Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

President Trump has told NASA to make a fresh assessment of the Federally Funded Research and Development Center model for operating the agency’s field centers.

South Korea has chosen the Boeing P-8 Poseidon over competing maritime patrollers offered by Airbus, L3 and Saab.

Satellite operators Airbus and Planet are to combine their respective capabilities in high-resolution and global, frequent-revisit Earth observation for joint offerings.

U.S. civil and military officials are backing the Trump administration’s push to place responsibility for space traffic management in the Department of Commerce.

Elbit Systems will buy state-owned IMI Systems, the weapons maker once known as Israel Military Industries, for about $495 million up front, confirming a long-expected consolidation of Israeli defense companies.

KONGSBERG has NOK220m ($27m) contract from Norwegian Defense Materiel Agency to adapt Naval Strike Missile (NSM) for Germany.

AVIATION WEEK NETWORK forecasts that over the next 10 years, 2,230 newly built, Western-designed helicopters performing transport missions will be delivered and 1,692 will be retired. At the same time, 847 transport helicopters will be remanufactured into new types.

As it accelerates planning for a new armed scout rotorcraft, the U.S. Army has announced it will brief industry on June 28.

The Philippines has enlarged its 2018-23 defense modernization program by 44%, budgeting for multirole fighters and the first of at least two planned subs.

The U.S. Army wants a new engine for the General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft.

The Thai air force took delivery of a Sukhoi Business Jet (SBJ) on June 19, completing a 2014 order for three aircraft.

After a lack of UK government support was blamed for the failure of a project to convert London’s waste into jet fuel, a new effort has taken a step forward.

Turkey has taken delivery of its first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter despite ongoing efforts by U.S. senators to block the transfer.

Airbus says it will need to re-consider its footprint, investments and dependency on the UK in the event of a hard Brexit.

The DOD will use predictive analysis to anticipate future aviation mishaps and the services are adopting methods to gather that data, senior officials say.

U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command is resuming B-1B flight operations this week following a June 7 safety stand-down in response to concerns over the bomber’s egress system.

Raytheon said it is investing $100 million in a new 50,000-sq.-ft. facility in east Mississippi that will be a “hub” for test, integration and production of S-band radars, including the U.S. Navy’s SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar program.

SpaceX has won its first U.S. Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) heavy-lift launch service contract, work previously awarded solely to United Launch Alliance.

Donald E. Fink, Jr., a globe-trotting aerospace reporter, pilot and editor who led Aviation Week & Space Technology’s evolution from an engineering journal into a more modern industry publication, died June 21.

The FAA’s Drone Advisory Committee apparently lost its industry chairman after Intel Corp. CEO Brian Krzanich resigned over an improper relationship.

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft is on track for a June 27 rendezvous with Ryugu, a half-mile-wide, carbon-rich asteroid that is a potentially hazardous NEO.

NASA is moving to the next phase of detect-and-avoid testing after a capstone flight in which its Ikhana large UAS flew in the NAS without a chase aircraft.

Development of a new type of rotary diesel engine for smaller UAVs and other applications has been boosted by a $2.5 million Darpa contract.

A coalition of manned and unmanned aviation groups is lobbying U.S. senators to retain protections for model aircraft hobbyists.

Darpa is seeking payloads to be launched by competitors in its Launch Challenge, which is offering $10 million for launching small sats into LEO on short notice.