A panel of outside experts who advise NASA on International Space Station (ISS) operations says the risk of using a new version of Russia’s Soyuz launch vehicle to orbit Progress cargo carriers may be “unacceptable."
Thales has partnered with Polish defense electronics firm WB Electronics to offer an armed version of the Watchkeeper unmanned system for Poland’s Gryf (Gryphon) tactical UAV requirement.
India’s Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved the purchase of 48 more Mi-17 V5 transport helicopters from Russia, but deferred a decision on acquiring 100 naval utility helicopters (NUH).
Russian defense electronics conglomerate Kret (Concern Radio-Electronic Technology) introduced a range of new electronic warfare (EW) systems at the 2015 MAKS air show here last week, including a new helicopter-borne jamming system and a high-power ground-based system designed to blind the widely used Boeing E-3 Airborne Warning & Control System (Awacs) and other systems using the S-band (2-3 GHz).
As the U.S. and Chinese navies continue to successfully conduct joint drills using the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), Adm. Jonathan Greenert, U.S. chief of naval operations (CNO), says he sees CUES expanding even more, possibly involving international coast guards as well.
As new military pilots begin their first training exercises, it is increasingly likely their aerial foes will be veterans flying commercially operated fighter aircraft.  
Three new or derivative weapons were unveiled at the MAKS show here last week by Tactical Missiles Corporation, all designed specifically to fit the internal weapon bays of the Sukhoi T-50 stealth fighter.
Has Lockheed Martin found the right mix of advanced design and conventional thinking with its Hybrid Wing Body airlifter concept? Wind-tunnel tests confirm its efficiency promise and a demonstrator is on the cards.
The Pentagon is planning to increase the number of UAV combat air patrols from 60 to 90 per day, according to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. That will happen in part by adding to the U.S. Army’s global use of the General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle. Government contractors will operate unarmed UAVs for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions“We don’t envision a time when they will need to be armed,” Carter says, adding that the fleet will be better managed.
The U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority has halted overland air displays by classic jet aircraft following the Aug. 22 crash of a privately owned Hawker Hunter at the Shoreham air show.
What if commercial pilots never had to learn to fly IFR? The distinction between instrument flight rules and visual flight rules (VFR) may go away in the not-too-distant future. What if the Black Hawk successor offered military pilots a 360-degree, all-weather view on a touch screen that could easily be reconfigured? These are the sort of things we might see in next-gen cockpits. Join Aviation Week editors Jim Asker, John Croft and Graham Warwick in peering into the future.
If a provocation led to unplanned violence between Japan and China, leaders may struggle to control nationalist pressure for escalation. Technical factors, especially the vulnerability of ISR systems, would also be destabilizing.
