The technology driving the new, unmanned collaborative aircraft that will fly alongside the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance fighter is so ready that the service can skip any risk reduction activities and head straight into engineering and manufacturing development, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall says.
If in past years the U.S. Air Force was hedging its bets on notional, more affordable aircraft designs, it is now embracing the strategy of high-end air power to counter China, placing its dollars behind the F-35 fighter, the B-21 bomber and the future Next Generation Air Dominance fighter family.
French satellite startup Prométhée has contracted with NanoAvionics to build a hyperspectral nanosatellite demonstrator. The ProtoMéthée-1 will be based on NanoAvionics’ 16U nanosatellite bus M16P and would be a forerunner to plans to launch a 20-satellite constellation by 2025, Prométhée said on April 29.
Lockheed Martin is demonstrating how it can integrate U.S. Army land-based air defense radars into longer-range systems such as the U.S. Navy’s Aegis, with a specific eye on the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) high priority of defending Guam.
A proposal for a new DARPA program would fund four new flight tests of a scramjet-powered cruise missile to build on lessons learned from the ongoing Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, the agency says in budget planning documents.
Axiom Space has signed an agreement to provide a United Arab Emirates professional astronaut with a six-month tour of duty aboard the International Space Station.
DARPA has secretly tested a hypersonic Tactical Boost Glide system as a risk-reduction effort for the U.S. Air Force’s Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon.
During an April 28 spacewalk, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Denis Matveev enabled the first motion of the European Space Agency’s 37-ft. robot arm, a multipurpose manipulator that was launched to the International Space Station in July 2021 as part of the Russian Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module.
A glide bomb equipped with a new seeker destroyed a full-scale ship in the Gulf of Mexico test range for the second time on April 28, moving a technology for a new class of air-launched weapons closer to fielding, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory says.
Aviation Week editors make sense of recommended reductions to the number of F-35 and F-15EX fighters the U.S. Air Force plan to buy in the coming years.
The F-35 program is struggling to find enough funding to fully stand up and resource the jet’s depots because the Pentagon’s habit of underfunding the maintenance facilities while expecting cost reductions in contract negotiations is not playing out as expected, the program executive says.
Northrop Grumman is progressing on workforce absenteeism issues that plagued its F-35 program over the winter, and otherwise does not see particular problems elsewhere in its portfolio due to ongoing inflation, labor, pandemic or war-related issues, the large prime’s chief executive said April 28.
Boeing on April 28 unveiled the first T-7A Red Hawk trainer for the U.S. Air Force, though the aircraft will remain at the company’s St. Louis facility for more ground and flight tests before being handed over to the service.
President Joe Biden on April 28 requested $33 billion from Congress for aid to Ukraine, a dramatic increase from ongoing spending to support Kyiv in its fight against Russia, and specifically highlights a need for anti-aircraft and advanced air defense systems.
Science missions using the Boeing 747SP-based Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy airborne observatory will end in September 2022 after the U.S. National Academies assessed the science output no longer justifies its operating costs.
Despite the Russia-Ukraine war and volatility in the stock market, business aircraft activity at Textron Aviation has remained strong during the first quarter of 2022, company officials say.
Fresh off comments about problems with rocket motor supply and the need to make small, strategic acquisitions for advanced aerospace technology, Raytheon Technologies has invested in custom-made rocket engine-maker Firehawk Aerospace.
