Defense

The European Space Agency has chosen its next medium-class space science mission—a Venus orbiter that will join a pair of NASA probes, selected last week to help resolve questions about why Earth’s sister planet evolved so differently.

Leonardo has handed over the first of up to 130 TH-73 training helicopters to the U.S. Navy.

NASA’s recently extended Juno mission to Jupiter this week transmitted its first close-up images of the giant planet’s icy moon Ganymede, the Solar System’s largest lunar companion.

Shenzhou-12 will be the first of four manned missions to support the construction of the Tiangong space station.

The Biden administration’s pick for Air Force Secretary is among the nominations that have been sent to the Senate for confirmation.

Seoul’s requirement calls for a 30,000-40,000 ton carrier that can support up to 16 Lockheed Martin F-35Bs and eight helicopters.

The review will be worked as a part of the Biden Administration’s National Defense Strategy and feed into the integrated deterrence review.

Diversified portfolios due to consolidation and similar spending on R&D by large contractors may be part of the answer.

A key milestone in autonomous aerial-refueling moves the Navy a step closer toward operating larger UAS from aircraft carriers.

U.S. Navy to cut nuke program; Air Force’s B-21 preference; Data link for Viper; and Danish Air Force turns to electric aircraft.

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter completed a seventh excursion through the skies of Mars on June 8, traveling south 348 ft. in 62.8 sec. as part of a series of flight tests to prepare for future aerial planetary exploration campaigns.

The second of the UK’s two new aircraft carriers has embarked the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for the first time.

ANGELES EQUITY PARTNERS, CA has acquired PRIMUS AEROSPACE, CO (complex AD&S precision components).

KOPIN, MA has $1.6m follow-on order to supply F-35 liquid crystal displays.

Jeremy Watrous to Senior Vice President of AEVEX Aerospace, Solana Beach, CA.

NASA’s Lunar IceCube has completed prelaunch environmental testing at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, in preparation for its flight as a secondary payload aboard the Artemis I mission later this year.

NATO defense ministers have signed an agreement to create a network of flight training centers across Europe that could reduce reliance on U.S.-based training facilities.

Kitty Hawk has completed its first operational exercise with the U.S. Air Force’s AFWerx innovation unit assessing the ability of the company’s Heaviside electric vertical-takeoff aircraft to perform medical evacuation, personnel recovery and logistics.

Alessandro Profumo is upbeat about the future of post-COVID-19 European defense capability.

A digital-first approach is key to achieving Tempest’s development goals, but the technology needs to be proved.

An upcoming Pentagon report concludes that classified U.S. technology is not behind the hundreds of UAP sightings by military pilots and other credible witnesses.

The U.S. Air Force has a preferred bomber fleet strategy that leaves room for up to 149 Northrop Grumman B-21s, a nominal 50% increase over the previously stated procurement objective of more than 100.

Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Harker has directed the service to defund nuclear sea-launched cruise missile development in fiscal 2023, according to a memo obtained by Aerospace DAILY.

Airbus Helicopters is to acquire a key supplier of dynamic components in a move that appears to mirror a strategy adopted by the company’s commercial airliner business.

City of Houston officials joined with Collins Aerospace on June 7 to ceremonially break ground on the construction of an 8-acre campus on the grounds of Houston Spaceport.