Defense and Space

The U.S. Air Force general in charge of Northern Command says she is concerned about North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s intent to follow through with threats of attacking the homeland.

The July failure of China’s heaviest space launcher has pushed back the country’s next lunar mission by a year.

The UK’s defense minister has warned Boeing that its defense relationship with the British government could be jeopardized if it continues to pursue penalties against Canada’s Bombardier.

The Peruvian Air Force is set to decide on its replacement heavy airlifter in the next two months, senior officials say.

The U.S. Air Force is interested in looking more closely at the potential of Textron’s Scorpion aircraft as a low-cost alternative to current ISR capabilities.

If the Comac ARJ21 was a genuinely commercial program, the manufacturer would by now be saying it had done its best but, as everyone had always known, developing a jet airliner without experience was tough.

The potential for directed-energy weapons to counter the threat posed by small unmanned aircraft systems is to be assessed by the U.S. Air Force in an experimental demonstration.

Its satellites can connect from spot-beam to spot-beam and deliver full-motion video to small UAVs.

The U.S. Air Force is moving forward with preparations to take two off-the-shelf light attack turboprop aircraft downrange to fight terrorists next year.

Significant progress has been made in the development of Vega C and Ariane 6, the light and medium/heavy launchers Arianespace is planning on operating from 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Dubai authorities have begun the first flight trials of an urban air mobility system using the German Volocopter 2X multicopter.

The U.S. Army has completed its final flight of a Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout helicopter, ending the aircraft’s 32-year career.

L3 Technologies is protesting the U.S. Army’s award of a 10-year, $387 million contract to support Army and U.S. Air Force rotary wing training at Fort Rucker, Alabama, after the incumbent lost a recompetition for the work.

Boeing is sponsoring a $2 million competition to develop a safe, viable personal air vehicle with a fly-off of the finalist designs in 2019.

Blue Origin has signed a third customer for orbital space launch services, agreeing to fly a communications satellite for Thai-based startup mµ Space Corp.

Rocket Lab will fly cubesats for paying customers Planet and Spire Global aboard the second test flight of its Electron small satellite launcher.

Vice President Mike Pence has once again pledged to boost U.S. leadership in space exploration.

China is open to expansion of its planned space station in cooperation with foreign partners, a senior official involved in the program says.

The Israeli defense ministry’s advanced technology department is developing wide-area surveillance UAVs, new ways to pick targets out of a crowd and a system of a thousand scattered sensors.

The Pentagon has rolled back an Obama administration requirement that sought to make companies better align their so-called independent R&D with Defense Department technology goals.

Sikorsky is beginning major assembly of the first aircraft of the U.S. Air Force’s HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program at its production facility in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Indonesian Aerospace has delivered the last two of six Airbus H225M search-and-rescue helicopters, ordered by the country’s air force in 2012.

The U.S. Air Force may eliminate a phase of helicopter pilot training in order to free up resources to produce additional fighter pilots.

Fifty years after Australia launched its first satellite into space, the government on Sept. 25 announced plans to establish a national space agency.

The main engine of the forthcoming H3 Japanese space launcher has performed successfully in a series of hot-fire tests, with program engineers working toward a first flight in around three years.