LOCKHEED MARTIN delivered 30th upgraded LEONARDO Merlin Mk. 2 helicopter to U.K. defense ministry July 28 at Leonardo facility in Yeovil. HINDUSTAN AERONAUTICS LTD. (HAL) flew first DASSAULT Mirage-2000 fighter upgraded to final operational configuration by HAL on July 28. SPACE SYSTEMS LORAL will build SXM-7 and SXM-8 satellites for SiriusXM, replacing XM-3 and XM-4 satellites in 2019 and 2020, serving 30.6m North American subscribers.
Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has developed an inspection and repair robot to significantly reduce the manhours required in final-assembly and operations of its LMH-1 heavy-lift hybrid airship. The autonomous Spider (Self-Propelled Instrument for Damage Evaluation and Repair) has inner and outer halves that magnetically couple through the airship envelope and traverse the inflated hull together. The outer half shines a light on the surface of the hull.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is having a difficult time maintaining its traditionally high percentage of research and development spending as the cost of buying, operating and supporting developed weapons claims an ever greater portion of its budget top line.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. For a complete list of Aviation Week Network’s upcoming events, and to register, visit www.aviationweek.com/events (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Aug. 1-3—World Congress On GIS and Remote Sensing Global Conference, New Orleans, Lousiana. For more information go to http://gis-remotesensing.conferenceseries.com/
The survival of human explorers on Mars will depend in part on how well experts size up the Red Planet’s environmental risks and resources, a NASA astronaut says.
“I think the future is optionally manned right now,” said USMC aviation chief Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, speaking about the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program
Researchers associated with NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission propose the seasonal thawing of carbon dioxide frost as the mechanism for pervasive gully features on the Red Planet.
South Korea has selected the new Angara 1.2 rocket to lift a high-resolution radar satellite to low Earth orbit in 2020 in a deal that marks the first commercial contract for Russia’s next-generation light launcher.
The U.S. Army has moved quickly to adopt Special Operations Command’s degraded visual environment pilotage system (DVEPS) as an “interim” brownout solution for its helicopters.
U.S. defense technology and services conglomerate L-3 Communications is nearing the end of a major restructuring effort but increasingly is eyeing new, albeit relatively small, acquisitions, executives said July 28.
For only the fourth time in its 31-year history, the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) has selected a U.S. city to host the organization’s annual Planetary Conference.
U.S. helicopters and tiltrotors landed on an Australian amphibious ship during this summer’s Rim of Pacific (Rimpac) exercise off the Hawaiian coast, showing the two navies can marry their aviation and sea operations during sophisticated drills.
Thales will sell its half share of defense electronics business Hanwha Thales to partner Hanwha Group in a transaction that will strengthen the South Korean company’s leading position in the local defense market.
As nations gear up for potentially testier relationships in and around the Asia-Pacific in the wake of a recent tribunal decision nullifying Chinese territorial claims there, procurement of U.S. military aircraft and components continues to rise in Japan and Australia.
The head of U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command says it would be an “erroneous assumption” to presume that the Northrop Grumman B-21 is a one-for-one replacement for America’s longest continually serving nuclear-armed bomber, the “chipper” 55-year-old Boeing B-52H.
The repaired and upgraded atmospheric-test version of Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Dream Chaser mini-shuttle is ready to begin a test campaign this fall that will complete a “significant milestone” of the company’s old contract to develop a commercial crew vehicle for NASA.
