Missile Defense & Weapons

Ask the Editors: Minimizing an aircraft’s cross-section is not necessary for all missions, and many weapons can be carried internally.

Sweden’s Saab has lifted the lid on an internally developed air-launched decoy which will also form part of its Gripen offer for Finland’s HX future fighter replacement requirement.

The first launch of Russia’s Angara A5 heavy rocket with a new booster is planned for 2021.

Artificial-intelligence agent sweeps the board in simulated dogfights with human F-16 pilot.

A mission set once reserved for Air Force fighters and bombers is open to all the services, sparking debate over resource duplication.

The U.S. Army is inching closer in fulfilling its vision of the Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) by awarding $29.75 million for 10 air-launched effects (ALE) projects.

Russia’s Almaz-Antey has used the Army2020 defense forum that opened near Moscow on Aug. 23 for the public debut of its new anti-ballistic defense capabilities.

America’s ambiguous position on a nuclear first strike could be headed for another review, depending on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

The practice of mining estuaries, harbors and other rmaritime chokepoints by aircraft began in World War II, but the low-altitude and slow-speed nature of the delivery mission has made it increasingly risky in modern warfare.

Ask the Editors: It is more destabilizing if our adversaries have them and we don’t.

A small cottage industry set up to support one-off experiments is now transforming into a billion-dollar sector of the missile market.

The acknowledgment is the clearest indication that Mayhem will serve as a testbed for dual-mode or turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) hypersonic propulsion systems.

Revealing the F-15EX’s first squadron; New F-16 sales; Russia orders Sukhoi upgrades; and NROL-44 scheduled for launch.

The U.S. Air Force’s nuclear weapons managers have started researching a key technology for an intercontinental range hypersonic glider.

Companies will have to ramp up internal R&D spending to keep pace.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

Readers write about NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, Japan’s Aegis Ashore plan and Boeing’s midmarket airplane strategy.

After about a four-month delay because of issues related to the spread of the novel coronavirus, the U.S. Army has completed a successful live-fire test of the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The new Mayhem program seeks to create a “larger-scale, expendable, air-breathing, hypersonic, multimission flight demonstrator,” according to an Air Force Research Laboratory request for information published on Aug. 13.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has charged Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, with leading a review of certification standards and industrial base gaps.

The U.S. Air Force and Canada have committed to improving the ground-based arctic surveillance system on watch for Russian missiles and bombers.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon will compete for the U.S. Air Force's future hypersonic cruise missile program.

A hypersonic glide vehicle program led by DARPA is now combined with the U.S. Air Force's AGM-183A program as the 419th Flight Test Sqdn. completes the last step ahead of powered booster flight tests later this year.

A two-year evaluation has coalesced into plans to field a sea-based interceptor as quickly as possible.

A Purdue University spinoff is to test an improved propellant for solid-fuel ramjet propulsion systems in hypersonic weapons under more than $1.1 million in contracts from the U.S. military.