A top U.S. Air Force space officer has opened the door to establishing a government-funded, “organic” program to improve domestic technical prowess in building oxygen-rich rocket engines, should industry fail to produce the investment needed for these advances.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves says there should be “no perception that SpaceX is getting a pass” in its mishap investigation, despite lawmaker concerns.
Chinese engineers have begun the final series of firing tests of the propulsion system of the Long March 5 heavy space launcher, an evaluation process the manufacturer describes as unusually complex.
Italian aerospace and defense group Finmeccanica is spinning off several of its largest companies and merging two others as part of a radical restructuring.
The British Royal Air Force (RAF) and Indian air force (IAF) have hailed a successful a major exercise which saw the deployment of four Sukhoi Su-30MKI “Flankers” to the U.K. to fly with and against the RAF’s Eurofighter Typhoon.
Adm. John Richardson appears to be holding the service’s current course, with calls for maintaining a global presence aligned with maritime partners and deploying a robust at-sea force.
Wearable telementoring devices are showing promise for rendering medical assistance and equipment repair tasks during future deep space missions, according to U.S., European and Japanese astronauts participating in a NASA-sponsored undersea mission simulation.
The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser CG 62 USS Chancellorsville departed Yokosuka, Japan, earlier this month for an Indo-Asia-Pacific region patrol with an upgraded combat system.
Belgian chemical company Solvay says the $5.5 billion cash acquisition of U.S.-based Cytec will make it the second-largest player in aerospace composite materials, behind Hexcel.
“DefExpo India 2016 will be different as it will be moving out of the national capital New Delhi for the first time since the exhibition started 15 years ago,” says an official of the defense ministry, which organizes the show.
THALES, RAYTHEON, RHEINMETALL and several private equity groups, including Carlyle, Bridgepoint, CVC, KKR, KPS and Triton, are expected to bid for the defense electronics business of AIRBUS GROUP, according to unconfirmed media reports. PRATT & WHITNEY earned $487m on $3.68b revenues in 2Q15 vs. $432m on $3.59b in 2Q14; it delivered 1,625 engines vs. 1,735.
Former Indian President Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, acknowledged as the father of India’s missile technology, died July 27 after collapsing while delivering a lecture. Kalam spent four decades as a scientist and science administrator at the Defense Research and Development Organization and Indian Space Research Organization. He was responsible for the development and operationalization of the Agni and Prithvi missile families.
BOEING had $1.11b net income on $24.5b revenues in 2Q15 vs. $1.65b on $22b in 2Q14, which includes $536m after-tax charge on KC-46 Tanker program over estimated higher costs; BDS earned $546m on $7.5b vs. $582m on $7.7b, and has $48.4b backlog. GE AVIATION earned $1.27b on $6.25b revenues in 2Q15 vs. $1.2b on $6.09b in 2Q14; it delivered 945 engines vs. 988.
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank is raising questions about the recent open letter from high-profile scientists and academics – including Stephen Hawking and SpaceX founder Elon Musk – warning of the dangers of autonomous weapons. “The letter calls for a ban on ‘offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control,’ but what does that mean?” asks CNAS Ethical Autonomy Project Director Paul Scharre. “Most countries have departments or ministries of ‘defense,’ not offense.
North America The Pentagon expects to announce a winner for the new Long Range Strike Bomber competition in the coming months. Northrop Grumman and a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team are vying for the contract. U.S. Air Force officials continue to stress a “flyaway price” of $550 million per aircraft in fiscal 2010 dollars, and hint the contract announcement could come by fall. Europe
Boeing rolled out the first Royal Australian Air Force EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft July 29 at the company’s final assembly facility in St. Louis.
U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is keeping the service on course to deploy directed energy (DE) weapons by scrutinizing the way the service develops and buys the systems.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center has awarded Wyle Laboratories Inc. of El Segundo, California, a potential $1.44 billion contract to provide a wide range of medical and biomedical services in support of the agency’s human spaceflight programs, including research aboard the International Space Station.
