Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Despite ongoing reforms, NASA has failed to accurately size up the value and performance of hundreds of reimbursable agreements.

Japan’s ruling party has called for the country to spend 2% of GDP, double the limit that Japan has observed for almost six decades.

At least 910 state and local police, sheriff, fire and emergency services agencies in the U.S. have acquired drones, a new study says.

The U.S. defense satellite market could reach $30.30 billion by 2023, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3%, a new forecast says.

“You do not need a high-end stealth fighter to destroy a narcotics factory. It is not a cost-effective way to combat violent extremism,” U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said during a May 29 speech at the Atlantic Council.

Virgin Galactic is expected to begin test plans for a longer duration rocket-powered flight of its SpaceShipTwo (SS2) VSS Unity suborbital spaceplane.

Retired NASA space shuttle astronaut Don Peterson, who participated in the first spacewalk aboard one of the winged orbiters, has died.

Japan has taken an initial step toward replacing its Bell AH-1S Cobra helicopters, seeking information from prospective suppliers.

NASA is exercising an option for production of the third and fourth JPSS satellites for the NOAA by Orbital ATK, of Dulles, Virginia, through 2026.

Airbus has created a new Urban Air Mobility (UAM) unit and opened itself to collaboration with other manufacturers.

Germany’s Siemens is stepping up its involvement in the growing electric aircraft market, supplying propulsion motors for projects in the U.S. and Europe.

India has concluded commercial negotiations with Russia to purchase five S-400 Surface-to-Air Missile systems despite serious U.S. concerns.

Kazakhstan is gradually expanding its fleet of Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30SM multirole fighters.

A multi-agency/contractor fault tree investigation is probing the degraded cooling performance of the Advanced Baseline Imager camera aboard NOAA's newest weather satellite.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Honeywell have jointly developed navigation systems to make military aircraft immune to GPS jamming.

The introduction of a fully redundant precision landing mode in the Super Hornet and Growler should eliminate the need for stick-and-throttle carrier landings.

LOCKHEED MARTIN has $558.3m U.S. Navy contract for sustainment support of low-rate initial production Lot 11 F-35 Lightning II aircraft.

Israel’s Tactical Robotics has conducted the first “mission-representative” demonstration of its Cormorant vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft system.

May 30-31—ap&m Europe, Olympia London, UK, http://events.aviationweek.com/current/Public/Enter.aspx

During Fleet Exercise 2017, two U.S. Navy Super Hornets were able to fuse data from multiple sensors on both aircraft in near real-time to form a “common tactical picture,” Boeing says.

The chairman and CEO of the parent company of iconic French business aircraft and fighter jet manufacturer Dassault Aviation died May 28 after suffering heart failure at his office in Paris.

Astronaut Alan Bean, who became the fourth person to walk on the moon during Apollo 12 and later flew on a record-breaking mission to the Skylab space station has died at age 86.

LOCKHEED MARTIN has $282m U.S. Army contract for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Support Center post-production support for the U.S., Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, and Republic of Korea.

India’s national space agency is targeting the launch of the GSAT-11 communication satellite for late June, after recalling the spacecraft from the launch site for additional checks. GSAT-11, a hefty 5,870-kg (12,940-lb.) satellite designed to provide a capacity of 12 gigabits per second, has been cleared for launch after a series of technical checks

AVIATION WEEK NETWORK forecasts that over the next 10 years 402 western-designed scout helicopters will be delivered, including both newly built aircraft and aircraft remanufactured for their new roles. At the same time 495 such helicopters will be retired.