All articles by James Drew – Page 4
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NewsUSMC buys long-lead items for Sikorsky CH-53K production
The US government has made its first down payment for post-development, operational Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallions, with $25 million awarded to the Lockheed Martin-owned helicopter manufacturer last week for long-lead parts.
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NewsPakistan orders Cessna turboprops for aeromedical evacuation
Cessna has secured an order for two Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX and four T206H Stationair turboprops from Pakistan via the US government.
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NewsAustralia seeks DOD's newest air-to-air missile, the AIM-120D
Australia could become the first foreign nation to buy the Raytheon AIM-120D air-to-air missile under a $1.1 billion foreign military sales package approved by the US government this week.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: General Atomics building on Avenger as it looks to MQ-X
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ Predator brand has become something of a household name over the past 15 years of American-led counterterrorism operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and many other troubled hotspots in North Africa and around the globe.
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NewsDOD encouraged to speed up FVL and buy more V-22s
Congressional authorizers want the US Army to consider options for accelerating its Future Vertical Lift (FVL) effort and have also told the Air Force to consider buying more Bell-Boeing V-22 Ospreys.
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NewsVIDEO: Bell V-280 taking form in Amarillo
Bell Helicopter’s third-generation tiltrotor, the V-280 Valor, is literally coming together in Amarillo, Texas, as the company enters the final stages of mating the wing with the fuselage.
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NewsSikorsky CH-53Es need readiness reset as USMC await King Stallion
The US Marine Corps is pressing forward with a fleet-wide maintenance reset of the Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion as it awaits delivery of the CH-53K King Stallion replacement, which has flown for the first time with an external load.
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NewsUSAF basing revised bomber count on 'minimum' of 100 B-21s
US Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) expects to complete an analysis of its bomber force numbers by the end of this year calendar year, and says that number will be based around a “minimum” operational requirement for 100 Northrop Grumman B-21s.
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NewsCongressional panel questions USAF's JSTARS radar plan
Members of Congress have cautioned the US Air Force against “pursuing multiple radar technologies concurrently” as it explores options for replacing the Northrop Grumman E-8C “JSTARS” surveillance, battle management and command and control platform.
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NewsUS lawmakers want cost data for building 194 more F-22s
The US House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces wants to know how much it would cost to resume production of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor air superiority fighter and it is even willing to consider export options and foreign partnerships as an offset.
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News
Lockheed LM-100J taking form in Marietta
Construction of first the commercial derivative of the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules in 24 years has begun in Marietta, Georgia, where fabricators are now assembling the first LM-100J wing.
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NewsHow a pilot’s NVG case brought down a USAF C-130J in Afghanistan
A deadly US Air Force C-130J crash at Jalalabad Airfield in Afghanistan on 2 October 2015 that killed everyone onboard, plus three Afghani security personnel manning the guard tower it struck, was caused by a hard-shell night vision goggle case placed in front of the yoke.
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NewsP&W still pushing upgrade of B-52's original TF33 engine
Pratt & Whitney remains confident that a TF33 upgrade package it is developing would keep the fuel-guzzling Boeing B-52 bomber, an eight-engine goliath, flying into 2040 and beyond.
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NewsGeneral Atomics 'Avenger' trials UTAS MS-177 sensor
The US Air Force’s next-generation multispectral camera, the UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) MS-177, has been successfully flown on the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems "Predator C" Avenger aircraft.
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NewsUS Army finalises AH-64, CH-47 and UH-60 transactions
A $1.5 billion deal with Boeing for 117 remanufactured AH-64 Apache gunships tops the list of big-ticket helicopter contracts awarded by the US government in the past fortnight. Other deals include Boeing CH-47Fs for the Netherlands and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks for Mexico.
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NewsP&W locks in $1 billion contract for F-35 engines
Pratt & Whitney secured a $1 billion contract this week to fund the first 66 of 167 F135 propulsion systems being purchased by the US government to power the growing domestic and international fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35s.
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NewsNorthrop backs XS-1 spaceplane to join satellite launch market
Northrop Grumman might be "playing to win" the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's XS-1 programme, but the aerospace firm's interest in a reusable spaceplane for rapidly launching small satellites runs far deeper than any one project or contract.
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NewsMoon or Mars? Lockheed preps Orion for deep space adventure
It’s a debate that has raged since NASA’s last Apollo lunar mission in 1972. Should America return to the Moon or press on to Mars?
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News
Virgin's SpaceShipTwo readied for new ‘space renaissance’
Virgin Galactic is positioning itself as a key player in the new “space renaissance” as it returns SpaceShipTwo to flight testing, chalks up commitments for its small satellite launch service, and teams up with Northrop Grumman on the US military's XS-1 spaceplane programme.
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NewsULA and SpaceX on different paths toward rocket reuse
When it comes to dramatically lowering the cost of access to space, industry titans agree that reusability is key. But that’s where the unity ends, as industry upstart SpaceX and long-time launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) take two very different approaches to reusability.