Defense

By Steve Trimble
U.S. Space Force and Air Force leaders are seeking to define roles and missions between all of the armed services for a broad range of capabilities.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Lee Hudson
With 15 days left in the fiscal year, the U.S. Air Force and Space Force have not sent Congress a wish list of waivers to make living without a new appropriations bill easier.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Michael Bruno
At least 220,000 jobs in the U.S. tied to the aerospace and defense industry could be lost as civil manufacturers see international aircraft production potentially halved in the wake of COVID-19, the industry’s most prominent trade group revealed in its latest annual factbook.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Bill Carey
Verizon Skyward and French manufacturer Parrot have partnered to offer a drone training and operations management package based on Parrot’s Anafi USA quadcopter, the companies announced Sept. 15.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Irene Klotz
The new 11-year solar cycle is expected to match its extremely quiet predecessor, which concluded in December 2019.
Space

By Tony Osborne
National support from the UK and a need to retain basing flexibility has prompted U.S. Air Force commanders to reverse the decision to close RAF Mildenhall, England.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
Britain’s Royal Air Force will adopt new technologies to identify and prosecute targets in more locations simultaneously than what is possible today, the air arm’s most senior officer says.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
A January missile firing test offered a glimpse of the MC-130’s potential in a new role as an Arsenal Plane.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Lee Hudson
The head of the U.S. Air Force’s mobility fleet needs more data from Boeing on the KC-46 Remote Vision System (RVS) upgrade plan to determine if an interim fix is worth taking the maintenance downtime.
AFA Air Space and Cyber Conference

By Steve Trimble
A full-scale flight demonstrator for the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance program has already flown in secret and “broken records” in the process, a senior official said on Sept. 15.
Aircraft & Propulsion

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.
Defense

On Sept. 15 the European Space Agency awarded a €129.4 million ($153 million) prime contract to Germany’s OHB for the agency’s first mission for
Defense

By Thierry Dubois
France’s fledgling Space Command launches major effort in Earth-orbit surveillance and satellite defense.
Space

By Steve Trimble
The ground test moves the Airpower Teaming System closer to a scheduled first flight later this year
Defense

By Steve Trimble
The three-phase demonstration aims to prove the C-17 can be weaponized if called upon, but top U.S. Air Force leaders have not yet decided on a specific role for the strategic airlifter.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Bill Carey
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the FAA is busier than it has ever been licensing commercial space launches, officials said Sept. 14.
Space

By Irene Klotz
California-based Astra, a startup vying to get into the small-satellite launch business, conducted a flight test of its Rocket 3.1 booster, but the mission ended prematurely when the vehicle started to head off course due to a guidance system problem.
Space

By Irene Klotz
Work stoppages due to Hurricane Laura, the Category 4 storm that came ashore in Louisiana last month, will delay the long-awaited static test fire of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage at NASA’s Stennis Space Center until late October or November.
Space

MOOG opened regional support center in Huntsville, AL with large laboratory for local R&D and testing, office space, and essential collaboration space
Aerospace

By Mark Carreau
A British-led research effort has caught a possible low probability hint of biological activity in the high altitude cloud layers of neighboring Venus.
AFA Air Space and Cyber Conference

By Steve Trimble
U.S. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett on Sept. 14 announced a new “e” weapon system designator prefix for aircraft set to be designed and tested using digital engineering tools, starting with the rebranded Boeing eT-7A Red Hawk advanced jet trainer.
Budget, Policy & Operations

ELBIT SYSTEMS-CYCLONE was selected by Lockheed Martin to manufacture forward equipment bay assemblies (composite structures) all F-35 variants.
Defense

By Steve Trimble
Lockheed Martin F-35 deliveries postponed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chain will not fully recover by the end of 2021, a company executive told Aerospace DAILY.
AFA Air Space and Cyber Conference

By Lee Hudson
Although the U.S. Air Force proposed to terminate the General Atomics MQ-9 production line in the last budget cycle, the service may opt to employ the Reaper in a new way: as an attritable aircraft that the military can afford to lose in a war with China or Russia.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. Air Force has started the market research phase to demonstrate by 2027 a 1-5-megawatt, fixed-site microreactor that could provide an alternative to the civilian electric power grid on military bases.
Budget, Policy & Operations