As India moves into the new year, it plans a shift toward launching bigger space missions ranging from larger satellites aboard heavy-lift launchers to improved Earth observation spacecraft.
Flybe CEO Saad Hammad says RAF Northolt is an “underused national asset” that could be opened up to allow 300,000 passengers a year, rather than its current use as a London gateway for a “privileged few in executive jets.”
Evry, France-based Arianespace carried out six launches of the heavy-lift Ariane 5, three launches of the Europeanized Soyuz and three launches of the new Vega rocket in 2015, with the latter marking a three-fold increase over the previous year.
Dassault Aviation’s business jet unit saw reduced orders and deliveries in 2015, a disappointing year that was offset in part by new export contracts for the company’s Rafale combat jet.
Korea Aerospace Industries expects to receive a production contract for the amphibious assault version of the Surion utility helicopter in the first half of this year.
The U.S. Navy must focus on longer-term security threat trends and maintain its superiority in traditional areas like the undersea realm while securing new frontiers like the emerging cyber battlefield,the U.S. chief of naval operations says.
The U.S. Navy is using its foreign-basing plans for EA-18G Growlers and the current F/A-18E/F Super Hornet maintenance model as a sustainment template for the electronic attack aircraft, a Defense Department Selected Acquisition Report says.
Finmeccanica-owned companies such as AgustaWestland, Alenia Aermacchi and Selex ES have now been absorbed into the larger Finmeccanica entity and will operate as divisions rather than separate companies.
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has restored a domestic plutonium-238 production capability for future NASA deep space missions.
The U.S. Navy has awarded a $255.3 million contract to Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems for work on the third and final Zumwalt-class destroyer, the DDG 1002 Lyndon B. Johnson.
NASA characterizes tech transfer as one of its longest-running missions and touts the claim in the just-published 2016 edition of the agency’s annual Spinoff publication.
The aircraft—which has been carrying out development flying for more than a decade—received Russian certification from the Federal Air Transportation Agency on Dec. 30.
The £369 million ($547 million) contract will support the U.K. Royal Air Force’s C-130Js until 2022, despite the recent decision in the U.K.’s Strategic Defense and Security Review to keep 14 of the aircraft in service until 2030.
Even before the Fire Scout was embarked on the LCS 3 USS Forth Worth for its current Western Pacific deployment, the UAV had completed other overseas missions.
The contract appears to launch full-scale development of the KF-X with assistance from Indonesia. But it is unclear whether KAI can make much progress in 2016, since the defense ministry has secured very modest funding for the coming 12 months.
The Dec. 19 flyby was the last in a series of 22 close encounters between Cassini and Enceladus that have revealed a small, ice-covered, geologically active world with a global ocean.
Sustainment costs for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor are likely to be higher than those of previous aircraft performing similar missions, but the design differences of the aircraft make accurate comparisons difficult.
