The U.S. Air Force terminated one of two hypersonic missile prototypes a year before a planned decision point to divert funding for other priorities and preserve funding for the more advanced high-speed missile, the top acquisition official said Feb. 28.
Small Diameter Bombs and Miniature Air-Launched Decoys will demonstrate a new semi-autonomous weapon technology later this year, an Air Force Research Laboratory official says.
Despite ongoing problems with the Boeing KC-46, the U.S. Air Force is likely to continue to purchase the flawed aircraft at a rate of 15 per year, the service’s acquisition chief says.
Additively manufactured launch vehicle specialist Relativity Space has announced plans to establish a new headquarters and manufacturing facility in Long Beach, California, where it will produce the Terran 1 3D-printed rocket.
Signing a five-year performance-based logistics contract for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter by the start of fiscal 2021 is going to be a “challenge,” a Lockheed Martin executive says.
Microturbine pioneer UAV Turbines (UAVT) has launched a lightweight, compact turbogenerator for on-demand ground power and auxiliary power applications.
Northrop Grumman conducted a 139-sec. static test fire of its Omega rocket’s solid-fuel second stage on Feb. 27, the last of two full-scale engine firings prior to the rocket’s debut launch next year.
The UK will face a gap of at least nine months in its airborne early warning capability after deciding to retire its Boeing E-3 Sentry fleet by December 2022.
Lockheed Martin sees Poland’s defense industry as a potential low-cost manufacturing source for the F-35 program, as “upward pressure” continues to grow on aircraft prices beyond Lot 14 partly due to the loss of Turkey as a low-cost manufacturing source.
Virgin Galactic remains committed to becoming the first commercial human spaceflight provider this year, but it could entail just lofting co-founder and celebrity entrepreneur Richard Branson rather than starting regular operations as previously forecast.
The U.S. Air Force has named the HH-60W search-and-rescue helicopter the Jolly Green II five months after it was green lighted for low-rate initial production.
Boeing has dusted off a 10-year-old advanced missile concept to show off “tactically relevant” technologies for the Air Warfare Symposium here this week.
“We are looking at other options from China in the form of the Z-10ME,” Maj. Gen. Syed Najeeb Ahmed, commander of Pakistani Army Aviation, told the International Military Helicopter conference here in London.
As options for an F-22 replacement after 2030 continue to be analyzed, the distance challenges imposed by operations in the Pacific theater are driving the U.S. Air Force to consider redefining the traditional conception of a fighter, the head of Air Combat Command said on Feb. 27.
