Defense and Space

Aerojet Rocketdyne is building as a subcontractor the newly branded Zeus booster system for the low-cost Erinyes hypersonic vehicle launched by Kratos Defense.

The Pentagon expects to go to Congress with a supplemental funding request next year to increase its budget if inflation continues at a high rate, and a senior defense official is cautioning against lawmakers adding more unsustainable spending for fiscal 2023 as a simple step to address inflation.

The Pentagon is reprogramming almost $1.5 billion from newly authorized Ukraine assistance funds to replenish its Javelin anti-tank munition stocks and order new Stinger anti-aircraft missiles for the first time in two years as the department moves forward on their replacements.

Switzerland’s government is committed to signing a contract to buy its planned fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters by the end of March 2023, before an offer deadline expires.

The CEO of Avio does not see any problem in the medium term regarding supply of the RD-843 engines that power its upgraded Vega C light launcher, despite their Ukrainian origin.

France has ordered an additional 21 Talios optronic targeting pods for its fleet of Dassault Rafale fighters.

NASA’s Crew-3 SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida peninsula early May 6.

A supersonic military drone will take precedence until civil demand for a low-boom supersonic transport matures.

Russian fighter squadrons have been burdened by the pace of the war.

Boeing remains a going concern, but it cannot shake the specter of an existential crisis. A resolution may be far from clear.

Flight tests of Roc build on reliability of baseline Boeing 747 engines, gear and system components as test campaign intensifies.

The development phase for the Army's Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft has been extended four years due to COVID-19 supply chain delays.

The U.S. military is testing the use of OneWeb and SpaceX’s Starlink to provide communications from remote outposts in the Arctic where resilient connections in austere locations is a problem that U.S. Northern Command needs to address.

The UK’s joint work with Japan on the Tempest Future Combat Air System could become the “cornerstone” of UK-Japanese bilateral relations.

Raytheon has signed agreements with Romanian defense companies to produce SkyCeptor missiles in the Eastern European country.

DARPA has released a presolicitation for phase 2 and 3 of its Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations program, an effort to develop a nuclear thermal rocket engine. DARPA is interested in developing such an engine to speed up the time it takes to move spacecraft through the vast distances of cislunar space.

Norway is investing in a mini-constellation of maritime reconnaissance satellites to support surveillance in the High North.

NASA is teaming with crowdsource solutions sponsor HeroX, computer game developer Epic Games and real-time graphics developer Buendea to sponsor the NASA MarsXR Challenge, a call for contributions to a virtual reality testbed environment meant to simulate experiences and situations that future astronauts might encounter on Mars.

A $1.404 billion plan to acquire a 75-aircraft Armed Overwatch fleet for U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) will kick off with a contract award in July and finish with the last aircraft delivery by the end of fiscal 2027, budget documents show.

The U.S. Army has deployed a second jet-based technology demonstrator to perform operational missions in the Indo-Pacific Command while gathering data and lessons for a future acquisition program.

Four astronauts are headed for a splashdown in waters off the Florida peninsula early May 6, following their departure from the International Space Station aboard NASA’s Crew-3 SpaceX Endurance Dragon spacecraft.

Under Russian ownership in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Let L-410 manufacturer was crippled by the effect of sanctions.

Growing defense roles, including responsive launch and hypersonic tests, factor in Virgin Orbit near-term capability goals.

The Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker-Transport (MRTT) is a European air-refueling tanker derived from the widebody civil airliner bearing the same name.

Stratolaunch successfully completed the first flight of the Roc carrier aircraft with the large underwing pylon developed to carry and launch the company’s Talon-A hypersonic testbed vehicle at Mojave, California, on May 4.