Aviation Week & Space Technology

The time is right to consider the propensity of the A&D industry to innovate and the aimpoints on which its response to the Pentagon’s call should be targeted.

The Navy wants to fix the Littoral Combat Ship, but the changes are so extensive that it might make more sense to start over.

The overall budget, a slight decrease from fiscal 2015’s enacted level, includes requests of $9.9 billion for Operations; $2.85 billion for Facilities & Equipment; $166 million for Research, Engineering, & Development; and $2.9 billion in Airport Improvement Program grants.

Defense planners are increasingly concerned that advances in hypersonic glide vehicles from China and Russia pose a looming threat to the U.S. and its allies.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is "very close to approval" of the strategy to procure the so-called Redesigned Kill Vehicle from a national industry team managed by the agency, says director Vice Adm. James Syring.

The procurement and research and development (R&D) plan would increase in the fiscal 2016 budget request by $8 billion compared with levels enacted by Congress in fiscal 2015.

If enacted for fiscal 2016, the combined $534.3 billion “baseline” and $50.9 billion off-book Overseas Contingency Operations requests would be an increase of almost $25 billion, around 4%, over the current fiscal year’s total.

U.S. Defense, Energy 2016 budgets will build nuclear deterrence programs, albeit slowly.

Northrop Grumman, once considered a Uclass frontrunner, halts work as Pentagon once again delays competition for carrier-based UAV.

On the 100th anniversary of NACA, NASA rededicates itself to pursuing the fundamental technologies that made its predecessor so successful.

Galileo will comprise a civilian-controlled constellation of 30 satellites, but civil aviation authorities are skeptical that Europe’s space sector can meet navigation and communications safety standards.

An annual assessment of NASA’s human spaceflight programs points to safety risks resulting from a lack of transparency and a disconnect between program goals and funding.

Google Lunar XPrize grants contestants more time and money to meet a difficult goal.

NASA’s fiscal 2016 budget request continues to feature past policies, and is likely to experience past partisan battles on Capitol Hill as well.

A shortage of airline pilots, a worrisome trend that will grow more apparent over the next two decades, has the industry contemplating current pilot-education requirements and ways to streamline the process of certifying commercial pilots.

Pilot academies in Australia are playing a leading role in helping meet the growing need for pilots at Southeast Asian and Chinese airlines.

Demand for pilots at U.S. majors and regionals is outstripping supply and likely to cause shortages unless corrective steps are taken.

It’s business as usual for U.S. major carriers, as recent low fuel costs will not, as of now, factor into decisions regarding fleet and capacity.

IAG, the only entity willing to invest in European airlines, is nearing a deal to acquire Aer Lingus, subject to government and shareholder approval.

Pentagon ponders alternatives to F-35 should proliferating new threats compromise jet’s stealth.

There are signs of hope that the new House Armed Services Committee chairman will make defense acquisition reform a key priority.

COMMERCIAL AVIATION The starboard Pratt & Whitney PW1217G geared turbofan on the first Mitsubishi Regional Jet was fired up on Jan 13. Mitsubishi Aircraft aims for a first flight in the second quarter. Three more flight-test aircraft are in final assembly at Nagoya, Japan: Wing-body join is complete on the second and underway on the third, and the fuselage is joined for the fourth.

After years of discussion about incremental upgrades or off-the-shelf insertions into older programs, the Pentagon’s next generation of equipment is taking shape. The defense budget plan for fiscal 2016 and beyond features increased spending on new nuclear delivery vehicles and an initiative to pursue advanced fighter engines and a post-F-35 fighter (see pages 26 and 30). Along with that, the request seeks continued aid for NATO and an ongoing emphasis on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

Since unveiling plans in January to build rival networks of hundreds, or even thousands, of Internet satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), SpaceX and OneWeb are prompting comparisons with past ventures that flopped, among them Teledesic and Skybridge, two well-financed start-ups whose visions of delivering high-speed broadband to the masses were thwarted by technical setbacks.

Flying in the dark when manned aircraft are grounded for safety, Lockheed Martin’s Indago small quadcopter provides fire intelligence.