Northrop Grumman

By Graham Warwick
Scaled Composites built the flying-wing UAS under a DARPA project to demonstrate hybrid propulsion.
Aircraft & Propulsion

Aviation Week Staff
INMARSAT gets Marine Corps sat connectivity award... CT-157 Siskin II factory acceptance... NORTHROP GRUMMAN announces new spacecraft positioning/navigation system...
Aerospace_Daily_departments

By Graham Warwick
Hybrid-electric Shepard; deployable electric high-lift; laminar-flow UAS; and Leonardo’s advanced tiltrotor.
Emerging Technologies

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. Marine Corps plans to reshape its aviation branch with the arrival of autonomous collaborative combat aircraft by 2030.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
Northrop Grumman has flown an experimental hybrid-electric uncrewed aircraft designed under a DARPA X-Prime project.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Vivienne Machi
Firefly Aerospace has made progress building and testing the major flight components of the future Eclipse medium-lift launch vehicle, CEO Jason Kim says.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Guy Norris
Lockheed is planning self-funded demonstration flights to show not only technical capability for rendezvous and proximity operations, but also the ability to do so “at scale."
Satellites

By Graham Warwick
Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Robert Wall
Demand for all sorts of missiles—from air defense interceptors to deep-strike weapons—is starting to flow through to the earnings of major defense companies.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Vivienne Machi
The U.S. Space Force has identified the 12 companies currently on contract to develop space-based interceptors ahead of a planned 2028 demonstration.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Brian Everstine, Steve Trimble
Aircraft procurement would more than double for the Navy under the new Pentagon spending plan.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Robert Wall
Northrop Grumman is moving as “expeditiously as possible” to get a new radar system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter into customers' hands, CEO Kathy Warden said on a company earnings call.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
Northrop Grumman says a previously undisclosed company-owned test aircraft has been sold to the USAF as part of a B-21 Raider production acceleration pact.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
A member of the PW500 turbofan family is selected for Northrop’s self-funded, single-engine CCA design, the company said.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
A funding boost allows the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to accelerate the Glide Phase Interceptor program from 2035 to 2031.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Steve Trimble
Air refueling testing has begun for the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, the U.S. Air Force said late April 14.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Irene Klotz
A new White House initiative to develop space nuclear power directs NASA to develop a minimum 20 kW fission reactor and fly a variant to the lunar surface by 2030,
Budget, Policy & Regulation

By Steve Trimble
A long-range, surface-to-surface ballistic missile for the U.S. Army will be recompeted.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Steve Trimble
Bahraini F-16 Block 70 achieves first air-to-air kill, intercepting Iranian drones amid regional tensions and missile attacks.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Vivienne Machi
The U.S. Space Force has picked 14 vendors to build space domain awareness satellites over the next decade for a new constellation in geosynchronous orbit.
Satellites

By Irene Klotz
Northrop Grumman plans to test a new nozzle for the Graphite Epoxy Motors (GEM) used on United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan and Atlas rockets.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
Northrop Grumman completed a new right of passage for aspiring Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) producers.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble, Guy Norris
An unidentified flying-wing uncrewed aircraft system was photographed and videoed at low altitude near Larissa Air Base, Greece, on March 18.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Vivienne Machi
A U.S. Space Force program to boost the capacity of military satellite communications in Arctic regions has been operationally accepted.
Satellites

By Guy Norris
Contrails and their effects—cited by scientists as the main source of non-CO2 climate emissions—are notoriously difficult to characterize and measure.
Emerging Technologies