Defense and Space

The U.S. Air Force is requesting information from industry on technologies that could produce lower-cost engines for future subsonic “Group 5” unmanned aircraft systems.
Defense and Space

EA-18G Growler acquisition costs increased $1.3 billion to $15.7 billion, or about 8.9%, due primarily to a $751.5 million charge for an additional seven aircraft.
Defense and Space

U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa has established a new command — Commander, Task Force 64 (CTF64) — focused on ballistic missile defense (BMD) in Europe.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
U.S. services’ plans to fly the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for longer than originally intended have pushed up the estimated total program cost, according to the Pentagon’s latest selected acquisition report (SAR).
Defense and Space

The U.S. Navy has already started working on ship changes and control station adaptations for the Carrier Based Aerial Refueling System (Cbars), according to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
The U.S. Army has begun firing different missile interceptors from a ground launcher designed by the service itself under what it says is “the first development of a major acquisition program by the organic government industrial base in 30 years.”
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
French aerospace research center Onera is studying an unusual hybrid-electric unmanned aircraft concept combining agility with a wide speed range and both vertical- and short-takeoff-and-landing (V/STOL) capability.
Defense and Space

By Michael Bruno
Aerospace and Defense is confronting human-replacing advances such as digitization, 3-D printing, automation, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and connectivity, all of which are likely to reduce jobs in the industry.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
The methods, modes and materials that go into creating an airframe have evolved throughout the years through trial and error and technological advances. Highlights of this evolution are featured.
Air Transport

By Jen DiMascio
Aerospace titan puts “faith” in political process | Voters reject the F-35 | Inspector General investigates government contracts to ULA.
Air Transport

By Jen DiMascio
Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), a former A-10 pilot, worries that the U.S. Air Force intends to replace the close-air support specialty platform before it has the chance to compete directly with the F-35 for the job.
Defense and Space

By Michael Bruno
A Chinese aerospace businessman arrested two years ago as part of a years-long scheme to hack into the U.S. defense industry has pleaded guilty, the Justice Department has announced.
Defense and Space

Companies have started registering for the 52nd International Paris Air Show, which is slated to take place June 19-25 next year at the Le Bourget exhibition center northeast of the city.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
A high-power microwave weapon last tested in 2012 and capable of knocking out computer systems is being taken out of mothballs and refurbished for a new round of testing and possible early operational fielding.
Defense and Space

Paris-based Eutelsat has selected Space Systems/Loral (SSL) to produce the high-power Eutelsat 7C commercial communications satellite, the fleet operator’s fifth all-electric spacecraft.
Defense and Space

The Pentagon should consider treating the F-35 Block 4 as a new acquisition when it comes to requirements and reporting procedures, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says.
Defense and Space

The U.S. Navy’s CVN 70 USS Carl Vinson has unveiled a new air traffic control simulator, the first of its kind installed in a Navy aircraft carrier.
Defense and Space

By Jen DiMascio, Graham Warwick
U.S. Navy pilots are increasingly reporting headaches, confusion and other symptoms of oxygen deprivation, or hypoxia. We talk about how the Navy is responding to the problem and the complicated nature of pinpointing the cause of such physiological problems, which the Air Force has grappled with on the F-16 and F-22.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
After several false starts, exports look more realistic for Britain’s Brimstone.
Defense and Space

By Jen DiMascio
The U.S. Defense and State Departments scrap over speed of foreign weapons sales; tests of the PAC-3 MSE and Trident II D5; a new joint venture in India.
Defense and Space

By Maxim Pyadushkin
Russia received 96 new fixed-wing aircraft and 81 helicopters in 2015, a drop from 2014, the apparent peak in orders placed over the last decade.
Defense and Space

U.S. Navy, Marine Corps engineers are focusing on oxygen and environmental systems in their search for solutions to ongoing F-18 hypoxia problems.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
“My estimation is the program will not be ready to begin IOT&E until mid calendar year 2018,” Pentagon testing chief Michael Gilmore told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday.
Defense and Space

By Michael Bruno
GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump is conducting "a very dangerous discussion" on trade that must be addressed, former Boeing CEO and Chairman Jim McNerney says.
Defense and Space

By Mark Carreau
Enigmatic Ceres, the largest main belt asteroid that was long ago robbed of full planet status by Jupiter’s powerful gravitational forces, is giving up its secrets to a grateful NASA Dawn mission team more than two centuries after its discovery.
Defense and Space