Defense and Space

After signing accords to jointly develop a future fighter, French and German officials have reportedly had a falling-out over potential aircraft exports.

India’s state-run space agency has successfully conducted a test of Vikram, the lander for the country’s second lunar mission planned for early next year.

Senior British officials say there is “great interest” from potential international partners in the UK’s vision to develop a sixth-generation fighter.

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said Oct. 26 that a new strategy to shift the task of screening raw intelligence data from humans to machines will face internal opposition.

Embattled General Electric's aerospace engine-making division remains a bright spot.

NASA’s pioneering Kepler space telescope is out of fuel, bringing its 9 1/2-year mission to an end.

The assets of once-high-flying drone startup company Airware are being bought by another drone-based services upstart called Delair.

Aerospace, defense and automotive supplier Arconic has delayed but expanded the scope of a long-awaited strategic review of options for the embattled company.

The Israeli Air Force has presented its operational needs for new aircraft to the general staff of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Europe’s RemoveDebris satellite has tested its onboard vision-based navigation (VBN).

A Chinese Long March 2C launcher placed CFOSat, a Sino-French satellite dedicated to oceanography and climate change understanding, into orbit on Oct. 29.

SESAR, Europe’s public-private partnership for airspace technology research, has launched a series of demonstrations.

Two companies have won contracts to test the feasibility of delivering vaccines by drone to remote islands in Vanuatu in the South Pacific.

NASA’s near-Earth asteroid-bound Osiris-Rex spacecraft braked for a third time this month on Oct. 29, slowing an approach to its sample return target, Bennu.

Small-sat launch service provider Rocket Lab has added a last-minute customer to the manifest for its upcoming commercial Electron mission in November.

Belgium says its F-35 buy will enable it to be a reliable and united partner of the EU and NATO.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has denied Raytheon’s bid protest for the U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Jammer tech demo for the low-band frequency.

A fault in the third-stage attitude control system appears to have caused the failure of the initial launch attempt of China’s first privately developed orbital space launcher.

Pictures of a Kamov design for an advanced attack helicopter have appeared on a Russian website.

British air accident investigators are probing the first-ever loss of a Leonardo AW169 twin-engine helicopter that crashed on Oct. 27.

The Indian Coast Guard’s 17 Dornier aircraft will get an advanced technology upgrade to make them more potent for surveillance in the country’s maritime zones.

A new fighter based on the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stands a high chance of becoming Japan’s next combat aircraft, the Mainichi newspaper said.

Speedy V-280 tiltrotor, predicting flutter in real time, airborne wind power, certifying ScanEagle3, and landing UAVs on ships.

Sikorsky’s S-76 autonomy testbed flies military mission profiles in preparation for UH-60 demos under DARPA’s ALIAS program.

Private discussions between the U.S. Air Force and the commercial space launch industry broke onto a public stage on Oct. 27.