Defense

The Sea-based X-band radar (SBX-1) is now receiving repairs and capability upgrades at its unofficial operating hub at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii.

Despite the U.S. Defense Department’s near-term emphasis on the test and development of rocket-boosted hypersonic glide weapons, most proponents of high-speed defense doctrine concur that mastery of air-breathing technology is critical to the longer-term viability of Mach 5-plus tactical systems.

Planning an enlarged acquisition of F-35s, the Japanese defense ministry hopes local industry can gain a larger share of manufacturing in the program.

NATO says it plans to take delivery of the first UAV platforms of its long-delayed Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system by year’s end.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is seeking information on the domestic capability to produce small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) and components.

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is seeking information on the domestic capability to produce small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) and components.

Sierra Nevada Corp. has selected United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan Centaur as the launch vehicle for its winged, reusable Dream Chaser cargo carrier.

The two Koreas are both making strides in ballistic missile technology. The latest North Korean weapon looks similar to, but larger than, South Korea’s KTSSM.

The House Appropriations Committee’s mark of the fiscal 2020 defense appropriations bill cuts $80 million from the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray, citing excess to need.

The U.S. Navy is rallying Congress to not cut fiscal 2020 funding for weapons programs like the hypersonic glide body, which if the reduction stands would delay the program for a full year.

With volatility rocking the financial markets and warnings of the first economic downturn since the Great Recession growing, new reports from credit rating agencies are measuring how the aerospace and defense industries rank.

NASA will invest $400,000 in each of two nine-month secondary mission concept studies involving the Sun.

DARPA has formally launched a program to build and fly an X-plane designed around active flow control, potentially eliminating the need for moving control surfaces.

French air navigation service provider (ANSP) DSNA has joined a consortium of European ANSPs participating in the Iris satellite-based data link program, Inmarsat announced Aug. 14.

British smallsat launch company Orbex has been chosen to launch a demonstrator satellite from the planned Sutherland, Scotland, site in 2022.

A 12-year-long, $1.1 billion project to replace structurally weakened wings on 173 A-10s ended last month, the U.S. Air Force announced on Aug. 12.

The $380 million deal will include 12 launchers, two radars and 240 Tamir missiles.

Bahrain has signed agreements to purchase Raytheon’s Patriot ground-based air and missile defense system.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force introduced two types of Russian general-purpose bombs into service with its Sukhoi Su-30MKM Flanker fighters following a recent live fire exercise.

Eurofighters are benefiting from upgrades provided through national, multinational and industrial approaches.

United Technologies (UTC) and Raytheon are working hard to convince shareholders to approve their mega-merger.

The USAF has quietly awarded a contract to York Space Systems using its Space Enterprise Consortium for Tetra-3, a microsatellite that will be used to prototype missions and tactics, techniques and procedures.

Confronted with unexpectedly rocky terrain, NASA’s Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return mission will spend an additional four months assessing its target, the primitive 500-m-wide planetary object Bennu.

A decade-long effort to upgrade Russia’s Mi-28N attack helicopter recently paid off, with a Russian government order for 98 Mi-28NMs, with deliveries through 2027.

Cowen & Co. analysts think offensive hypersonics alone could be $1.5-3 billion a year by the mid-2020s.