Defense

NASA has selected 16 wide-ranging science investigations and technology demonstrations for launch next year as the first payloads to be delivered to the Moon’s surface by two of 14 companies qualified by the agency for lunar missions under NASA’s $2.6 billion, 10-year Commercial Lunar Payload Services programs.

Ad Astra Rocket Co. is poised to bring the company’s Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket electric propulsion system to a Technical Readiness Level of 6.

Poland’s government will sign a $4.6 billion contract for 32 Lockheed Martin F-35As on Jan. 31, Minister of National Defense Mariusz Błaszczak announced Jan. 27.

The U.S. defense research agency awarded Northrop a $13 million, one-year contract under the Glide Breaker program.

Astronauts on the fourth spacewalk to repair the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer found signs of a leak.

Japan is boosting its space exploration budget.

The whistleblower contends Lockheed Martin has been applying a chemical to seal the C-130J’s integral fuel tank that may have long-term health consequences for those applying it and others nearby.

A U.S. Air Force low-cost unmanned aircraft system demonstrator returned to flight on Jan. 23 after a three-month hiatus caused by a landing mishap.

President/CEO John Holmes talks labor shortages, the MAX crisis, technological enablers and lucrative opportunities.

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), one of two large warship manufacturing companies for U.S. naval services, is continuing to make headway in its efforts to diversify its business portfolio with a major new U.S. Air Force contract to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

Most in industry and government see high-level, multinational efforts as a pipe dream, leaving airlines to fend for themselves.

IPOs, mergers and strategic moves reshuffle industrial landscape for Israeli aerospace.

Following a successful demonstration of Dragon’s launch abort system, SpaceX is in the home stretch for a crewed flight test.

Israel’s precision weapons are sold all over the world, but struggled to break into world’s most lucrative market until recently

Optical sensors have joined Israel’s elaborate and increasingly more powerful air surveillance network

RIP Boeing Phantom Express; UK offloads AWACS aircraft; CMV-22B delivery imminent; UK upgrading training helo requirements.

AVIATION WEEK NETWORK forecasts the world’s fleet of western-designed fighter aircraft will generate $321.6 billion in maintenance, repair and

Total deal value in 2019 grew 62% to almost $94 billion compared with 2018, PwC says.

General Atomics wants to turn the MQ-1C into a “mothership” for the Army’s future Air Launched Effects (ALE).

The dedicated final assembly line for the F-35C is intended to overcome production delays that emerged in 2019.

A new European helicopter show is being established through a partnership of the European Helicopter Association and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

The UK Royal Air Force has sent one of its Boeing E-3D Sentry airborne early warning aircraft for storage in the U.S. as it shrinks its operational fleet.

The European Commission has “prebooked” four Ariane 6s for Galileo positioning satellite launches, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton announced Jan. 22.

NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft has carried out its closest look yet at “Nightingale”—the nickname for the primary site on the asteroid Bennu where the mission is to gather a sample of surface material for a return to Earth in late 2023.

A Lockheed Martin C-130 air tanker has crashed in Australia during a firefighting mission, killing all three crewmembers on board.