Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

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NORTHROP GRUMMAN teamed with GENERAL DYNAMICS, GULFSTREAM and L-3 to pursue U.S. Air Force Joint Stars recap program. RAYTHEON has $152.9m U.S. Navy contract for 53 APY-10 radar system production kits and related support for P-8A Poseidon full-rate production Lots 2-6 for the Navy (46) and the government of Australia (7).

U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger is being vetted for one of the most challenging jobs in government — overhauling the Transportation Security Administration. In early June acting administrator Melvin Carraway was yanked off the job by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. Several subsequently released reports by Homeland Security Department Inspector General shed light on why.

By Graham Warwick
Flight testing of airborne sense-and-avoid technology for U.S. Air Force unmanned aircraft is set to transition from a Learjet manned surrogate to Northrop Grumman’s optionally piloted Firebird.

This is the first competition between SpaceX and United Launch Alliance since the former was certified to compete for U.S. national security launch contracts, breaking ULA’s near-decade monopoly in this arena. A request for proposals is expected in July.

NASA is upping its ante in the cubesat arena, with a request for proposals (RFP) designed to spur a commercial launch industry dedicated to the tiny spacecraft, and with separate plans to send two cubesats on a piggyback mission to Mars next year.
Space

By Graham Warwick
Even as it seeks industry input on its plans for a low-boom flight demonstrator, NASA has awarded a series of contracts to keep its research into quiet, clean supersonic transports progressing.

By Jay Menon
NEW DELHI—India is studying the development of a launch vehicle capable of orbiting satellites weighing up to 10 tons. The proposed Heavy-lift Launch Vehicle (HLV) is under study by a project team, according to a scientist from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

By Tony Osborne
Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi says a growing number of countries are examining the use of its M346 training aircraft as an aggressor and companion trainer.

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope report finding evidence that a large, hot planet orbiting a distant star has a stratosphere, holding promise that it may be possible to study atmospheric processes on exoplanets across interstellar space.

The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser CG 62 USS Chancellorsville and its crew of 350 sailors entered the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR) earlier this month.

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT approved possible $1.91b foreign military sale to South Korea of three Aegis Combat Systems, 3 MK-41 Vertical Launching Systems

The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on June 9 approved a fiscal 2016 Pentagon spending bill with $489.1 billion in base funding and $86.8

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Unless the full Senate rejects the appropriations panel action, Boeing and SpaceX face slow-downs in their NASA contracts to develop private capsules to transport astronauts to the International Space Station.

By Jen DiMascio
The bill seeks to allow the government access to 14 of the engines while the Air Force develops an RD-180 replacement.

The U.S. government has approved some U.S. allies to purchase the AN/TPY-2 ballistic missile defense radar for use in forward-based mode through the Foreign Military Sales program.

The U.S. Navy’s reactions to China’s maritime maneuvers involving territorial disputes could affect the centuries-long definition of free-sea movement, according to the Congressional Research Service.

By Graham Warwick
National Aerospace Solutions (NAS), led by Bechtel, has won the contract, potentially worth $1.5 billion over eight years, to take over key operations at the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Complex from long-term incumbent Aerospace Testing Alliance, led by Jacobs Engineering Group.

By Jay Menon
India is Airbus’ first international market in which it has brought all its operations under a single company, as part of the Airbus Group’s “one roof” policy.

The French government reiterated June 10 its formal approval of the sale of state ownership in the Arianespace launch consortium to Airbus Safran Launchers, a joint venture set up to develop and produce Europe’s next-generation Ariane 6 launch vehicle.

By Mark Carreau
NASA astronaut Terry Virts, the European Space Agency’s Samantha Cristoforetti and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov landed just eight hours shy of having spent 200 days in orbit.

RAYTHEON has $10.6m U.S. Air Force contract for the Small Diameter Bomb II aircraft integration test assets, including jettison test vehicles and

An 11-terabyte dataset that combines worldwide environmental measurements and the latest climate-simulation models is available for the public to use in forecasting possible changes to temperature and precipitation patterns though the year 2100. The NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) produced the dataset at the agency’s Advanced Supercomputing Center at Ames Research Center in California.

By Tony Osborne
LONDON—Airbus Helicopters is pushing ahead with testing on the first prototype of its H160 twin-engine medium helicopter. Ground tests of prototype