Defense

Japan is mulling a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) constellation of satellites to help it track modern hypersonic ballistic missiles, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun has reported.

The approvals help pave the way for the first planned orbital launch from the UK mainland for Virgin Orbit’s “Start Me Up” mission using its air-launched LauncherOne space vehicle that will be carried by its modified Boeing 747.

The statement is the first official acknowledgment that the strike near the Polish village of Przewodow on Nov. 15 was not an errant or intentional attack by Russia.

BAE Systems is exploring the use of exoskeletons, robotics and augmented reality to help maintenance of the UK’s combat aircraft fleets.

Clutch problem prompts review of V-22 Incidents; Air Force Special Operations Command looks at interim step to make gearboxes stronger.

NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Frank Rubio resumed the agency’s efforts to upgrade the International Space Station’s solar power-generation system, with a 7-hr. spacewalk.

Boeing has demonstrated autonomous anti-jamming capabilities with the U.S. Space Force’s Protected Tactical Satcom Prototype.

NASA managers clear the Artemis I launch team at the Kennedy Space Center to begin fueling the Space Launch System rocket for a long-delayed debut flight to put an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into a distant lunar orbit.

Explosions on Polish territory near the Ukrainian border on Nov. 15 triggered an emergency meeting of Poland’s security cabinet amidst disputed claims of errant or intentional Russian missile strikes on the NATO member.

AST SpaceMobile has deployed what it says is the “largest-ever” commercial communications array in low-Earth orbit.

All five crew members on the Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress bomber and one in the Bell P-63F Kingcobra fighter were killed in the accident, which happened at the Wings Over Dallas airshow.

The UK’s military pilot-training pipeline is affecting even its much-vaunted F-35 Joint Strike Fighter fleet.

Although the U.S. Air Force and Navy have added high-tech, intense learning to undergraduate pilot training, a large backlog remains.

The two-hour launch window on Nov. 16 closes at 3:04 a.m. The mission marks the first flight of the SLS, which has been in development for more than a decade.

News in brief.

Members of German aerospace trade body BDLI say Berlin should call for a role for German industry in its acquisitions of Boeing CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters and Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

Czech aerospace manufacturer Aero Vodochody has received a long-awaited domestic order for its L-39NG jet trainer, signing a contract for four aircraft.

Some military analysts think the J-6 and other older Chinese fighters still may play a critical role in a Taiwan conflict, as a cheap, potentially reusable vanguard of UCAVs.

Turkish officials have confirmed plans to upgrade part of the country’s Lockheed Martin F-16 fleet with a domestically developed active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.

Frank Robinson, the man who pioneered the development of the Robinson family of light helicopters for the general aviation market, has died.

SpaceX’s 26th NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station has been readied to deliver assorted science and technology payloads focused on human deep-space exploration challenges.

There was approximately 2 hr. 7 min. between launch of the Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft and it docking with the Tiangong space station.

NASA managers have cleared the Kennedy Space Center launch team to start the two-day countdown for launch, but two technical issues that surfaced during post-hurricane inspections and tests still need to be resolved.

The U.S. Air Force has released many details about the mostly classified program, but much about the new stealth bomber remains secret

Selected U.S. military contracts for Nov. 7 U.S. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Optex Systems Inc.,* doing business as Applied Optics Center, Dallas, Texas