Defense

An analysis shows that a disruptive acquisition strategy for the Next-Generation Air Dominance program would reduce costs.

Fleet Snapshot

News in brief

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

Calendar of upcoming events of interest to the aerospace & defense industry.

The founder of the small-launch company discusses a recent failure of the Electron rocket launch, the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and Rocket Lab’s evolution from manufacturing rockets to building spacecraft.

After overcoming years of delays to resolve technical issues, launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a long-awaited successor to the 30-year-old Hubble observatory, is being postponed at least seven months, largely due to pandemic-related workplace shutdowns, NASA said on July 16.

The Pentagon has selected the Liteye Systems containerized anti-UAS defense system (C-AUDS) to be the first platform integrated with one of the Defense Department’s inaugural interim counter small unmanned systems (C-sUAS).

Two state-owned companies in Singapore and Israel agreed on July 16 to set up a joint venture (JV) to market advanced anti-ship missiles.

Launch of the United Arab Emirates’ Mars Hope mission, already twice delayed by poor weather, has been reset for no earlier than July 20.

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Bob Behnken all but completed a long-running series of battery replacements on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS) during a 6-hr. spacewalk July 16.

NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance Force (NAGSF) has taken delivery of its third RQ-4D Phoenix radar-reconnaissance unmanned aircraft system.

Boeing is leaning on the development of its Airpower Teaming System (ATS) in its offer for the UK’s Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) initiative.

This webinar took place July 16, 2020 and was sponsored by KPMG. The U.S., Europe and the UK are chasing future combat aircraft platforms, but the

AVIATION WEEK NETWORK estimates that at the end of 2019, there were 11,056 Western-designed helicopters performing rotary-wing transport missions

Airbus has changed the name of its U.S. military operations to Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, to emphasize its focus on bringing a variety of space

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

L3Harris leaders say their focus remains carrying out their prior plans for their merger of equals.

Actions for this year: choose contracting arrangements, a prime contractor and foreign partners, and allocate funds.

One of the UK’s three RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft has been upgraded with a new cockpit as part of a modernization of the fleet.

Virgin Galactic’s founding CEO George Whitesides is relinquishing daily management of the fledgling space tourism company to focus on future programs, including point-to-point hypersonic and orbital space transportation, the company said on July 15.

Australia’s military has agreed to help the U.S. Navy develop the second electronic attack pod developed for the Boeing EA-18G under the Next Generation Jammer program, U.S. and Australian officials announced on July 13.

The first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is about halfway through an eight-part Green Run test program at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, with a full-duration static firing of the booster’s four Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines expected in October, Boeing Vice President and SLS Program Manager John Shannon said on July 15.

A powerful new terrain following and avoidance radar for the Bell Boeing CV-22 has entered flight testing at Eglin AFB, Florida, the service announced on July 15.

The UK Royal Air Force is to test its information sharing technologies on one of its Airbus A330 Voyager tankers, turning the platform into an airborne communications node.