Defense and Space

The launch of Europe’s Euclid telescope will be delayed due to a newly found flaw in U.S.-built detectors, the head of NASA’s astrophysics division says.

The Lockheed Martin F-16, Boeing B-52 and Northrop Grumman B-2 are next in line to receive the U.S. Air Force’s newest non-nuclear cruise missile, the Jassm-ER.

Air forces operating the Boeing F-15 Eagle are almost universally interested in the MBDA Meteor becoming available as a weapon for the fighter, Boeing says.

Northrop Grumman has purchased a previously undisclosed Falcon 9 launch from SpaceX to fly a payload known only as “Zuma.”

South Korea’s defense technology organization and Hanwha are working toward completing development of a tactical ballistic missile by the end of 2018.

With clear standards and an emphasis on the basics, the UK Defense Ministry hopes to protect the security of its industrial base.

Global Hawk may be the U.S. Air Force’s fallback option for ground surveillance if the service decides against a replacement for J-Stars.

The U.S. Navy could decide who will develop the world’s first navalized unmanned aerial refueling tanker by next summer, having issued a request for proposals.

The U.S. State Department has OK'd a potential Foreign Military Sale of an estimated $2.4 billion program to upgrade 123 Greek F-16s to the Lockheed Martin Block V configuration.

Mark Cherry, Aurora Flight Sciences' president and COO, is joining Boeing as leader of the Phantom Works advanced technology organization.

The U.S. Air Force is steadily ramping up production of precision-guided weapons.

A local partner is likely to be heavily involved in a proposed upgrade of half of the Lynx helicopters in service with the Republic of Korea Navy.

Spain will bury another combat pilot after Lt. Fernando Pérez Serrano died in a Spanish Air Force EF-18 Hornet crash at Torrejón Air Base.

September was a busy month at several high-profile companies, and it could be a good indication of what is to come for the industry as many of them adjust to market conditions.

Small unmanned aircraft set new standards for flight endurance as developers push the limits of aerodynamics and propulsion.

Despite the urgency of the replacement effort, the T-X contract award is now delayed until after the new year, the U.S. Air Force says.

BAE Systems says it has a “robust roadmap” for its distributed aperture semi-active laser seeker (Dasals) technology beyond the widely used Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guided rocket.

The first flight of NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket, slated to put an unmanned Orion capsule into orbit around the Moon for Exploration Mission 1, is now targeted for launch in late 2019.

The U.S. Army plans to instrument a tandem-rotor Dragonfly Pictures DP-14 to assess whether a UAV can be built to support human life while airborne.

The U.S. Navy says its fighter squadrons have been fully equipped with the service’s first-ever networked-enabled air-to-ground glide bomb, the Raytheon AGM-154C-1 Joint Standoff Weapon.

Russia’s automated Progress MS-07 successfully docked with the six-person International Space Station early Oct. 16.

Transport Canada has confirmed that a SkyJet Beechcraft King Air A100 collided with a drone on Oct. 12 while on approach to Quebec City’s Jean Lesage International Airport.

Aerovel’s Flexrotor long-endurance vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft has completed a 32-hr., 8-min. flight, landing with more than 3 hr. worth of fuel remaining.

Florida is to establish a biofuel supply chain based around brassica carinata, a non-edible plant that has already been used to produce 100% bio-derived jet fuel.

Scaled flies Model 401; Yamaha goes multicopter; Flirtey flies defibrillators; Spike tests supersonic design; DARPA taps Aerojet for TBCC; Dubai’s firefighting UAV.