Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance Force is gearing up for the first flights from its Italian base.

Congressional appropriators approved a $310 million budget in fiscal 2020 to jump-start a competitive development process for a Next Generation Interceptor.

Lockheed Martin formally opened a new assembly line for F-16 Block 70 aircraft in Greenville, South Carolina, on Dec. 17.

Funding for space situational awareness and position, navigation and timing were the biggest losers for space in the fiscal 2020 defense appropriations minibus.

The head of the U.S. Air Force’s space acquisition enterprise admits the establishment of a Space Force as a sixth armed service poses a challenge for

Lockheed Martin F-35As previously designated for Turkey will be converted to the U.S. Air Force fleet, congressional appropriators said on Dec. 17.

The bill would support the creation of a Space Force but cut roughly $32 million from standup costs.

A minor flight test incident in October did nothing to dampen enthusiasm for the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie in Congress.

House appropriators have agreed to partially reverse a proposed 50% cut to the USAF's requested fiscal 2020 budget for the Next Generation Air Dominance program.

A conference agreement by the House and Senate on Dec. 16 inserts at least three-quarters of a billion dollars in fiscal 2020 budget accounts linked to the U.S. military’s bulging hypersonic weapons portfolio.

U.S. House and Senate appropriations committees have agreed on a 2020 fiscal year budget package that includes $22.6 billion for NASA.

The U.S. House on Dec. 17 passed a spending bill that will provide $693.3 billion to the Pentagon in fiscal 2020.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off Dec. 16 to deliver a 15,000-lb., Boeing-built communications satellite into orbit.

The USAF is extending invitations to countries in the Indo-Pacific region that operate the F-35 to participate in Red Flag 2021.

The U.S. is ready for a “Christmas gift” from the North Koreans in the form of a long-range ballistic missile test, a USAF official says.

NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology research aircraft remains on track to make its first flight in 2021.

The amount of spending suggests a greater effort than put into previous concept designs earlier in this decade for the aircraft.

Selected U.S. Military Contracts For The Week Of Dec. 9 - 13, 2019

This week the U.S. Congress races to finish its business before the year-end recess

Daily Briefs

Worldwide Airbus C295 military fleets, excerpted from Aviation Week’s Fleet Discovery Database.

Boeing, citing “uncertainty” in when the 737 MAX will be cleared to return to service as a key factor, will suspend 737 production in January 2020.

The Czech Republic has ordered an additional pair of C295 turboprop airlifters from Airbus.

D-Orbit, an Italian startup aiming to provide orbital transportation and satellite decommissioning, claimed a new round of funding Dec. 16.

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