Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Graham Warwick
Sikorsky and Boeing have confirmed that the first flight of the SB-1 Defiant advanced rotorcraft demonstrator has slipped into early 2019.
Defense

By Michael Bruno
The U.S. Navy is looking to the commercial aviation industry for best practices on getting aircraft through the government’s depot maintenance facilities.
Defense

By Thierry Dubois
A Soyuz launcher is to place into orbit France’s first new-generation Earth observation satellite for military purposes, CSO-1, on Dec. 18.
Defense

By Kim Minseok, Bradley Perrett
South Korea’s parliament has OK'd an 8.2% rise in the 2019 defense budget to 46.671 trillion won ($41.35 billion), despite improved relations with North Korea.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Alberto Gutierrez is to assume the helm as the head of military aircraft at Airbus Defense and Space, taking over from Fernando Alonso.
Defense

AUSTRALIA welcomed the first two F-35As to be permanently based in the country during ceremony at RAAF Base Williamtown.

This week sees China’s Chang’e 4 probe approaching the Moon to make humanity’s first attempt at a soft landing on the lunar far side in January.

NetCentrics Corp., Herndon, Virginia, was awarded an $8,156,810 time and material, labor-hours, and firm-fixed-price contract modification.

By Steve Trimble
A successful test by an SM-3 IIA on Dec. 10 checks several boxes in the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s plans to deploy Aegis Ashore batteries in Europe and Japan.
Defense

By Arie Egozi
The U.S. and Israel are hashing out last-minute differences over the sale of secondhand F-16 fighter aircraft to Croatia.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
Spacewalking cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev labored outside the ISS's Russian segment Dec. 11 to survey the site of the small hole in the Soyuz MS-09 capsule’s habitation compartment that was detected in late August.
Space

By Lee Hudson
The Pentagon’s nascent Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) is up and running.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
Japan’s imminent five-year defense plan will include buying 50 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightnings, to be followed by a further 50, the Mainichi newspaper says.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Britain’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory has issued tenders for a study into the creation of a synthetic aperture radar small sat constellation.
Defense

By Marhalim Abas, Bradley Perrett
The Philippines will order 16 Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk helicopters within months, Defense Secretary Deflin Lorenzana said.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Japanese startup Euglena has completed construction of the country’s first demonstration plant for producing renewable jet and diesel fuel.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
A week after NASA’s Osiris-Rex asteroid sample return mission spacecraft arrived at the asteroid Bennu, scientists see early signs of a carbon- and water-rich object.
Space

By Lee Hudson
The U.S. Air Force has released a draft solicitation for the second phase of a next-generation rocket competition to deliver National Security Space payloads.
Defense

By Lee Hudson
The Pentagon will not confirm the fiscal 2020 top line budget numbers until Feb. 4.
Defense

By Irene Klotz
Voyager 2 has joined its Voyager 1 twin in interstellar space, scientists announced Dec. 10 at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Washington.
Defense

India’s indigenous Light Utility Helicopter reached an altitude of 6 km in recent testing, a critical requirement for the certification of the 3-ton aircraft.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
China’s Chang’e 4 lunar probe has conducted a second course correction following its launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
A German think tank has suggested Berlin could go down the route of a split buy of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and Eurofighters.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
The British Royal Air Force (RAF) has declared MBDA’s Meteor ramjet-powered beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile operational on the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Defense

The Indian Air Force (IAF) will get a dedicated advanced military communications satellite with the upcoming launch of GSAT-7A.
Defense