The Bundewehr mission to support the fight against the so-called Islamic State (IS) began on the night of Dec. 15-16 with the aerial refueling of coalition aircraft. A Luftwaffe Airbus A310 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) based at Incirlik air base in Turkey conducted two refuelings in a mission lasting five hours.

France’s defense ministry will begin work on three new major space-system developments in the coming year, including an international collaboration with Germany in the area of remote sensing and an operational follow-on to the Elisa signals-intelligence demo.

The commercial market was dominant in 2015, with few new military programs. The FAA closed out the year with a rushed task force to set recommendations for registering the inundation of commercial “drones.”

Jails fear UAV smuggling; France leads UAV smallsat launcher; Darpa aims for ubiquitous lidar; Roke takes cellular to high altitude; Airbus Perlan glider moves to new test phase.

With its arrival at Incirlik air base Dec. 10, the Luftwaffe is preparing missions over Syria. Luftwaffe Brig.Gen. Andreas Schick, commander of the German contingent in Incirlik, declared upon arrival with a 40-strong advance party, "As of today, we are ready for operations."

The U.S. export credit agency is back but needs a board of directors. Meanwhile, the fight continues over Russian RD-180 rocket engines.

Two Tornado Recce aircraft of Taktischer Luftwaffengeschwader (Tactical Air Force Squadron) 51 "Immelmann" took off from their base in Jagel Dec. 10 for Incirlik, Turkey, from where they will fly missions over Syria in support of the international coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State.

This week's big talking points in aerospace and defense, including a successful third round of flight tests for BAE Systems' Taranis Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle.