Italy

Italy’s Guardia di Finanza financial police agency has ordered a P.180 Avanti EVO twin-engine turboprop to supplement its fleet.

The first serial production-representative AW09 single-engine light rotorcraft, codenamed S6, took to the air on Aug. 8 from Leonardo’s Vergiate manufacturing facility near Milan.

The Canadian Space Agency has awarded three contracts worth C$14.6 million ($10.6 million) in total to study different lunar rover designs.

MBDA has handed over the first Aster air and missile defense interceptors.

Work is progressing on the UK’s big delta-wing fighter demonstrator, designed to derisk development of the trinational Global Combat Air Program.

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

L3Harris has agreed to work with Italian electronic warfare specialist ELT Group on a multi-sensor test site in Italy.

BAE Systems appears to have adopted a modestly swept, cropped delta wing planform for a combat air demonstrator.

Missile programs and procurement are at the heart of a renewed defense cooperation agreement between France and the UK.

Defense ministers from the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) partner nations have reaffirmed ambitions to get the combat aircraft on contract by year-end.

The four-nation Eurofighter combat aircraft is “still very much in the game” for potential export sales to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, says a UK government minister.

The industrial joint venture company that will build the tri-national combat aircraft at the heart of the Global Combat Air Program has been christened Edgewing.

Startup AAM operator Future Flight Global (FFG) signed a pair of agreements at the Paris Air Show aimed at building out its future air taxi business.

U.S. FBO company Signature Aviation and Italian vertiport startup UrbanV have partnered to explore the development of a network of vertiports across the U.S.

Airbus says talks are underway on how to evolve the Eurodrone program in terms of missions and participants, in part to reflect lessons from current conflicts.

The Italian Air Force has begun to transition pilot training from the Aermacchi MB-339 to the new Leonardo M-345.

Five additional NATO members have joined a coalition of western countries aiming to help Ukraine bolster its electronic warfare capabilities.

Finland says it is spearheading an EU effort to apply quantum technology to make PNT programs more jam-resistant and to enhance missile warning.

Vertiport startup UrbanV and future air taxi operator Future Flight Global have announced a partnership to operate eVTOL air taxis.

A Leonardo executive has confirmed reports that it is in talks with Kawasaki Heavy Industries to integrate its systems into the P-1 maritime patrol aircraft.

BAE Systems officials have hinted at further progress in the assembly of the Future Combat Air Demonstrator aircraft.

NATO is working on finalizing a stand-in jamming capability code that could provide an impetus for more member states to introduce such systems.

The growing threat to space systems is driving a demand for greater resilience, argues the Luftwaffe’s head of space command.

Italy and Spain are testing the limits of what qualifies as military expenditure in their efforts to meet NATO’s 2% of GDP defense spending target.

Italian Army Aviation has begun the modernization of its light helicopter fleets with the delivery of the Leonardo UH-169D light utility helicopter.