Defense

“Everything remains in play,” Raytheon CFO Toby O’Brien said Oct. 25.

Defense minister Steven Vandeput said the F-35 had won out against the competing Eurofighter Typhoon on price.

Malaysia has conducted test firings of its Thales Starstreak short range air-defense missiles from new launchers.

The new site will make 100 actuation system components for 737 and 767-family aircraft using raw materials sourced in the UK, the company announced as it opened the plant Oct. 25.

The Russian aircraft industry went through another round of consolidation Oct. 25 as the country’s aircraft manufacturing conglomerate United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) fell under control of industrial giant Rostec.

Boeing Global Services increased revenue 14% in the third quarter (Q3) to $4.1 billion, and the strong environment combined with the folding in of parts distributor KLX led the company to raise full-year revenue guidance to $16 billion-$16.5 billion.

SpaceX has signed two new commercial customers for Falcon Heavy launches, while competitor United Launch Alliance (ULA) has nabbed a sole-source Delta IV Heavy launch contract from the National Reconnaissance Office.

Top-line growth in its defense and services businesses helped Boeing offset production-related challenges in its Commercial Airplanes unit.

Capital Alpha Partners’ Byron Callan Byron Callan talks with our editors about the latest hot topics in defense.

KC-390 nears operational capability; Indian Navy chooses Barak 8; Israel nears heavy helo decision; Indonesia wants a break on KF-X, and Raytheon’s Amraam boost.

Will this wave continue? The prudent answer is “yes”—but with lots of caveats.

“We see T-X as a market for about 2,600 aircraft in addition to ground-based trainers and other support and services,” Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg says.

NASA is soliciting input from U.S. companies on requirements for commercially re-supplying the human-tended, lunar-orbiting Gateway it plans to begin assembling in 2022.

Rather than NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, who were aboard the aborted Oct. 11 flight from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Roscosmos will fly the previously scheduled crew.

The FAA will evaluate Iridium’s new Certus satellite broadband service before approving it for Future Air Navigation System (FANS)-based communications between pilots and air traffic controllers in oceanic airspace.

The 18-month, €40 million ($46 million) study will examine the architecture and technologies required for the successor ship to the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle.

The new helicopters will join the air force’s existing fleet of H225Ms for search-and-rescue and troop transport missions.

India has awarded a $777 million contract to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to supply the maritime version of its Barak 8 air and missile defense systems for seven ships of the Indian navy.

Yearly, China introduces systems to find, track and attack U.S. targets beyond the first chain of islands to its east; and yearly, the deployed numbers rise.

Shipborne rolling vertical landing was developed to yield payload bring-back benefits and reduce engine wear.

Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the council, said Oct. 23 during a meeting of the National Space Council that the work has just begun.

Brazil’s civil aviation authority (ANAC) has approved the type certificate for the Embraer KC-390, a key step towards a scheduled full operational capability milestone next year, company and government officials said.

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton told reporters in Moscow that the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty will be formalized in “due course."

Global Eagle Entertainment said it has demonstrated communications at broadband speeds between an aircraft and a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite for the first time.

Strong organic sales in both its Pratt and Whitney and UTC Aerospace Systems businesses helped push United Technologies Corp. revenues up 10% in the third quarter.