Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Russia’s Soyuz MS-08 capsule docked with the International Space Station March 23, restoring the orbital lab to six-person operations.

Before there was “C2D2,” the Star Wars-evoking acronym for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 upgrade program, there was the F-22 Raptor’s “Scaled Agile Framework.”

Poland has signed agreements with the U.S. government to purchase the Raytheon Patriot ground-based air and missile defense system.

Turkey, short of aircraft pilots since removing many from their positions following a 2016 coup attempt, has asked South Korea to train more.

Darpa is developing ways for humans to work with large numbers of small autonomous air and ground vehicles to perform complex tasks.

Nontraditional defense prime contractor L3 Technologies on March 27 unveiled a five-year cloud computing deal with Microsoft.

Federal information tech provider CACI International has abandoned a last-ditch effort to acquire rival CSRA.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has proposed creation of a Japanese Airbus.

A joint British defense and industry team has been established to study technologies that could pave the way for a future British combat aircraft.

The Netherlands has outlined plans to purchase long-range air-to-ground missiles for its fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

After years of delays and technical setbacks for Boeing’s KC-46A tanker program, the U.S. Air Force is running out of patience with the aerospace giant.

The British government has waded into the ongoing bidding war between British engineering firm GKN and turnaround specialist Melrose.

PRATT & WHITNEY has $239.7m U.S. Navy contract for long-lead materials, parts, components for 137 low rate initial production Lot 12 F135 engines: 46 F135-PW-100s for the U.S. Air Force; 20 F135-PW-600s for the U.S. Marine Corps; 4 F135-PW-100s for the Navy; 63 F135-PW-100s and four F135-PW-600s for non-DOD/FMS customers.

Three space launches are expected this Thursday: India’s latest GSAT communications satellite aboard a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, California, is being awarded $522,324,985 for fixed-price-incentive, cost-plus-incentive-fee, and cost-plus-fixed-fee modification P00008 under a previously awarded contract (N00030-17-C-0100) to exercise options for Trident II (D5) missile production and deployed system support.

Study work is underway on the future primary weapon for the Airbus Tiger attack helicopter.

NASA has been forced to confront another delay in the launching of its planned $8.83 billion, 5- to 10-year James Webb Space Telescope mission.

Thales has entered into a Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA to support its development of an unmanned aircraft systems traffic management (UTM) system.

An upgraded version of MBDA’s Brimstone 2 air-to-ground missile will equip Britain’s Eurofighter Typhoon fighters from 2022, Britain’s defense ministry says.

President Trump’s signature on the $1.3 trillion spending bill last week gave the USAF the green light to move forward with re-winging the A-10 Warthog.

Poland has ordered four more Leonardo M-346 advanced jet trainers, a move that will boost its fleet to 12 aircraft.

The Avic Chengdu J-20, in service with Chinese military combat forces, is ready to go to war at any time, says its chief designer, Yang Wei.

Hexcel and Arkema have signed a strategic alliance to develop thermoplastic composites for the aerospace sector.

Philippines maritime surveillance capabilities have been further boosted with the delivery of three Beechcraft C-90 King Airs, gifts from Japan.

AeroVironment has introduced an improved version of its RQ-20 Puma as the Pentagon rekindles its procurement of small unmanned aircraft systems.