Defense and Space

Operations in Germany will be hardest hit, with 800 jobs lost.

The GDP and interest rate assumptions on which the budget is predicated are questionable.

DARPA fiscal 2019 budget request targets new weapons and communications concepts for contested environments.

Hopes for a sale to Saudi Arabia are out of reach with German arms embargo on Riyadh.

U.S. Air Force decides to trade-off current capabilities in the near-term to finance next-generation projects.

How lawmakers and the administration are responding to the most surprising proposals in the Pentagon’s fiscal 2021 budget request.

News in brief

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

If Astra succeeds in placing the DARPA-provided payload into low Earth orbit by March 1, Astra will win $2 million and an opportunity to launch a second time and take the grand prize of $10 million.

EXOSTAR formed an A&D Supply Chain Working Group with several OEMs to define/develop process/functional plans for next-gen supply chain platform.

AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE began negotiations with employee representatives over planned restructuring that foresees reduction of 2,362 workers through

Elbit Systems announced on Feb. 18 the winning of a $670 million contract that it could describe only cryptically as a “defense solution” for a country in the Asia-Pacific region.

Roscomos cites unspecified medical issues in its decision to replace both freshman cosmonauts due to launch to the space station in April.

China is testing an intercontinental-range hypersonic glide vehicle similar to Russian’s deployed Avangard system, U.S. Air Force Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy said in written testimony submitted to Congress.

The Super Hornet is the last of the five Western types participating in the trials.

Cadence Aerospace, a private equity-backed rollup of highly complex structural and engine component and assembly businesses, on Feb. 18 announced the acquisition of Premier Processing

Plans for a satellite launch center on Britain’s Shetland Islands have been boosted by £2 million ($2.6 million) in funding from a private equity firm.

Rocket Factory Augsburg, part of Germany’s OHB group, is progressing toward the first flight of its mini-launcher late next year.

NASA is awarding eight competitively selected U.S. university teams nearly $1 million in grants to develop lunar payload concepts for the study of permanently shadowed regions of the Moon that could contain significant deposits of water ice.

Selected U.S. military contracts for Feb. 10 U.S. AIR FORCE SigmaTech Corp., Colorado Springs, has been awarded a hybrid labor hour and firm-fixed

News in brief

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

The U.S. Air Force’s acquisition chief said Feb. 18 that he expects a congressional backlash over how a recent revamp of the Next Generation Air Dominance procurement strategy could drive up the average procurement unit cost (APUC) of a sixth-generation fighter.

The service says there are sufficient quantities of the airborne system to support the National Defense Strategy.

Spanish industry now is organizing itself behind national coordinator Indra Sistemas to support the various work pillars, which include development of a next-generation fighter and unmanned remote carriers.