Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Despite troubles maintaining its old and shrinking inventory of Boeing AGM-86B air-launched cruise missiles, the U.S. Air Force says speeding up development and fielding of the follow-on Long-Range Standoff weapon is not the answer.
Defense

LOCKHEED MARTIN’s F-35B began third shipboard phase of development tests (DT-III) on Oct. 28 from amphibious assault ship USS America.

Specialty metals provider Alcoa officially split into two companies Nov. 1, with its aerospace and defense engineering solutions half formally becoming Arconic.

By Michael Tint
View the Fleet Snapshot: Worldwide Airbus Helicopters Super Puma Fleets chart in PDF format.

The Pentagon has unilaterally issued a $6 billion F-35 contract to Lockheed Martin without first securing a mutual agreement, signaling ongoing discord.
Defense

Completion of the business end of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) keeps it on track for launch in October 2018, according to program managers.
Defense

The U.S. Navy’s fifth Mobile User Objective System satellite has been maneuvered into a “roughly geosynchronous” orbit with enough fuel remaining to “keep us in an operational condition,” a Navy official says.
Defense

A U.S. Air Force KC-10 tanker from the 60th Air Mobility Wing lost its refueling boom during a Nov. 1 flight and was forced to make an emergency landing.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
The first Long March 5 is on its launch pad and undergoing pre-flight checks at the new Wenchang launch base on Hainan, an island province in the South China Sea.
Zhuhai

By Thierry Dubois
The European Space Agency and the European Commission last week issued a first-of-its-kind joint statement on a shared vision for Europe in space, drawing praise from the industry.
Defense

By Mark Carreau
A two-decade-old remote sensing technology used by the U.S. military to detect harmful airborne pathogens and toxins may find new life seeking organic biosignatures in the atmosphere and on the surface of Mars and other planetary science destinations.
Defense

By Jay Menon
India has postponed the launch of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation communications satellite, which had been scheduled for later this year, a space scientist says.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
Russian Helicopters is talking to potential partners about expanding maintenance, repair and overhaul services for its products in China.
Zhuhai

AEROJET ROCKETDYNE completed hot-fire tests on two Launch Abort Engines (LAE) for Boeing’s CST-100 service module propulsion system.

This week sees the largest air show in mainland China, the 11th China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, also known as the Zhuhai Airshow.

The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a maximum $196,691,034 firm-fixed-price delivery order (5028) against a five-year base contract.

By Mark Carreau
New modeling of the Earth-Moon system attempts to further explain the explosive nature of the lunar formation and the complex interactions between the battered Earth, its offspring and the Sun that followed.
Defense

By Jay Menon
India is planning to set up a telescope on the Moon.
Defense

By Tony Osborne
Turkey has committed to purchase an additional 24 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, one of the largest single orders for the aircraft placed by a foreign country.
Defense

By Graham Warwick
Lockheed Martin has won positions on both of the Pentagon hypersonic weapon demonstrations to fly rocket-boosted and scramjet-powered strike missiles.
Defense

The Pentagon expects the number of deployed U.S. nuclear warheads to rise by the next State Department reporting period in March as more of its nuclear delivery vehicles—bombers, submarines and missiles—come out of maintenance.
Defense

By Bradley Perrett
China presented the Avic J-20 fighter at an air show for the first time on Nov. 1, flying two prototypes at the Zhuhai exhibition.
Zhuhai

By Michael Bruno
Harris will sell its CapRock Communications commercial business for $425 million in cash to SpeedCast International, the companies said Nov. 1.
Defense

Boeing’s ordnance shop in St. Charles, Missouri, is set to continue producing the U.S. military’s largest non-nuclear bomb, the 30,000-lb. GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP).
Defense

AIRBUS DEFENSE AND SPACE finished construction of first of two GRACE-FO (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Follow-On) satellites for NASA in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Satellite will be transferred to Ottobrunn for several months of operational testing. SAAB has SEK226m ($25m) contract with Spanish shipbuilder NAVANTIA for integrated combat system for two new Royal Australian Navy replenishment ships. L-3 OCEANIA has AUS$307m ($233m) Australian Defense Force contract for new night vision goggles, helmet mounts, head harnesses and laser aiming devices.