The Australian and Canadian governments say Chinese fighters have intercepted and harassed their maritime patrol aircraft, with one Chinese aircraft releasing chaff that was ingested into the engines of a Royal Australia Air Force P-8 Poseidon.
By Joe Anselmo, Michael Bruno, Byron Callan, Ron Epstein
Boeing’s space business notches a win, but many questions remain about the company’s long-term future. Listen in as analysts Byron Callan and Ron Epstein join the podcast.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury has called for enhanced European cooperation on defense procurement and for EU member states to be more supportive of Europe’s defense industry.
A high-speed sled was recovered after accelerating to around Mach 5.6 on a 10-mi.-long, 9-in.-wide monorail track in the New Mexico desert, the U.S. Air Force said on June 2.
Russia’s Progress MS-20 linked to the International Space Station’s (ISS) Russian segment on June 3, completing a two-orbit launch to docking to deliver a 3-ton cargo of propellant, drinking water, food and other supplies for the orbital lab’s seven crewmembers.
NASA plans to add five more Crew Dragon missions to SpaceX’s Commercial Crew flight services contract on a sole-source basis, as the agency continues to work with Boeing to certify a second transportation system to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
The U.S. Space Force this month will finalize its force design for how it will move the ground moving target indication mission from aircraft to space, with the plan to shape the 2024 budget request. The U.S. Air Force wants to retire its E-8C Joint Stars that currently serve in this role, with much of the capability to come from satellites. This plan faces several hurdles, however, not the least of which is physics.
Sukhoi and MiG have formally merged with parent company United Aircraft Corp., with both legacy Soviet fighter manufacturers having ceased to exist as separate entities as of June 1. “Strong and worldwide-known Sukhoi and MiG brands will last in the assembled aircraft, while their reputable design schools will continue to evolve,” said Sergey Chemezov, CEO of Rostec, UAC’s parent company.
Startup propulsion company Ursa Major announced June 2 that it is offering a 200,000 lb. thrust liquid oxygen and methane staged-combustion rocket engine called Arroway.
The Pentagon and the intelligence community are close to wrapping up a Space Strategic Review to outline the government’s policies for operations in space, including the mix of offensive and defensive systems and the extent to which they need to be classified.
Despite the fact that it won’t be declared operational for at least another two years, the Boeing KC-46A has flown thousands of operational missions and offloaded tens of millions of pounds of fuel under a plan that has freed up the troubled tanker to refuel 97% of receiver aircraft.
South Korea’s Defense Project Promotion Committee has OK’d spending KRW750 billion ($605 million) to upgrade the country’s MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles from the PAC-2 to the PAC-3 standard.
A Canadian procurement official on June 2 restated the government’s commitment to finalizing a contract by year’s end to buy 88 F-35As, but an industry executive raised new doubts that the goal could be achieved.
A discussion of the blockbuster movie’s aviation-geek-pleasing details, from the recreation of Lockheed Martin’s SR-72 concept to why Maverick didn’t fly the F-35 and more.
