Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

This week a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch Spaceflight’s SSO-A rideshare mission from Vandenberg AFB, California.

Vista Outdoor Sales LLC, Federal Cartridge Co., Anoka, Minnesota, has been awarded a $41,181,315 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for 5.56mm ball, carbine, barrier ammunition.

By Graham Warwick
Italdesign has flow a quarter-scale model of the Pop.Up Next modular air/ground vehicle, an electric eVTOL urban air mobility concept developed with Audi and Airbus.

By Graham Warwick
Saab’s second Gripen E test aircraft, designated 39-9, completed a 33-min. first flight from Linkoping, Sweden, on Nov. 26.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Michael Bruno
Newly infused with Rockwell Collins, United Technologies announced late Nov. 26 it will spin off non-aerospace business units Carrier and Otis.
Defense

By Lee Hudson
The newly posted Pacific Air Forces chief is getting smart on space systems and says there will be an increase of space planners in two combatant commands.
Defense

By Lee Hudson
The U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory will provide a range of options to the commandant for counter-unmanned aircraft system air domain surveillance.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Lee Hudson
The U.S. Navy is seeking an autonomous cargo-unmanned aerial system and will host an experiment in March to transport a 50-lb. payload.
Defense

India’s space agency plans to launch its HysIS Earth observation spacecraft this week, along with 30 smaller piggyback satellites from eight countries.
Defense

By Steve Trimble
Boeing has received a new contract to deliver A/MH-6 primary airframe structures to U.S. Army Special Forces, but a bitter legal dispute with the original supplier is continuing.
Defense

By Arie Egozi
South Korea plans to purchase two Green Pine Block C radar warning systems for $292 million.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

Piotr Butowski
Russia is planning to resume trials of the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar made by Phazotron-NIIR on MiG-29 family fighters.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Graham Warwick
Raytheon hopes to be under contract with the U.S. Navy in 2019 to develop an advanced version of its Miniature Air-Launched Decoy.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Steve Trimble
U.S. Navy officials want to develop “as soon as feasibly possible” a next-generation towed decoy for the Boeing F/A-18E/F fleet.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Lee Hudson
DARPA has selected BAE Systems to develop a new data-driven, machine-learning algorithm to decode radio frequency signals.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Michael Bruno
The largest independent global helicopter leasing company, Waypoint Leasing, on Nov. 25 sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York.

By Steve Trimble
Lockheed Martin has begun the second phase of a project to integrate an infrared search and track sensor internally on the U.S. Navy’s Boeing F/A-18E/F fleet.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Irene Klotz
NASA’s InSight lander touched down on the flat, wide expanse of Mars’ Elysium Planitia on Nov. 26, wrapping up a seven-month, 300-million-mile (480-million-km) journey.
Defense

By Michael Bruno
Japanese commercial UAV company Terra Drone said Nov. 26 it has bought drone services company Skeye of The Netherlands.

By Mark Carreau
The topic of human spaceflight risk arose during a Q-&-A session with the crew of a Soyuz MS-11 slated to launch to the ISS on Dec. 3.
Defense

By Michael Bruno
credit rating giant S&P Global Ratings has downgraded its assessments of several traditional fixed satellite services companies and soured on the whole sector.
Defense

By Marhalim Abas
Malaysia has set up a naval air squadron to operate drones given to the country by the U.S., the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) chief says.
Defense

Marhalim Abas
The Philippines Air Force has grounded its Leonardo W3 Sokol medium helicopters following a crash on Nov. 22, the third accident involving the type since 2012.
Defense

By Thierry Dubois
The kind of AI tech that has made spectacular progress in the consumer world is thus far unsuited to air transport safety standards—and consequently cockpit electronics—French aerospace research center Onera and avionics manufacturer Thales say.
Defense

By Irene Klotz
InSight is to become the first spacecraft to place a seismometer directly on the surface of another planet to detect quakes.
Space