U.S. Navy planners have started to assemble a team to study a sea-based version of a family of Future Vertical Lift aircraft to replace Sikorsky MH-60s and unmanned Northrop Grumman MQ-8s.
The Senate Appropriations Committee is unhappy with the U.S. Army not giving advanced notice to congressional defense committees when realigning program budgets identified during the Pentagon's “Night Court” review.
The Senate Appropriations Committee is unsupportive of the U.S. Air Force continuing its light attack aircraft experiment and is encouraging the service to revert to its initial plan.
Infrastructure investment banker Nexa Capital Partners has formed Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Geomatics, a business intelligence entity focused on helping industry to use geospatial data to accelerate investment in the nascent market.
Swiss company Meteomatics and TruWeather Solutions of the U.S. have formed a partnership to provide “hyperlocal” weather forecasting using data-gathering drones to support commercial drone operations.
Under a $13.7 million contract with Advanced Space of Boulder, Colorado, the 6U small Capstone satellite could be ready to launch as soon as December 2020.
German startup Fraundorfer Aeronautics plans to fly a next-generation autogyro demonstrator in 2020, and aims to introduce an initial two-seat production version by 2022 and a six-seat air taxi by 2025.
French aerospace research agency Onera has dropped a launch vehicle model from its Eole small airborne launch system demonstrator at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.
Serbia is to take delivery of Chinese-made medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicles (UAV), becoming the first customer for the platforms in Europe.
Airbus has lashed out at Madrid’s decision to select defense electronics firm Indra as the industrial lead for Spain’s share in the European Future Combat Air System.
HAPSMobile, the joint venture between AeroVironment and Japan’s SoftBank, has flown the prototype Hawk30 high-altitude pseudo-satellite in restricted airspace at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards AFB in California.
Indonesia is using two China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. CH-4B Rainbow strike-capable, medium-altitude/long-endurance drones for testing and evaluation.
Leading small drone manufacturer DJI and French drone services company Delair announced a partnership on Sept. 12 to provide visual data collection and analysis products for industrial applications
AIRBUS will study ultra-high-resolution synthetic aperture radar satellite technology under “Oberon” program for the UK’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory, leading to in-orbit demo in 2022
The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved the Pentagon’s fiscal 2020 budget request and would provide the Defense Department with $694.9 billion in accordance with the 2019 Bipartisan Budget Act.
A new air-launched missile with 30-40 km (16.2-21.6 nm) range that can be used to destroy integrated air defense systems and lightly armored vehicles is now being pursued by the U.S. Army’s aviation branch.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) has a $4.7 billion annual impact on the overall Texas economy and supports more than 52,000 government and private sector jobs, according to a first-ever statewide assessment by Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar.
Environmental protest group Heathrow Pause plans to disrupt flights at London Heathrow Airport for at least five days starting Sept. 13 by illegally flying UAVs within the airport’s exclusion zone.
Leading small drone manufacturer DJI and French drone services company Delair announced a partnership on Sept.12 to provide visual data collection and analysis products for industrial applications.
Some major telecommunications satellite operators have expressed cautiousness about 5G—a fifth-generation mobile communications network that satellites are supposed to be a component of—as a business opportunity, suggesting it may not live up to the hype.
The service’s overall program of record of 420 aircraft is expected to remain unchanged, but the fleet split between the current plan to buy 353 short-takeoff-vertical-landing (Stovl)-capable F-35Bs and 67 carrier-based F-35Cs could change dramatically.
The U.S. Air Force has identified a potential new design flaw with the KC-46A tanker and banned the fleet from carrying cargo or passengers until a solution is found and delivered.
