“Customers are clear that they want to move high-end training into the T-X,” says Tom Conard, business development director for the company’ training and government services unit.
Winnefeld notes the Navy is developing programs for directed energy, rail gun weapons and similar technology that could apply to ballistic missile defense (BMD).
Both pilots ejected safely. According to a defense ministry spokesman, the twin-seater aircraft “was on a routine sortie when a technical problem forced the two pilots to abandon the fighter.”
NASA engineers have pared down the ablative Avcoat material that protected the unmanned EFT-1 Orion test article on its high-speed reentry, isolating samples that are being shipped to Ames Research Center in California for close analysis.
The House Appropriations Committee will consider a fiscal 2016 defense spending bill May 20 that would provide $578.6 billion for the military, including $88.4 billion for war efforts. The use of war accounts for additional defense spending is part of a budget deal that Congress has agreed on, but that agreement sets up a budget showdown with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the defense authorization bill unless Congress also increases funding for other federal agencies.
The three nations have signed up to a declaration of intent that will see the leading defense and aerospace companies in each country—Dassault Aviation in France, Airbus Defense and Space in Germany, and Finmeccanica in Italy—carry out a two-year definition study of MALE systems, before a decision is made to start development and procurement of the system.
The crash of an Airbus A400M airlifter that killed four people on May 9 may have been caused by new software that cut off the engine-fuel supply, industry sources have said.
Japan will make another attempt to drop-test a low-boom supersonic aircraft model beginning on June 29, at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden, following on the August 2013 attempt that ended when the aircraft lost control and was destroyed.
GE and PRATT & WHITNEY each have $105m U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory contracts to mature technologies toward system-level preliminary design reviews and compatibility reviews for Adaptive Engine Research Design program.
This Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee will mark up its version of the Commerce, Justice, Science bill for fiscal 2016 that funds NASA at $18.5 billion for the year and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at $5.2 billion. Meanwhile, on Tuesday in Washington the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a discussion on missile defense and U.S. national security featuring Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The 18-month DeSIRE II demonstration is being conducted by an industrial consortium led by led by Italian satellite firm Telespazio and aims to support the European standardization and regulatory activities surrounding the satellite communications-based command and control of UAVs, as EU regulators examine the requirements to allow the platforms in the same airspace as other traffic.
The changes have reflected internal disagreements about the vehicle’s mission and the extent of stealth technology to be incorporated into the platform.
ST. LOUIS—Boeing conducted four flight tests under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (Darpa) Triple Target Terminator (T3) program, Boeing Phantom Works President Darryl Davis said here May 18. The test vehicles, about the size of an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (Amraam), flew “faster and farther” than an Amraam, Davis said, but he did not provide any other details.
The June launch of Inmarsat’s third Global Xpress Ka-band communications satellite has been delayed, following a mishap involving Russia’s Proton M/Briz M launch vehicle.
NASA on May 18 issued a request for information (RFI) on a single spacecraft that could be used for the planned Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) and a notional robotic-servicing mission.
After a failed attempt two days earlier, thrusters on the Russian Progress 58 re-supply capsule docked to the International Space Station (ISS) fired for just over 32 min. on May 17, successfully raising the altitude of the six-person orbiting-science laboratory.
With certification under its belt, the company is able to proceed with the initial deliveries of the first two aircraft to the German air force later this year.
Airbus deployed a single Caracal, destined for the Brazilian navy, to Powidz, Poland, on May 14 to begin trials to check that the performance of the aircraft lives up to the promises made by the company in its tender.
NASA’s Space Launch System program manager says the main risk to the heavy rocket's scheduled November 2018 debut is an installation problem encountered by crews at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
The recent test shots, known as “no-loads” because no aircraft or other loads were attached to the launching shuttle, successfully demonstrated the integrated catapult system, which is designed to launch all current and future planned carrier aircraft.
As a first step, the U.S. Air Force will be pushing for a more-open systems architecture in Block 4, the first post-service-entry upgrade for the F-35.
