Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

THALES, BAE SYSTEMS and CGI have teamed to bid for the second phase of the UK Royal Navy’s Maritime Electronic Warfare Program (MEWP).

U.S., Russian and European astronauts are en route to an early June 8 docking with the International Space Station.

View the Defense Market Intelligence Notes in PDF format.

By Guy Norris
Orbital ATK is upgrading the Pegasus XL rocket to drive down costs and has acquired a second airworthy Lockheed L-1011 as a long-term spares source.
Defense

By Bill Carey
The FAA named 19 U.S. penitentiaries and 10 Coast Guard bases and facilities at which drone flights will be prohibited from the ground to 400 ft. above each site, effective June 20.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
The majority of the money—around €9.7 billion—will be spent on the Galileo navigation system and European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) constellation.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Insitu has been competitively awarded a contract potentially worth $117 million over eight years to install and deploy contractor-owned and operated ScanEagle small UAS on U.S. Coast Guard cutters.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
The organization, apparently called UTAP, is headed by Executive Director for Advanced Projects Jason Chua, who was formerly with Airbus’ Silicon Valley outpost A3 (“A-Cubed”).
Defense

By Arie Egozi
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) adapted the platform, originally designed for land-based missions, for the sub-hunting role.
Defense

By Irene Klotz
Forty-two years after NASA’s twin Viking landers looked for organics on Mars, the Curiosity rover has found them, setting the stage for a focused search for signs of life.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Chris Boardman, managing director of BAE Systems' Air division saysthe UK should be aiming to take a lead role in an international program to ensure the country retains its engineering base to produce combat aircraft.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Raytheon has begun discussions with the U.S. Navy on how to proceed with arming the service’s Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) with Norway’s Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile (NSM).
Defense

The funds will be distributed between the country’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk. 3 projects.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Six years after the delivery of the UK’s first F-35, four of the fighters have touched down at RAF Marham, the airfield selected as the British main F-35 operating base.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Swiss Post has expanded its medical delivery drone trials, beginning a pilot project transporting laboratory samples by air across the capital Bern.
Business Aviation

An Indian air force (IAF) Jaguar trainer crashed in the state of Gujarat on June 5, killing the pilot.

By Mark Carreau
The men and women assigned to the International Space Station (ISS) are focused increasingly on expanding the future of human exploration well beyond the bounds of their orbiting science lab.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Insight into how urgently the U.S. Air Force wants to field a hypersonic strike weapon has emerged even as Lockheed Martin officially acknowledges the April award of a potential $928 million contract to develop the air-launched missile.
Defense

By Michael Bruno
While long expected, the regulatory approval nevertheless settles any lingering questions about whether the Trump administration would allow the merger of two major players.
Defense

By Michael Bruno
Lockheed Martin Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Pentagon’s leading contractor, expects to significantly ramp up its investment and outreach activity this year.
Defense

By Maxim Pyadushkin
The Russian military aims to gradually renew the entire range of its airlift capabilities, and its medium lifter has taken one step forward in development.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
LONDON—The FAA is calling on Bell to introduce additional protections into the fly-by-wire control system of its new Model 525 intermediate-heavy twin-engine helicopter.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Bradley Perrett
Flight testing Avic’s Dark Sword supersonic combat drone may follow the appearance of an unverified photograph of the aircraft in the form of a full-scale prototype or mockup.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
U.S., Russian and European astronauts are en route to an early June 8 docking with the International Space Station.
Defense

By Marhalim Abas
The timing of the purchase has not been disclosed, but experience with other Indonesian programs suggests it may be protracted.
Defense