Defense and Space

U.S. Air Force adversary air providers; European tanker requirements; Russia seeks MiG-35 customers; and the U.S. is now operating polar protected satcom satellites.

The KF-X has cleared its critical design review. A radar technology demonstrator has flown.

“Politicians do not have all the right answers,” he argues. “We need to fight for our real business interests and not be shy to lock horns with governments.”

The CST-100 Starliner's trial run to the International Space Station will set the stage for a crewed flight test as early as March 2020.

Germany looks set to have the largest NH90 helicopter fleet in the world as it gears up to equip its naval air arm with an all-NH90 force by the late 2020s.

The pressure on the B-21 stealth bomber development program is rising ahead of a scheduled first flight milestone in December 2021.

The first two upgraded Atlantique 2 (ATL2) maritime patrol aircraft were delivered this past summer to the French Navy’s Lann-Bihoue air base.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has assembled the second stage of the first H3 medium-lift space launcher.

Eighteen competitors were prequalified and three finalists were selected, but only one company remains in the running to win up to $12 million in the DARPA Launch Challenge.

The two leading defense prime rivals for hypersonics work, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, said this week they expect Pentagon work toward counter-hypersonics defense systems to ramp up over the next year.

HTV-X will succeed JAXA’s HTV spacecraft, which is due to make its ninth and final mission to the International Space Station in 2020. The spacecraft also is a candidate for supplying NASA's lunar-orbiting Gateway space station.

Virgin Galactic will become the first major publicly traded new-space provider Oct. 28 when its shares become available on the New York Stock Exchange.

A Taiwanese company plans to enter the market for light space launches with what it says will be 10% of the costs of current major operators.

Aviation Week editors Guy Norris, Steve Trimble, and Graham Warwick discuss the details of the existence of the stealthy RQ-180.

Cyber hardening, environmental sustainability, and development speed and cost are “grand challenges” facing the industry, a new study finds.

There have been no images or statements released, but growing evidence points to the existence of the stealthy RQ-180 and its use in regular front-line service.

Eight teams will participate in a virtual competition, the AlphaDogfight Trials, under DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program.

A key component in the U.S. Air Force’s strategy to develop advanced domestic rocket engines has completed testing, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced on Oct. 23.

Lockheed Martin is moving forward with the design of a new re-entry vehicle for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program, the company announced.

As many as 30 former French Air Force A-27 Tucano trainers could be imported into the U.S. to support Airborne Tactical Advantage Company’s (ATAC) selection for the U.S. Air Force-contracted air services program.

Nanoracks plans a late 2020 first-ever mission launch to demonstrate an in-space structural metal cutting technology.

Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security unit boosted the company’s revenues by $7 billion for the third quarter of 2019, giving some positive news to counter the continuing headwinds facing the commercial division over the grounding of the 737 MAX and delays to the 777X.

Surveillance data provider Aireon and the Cocesna air navigation services agency have signed an agreement to deploy space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) in six Central American countries.

The European Defense Agency (EDA) is urging member states to begin developing requirements for automated aerial refueling (AAR).

The South Korean air force is putting the Korean Air MUAV surveillance drone through operational testing, aiming at entering the type into regular service in 2020, a program source said.