Defense

The Pentagon signed two contracts worth $18.45 million under the Defense Production Act for investment in the space industrial base. The department
Defense

Conferences and events for professionals in the aerospace community.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Babcock Australasia is offering Bell’s Model 429 twin-engine light helicopter to meet Canberra’s need for a special operations helicopter platform.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne
Air-to-air missiles once helped shape fighter aircraft, now they drive size of fleets as longer-ranges missiles hold foes at length.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Michael Bruno
The longtime dismantlement of Triumph Group is about to explode further, with the company collapsing about three dozen sites to nine, workforce cuts of more than 4,000, the sale of aerostructures programs and other actions in the wake of COVID-19.
Marketplace

By Graham Warwick
DARPA and the Office of Naval Research plan to launch a joint project to develop a vertical-takeoff-and-landing tactical unmanned aircraft system that could replace the Insitu ScanEagle and eliminate any reliance on launch and recovery infrastructure.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
A Pipistrel aircraft is part of a $63 million program launched by U.S. Special Operations Command to expand capacity for long-endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) flights at medium altitude, a spokesman says.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The Leonardo M-346 and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI)/Lockheed Martin T-50 are set to compete again for a U.S. Air Force order.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
The novel coronavirus pandemic has added complications to nations deploying on NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission to Lithuania and Estonia.
Budget, Policy & Operations

SPACEX was forced to postpone planned launch of manned Falcon 9 rocket to May 30 due to weather; test flight to Intl. Space Station will be first
Defense

By Tony Osborne
A U.S. Navy remotely operated vehicle has located the wreckage of a Canadian CH-148 Cyclone naval helicopter that crashed in the Mediterranean on April 29.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Lee Hudson
The U.S. Army Interim Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense program is a few months behind schedule because of a combination of software challenges and the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Missile Defense & Weapons

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

A Raytheon Technologies sensor payload for the first satellites in the U.S. Air Force’s next missile warning constellation has passed its preliminary
Defense

By Steve Trimble
New F-15EX and B-52 engine suppliers vie to compete for major orders.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne, Steve Trimble
The arrival of Russian fighters in Syria will bolster the capabilities of Libyan National Army forces and escalate an already tense Libyan civil war.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Tony Osborne, Jen DiMascio
The U.S. contends that Russia is not complying with the multinational arms control agreement and plans to withdraw within six months.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Bill Carey
NASA’s return to flying astronauts from U.S. soil to the International Space Station, delayed on May 27 due to weather constraints, has required the FAA to impose temporary flight restrictions (TFR) in the launch area that it has not used since the space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011.
Space

By Irene Klotz
NASA and SpaceX are retargeting launch of the crewed Demo-2 flight test for 3:22 p.m. EDT May 30 after dicey weather at Kennedy Space Center prompted a scrub 16 min. before a liftoff attempt on May 27.
Space

By Steve Trimble
A new proposal to prototype and field palletized munitions on U.S. Air Force C-17s and C-130s starting as early as next year is under discussion by the Air Staff despite recent objections over such a concept made by the head of Global Strike Command.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. Navy has expanded a search for a new multi-engine, fixed-wing training system to include remanufactured aircraft, Naval Air Systems Command said on May 26.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Mark Carreau
SpaceX plans to evaluate a new dimming feature called VisorSat for its growing global constellation of Starlink broadband connectivity satellites, whose disruptive brightness in the night sky has raised the ire of professional and amateur astronomers.
Space

By Tony Osborne
Finland has made formal requests to the U.S. for Foreign Military Sales of both the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and the Lockheed Martin F-35 as part of the country’s HX fighter procurement process.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Tony Osborne
Airbus has certified automatic low-level flight capability for the A400M, clearing another hurdle in the development of the airlifter’s tactical capabilities.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
Concerns about deficient and delayed KC-46As for the U.S. Air Force have spread beyond the Senate’s defense-focused committees.
Aircraft & Propulsion