Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Jay Menon
Airbus has offered to transfer the final assembly line of its AS565 MBe Panther from France to India if it wins the bid for the country’s proposed naval utility helicopter (NUH).
Defense and Space

By Mark Carreau
Space marathoner Scott Kelly will retire from NASA on April 1, one month after setting two U.S. spaceflight records aboard the International Space Station and 20 years after his selection to the agency’s astronaut corps.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
French aerospace and defense firm Safran is looking at “potential options” for its security business after announcing plans to sell off its airport explosive detection business.
Defense and Space

By Bradley Perrett
An Australian company is proposing retractable floats for the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules to create a U.S. equivalent of the TA600 amphibious aircraft under development by Avic.
Defense and Space

By Maxim Pyadushkin
Russia will decrease its military presence in Syria, where it provides combat support for the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Defense and Space

By Mark Carreau
The National Aeronautic Association has selected the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory team responsible for the Dawn mission to the protoplanet Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres as the recipient of the 2015 Collier Trophy.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
A prototype of a laser system that enables UAVs to downlink data at high speed without complex equipment on the vehicle has been flight tested in the U.K.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
The Airbus Perlan Mission II team has begun pressurized flight tests of the Perlan 2 stratospheric glider ahead of an attempt to set a world altitude record this summer in flights from southern Argentina.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
An attempt to make the first “zero-carbon” flight across the Atlantic in a hybrid solar- and biofuel-powered aircraft has been tentatively scheduled for June.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
Intelsat General and L-3 Communications have demonstrated that a two-three times increase in data throughput for unmanned aircraft will be possible using Intelsat’s new-generation Epic communications satellites.
Defense and Space

View the Forecast Friday: Top 5 Tanker In-Service Fleets — 2016 - 2025 chart in PDF format.

LOCKHEED MARTIN has three-year, $52m U.S. Navy performance-based logistics contract to manage naval aviation tires with partner ...

Taiwan’s next advanced trainer will be indigenously developed.

Kepler Mission Manager Charles Sobek said March 11 the observatory will repoint itself into its forward velocity vector “instead of looking toward where it’s been” beginning in April.
Defense and Space

By Maxim Pyadushkin
The Russian government has approved the privatization of two key defense companies that are sanctioned by the West: Russian Helicopters and avionics specialist Concern Radioelectronic Technologies (KRET).
Defense and Space

By Jen DiMascio
Since Feb. 11, the U.S. Air Force has been trying to regain command and control of one of its weather satellites, Defense Meteorological Program (DMSP) Flight 19.
Defense and Space

By Jay Menon
India will launch 25 foreign satellites this year and next year using its indigenous launch vehicle as it strives to increase its presence in the global space launch market.
Space

The Defense Department (DOD) follows U.S. laws for UAVs, but must pass up potential training opportunities as a result, according to a recent report by the Pentagon Inspector General (IG) office.
Defense and Space

The U.S. Navy’s fiscal 2017 budget plan to cut a carrier air wing could affect the service’s future carrier force structure, according to a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.
Defense and Space

The U.S. Navy is still on course to establish a new Information Warfare Development Center (IWDC) in early 2017, says Rear Adm. Matthew J. Kohler Naval Information Forces commander.
Defense and Space

LOCKHEED MARTIN and U.S. Navy delivered fifth Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite to Cape Canaveral.

The UAE armed forces signed a $346 million contract to buy eight P.1HH HammerHead UAVs.

The Northrop Grumman-led team chosen last year to provide the U.S. Air Force’s first Long-range Strike Bombers ...

The engine is scheduled to help launch the first crew in an Orion capsule as early as 2021.
Defense and Space

By Jen DiMascio
The cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine is likely to come down because the U.S. Air Force chose Pratt & Whitney to make the engine for the B-21 bomber, says the chief of the F-35 program.
Defense and Space