Defense and Space

AIRBUS has 5-year with Egyptian Air Force to provide material services/technical support/on-wing maintenance for 24 C295s.

The German Parliament has approved spending for the Eurodrone medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system program, paving the way for a quad-national contract to be signed in the next few weeks.

Joby Aviation plans to deliver two of its electric vertical-lift aircraft to the U.S. Air Force this year for flight testing, to be followed by more in 2022 and potentially 2023 under the Agility Prime program.

The owners of aerospace and defense group Sierra Nevada are creating an independent company to take over the former’s space business, to be called Sierra Space, which will sell to the burgeoning low-Earth-orbit and Moon commercial space markets.

Private space sector jobs reached a nine-year high in 2020, according to new Space Foundation analysis of U.S. government data, with the industry employing 148,000 people, while space-related mergers, buyouts and equity financings totaled $18.2 billion.

Hunt for hypersonic interceptor; Smith wants May 10 budget request; Air Force’s SIAW shift, and Austin scraps European drawdown.

Startup ABL’s launcher is well-sized for Lockheed’s new satellite bus.

An intense private feud erupted publicly over Air Force objections to Army plans to encroach on long-range strike mission.

Turkey’s indigenous within-visual-range air-to-air missile, Bozdogan/Merlin has scored its first aerial kill in flight trials.

Poland is buying five surplus Lockheed C-130H airlifters and will develop Lask AB as the main operating location for its future F-35s.

Blue Origin simulated pre- and post-launch passenger operations as its 15th suborbital launch of the New Shepard lifted off on April 14.

Astranis, a startup aiming to provide lower-cost broadband service from geostationary orbit, has announced $250 million in new financing.

STANDARDAERO was selected to serve as an in-country sustainment partner to support GE F414-39E engine MRO services proposal for the Saab Gripen

Israel Aerospace Industries and Thales team to offer IAI’s Gabriel V anti-ship missile to meet a UK need for an interim anti-ship weapon.

Airbus completes low-speed flight-envelope testing of its VSR700 naval rotary-wing uncrewed air system.

The “fleet” of defense competitors has been growing in recent years, and new entrants may have different tactics, resources and goals.

The House Armed Services Committee chairman says the Lockheed Martin F-35 program characterizes its flying-hour cost as “a big problem.”

The House Armed Services Committee chairman wants the U.S. to review national security policy and the White House to release the budget.

A Broad Area Announcement (BAA) entitled “Enhanced Hypersonic Defense,” which the MDA released on April 12, requests companies to submit white papers by May 12 for the Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) program.

10 TANKER AIR CARRIER and PERIMETER SOLUTIONS teamed to provide aerial firefighting in Mexico with DC-10 (and PHOS-CHEK) out of Loredo, TX.

BELL TEXTRON signed teaming agreements with seven German suppliers (Liebherr; GKN Aerospace; Solid Aerospace; PFW; CEROBEAR; Aircraft Philipp; Kautex

ELBIT SYSTEMS, Israel was selected to supply J-MUSIC DIRCM self-protection system for a ninth A330 MRTT for NATO.

The move announced in a March 17 acquisition notice scratches the original plan to award the contract without a competition to Northrop Grumman Mission Systems.

Astrobiotic’s Griffin lunar lander, carrying NASA’s water-hunting VIPER rover, will fly on a Falcon Heavy, perhaps in late 2023.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced an additional 500 troops will be based in Germany by the fall.