Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

This week sees two big events in the aerospace & defense realm.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Maryland, is being awarded a $91,735,291 modification

LOCKHEED MARTIN unveiled ICARUS counter-UAV system at the AUSA symposium.

The U.S. Army has purchased an initial set of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System laser-guided rockets from BAE Systems. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps use the system, but these, bound for Iraq and Afghanistan, will mark the Army’s first deployment of the weapon. The Army is taking the rockets from the Navy’s inventory and working with the contractor for additional rockets. It plans to use the laser-guided munition on AH-64 Apache helicopters.

A Dutch-led investigation has concluded that the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 shot down by a Russian-produced Buk surface-to-air missile system in 2014, killing 298 passengers and crew.

The next chapter in the long life of Boeing’s Chinook should open soon with the release of a U.S. Army request for proposals for development of an improved Block 2 version of the latest CH-47F model of the helicopter.

Boeing KC-46 Pegasus testing is well underway with the first extension of the hose-and-drogue and boom refueling systems in successive trails.

China’s human-spaceflight organization plans to launch the first element of its three-module space station in 2018.

Almaz-Antey, the manufacturer of the Buk missile system that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, claims the weapon was fired from within Ukrainian-held territory.

Even before the F-35C takes its first fully operational flight, U.S. Navy aviation officials are looking for the aircraft to change the way it flies and fights.

As F-35C pilots practiced aboard CVN 68 USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, JSF mechanics and ground crew made sure the aircraft could be properly serviced at sea.

Studies of small rounded pebbles imaged by NASA’s Curiosity rover in Mars’ Gale Crater suggest the rocks were transported by flowing water.

Momentum is gathering behind a U.S. Army program to equip its helicopters to initially take off and land in degraded visual environments.

BAE Systems has brought a 1990s prototype to a U.S. Army convention “to start a conversation” about what an airdroppable big-gun armored vehicle might look like.

After years of counting on U.S. government business, United Launch Alliance is paying more attention to developments in the global commercial satellite sector.

After struggling for years to find affordable and timely rides to orbit, small satellite makers are catching the attention of conventional launch service providers.

The U.S. Army is planning to choose a prime integrating contractor for nine Airborne Reconnaissance Low - Enhanced (ARL-E) systems, based on Bombardier Dash 8-300 aircraft, before the end of November.

Test pilots put their F-35Cs through the paces for military- and maximum-level launches with simulated missiles earlier this month aboard CVN 68 USS Dwight D Eisenhower off the Virginia coast.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is concerned it could be prevented from bidding for forthcoming competitions without access to the RD-180.

LONDON – Five NATO personnel were killed when a U.K. Airbus Helicopters Puma Mk. 2 helicopter crashed after coming into contact with a tethered balloon near Kabul, Afghanistan. The Oct. 11 accident involved one of the U.K. Royal Air Force’s newly upgraded Puma Mk. 2 twin-engine helicopters, three of which were deployed to Kabul to support NATO’s Resolute Support Mission.

The U.S. ban on space cooperation with China is “temporary” and will not necessarily block future cooperation, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says.

The French air force is juggling operational requirements that are stretching the capacity of its current inventory of Rafale and Mirage combat jets.

Israel Aerospace Industries is developing a small communications satellite platform, AMOS-E, that will utilize electric propulsion to reach geostationary orbit.

A new Defense Department report shows top-tier subcontractor profits continue to outpace primes on both developmental and production contracts.

Virgin Galactic confirms that it has reverted to an improved form of the original rubber-based fuel for powering the company’s sub-orbital SpaceShipTwo.