U.S. space marathoner Scott Kelly urged graduates to find the courage to risk failure at times in their career pursuits and look out for their home planet in a weekend commencement address at the University of Houston.
India has successfully conducted the final test of its indigenously developed supersonic interceptor missile as part of its bid to develop a multi-layered ballistic missile defense system.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station began a three-day series of 17 CubeSat deployments on May 16, as the six-person orbiting lab embarked on its 100,000th orbit of the Earth.
The commanders of both air arms signed a letter of intent on May 5 that paves the way to the creation of a new exercise that will “teach selected fighter pilots technical and tactical skills” for the F-35.
RAYTHEON has $76m U.S. Navy contract for long-lead material supporting fiscal 2016-2018 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile Block I production. Work complete May 2018. LOCKHEED MARTIN has $7.7m U.S. Navy contract to complete component requalification, safety testing, IOT&E support analyses and telemetry development tasks for Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) for DDG 1000 destroyer’s Mk. 51 gun system.
Responding to criticism of “micromanagement of America’s national security institutions” by the National Security Council, House Armed Services Committee Chair Mac Thornberry (R-TX) has filed an amendment to the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill that would cap the size of the NSC at 100 people; it currently employs about 400. “I believe the traditional role filled by the NSC ... is essential and should continue,” Thornberry says. “History proves that 100 people are enough to get that job done.
India is on course to launch the Cartosat-2E and Cartosat-3 satellite missions over the next two years that will help refine the country’s urban planning and infrastructure development, a senior space scientist says.
BNSF Railway Company this summer will test low-level surveillance methods necessary for beyond-visual line-of-sight operations for small unmanned air systems (sUAS), a critical capability in the company’s plans for autonomous unmanned track inspections.
While recent “freedom of navigation” (FON) operations involving China have garnered most of the headlines lately, the Defense Department earlier this month released a list of all the nations whose territorial claims it challenged last year.
LOCKHEED MARTIN and NASA pressure tested Orion spacecraft’s Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) crew module, subjecting it to 1.25 times maximum pressure expected during deep space missions, or 20 lb. per square inch distributed over capsule’s inner surface. AEROJET ROCKETDYNE reported Q1 fiscal 2016 net sales of $356.9m compared to $323m for Q1 fiscal 2015. Net income was $5.1m, compared to net loss of $3.3m year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDAP was $52.1m, compared to $36.6m prior year.
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter pilots began flying four-ship combat training missions at Hill AFB in Utah early this month. Pilots used the aircraft’s computer networks to evade simulated threats and then worked as a team to detect and jam enemy radar. They took out targets from about 40,000 ft. “We’ll train to fly into contested environments where highly advanced enemy surface-to-air threats exist,” says Lt. Col. George Watkins, commander of the 34th fighter squadron. Hill AFB will house three F-35 squadrons, up to 78 aircraft by the end of 2019.
North America The House Armed Services Committee is again moving to defund the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS), providing just $2.5 million against the Pentagon’s $45 million request in the chairman’s mark of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. JLENS is a tethered aerostat designed for airborne early warning and control.
Problems with vehicle weight, integration with its Atlas V launch vehicle and new software requirements have pushed the first flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle into 2018, the company said Wednesday.
Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet emerging in second place, while the Eurofighter Typhoon came in third, having been judged last in three out of the four criteria, the officials said in Copenhagen on May 12.
While the U.S. Navy still plans to replace its EP-3 Aries with the MQ-4 Triton UAS, the intelligence community continues to want manned aircraft to fulfill some missions, those familiar with service aerial surveillance programs say.
To help keep its overtaxed fleet of F-18-related aircraft flying, the U.S. Navy earlier this month awarded Boeing about $24.6 million in deals for parts and components.
LOCKHEED MARTIN and RAYTHEON have U.S. Air Force contract modification for Paveway II production through July 27, 2023; value not to exceed $649.7m. RAYTHEON has $104.6m U.S. Air Force contract for technical refresh of Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) guidance section, to be complete by Feb. 28, 2017. MBDA’s Brimstone air-to-surface missile completed U.K. Royal Air Force operational evaluation trials during February 2016 at China Lake, CA.
Forecast International predicts the global fighter/attack/trainer retrofit and modernization market will reach $31.1 billion over the next decade, with the most valuable segment being electronics, expected to be worth $20.8 billion. Emerging technologies poised to make a major impact on the market include greater use of composite materials and gallium nitride, additive manufacturing and passive radar technology.
