Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

The U.S. Air Force is requesting information from industry on technologies that could produce lower-cost engines for future subsonic “Group 5” unmanned aircraft systems.
Defense and Space

EA-18G Growler acquisition costs increased $1.3 billion to $15.7 billion, or about 8.9%, due primarily to a $751.5 million charge for an additional seven aircraft.
Defense and Space

U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa has established a new command — Commander, Task Force 64 (CTF64) — focused on ballistic missile defense (BMD) in Europe.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
U.S. services’ plans to fly the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for longer than originally intended have pushed up the estimated total program cost, according to the Pentagon’s latest selected acquisition report (SAR).
Defense and Space

The U.S. Navy has already started working on ship changes and control station adaptations for the Carrier Based Aerial Refueling System (Cbars), according to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
The U.S. Army has begun firing different missile interceptors from a ground launcher designed by the service itself under what it says is “the first development of a major acquisition program by the organic government industrial base in 30 years.”
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
French aerospace research center Onera is studying an unusual hybrid-electric unmanned aircraft concept combining agility with a wide speed range and both vertical- and short-takeoff-and-landing (V/STOL) capability.
Defense and Space

OSHKOSH DEFENSE has $243.8m U.S. Army modification to previously awarded contract for 657 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles ...

The U.S. Army flight tested Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement at...

By Jen DiMascio
Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), a former A-10 pilot, worries that the U.S. Air Force intends to replace the close-air support specialty platform before it has the chance to compete directly with the F-35 for the job.
Defense and Space

By Mark Carreau
Support for a NASA Evolvable Mars Campaign strategy that would establish a single Exploration Zone on the Red Planet is growing, according to those within the agency nurturing the concept.
Space

By Michael Bruno
A Chinese aerospace businessman arrested two years ago as part of a years-long scheme to hack into the U.S. defense industry has pleaded guilty, the Justice Department has announced.
Defense and Space

Companies have started registering for the 52nd International Paris Air Show, which is slated to take place June 19-25 next year at the Le Bourget exhibition center northeast of the city.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
A high-power microwave weapon last tested in 2012 and capable of knocking out computer systems is being taken out of mothballs and refurbished for a new round of testing and possible early operational fielding.
Defense and Space

Paris-based Eutelsat has selected Space Systems/Loral (SSL) to produce the high-power Eutelsat 7C commercial communications satellite, the fleet operator’s fifth all-electric spacecraft.
Defense and Space

The Pentagon should consider treating the F-35 Block 4 as a new acquisition when it comes to requirements and reporting procedures, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.
Defense and Space

The U.S. Navy’s CVN 70 USS Carl Vinson has unveiled a new air traffic control simulator, the first of its kind installed in a Navy aircraft carrier.
Defense and Space

BOEING has $184.9m firm-fixed-price contract for Apache helicopter full-rate production Lot 7.

Consultancy Visiongain assesses that global demand for military armored vehicles reached ...

By Graham Warwick
“My estimation is the program will not be ready to begin IOT&E until mid calendar year 2018,” Pentagon testing chief Michael Gilmore told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday.
Defense and Space

By Jay Menon
The facility, to be fully owned and funded by Airbus Group India, will be the main center supporting India’s need for new Airbus pilots, says Srinivasan Dwarakanath, president of Airbus in India.

By Mark Carreau
Enigmatic Ceres, the largest main belt asteroid that was long ago robbed of full planet status by Jupiter’s powerful gravitational forces, is giving up its secrets to a grateful NASA Dawn mission team more than two centuries after its discovery.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
Canada is to develop a new defense strategy and, in its first budget since being elected in October 2015, the Liberal government has postponed planned purchases including new fighters and warships, arguing the procurements are not ready to proceed.
Defense and Space

By Jen DiMascio
Though the secretaries of the Navy and Air Force have called for faster approval of foreign military sales, the State Department official in charge of approving them does not see the process as slow.
Defense and Space

By Jefferson Morris
Orbital ATK’s Cygnus unmanned cargo spacecraft is on its way to a scheduled March 26 arrival at the International Space Station (ISS), following its launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral late March 22.
Defense and Space