Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Release of the hexagonal mobile explorers from the bottom of the mothership came at 12:06 a.m. EDT, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The U.S. faces an uphill battle for hypersonic supremacy, warns Michael Griffin, the Pentagon’s new undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.

The U.S. Navy rapidly delivered and approved the use of additive manufactured dorsal assembly ribs to keep T-6B Texan II training aircraft in the air.

The French air force is gearing up for the entry into service of the single-turboprop Pilatus PC-21, which will become its mainstay in pilot and weapon system officer (WSO) training.

The service “is considering a number of options to keep the MRTT relevant, safe and effective in the modern battle space, including advanced technologies such as automatic boom refueling and communication-node capabilities,” a spokesperson said.

The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) has ordered four more H225M Caracal utility helicopters, taking acquisitions of the type beyond a target set when the program began in 2012.

Russia’s TsAGI aerohydrodynamic research institute is studying superconducting motors as a way of improving the performance of electric and hybrid-electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

BOEING has $92.5m U.S. Army contract for engineering, analysis and support for AH-64 Apache, A/MH-6M Little Bird, H-47 Chinook.

The Japan Self Defense Force and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) have verified the ability of the newest version of ballistic missile defense (BMD) on a recently upgraded Japanese destroyer in the Pacific Ocean.

View the Fleet Snapshot: Russian Air Force Manned C4ISR Aircraft chart in PDF format.

This is XTI’s third campaign on Startengine.com to help finance a full-scale prototype of its TriFan 600 ducted-fan vertical-takeoff-and-landing business aircraft.

The U.S. government has blacklisted the head of China’s military arms procurement organization and the agency itself for buying Russian Su-35 fighters and air defense systems.

Software development companies in separate announcements on Sept. 20 described products designed to detect and track drone swarms and to monitor areas near airports to help prevent against bird strikes.

The Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm was the last operator of the Sea King, flying the Mk. 7 version. Two of the helicopters made a farewell flight from their home base at RNAS Culdrose Cornwall on Sept. 19.

The air forces of Germany and the UK have signed agreements which will see their Eurofighter communities working more closely.

NASA’s New Horizons team is planning the most distant planetary object flyby ever on Jan. 1, 2019.

“You have to be able to go to space more frequently with less lead time,” Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos says.

Deployment of the two Minerva landers was scheduled for Sept. 21 between midnight and 12:30 a.m. EDT.

The more the U.S. Navy adopts multi-domain operations for unmanned platforms from a carrier, the more the service is going to need greater connectivity across the force, says Sean Stackley, L3 Technologies corporate senior vice president.

Leonardo and South Africa’s Paramount Group are to study a potential armed version of Leonardo’s M345 jet trainer for the African market.

AEROKOOL AVIATION CORP. has $8.2m U.S. Navy contract for repair of F/A-18 turbines.

During a presentation at the Air Force Association’s annual symposium, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell struck an atypically militaristic tone for the leader of a commercial space company.

The latest Skunk Works concept is likened to Lockheed’s losing proposal for the U.S. Navy’s MQ-25 tanker program, but with some major differences.

U.S. Air Force is pondering further upgrades for the Boeing B-52H fleet, including a concept that reduces the crew to four positions and eliminates the below-deck workstations.

The U.S. Air Force is planning to use what are essentially government credit cards to work with small businesses.