Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

A NASA report foresees a human return to the lunar surface by the late 2020s with an evolving U.S. commercial and global partnership that opens the way to Mars.

The incident involving the Lockheed Martin-built, single-engine fighter resulted in no damage to the aircraft or injury to the pilot, says a spokesperson for the VFA-125 naval strike fighter squadron.

All indications point to a massive Israeli air campaign against Iranian efforts to build a missile production facility in Syria.

A new look at the origin of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, using data gathered by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), supports an impact theory.

High-profile drone and software provider Airobotics of Israel has opened an office in Scottsdale, Arizona, that will become the startup’s global headquarters.

India’s national space agency is working to usher in an era of high-speed internet connectivity with the launch of three heavyweight comms satellites by 2020.

Sat tracking, data and comm provider Blue Sky Network has acquired Applied Satellite Engineering, a designer and manufacturer of advanced sat comm equipment.

NASA’s budget represents one half of one percent of the federal budget, Administrator Jim Bridenstine says. “If we had a full 1% of the federal budget you can imagine the impact we would have.”

Boeing has received the first installment of $2.38 billion the U.S. Air Force will spend on the Huey replacement effort.

Defense Secretary James Mattis says the S-300 missile system keeps Assad in a position of obstruction.

The Pentagon’s innovation unit has hired Silicon Valley veteran Michael Brown as its new managing director.

ISS Commander Drew Feustel and astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor, both of NASA, are to command the station’s Canadian robot arm to grapple the Japanese cargo capsule upon rendezvous on Thursday, Sept. 27, at about 8 a.m. EDT.

L3 Technologies continues to invest in the unmanned maritime systems space, acquiring ASV Global, LLC, an unmanned surface vessel and autonomous vessel control systems company.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) will have to use “special tactics” to overcome expected restrictions to be posed by the Russians in Syrian airspace.

Airbus has partnered with German company AMSilk to develop a composite material based on a synthetic spider-silk fiber.

India has test-fired the indigenously developed Prahaar surface-to-surface short-range tactical ballistic missile.

Two Japanese mini-rovers touched down on the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu early Sept. 22 and are in motion and transmitting imagery.

UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORP. has U.S. Defense Logistics Agency contract worth up to $2.46b to supply Air Force depot-level repairables, consumable parts.

U.S. trackmaker Workhorse Group has formally begun the process to sell the SureFly operating unit that is developing a hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft.

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HARRIS CORP. has $9.7m U.S. Air Force contract for continued space control depot support.

India’s national defense research agency conducted the first trials of a lightweight, homegrown anti-tank guided missile on Sept. 15 and 16 at the Ahmednagar test range in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

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The additional funding allows ATEC and GE to keep a small number of engineers working over the next six months on minor improvements to their competing engine designs.