Defense and Space

Expanded Tables Online Download expanded specifications on in-production and under-development military transports and search more than 3,100 other systems at AviationWeek.com/specs
Defense and Space

Success in recovering the Falcon 9 first stage marks a major step toward the long-sought dream of reusable commercial space launchers.
Defense and Space

By Mark Carreau
Two U.S. astronauts, working against the clock, hustled through a 3 1/2-hr. spacewalk on Dec. 21 to unjam the International Space Station’s unlatched 1-ton Mobile Transporter rail car.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
Northrop Grumman has performed the first test flights of the Global Hawk-based Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) platform.
Defense and Space

A new U.S. Government Accountability Office report continues to question the Littoral Combat Ship's lethality – especially when it comes to its offensive missiles.
Defense and Space

The U.S. Navy is spotlighting the LCS 3 USS Forth Worth’s successful year at sea in the Western Pacific.
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
The probe of a fatal crash of a Hawker Hunter fighter at an airshow in August is focusing on regulations surrounding the maintenance of former military aircraft and the fitment of ejection seats in them.
Defense and Space

By Bradley Perrett
Two Indonesian pilots died when their almost-new Korea Aerospace Industries TA-50 trainer-attack aircraft crashed during an aerobatic display at an air show on Dec. 20.
Defense and Space

By Graham Warwick
Rapid advances in commercial smallsat launch technology, plus an explosion-prone energetic propellant, cause research agency to drop plans to flight-test air-launched smallsat booster.
Aerospace

By Guy Norris, Jen DiMascio
Northrop Grumman wind-tunnel tests and tail-sitter VTOL concept for Darpa’s Tern program and hopes for a contract to build a demonstrator for seaborne flight trails
Aerospace

By Jay Menon
India has decided to buy five S-400 supersonic air defense systems from Russia for an estimated 400 billion rupees ($6 billion) to guard against airborne threats from across the country’s borders.
Defense and Space

The Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) was awarded a $34.8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract earlier this month for lifecycle engineering and support services on the U.S. Navy’s LPD 17 USS San Antonio class of amphibious transport docks, the company has confirmed.
Defense and Space

The Russian navy is continuing to make improvements in its naval aviation, a recent report by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) shows.
Defense and Space

U.S., Indian and Japanese officials recently recognized the importance of working with China on global issues, but agreed that such agreements are not moderating Chinese behavior in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, a CSIS report says.
Defense and Space

While the U.S. Navy, contractors and analysts are still digesting this month’s directed shakeup of the service’s acquisition strategy by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, some potential winners are emerging.
Defense and Space

By Mark Carreau
The NASA-led International Space Station’s Mission Management Team is preparing for a possible unplanned spacewalk on Dec. 21 or 22 to move and secure the space station’s mobile transporter.
Defense and Space

The destroyer DDG 1000 Zumwalt assisted with a rescue mission earlier this month while on sea trials about 40 nm southeast of Portland, Maine, the U.S. Coast Guard says.
Defense and Space

By Mark Carreau
NASA’s Curiosity rover is finding puzzling clues of a changing environment on ancient Mars as the robotic geologist travels up the base of Mount Sharp.
Defense and Space

Active terrain on Pluto discovered in the New Horizons probe’s July 14 flyby appears to be driven by a thick layer of nitrogen ice at the bottom of the heart-shaped basin dubbed Sputnik Planum.
Defense and Space

The amphibious assault ship LHA 6USS America is the first West Coast ship to have its flight deck upgraded with a thermal spray coating in key landing areas in order to more fully support the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters
Defense and Space

By Tony Osborne
Turbomeca’s Arrius 2R turboshaft—the first European engine to be fitted to a Bell-produced helicopter—has been certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
Defense and Space

The arms sales to Taiwan announced by the Obama administration earlier this month will help boost the Asian country’s missile and naval operations, according to sources familiar with the deal.
Defense and Space

The future DDG 115 USS Rafael Peralta achieved “light off” of its Aegis Combat System earlier this month at the Bath Iron Works (BIW) shipyard, U.S. Navy officials say.
Defense and Space

As Japan, South Korea (ROK), and China start to work on better trilateral relationships, security concerns continue to drive wedges between the nations, says Evans Revere, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a senior adviser with the Albright Stonebridge Group.
Defense and Space

Talent and technology innovation have shaped society’s past, and they will surely shape its future. But all stakeholders must understand what spawns innovation.
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