Defense

Scotland’s National Health Service (NHS) is to trial deliveries by unmanned air systems to speed up logistics between remote medical centers.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

Selected U.S. military contracts for May 18 U.S. AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Redondo Beach, California, has been awarded a not-to-exceed

Here is a look at the company’s milestones from its 2002 founding to the eve of the manned Crew Dragon launch.

Ask the Editors: The global space economy is projected to exceed $1.1 trillion by 2040, but it is unclear how COVID-19 will affect that.

When Vice President Pence told NASA to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024 “by any means possible,” he may have opened a Pandora’s box.

Work on SpaceX’s prototype Starship spacecraft has eased up while the company focuses on launching its first people into orbit, says CEO Elon Musk.

NASA completed a two-day Flight Readiness Review (FRR) for the Demo-2 test mission, confirming a launch attempt on May 27 for SpaceX’s first human spaceflight and NASA’s first launch of astronauts on a U.S. system since 2011.

NATO and European nations have expressed regret at the Trump administration’s decision to exit the Open Skies Treaty but have said they share U.S. concerns about inconsistent flight restrictions imposed by Moscow.

British aerospace services company Marshall Aerospace and Defense Group says it withdrew from participating in a program to convert Boeing 737s into E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft for the UK Royal Air Force because the work was not “commercially viable.”

China will increase its military budget in 2020 despite the possibility of dramatically reduced economic growth, maintaining pressure on neighboring countries to keep increasing their defense spending.

Satellite imagery obtained by Aerospace DAILY confirms the presence of MiG-29s on an airfield reportedly controlled by a faction in the Libyan civil war supported by the UAE and a Russian mercenary group.

The Space Force is moving forward in its effort to unify the Pentagon’s architecture for missile defense.

Russia’s arms export agency on May 21 announced that a radar capable of detecting hypersonic objects can be sold on the export market.

The U.S. Air Force has submitted a report to Congress on an alternative acquisition system for the Space Force.

A document published by the Italian Senate appears to confirm the sale of Leonardo AW149 and AW189 twin-engine transport helicopters to Egypt.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

Xwing, a startup planning to retrofit general-aviation aircraft for autonomous flight, has raised $10 million in funding and announced new hires to

Conferences and events for professionals in the aerospace community.

The U.S. Air Force, in the midst of modernizing its bomber fleet, launched a competition on May 19 for 608 engines to keep the B-52 Stratofortress in business beyond 2030. Aviation Week editors Jen DiMascio, Steve Trimble and Guy Norris discuss the competition and what's driving the global resurgence in platforms with firepower.

The defense sector is faring well in the COVID-19 crisis, but gargantuan new levels of government debt signal trouble ahead.

Leidos will design and demonstrate the autonomy platform that will be integrated into and control the U.S. Air Force’s future family of Skyborg unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has announced.

Launch service companies could be given the discretion to decide the optimal launch plan to support the 30 satellites in Tranche 0 of the Space Development Agency’s future military surveillance and communications architecture in low Earth orbit, the agency said May 20.

The U.S. Navy has selected Leonardo’s TH-119 training helicopter despite being underbid by Airbus by $85 million, documents released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office reveal.

Leonardo’s Osprey active electronically scanned array flat panel radar is to equip a pair of Beechcraft King Air maritime surveillance aircraft operated for the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).