FORCE took delivery of its first (106) of seven A400Ms from Airbus; second is planned for early 2021.
Defense

By Lee Hudson
Despite the U.S. Air Force demonstrating earlier this month how a piece of the Advanced Battle Management System might work, the fiscal 2021 defense appropriations compromise bill would drastically reduce the program’s funding.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Mark Carreau
The Space Launch System’s Exploration Upper Stage that is to support NASA’s Artemis initiative goal of establishing a permanent human presence at the Moon has cleared the Critical Design Review phase of its development.
Space

By Maksim Pyadushkin
The Russian military has placed its first order for 10 re-engined Ilyushin Il-78M-90A tanker aircraft.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
In an ignominious end for the fleet, the five Sentinels “are not for reuse” the defense ministry stated, as it called for expressions of interest in the disposal of the radar reconnaissance platform.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Bill Carey
Competitors wasted little time taking advantage of the U.S. Commerce Department announcement that it had added Chinese drone manufacturer DJI to its export blacklist.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Michael Bruno
Lockheed Martin’s proposed $4.4 billion cash takeover of aerospace and defense propulsion stalwart Aerojet Rocketdyne–already a key supplier–fits well within Lockheed and will secure the Pentagon’s leading contractor as a hypersonics, rocket and military space leader for decades to come.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Jen DiMascio
Easy Aerial and the U.S. Air Force’s 60th Security Forces Sqdn. started the first automated drone-based perimeter security and monitoring system for a U.S. Air Force installation, Travis AFB in California, on Dec. 11.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
Passage of the $696 billion spending bill for fiscal 2021 completes the final appropriations cycle of the Trump administration with a slight uptick in funding for the DOD alone, which received $693.3 billion in fiscal 2020.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Steve Trimble
With both the platforms and weapons for the future nuclear enterprise set, the U.S. Navy and Air Force are now plotting the future of the airborne command and control systems.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Mark Carreau
NASA and prime contractor Boeing are probing the premature shutdown of a simulated countdown sequence during the Dec. 20 Wet Dress Rehearsal for the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket.
Space