Defense and Space

The House Appropriations Committee’s mark of the fiscal 2020 defense appropriations bill cuts $80 million from the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray, citing excess to need.

The U.S. Navy is rallying Congress to not cut fiscal 2020 funding for weapons programs like the hypersonic glide body, which if the reduction stands would delay the program for a full year.

With volatility rocking the financial markets and warnings of the first economic downturn since the Great Recession growing, new reports from credit rating agencies are measuring how the aerospace and defense industries rank.

NASA will invest $400,000 in each of two nine-month secondary mission concept studies involving the Sun.

DARPA has formally launched a program to build and fly an X-plane designed around active flow control, potentially eliminating the need for moving control surfaces.

French air navigation service provider (ANSP) DSNA has joined a consortium of European ANSPs participating in the Iris satellite-based data link program, Inmarsat announced Aug. 14.

British smallsat launch company Orbex has been chosen to launch a demonstrator satellite from the planned Sutherland, Scotland, site in 2022.

A 12-year-long, $1.1 billion project to replace structurally weakened wings on 173 A-10s ended last month, the U.S. Air Force announced on Aug. 12.

The $380 million deal will include 12 launchers, two radars and 240 Tamir missiles.

Bahrain has signed agreements to purchase Raytheon’s Patriot ground-based air and missile defense system.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force introduced two types of Russian general-purpose bombs into service with its Sukhoi Su-30MKM Flanker fighters following a recent live fire exercise.

Eurofighters are benefiting from upgrades provided through national, multinational and industrial approaches.

United Technologies (UTC) and Raytheon are working hard to convince shareholders to approve their mega-merger.

The USAF has quietly awarded a contract to York Space Systems using its Space Enterprise Consortium for Tetra-3, a microsatellite that will be used to prototype missions and tactics, techniques and procedures.

Confronted with unexpectedly rocky terrain, NASA’s Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return mission will spend an additional four months assessing its target, the primitive 500-m-wide planetary object Bennu.

A decade-long effort to upgrade Russia’s Mi-28N attack helicopter recently paid off, with a Russian government order for 98 Mi-28NMs, with deliveries through 2027.

Cowen & Co. analysts think offensive hypersonics alone could be $1.5-3 billion a year by the mid-2020s.

After 10 years, Russia has purchased 98 upgraded Mi-28NM helicopters.

A new corporate review may indicate that Textron could be looking to become an aerospace and defense-focused company similar to other large rivals, according to analysts.

A new corporate review may indicate that Textron could be looking to become an aerospace and defense-focused company similar to other large rivals, according to analysts.

A senior Pentagon official has explained why the former Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) director was fired and the need for the office to reside under DARPA management.

If Advent’s proposed $5 billion take-private acquisition of Cobham is successful, the British provider of aerial refueling, avionics and other aerospace and defense products is sure to see many changes, including possibly changing its home country, consultants and observers say.

The Russian Aerospace Forces expect to complete join evaluation trials of the Sukhoi Su-57 fifth-generation fighter this year, Lt. Gen. Sergey Dronov, the service’s deputy commander, told local media on Aug. 12.

The Israeli Defense Ministry has issued a price and availability request to the U.S. Navy’s international programs office for the acquisition of the Boeing V-22 aircraft.

Blue Origin has filed a pre-award bid protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) because of what the company called a “flawed” Air Force launch service procurement (LSP) strategy.