Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

By Tony Osborne
Italy has become the first operator of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to base the aircraft outside the U.S.
Defense

By Maxim Pyadushkin
The Russian air force’s new transport aircraft, the Ilyushin IL-76MD-90A, is preparing for its final tests prior to delivery.
Defense

U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs will operate alongside UK F-35s from Britain’s new Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier in 2021.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Bulgaria is looking for new and secondhand fighters to replace its air force’s aging Soviet-era fleet.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Britain and France are to begin work on the development of a joint Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator in late 2017.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
The Chinese navy has conducted a live-fire exercise for a battle group centered on the aircraft carrier Liaoning, acknowledged by the service as not yet ready for war.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
Australia has declared the Leonardo-Finmeccanica C-27J Spartan initially operational, 18 months after accepting the first unit into service.
Defense

By Marhalim Abas
The U.S. State Department has approved the possible sale of two Saab Sea Giraffe 3D air search radars for the Philippine navy.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
German missile manufacturer Diehl Defense has completed a series of trials with Norway to prove that its IRIS-T air-to-air missile can also engage ground targets.
Defense

By Jay Menon
India and Russia plan to extend the range of their jointly developed BrahMos supersonic cruise missile beyond its current 300-km (190-mi.) limit.
Defense

ARGENTINA approved $2.5b military modernization program incl. aircraft, patrol vessels, armored vehicles and combat rifles.

Hexcel, a major provider of advanced composites and carbon fiber, has made a “strategic” investment in Carbon Conversions Inc.

By Michael Tint
View the Fleet Snapshot: French Air Force Piloted Aircraft chart in PDF format.

By Mark Carreau
New findings by NASA’s long-running Dawn mission suggest that ice lies just a meter or so below the cratered surface of the large main belt asteroid Ceres.
Defense

An Orbital ATK Pegasus air-launched rocket orbited eight small weather-monitoring satellites Dec. 15.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
NASA leads the rankings among the largest U.S. federal agencies as the best place to work in 2016, the fifth year in a row it has earned the top distinction.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
The design of Amazon’s delivery drone has evolved since CEO Jeff Bezos revealed the company’s Prime Air concept in December 2013.
Defense

June 2, 2016, will forever be remembered as an unlucky day for the U.S. military’s premier flying aerobatic demonstration teams, the Navy Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds.
Defense

By Jen DiMascio
The U.S. State Department is reviewing the potential sale of precision munitions to Saudi Arabia, in light of concerns about thousands of civilian deaths due to Saudi airstrikes in Yemen.
Defense

The Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy have intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) target using Raytheon’s Standard Missile-6 Dual 1 for the first time.
Defense

SAFRAN HELICOPTER ENGINES has €180m ($190m), 10-year contract with NATO Helicopter Management Agency to support 130 RTM322-powered NH90s operated by France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Starburst Accelerator and Leonie Hill Capital have announced a $200 million venture capital fund and expect to begin operations as soon as next quarter.

By Joe Anselmo, Jen DiMascio
Raytheon CEO Tom Kennedy recently sat down in his office at the company’s Waltham, Massachusetts, headquarters with Aviation Week.

By Graham Warwick
NASA is flight-testing a display that could be used by any supersonic aircraft to manage the noise created by sonic booms.

By Thierry Dubois
Europe’s Galileo global positioning, navigation and timing satellite constellation is to begin providing services to users on Dec. 15, 17 years after the European Commission approved the project.
Defense