Industry News

Gen. Carlton Everhart, head of the U.S. Air Force‘s Air Mobility Command, has said that the Boeing-built KC-46 tanker aircraft is slated to obtain approval for its military equipment, Military Times reported Thursday. Everhart told Air Force Times during a visit to Boeing’s Washington state facility that the company and the Federal Aviation Administration could finish the required […] More

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the company aims to launch a heavy-lift variant of its  Falcon rocket at NASA‘s Kennedy Space Center in Florida by Feb. 6, Spaceflight Now reported Sunday. The report noted SpaceX set a three-hour window beginning at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time for the Falcon Heavy liftoff from launch pad 39A. Falcon Heavy will carry a used Tesla-built Roadster sports […] More

A Kratos Defense & Security Solutions division has opened an 8,800-square-foot facility in Oklahoma City to house engineering, production and administrative operations as the company anticipates an increased demand for target and tactical unmanned aerial systems. The company said Friday the new facility unveiled by its unmanned systems division will accommodate the production of new tactical […] More

Sonalysts, Systems Engineering Associates and Transtecs have won spots on a potential $49.4 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract from the U.S. Navy to build classrooms, laboratory environments and training systems. The Defense Department said Friday all three small businesses will vie for Waterfront Surface Trainers Program support orders from the Navy and the Philippine government through a foreign military […] More

Lockheed Martin has received a potential $10.8 million modification under a U.S. Air Force contract to provide hardware necessary to implement the third phase of the service branch’s GPS control segment upgrades. The company will also engineer, install and test resources under phase 3 of the Combined Hardware and Software Commercial-Off-The Shelf Upgrade and Ground Antenna/Air Force Satellite Control […] More

Mercury Systems has received a $3.9 million follow-on order from a defense company to produce solid-state drives for use in airborne mission management efforts. Andover, Massachusetts-based Mercury Systems said Thursday it booked the order during the second quarter of its 2018 fiscal year and scheduled to deliver military-grade SSDs to the customer over the next several quarters. The […] More

Rolls-Royce has opened a facility in Finland to research and develop autonomous technology for shipping operations. The company said Thursday it aims to conduct R&D projects in the areas of autonomous navigation, land-based control and artificial intelligence at the new center. The facility includes a Remote and Autonomous Experience Space designed as a venue for showcasing autonomous technology platforms […] More

NASA and Lockheed Martin have evaluated the solar arrays of a future Mars robotic lander technology inside a clean room at the company’s facility in Littleton, Colorado. The space agency said Tuesday its Jet Propulsion Laboratory led the InSight evaluation process wherein the platform deployed its solar arrays while in a landed configuration to test the actual process […] More

The U.K. ministry of defense has formally accepted a BAE Systems-built River-class offshore patrol vessel designed to help protect the country’s territories and interests worldwide. HMS Forth will remain at the Scotstoun yard in Glasgow, Scotland for additional work before its commissioning at the Portsmouth Naval Base later this year, BAE said Thursday. The company also started […] More

A General Electric business unit has received a potential 10-year, $84.9 million contract from the Defense Logistics Agency to provide F118-101 aircraft engine support for the U.S. Air Force. GE Aviation will perform work under the sole-source contract’s base period Jan. 24, 2023 at facilities in Ohio and Kansas, the Defense Department said Thursday. The contract also contains […] More

Bloomberg‘s government arm has analyzed the Defense Department‘s unclassified contract obligations and found that DoD awarded a total of $331 billion to contractors over the last fiscal year. Robert Levinson, a senior defense analyst at Bloomberg Government, wrote in a blog entry posted Wednesday that the Department of the Navy, which includes the U.S. Marine Corps, received the highest DoD […] More

Janus Global Operations has received a two-year contract to provide risk management and security services to a life support and logistics provider that operates at an oilfield facility located in southern Iraq. Janus said Thursday it will also manage a team that aims to help secure the client’s transportation operations across the region as part of […] More