Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Selected U.S. military contracts from the past week.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has invited Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to a Tuesday morning hearing in Washington to review the administration’s Iran policy.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

The investigation into Iran’s Jan. 8 downing of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752 is beginning to take shape, with participants from affected countries urging transparency and a thorough probe into the disaster.

Leonardo has won another key program in the U.S. Defense Department helicopter inventory.

First flight of Sierra Technical Services' Fifth Generation Aerial Target (5GAT) is scheduled for early 2020.

Air Transport Services Group (ATSG), a leading air freight services provider to Amazon, will try to raise up to $400 million in corporate debt to pay down revolving loans, the company said Jan. 13.

An Air China Boeing 737-800 recently completed a trial flight using China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system, which is nearing global coverage.

Thales and Leonardo, plans to study potential military uses of the Stratobus as part of a contract issued by the French defense materiel agency, DGA, and announced on Jan. 8.

The U.S. military is looking for an affordable, ground-based radar system to monitor deep-space activity.

"These astronauts could one day in fact walk on the Moon as part of the Artemis program," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said.

Britain’s Royal Air Force is gearing up to establish a squadron that will fly the air arm’s first swarming drone unit.

Woodward andHexcel have proposed a stock merger to create one of the largest independent aerospace and defense supplier.

Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) president Yevhenii Dykhne said airlines from all over the world were sending their aircraft to and from Tehran airport on Jan. 8, when a UIA-operated Boeing 737 was shot down by missiles.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has tested a wind tunnel model of a high-speed compound helicopter designed to cruise at 500 mph (270 kt

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

Iran has admitted accidentally shooting down a Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Boeing 737, flight PS752, backtracking on previous denials that it was responsible for the Jan. 8 crash, which killed all 176 people on board.

The Swiss government has issued a second request for quotations for new combat aircraft and ground-based air defense systems.

Boeing is facing a second civil penalty for installing unairworthy slat tracks on 737s—this one covering 178 MAXs.

The Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 (PS752) investigation appears headed for a major impasse as Iranian officials welcome international aircraft accident investigation experts to Tehran, even as they remove vital evidence of the Boeing 737’s wreckage and deny claims by foreign intelligence sources that the aircraft was shot down.

Industry Events Calendar

Spirit AeroSystems, the leading aerostructures provider and Boeing’s top supplier, announced Jan. 10 it is laying off 2,800 of its employees in Wichita due to t

U.S. Air Force will integrate the baseline version of the Northrop Grumman AARGM-ER on the Lockheed Martin F-35A, but as a testbed.

Singapore has opted to purchase the short takeoff and vertical landing version of the Lockheed Martin F-35.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.