Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Tony Osborne
The U.K. government has made a 1.5% cut in its 2015 defense spending as part of measures to reduce its public spending deficit.

NASA faces more funding uncertainty this summer as the Republican-drafted spending bill for the agency heads for the Senate in the face of a White House veto threat.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar reaffirmed their commitment to expand and deepen their countries’ bilateral defense relationship earlier this month in a meeting in India during Carter’s swing through the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

While concerns raised by the Pentagon Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) continue to dog certain major shipbuilding and aircraft programs, most testing and evaluation disputes do not make the involved programs lose schedule or go over budget, a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says.

By Jay Menon
India is targeting July/August to launch the GSAT-6 communications satellite to provide strategic application-based services to mobile phone users and vehicles as well as to help with scientific experiments.

The U.S. Defense Department is ready to take more chances to field more technologically advanced programs more quickly, and both industry and government officials say it is about time.

As the U.S. Navy continues to pursue an operational shipboard laser, interest is growing in ensuring the systems will work reliably and effectively in the demanding maritime environment.

LOCKHEED MARTIN completed assembly and began critical environmental testing of NOAA GOES-R satellite in Denver. RAYTHEON has $149m U.S. Navy contract for 74 Standard Missile-6 all-up rounds, spares, containers and services. GENERAL ATOMICS AERONAUTICAL SYSTEMS delivered third Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper to French defense ministry, joining two other Reapers in service that have logged 4,000 flight hr. since January 2014.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is directing government departments and agencies to make their fiscal 2017 discretionary budget requests 5% lower than the fiscal 2017 projection in their respective fiscal 2016 budget plans, unless otherwise directed. “In working toward this funding target, all agencies should include sufficient funding for ongoing Presidential priorities and continue efforts to increase effectiveness and reduce fragmentation, overlap and duplication,” OMB says in a letter dated May 1.

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GKN AEROSPACE CHEM-TRONICS has $10m USAF contract to supply 147 F-100 titanium turbine nozzle support structures for F-15s, F-16s at Tinker AFB

The global non-lethal weapons market will reach $1.65 billion in 2015 and experience “record strong growth” over the next decade, according to

Hubble Telescope images have revealed that Pluto and its five moons orbit in a complex choreography unlike anything else in the Solar System, which could be bad news for NASA’s New Horizons probe.

By Tony Osborne
Flight data analysis shows that the fatal crash of an A400M airlifter in Spain on May 9 is attributable to problems with the aircraft’s engine electronic control units, officials from Airbus Defense and Space and Spain’s military accident investigation service, CITAAM, have confirmed.

By Molly McMillin
Sikorsky Aircraft plans to cut more than 1,400 production-related jobs globally over the next year and close a facility in Connecticut, the company said June 2.

By Jay Menon
An Indian air force Hawk advanced jet trainer (AJT) crashed in the eastern state of Odisha on June 3, marking the fourth accident in recent months.

The U.S. Navy hopes to continue to bolster its service contract deals, but will also keep a sharp eye out for the way those transactions are structured, Navy officials responsible for overseeing such work say.

Northrop Grumman recently completed the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (Canes) program’s design, development and limited deployment phase for the U.S. Navy, the company says.

By Tony Osborne
Canadian helicopter operator HNZ Group has purchased an interest in Norwegian offshore helicopter operator Norsk Helikopterservice (NHS), giving the company its first inroad into the North Sea helicopter market.

The U.S. Air Force is investigating an accidental release of sensitive information that occurred leading up to the June 2 request for proposals for the service’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
Defense

BOEING opened 10,000-sq.-ft. avionics maintenance facility in Yeongcheon, South Korea, to support Republic of Korea air force. HARRIS CORP., FL

The 2015 Navy Opportunity Forum is underway this week through Wednesday in Arlington, Virginia, showcasing service-sponsored small business innovation

Selected U.S. military contracts for the week of May 26-29, 2015. Selected U.S. military contracts for May 26, 2015 U.S. NAVY Lockheed Martin Mission

A new type of solar-electric propulsion that is approaching flight test with NASA backing could widen the range of applications for small satellites, and particularly cubesats.

By Mark Carreau
Russia’s federal space agency, Roscosmos, plans to present a more defined schedule of Soyuz crew and Progress cargo mission launches and departures in support of International Space Station operations next week, after a state commission presented its findings in the failed April 28 launch of the Progress M-27M/59 resupply capsule.