In Pictures: Top Aerospace & Defense Stories, Mar. 09 2023

Credit: Air National Guard. Between fiscal 2021 and 2022, the U.S. Air Force retired 29 F-15C/D Eagles as the aging fighters experienced severe structural problems and other issues that lowered the mission capable rate to 45.7% for the single-seat variant. 

Credit: U.S. Air Force. The U.S. Air Force recently deployed F-22s to a tiny, bare base in the Pacific for the first in a significant demonstration of its new agile operating concept.

Credit: NASA. The U.S. Space Force has selected four startups to reactivate idled launch complexes at Cape Canaveral as part of a new strategy to stimulate and support commercial companies.

Credit: American Lithium Energy. Advanced battery producer American Lithium Energy has secured $13.2 million in funding to expand its U.S.-based manufacturing capacity.

Credit: Jet Propulsion Laboratory. President Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget proposal includes $27.2 billion for NASA, a $1.8 billion, or 7.1%, increase over current-year spending.

Credit: Boeing/James K. Lee. Boeing and the U.S. Space Force have demonstrated a ground-based anti-jam satellite communications capability using an on-orbit satellite.

Credit: Lockheed Martin. On Feb. 21, officials from the Indonesian Air Force (IDAF) accepted delivery of the service’s first C-130J-30 Super Hercules.

Credit: Boeing. The U.S. Air Force is pressing ahead on its desire for an Advanced Tactical Trainer (ATT) to bridge the gap between initial trainers and combat aircraft while also giving pilots a cheaper opportunity to fly more often.

Credit: NASA. The Apollo program raised questions about the origins of the Solar System and life on Earth that only the Artemis lunar return can answer, according to a panel of lunar scientists speaking on the opening day of this week’s Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium.

Credit: NASA. NASA’s four-person U.S., Japanese and Russian SpaceX Crew-5 Dragon flyers are scheduled to depart the International Space Station (ISS) early March 11 for a splashdown in the ocean waters off the Florida peninsula at 9:19 p.m. EST, to bring a more than five-month mission to a close.

Credit: Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images. French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation said it expects to deliver 15 Rafale fighter jets and 35 Falcon business jets in 2023, but forecast net sales would be down on last year with its focus squarely on working with its suppliers.

Credit: Ferrovial Vertiports. The CEO of Ferrovial Vertiports has called for an industry-wide pivot to focus on building out an ecosystem of infrastructure and services to accommodate the expected arrival of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles by the middle of the decade.

Two MiG-31Ks fly over the MAKS air show carrying Khinzal air-launched ballistic missiles.