Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Barring the equivalent of light speed regulatory action in Europe, Spirit AeroSystems appears unlikely to close its proposed $420 million acquisition of Asco Industries—at least not under the current terms that expire Oct. 1.

The image reveals a pod with a dimpled outer mold line similar to the ALQ-99 low-band pods, which the winning NGJ-LB design is expected to augment and then replace.

Blue Origin plans to conduct its 13th New Shepard launch on Sept. 24, ending a nine-month hiatus in flight testing.

Flight services provider DroneUp on Sept. 22 announced a pilot program with Walmart and Quest Diagnostics to deliver COVID-19 test sample collection kits by drone in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

U.S. Marine Corps F-35s outnumber their UK counterparts as they embark on the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time as part of a joint exercise.

Nearly seven years after Brazil's fighter selection, the first Gripen E fighter has arrived in Brazil, where it will continue a year-long flight test campaign ahead of first delivery of an operational jet in 2021.

Hyundai Motor is continuing to build out the infrastructure side of its initiative to begin commercial urban air mobility (UAM) services by 2028.

The UK defense ministry is reportedly considering reducing the number of Boeing E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft it plans to purchase.

Finland-based Iceye has closed an $87 million series C financing round to complete its planned 18-satellite constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) microsatellites and to build a U.S. manufacturing and engineering hub.

Brief news items of interest to aerospace & defense professionals.

Key to the effort is Congressional appropriation of $3.2 billion in fiscal 2021 for commercially developed Human Landing Systems, NASA says.

House Democrats have filed a bill that would fund the federal government through Dec. 11 to avoid a shutdown on Oct. 1.

Textron Aviation avoided a strike by its hourly workforce when members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers accepted the company’s final offer of a new four-year labor contract on Sept. 19.

Cubic, a military training and command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) services provider, has adopted a so-called poison pill to ward off a potentially hostile takeover attempt by activist hedge fund Elliott Management.

The FAA has announced its policy for approving drone designs as a special class of aircraft.

Dutch industry has benefited from an additional $19 million in contracts since Turkey’s suspension from the F-35 program, a national report has confirmed.

One of the few big storylines on the military aviation beat to emerge this year with no links at all to the COVID-19 pandemic is the U.S. Air Force’s

The U.S. Space Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $298 million contract to rapidly prototype the payload for the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communications program that will ultimately replace the Advanced Extremely High Frequency system.

Much of the growing global enthusiasm for a post-Apollo return to the Moon with human explorers is focused on the lunar south pole.

Over more than three decades, the Commemorative Air Force Wings Over Houston Airshow has allowed patrons to stroll among exhibits of vintage World War II aircraft as well as the military’s latest fighters.

OneWeb has renegotiated its contract with Arianespace and plans to resume launching its broadband satellite network in December, pending court approval of its Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

Development of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) H3 has slipped at least three months following the discovery of faults during testing of the

Austria has selected the military version of Leonardo’s AW169 twin-engine intermediate light helicopter to replace its fleet of 1960s-era Aerospatiale Alouette III.

Selected U.S. military contracts from the past week.

News in brief