Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Jen DiMascio
In preparation for a launch this month, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems has conducted a free space interconnect demonstration ground test of its Laser Interconnect and Networking Communication System spacecraft.
Space

By Lee Hudson
Aircraft top the U.S. Navy’s fiscal 2022 $6.3 billion unfunded requirements list as the service looks to position itself to compete with China.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Michael Bruno
Outsourced air combat training and augmented reality startup Red 6 announced June 1 that it landed $30 million in new venture capital, almost all of it from existing investor Snowpoint Ventures.
Light Attack and Advanced Training

By Steve Trimble
The U.S. Navy has decided to acquire stealthy cruise missiles instead of developing a powered version of a long-range glide munition, a spokeswoman said on June 1.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Steve Trimble
The Air Force spared the U-2S from a list of hundreds of proposed aircraft divestments next year, but details buried deep within the fiscal 2022 budget request unveiled on May 29 reveal the aircraft’s long-term fate.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Graham Warwick
Responding to Wisk Aero’s lawsuit alleging the theft of trade secrets, Archer Aviation has described the case as “entirely baseless” and accused its urban air mobility (UAM) rival of “reckless innuendo and rank speculation” in a bid to “weaponize the legal system” to harm the startup.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Irene Klotz
The James Webb Space Telescope will not make its targeted Oct. 31 launch date, but should be ready to fly before the window for its ride to space aboard an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket closes in early December, the European Space Agency said on June 1.
Space

By Graham Warwick
Barely a month after being acquired by private-aviation powerhouse Directional Aviation, helicopter operator Halo Aviation has announced a partnership with Embraer spinoff Eve Urban Air Mobility to develop an electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing air-taxi operation in the UK and U.S.
Aerospace

By Chen Chuanren
Malaysia scrambled fighters to intercept Chinese military aircraft after its air force said they entered the country’s airspace on May 31.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
Astronauts will be upgrading the International Space Station’s solar power system and focusing on future human deep space exploration research with a 7,300-lb.cargo to be launched to the station on June 3.
Space

By Chen Chuanren
Israel Aerospace Industries has signed a deal with an undisclosed Asian customer for Heron 1 unmanned aerial system “services,” worth $200 million.
Aerospace

By Steve Trimble
A salvo of two Raytheon SM-6 Dual II missiles missed a medium-range ballistic missile target in a U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) intercept test on
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Tony Osborne
The 2.8-metric-ton-class aircraft would be a clean-sheet design aimed at meeting the UK Ministry of Defense’s rotary-wing unmanned air system (RWUAS) requirements.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Guy Norris
NASA engineers are working on corrective actions to fix a navigation system timing issue on the agency’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter after the vehicle
Space

By Maxim Pyadushkin
Tianzhou-2 will make an automated rendezvous and docking with Tianhe, a core module of China’s new space station that was orbited a month ago.
Space

By Steve Trimble
Budget justification documents released by the Navy on May 29 list the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) and the Supersonic Propulsion Enabled Advanced Ramjet (SPEAR) demonstrators as candidates for the Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) Increment II program.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Tony Osborne
Croatia has selected a French offer of secondhand Dassault Rafale fighters as the country’s future combat aircraft.
Aircraft & Propulsion

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s fiscal 2022 budget request for $8.9 billion is a decrease of 2.5% compared to the previous year, but the agency continues to fund key programs like the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor and a Guam defense system to compete with China.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Mark Carreau
The Biden administration has proposed substantial boosts in spending across NASA’s human exploration, planetary science, and Earth science/climate research as part of a 2022 budget proposal that could ease the previous administration’s plans to return to the Moon’s surface with U.S. astronauts in 2024.
Space

By Steve Trimble
Despite being named the U.S. Air Force’s second-highest modernization priority only months ago, the Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 budget request
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Lee Hudson
The Pentagon’s fiscal 2022 budget request proposed $936.7 million for the U.S. Space Development Agency, which is an increase of $600 million or 36% compared to the previous year.
Space

By Graham Warwick
Within a budget request for aeronautics research in fiscal 2022 of $914.8 million, up from $828.7 million enacted for 2021, NASA plans to accelerate the launch of the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator program to produce a full-scale, ultra-efficient subsonic X-plane.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is working with Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy to build a transformable lunar robot to collect data on the Moon’s surface to use in development of a manned pressurized rover.
Space

By Graham Warwick
An electric-powered sailplane designed to ease challenges of training glider pilots has completed its experimental test phase and is being prepared for industrialization under a European-funded project.
Aerospace

By Graham Warwick
A four-seat hybrid-electric aircraft is being prepared for flight tests under a European research program.
Air Transport