Supply Chain

IT needs commercial vendors that understand the importance of cybersecurity on the ground as well as in space.

U.S. Air Force moves forward on LRSO and GBSD without a competitive bidding process.

The world’s largest defense contractor has issued another round of accelerated progress payments to its supply chain.

For KAI’s KUH-1 Surion helicopter program specifically, the delivery schedule and planned production quantities remain unchanged, a spokesperson says.

The first crewed flight test in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is targeted for a May 27 launch.

Ask the Editors: Senior Business Editor Michael Bruno answers.

How Lockheed exceeds expectations; Italians may buy AW169; U.S. Air Force fuel-saving solution; Russia studies light fighter.

The coming weeks and months will be full of big announcements about business changes. Here are three factors affecting A&D supply chains.

Deemed to be an essential service, defense manufacturing avoids pandemic shutdowns.

F-15QA’s vertical climb; a new Space Acquisition Council; how to deter China and Russia; and defense execs advise White House.

Heico leaders said late April 15 they have laid off “some” employees across their aerospace and defense supplier portfolio and have cut work hours and pay at subsidiaries, but they are trying to avoid mass-layoffs as the COVID-19 pandemic rolls back the worldwide aerospace business.

The U.S. Army plans to beef up legacy aviation platforms for future multidomain fight.

A linchpin of the Army’s aviation modernization is still on track, but pressure is growing.

No one uses the words apocalyptic or cataclysmic—yet—but without a doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on aerospace and defense manufacturing will

Howmet Aerospace has eight mostly smaller manufacturing plants that are closed because of the coronavirus, the company’s chief executive said late April 14, and more were shuttered in March when the Pittsburgh-based supplier was still part of Arconic.

Spirit AeroSystems—the primary supplier to Boeing including for much of the 737 MAX and which does substantial defense industry work—warned Wall Street on April 14 it will record a roughly $160 million loss for the recently ended first quarter of 2020, as well as a pretax loss of around $102 million.

The tiltrotor is entering a new phase of life with a series of significant upgrades.

Israel-based defense contractor Elbit Systems, which has a major U.S. subsidiary, acknowledged issues in its operations on April 13 and said it started carrying out unspecified “cost-control measures to help limit the financial impact on the company.”

A Lockheed Martin employee working at the Fort Worth facility where the F-35 is assembled died several days after informing the company he felt ill with COVID-19-like symptoms, Lockheed said on April 13.

Aerospace supplier Woodward is cutting the equivalent of 15% of its full-time workforce through the year as the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects ripple through the aerospace supply chain, the company quietly disclosed April 10.

Supplier Triumph Group late April 10 announced furloughs for around 2,300 employees across its plants in the U.S. and Europe for two-four weeks to cut work along with the current suspension of all Boeing Commercial Aircraft programs, and the company is laying off up to 700 more workers.

Arlington Capital Partners, a private equity group focusing on aerospace and defense, is bolting on more assets to its AEgis Technologies brand for U.S. national security customers.

Teledyne Technologies, a key supplier of aerospace instruments, digital imaging products and defense electronics, has warned Wall Street of a dramatic falloff in commercial aerospace business and that its full 2020 outlook will be ramped down due to the novel coronavirus.

The U.S. Air Force and Boeing agreed on a dramatically redesigned version of the KC-46 Pegasus tanker’s problematic Remote Vision System.

The Navy prepares to transfer the carrier onboard delivery mission from an aging high-wing aircraft to a tiltrotor.