Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

France’s MQ-9 Reaper medium-altitude, long endurance (MALE) unmanned air vehicles (UAV), thus far used for surveillance purposes, will soon carry air-to-ground weapons.

Germany startup Lilium has received $90 million in investment to continue development of its electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) urban air transport aircraft.

Lockheed Martin is pursuing a close integration between the Orion crew capsule it is developing for NASA and the proposed lunar-orbiting Deep Space Gateway and follow-on Deep Space Transport.

The gates to NASA’s storm-drenched Johnson Space Center reopened Sept. 5, with space agency managers hopeful that operations will return to normal as soon as possible.

The Perlan 2 stratospheric glider flew to 52,172 ft. over the Andes Mountains on Sept. 3, establishing a new world altitude record for sailplanes.

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U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT approved possible $350m Foreign Military Sale to Australia ofMH-60R Multi-Mission Helicopter upgrade program. ISRAEL AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES delivered first LRSAM missile to India Aug. 27. CHARLES STARK DRAPER LABORATORY INC. has $36.9m U.S. Missile Defense Agency contract for technical and analytical support related to Guidance, Navigation and Control technologies.

President Donald Trump’s tax reform effort, kicked off Aug. 30, is being welcomed by defense industry advocates.

In observance of the Labor Day holiday in the U.S., Aerospace Daily & Defense Report will not be publishing on Monday, Sept. 4.

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The U.S. and South Korea have agreed to lift arbitrary restrictions on the range and payload of Seoul’s ballistic missile force.

LOCKHEED MARTIN has $71m U.S. Navy contract for electronic warfare equipment in support of Virginia-class submarines.

Startup Advanced Aircraft Corp. (AAC) plans to begin deliveries of its Hercules long-endurance multirotor small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) in December.

A contract awarded on Aug. 31 provides the first two of what will ultimately be 10 CH-53K squadrons.

The U.S. Air Force's OA-X experiment is not an aircraft-procurement program, and neither is a new initiative announced back in July, called Light Attack Support for Special Operations (LASSO).

Missile defense features prominently in the latest budget request of the Japanese defense ministry, with plans for acquiring Aegis Ashore and additional ground- and sea-based interceptors.

The Venµs spacecraft images 110 sites “of scientific interest” every two days at 5-meter resolution.

The Philippines has again requested bids for two maritime patrollers—barely 60 days after a similar exercise failed to find a qualified bidder.

Ohio State University is claiming a world speed record for unmanned aircraft with its Avanti UAV.

“The [spacecraft's] heat shield did not separate, as a result of which the satellite didn’t complete the fourth stage,” says A.S. Kiran Kumar, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization.

LOCKHEED MARTIN delivered 100,000th Paveway II Plus Laser Guided Bomb.

Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) are asking Defense Secretary James Mattis for specifics on how the U.S. military will be affected if it begins fiscal 2018 operating on a continuing budget resolution.

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Lockheed Martin Skunk Works is continuing to invest in low-cost attritable UAV platforms that could someday fly operations alongside manned fighters like the F-35.