Industry News

Huntington Ingalls Industries has kicked off the construction of the U.S. Navy‘s third Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier at the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding division in Virginia. The company said Thursday that it cut a 35-ton steel plate as part of the construction of USS Enterprise (CVN 80), the ninth Navy ship to bear its name. […] More

Raytheon has opened a customer engagement center in Canberra, Australia, that features a virtual reality immersive environment designed for the company’s defense customers, engineers and industry partners. The company said Monday the center’s opening event was attended by Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy; Michael Ward, managing director of Raytheon’s Australian subsidiary; and Christopher Pyne, Australian minister for defense industry. […] More

Capstone has won a task order to configure, implement, administer and sustain a catalog ordering logistic tracking system for the Commander, Navy Installations Command. The company said Thursday it will provide COLTS database support services as part of the Naval Security Forces Ashore Antiterrorism and Force Protection Equipment Program. “We are excited about this opportunity to assist […] More

The U.S. Air Force’s Operationally Responsive Space-5 satellite took off Saturday aboard the Orbital ATK-built Minotaur IV rocket that launched at 2:04 a.m. Eastern time from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The ORS-5 satellite that launched into low-Earth orbit is designed to provide space-based situational awareness data to the U.S. Strategic Command through […] More

Lockheed Martin and MyDefence Communication have agreed pair a quadrotor unmanned aerial system with a counter-UAS platform under a collaborative development agreement between the two companies. Both companies aim to offer rapid response aerial surveillance services through the combination of Indago and KNOX platforms, MyDefence Communication said. The resulting technology will look to help users detect potential threats as […] More

SpaceX‘s proposal to build a temporary Dragon spacecraft processing and refurbishment facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida has secured approval from the state’s environmental regulatory agency, Florida Today reported Friday. Florida Today obtained permitting documents that say the St. Johns River Water Management District has given SpaceX authorization to make changes to […] More

Korean Aerospace Industries has awarded Cobham a $9 million contract to supply an undisclosed quantity of Missile Eject Launcher units for integration onto South Korea’s future KF-X multirole fighter aircraft. Cobham said Tuesday it aims to deliver the weapons carriage and release equipment to KAI by 2020. Ken Kota, senior vice president and general manager of Cobham’s mission systems […] More

A Serco-led industry team laid the first section of keel for Australia’s future icebreaker Antarctic Supply Research Vessel at a ceremony held Friday in Galati, Romania. Serco said Friday four coins were placed under the ASRV’s keel to represent the countries of companies involved in the $1.51 billion shipbuilding project. Denmark-based consulting firm Knud E. Hansen […] More

An extended-range variant of General Atomics‘ MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft system has exceeded the 40-hour goal during an endurance flight test. General Atomics said Thursday MQ-1C ER was configured for a representative U.S. Army mission and flew 41.9 hours after the UAS was launched from El Mirage, California. It marked the aircraft’s 43rd test flight since Oct. […] More

Northrop Grumman plans to update its RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle in an effort to meet the Missile Defense Agency’s requirements for the high-altitude, long-endurance drone program, FlightGlobal reported Thursday. Northrop responded to a request for information MDA published on FedBizOpps in June. MDA is interested in a HALE UAV designed to carry a high-energy […] More

The Department of Veteran Affairs plans to award Rivera Group a sole-source contract on Sept. 6 to deliver and maintain a modeling software. VA said Thursday in a FedBizOpps notice that Rivera Group will provide its Eagle6 software to help detect vulnerabilities in the department’s VistA electronic health record system. The software will support security remediation, standardization and virtualization efforts under an […] More