Defense and Space

Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Alexey Ovchinin kicked off a maintenance spacewalk at the International Space Station with a tribute to the world’s first spacewalker.

The greenfield facility in Gyula—close to the border with Romania—will produce precision metallic parts for the dynamic systems of helicopters spanning the complete Airbus product range.

DARPA has ended investment in the Ares program to develop an advanced vertical-lift unmanned aircraft system, but efforts and under way to find funds to get the unique vehicle into the air.

The Israeli Defense Ministry strongly opposes allowing a Chinese company to build a desalination plant near an Israeli Air Force base.

Airbus is evaluating an energy-saving, passively controlled engine nacelle cooling system.

NATO and non-NATO forces are training together near the Arctic Circle to tackle near-peer threats.

On May 24, amateur astronomers spotted the Starlink train of satellites glistening in reflected sunlight as they circled overhead, sparking concerns about interference with ground-based astronomical observations.

Russian Helicopters has unveiled the modernization package for the coaxial Kamov Ka-32 utility helicopter.

India has test-fired the latest version of its Akash surface-to-air missile system, the Akash Mk. 1S, with two tests conducted over several days.

After at least six years of research and technology work on the Avionics 2020 demonstrator, Thales’ efforts toward creating a more intuitive cockpit have crystallized into the FlytX avionics suite.

NASA’s Mars 2020 mission rover is logging favorable budget and developmental milestones as it marches toward a July/August 2020 launch.

Thailand has contracted Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to upgrade four T-50-family trainer-attack aircraft to the light-attack standard, including radar.

Poland has made a formal request to buy up to 32 Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, the country’s defense minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, has confirmed.

Airbus says it has received a “surprisingly” large response to its contest challenging computing experts, academics and professionals to solve five key flight physics questions using quantum computing to improve aircraft design.

Leanne Caret discusses how synergy of Boeing's commercial, services and defense divisions have helped the company save on estimated life-cycle costs.

France is accelerating its procurement of a joint fleet of helicopters based on Airbus H160 twin-engine medium rotorcraft.

Honeywell International is mulling further divestitures or changes to its business portfolio, the conglomerate’s top executive said May 20.

Lawmakers are saying defense contractors may make too much profit and that federal contractors should turn over their price and cost data.

The LEO Knight robotic microsatellite would support in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing.

In a May 23 memo to employees, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said aerospace executive Mark Sirangelo left after Congress nixed plans for an agency reorganization that would have created a Moon-to-Mars Mission Directorate.

Ruag is diversifying its space equipment business into thermal insulation for launcher engines, in addition to thermal insulation for satellites.

Senior RAF officers revealed that the A400M fleet is struggling with issues relating to the Europrop International TP400 engine, its associated gearbox, heat detection systems and an electronic data system.

TransDigm Group is paying back the $16.1 million it allegedly earned in “excess profit” selling aftermarket aircraft parts to the Pentagon.

The U.S. State Department on May 24 approved an arms export package to the UAE that includes up to 20 RQ-21 unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), 331 avelin anti-tank missiles and 20,004 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) II rockets.

The U.S. Navy has deactivated the Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 101 and consolidated the unit’s Lockheed Martin F-35Cs at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California.