The U.S. Air Force is whittling down upgrade options for the brand-new HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter fleet because new threats from China and Russia outpaced the design before delivery of the first aircraft.

Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury has said negotiations with partner nations and industry on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) have entered a “challenging” phase. 

The U.S. Air Force has begun retiring the aging B-1B to make room for the new B-21 bomber, but notably not all 17 Lancers slated for retirement will go to the boneyard.

The U.S. Air Force chief of staff envisions a 4.5-generation, or fifth generation “minus,” as the F-16 replacement.

Intellectual property appears to be at the heart of new disagreements between France and Germany over the Future Combat Air System, defense analysts have suggested.

The U.S. aerospace industry provided a foreign trade surplus of around $43 billion in 2020, the U.S. Commerce Department reported this month, a notable achievement amid the onset of COVID-19 but almost half the sector’s 2019 level.

Turkey’s defense industry organization, SSB, has signed agreements with local industry to produce power systems for the country’s future indigenous combat aircraft, TF-X.

Most details remain secret about the U.S. Air Force’s requirements for replacing the Boeing E-4B fleet, but two small details announced since December point to an acquisition of used 747s.