Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Dispersed vertical-insertion operations within enemy target areas could counter strategies to strike U.S. forces with missile salvos, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
A U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) Airbus A330 Voyager aerial refueling aircraft has been conducting clearance trials with the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter which will allow the fighter to refuel from the tanker.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
Airbus Helicopters U.K. has been chosen to provide helicopters for the U.K.’s Military Flight Training System (MFTS).
Defense and Space

NORTHROP GRUMMAN declared quarterly dividend of $0.90 per share on the company’s common stock, a 12.5% increase from ...

The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) program is in the process of briefing U.S. Strategic Command to ...

By Molly McMillin
AE Industrial Partners, a private equity investor in aerospace, power generation and specialty industrial companies, has acquired AC&A, a manufacturer of composite and metallic parts and tooling. The price was not disclosed.
Defense and Space

Human-exploration managers at NASA hope to begin ground-testing a prototype habitat in 2018 for eventual use by Orion-vehicle astronauts in orbit around the Moon.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
The U.K. is planning to build a future force of four front-line F-35 squadrons, now that the country has committed to a fleet of 138 aircraft.
Defense and Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA’s super pressure balloon (SPB) experiment surfed a westerly flow of high-altitude winds above the southwest coast of Australia May 19.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
Sikorsky and the American Helicopter Society (AHS) International, which offered the human-powered helicopter prize finally won in 2013, have launched a “Hover for a Day” challenge to achieve new levels of helicopter efficiency and reliability.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
Bell Helicopter is moving production of its new Model 505 JetRanger X light helicopter from the U.S. to Canada as part of a restructuring that will “optimize manufacturing capabilities,” the company says.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
Leonardo Helicopters is expanding the flight envelope of the AW169 intermediate twin-engine helicopter, with flight tests planned in Leadville, Colorado, to determine single-engine Category A performance in hot-and-high conditions.
Defense and Space

By Jay Menon
India’s indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), meant to replace the country’s aging Soviet-era MiG-21 fleet, is running behind schedule for induction into the Indian air force (IAF).
Defense and Space

A European service module destined to fly on NASA’s Orion multipurpose crew vehicle in 2018 is starting to take shape at Airbus Defense and Space in Bremen, Germany.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
European missile manufacturer MBDA has been awarded a four-year, £411 million ($599 million) contract by the U.K. defense ministry to develop the Spear III turbojet-powered small-diameter missile for the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.
Defense and Space

To match the rate of global naval development, the U.S. needs to shift into a much higher gear, says Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
Venture capital interest in entrepreneurial space startups is also providing new investment and renewed hopes for companies that have been developing small launch vehicles for several years on slender resources.
Defense and Space

LEONARDO-FINMECCANICA unveiled TH-119 training variant of AgustaWestland AW119 single-engine helicopter for ...

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and Aerojet Rocketdyne have completed full power, full-duration tests of the ...

By Graham Warwick
Losing JMR bidders AVX Aircraft and Karem Aircraft plan key tests for their designs supported by funding from the U.S. Army.
Defense and Space

By Mark Carreau
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station supervised a final round of CubeSat deployments on May 18, having dispatched 17 small sats in all over three days with a NanoRacks deployer for a range of missions.
Defense and Space

By Jen DiMascio
The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) program is in the process of briefing U.S. Strategic Command to transition into an early combatant commander use period, according to a U.S. Army officer.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
Saab is confident of achieving a flight test program with just one-third of the flying hours taken to test the original Gripen. First flight is planned by the end of the year.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
Austrian general aviation manufacturer Diamond Aircraft Industries flew its DART-450 civil/military turboprop trainer for the first time on May 17.
Defense and Space

By Jefferson Morris
Unlocking the true potential of unmanned systems will require building greater trust of the systems among users, according to a panel of military unmanned systems leaders speaking at the recent Sea-Air-Space symposium here.
Defense and Space