Boeing and Saab have conducted the first flight test of a trainer aircraft the companies jointly developed for the U.S. Air Force‘s T-X competition. Boeing said Tuesday lead T-X test pilot Steven Schmidt and Air Force chief pilot Dan Draeger flew the aircraft for approximately 55 minutes to demonstrate key aspects of the single-engine jet as […] More

The defense sector trade group Aerospace Industries Association has elected new members its executive board of governors for 2017 that includes at least 20 government contracting industry leaders. AIA said Thursday Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg was chosen to serve as the association’s chairman of the board and Raytheon chief executive Thomas Kennedy was elected vice chairman. David Melcher was reappointed […] More

Bell Helicopter, a subsidiary of Textron, has introduced a shipborne unmanned aerial system designed to combine helicopters’ vertical lift function with the speed and range of fixed-wing aircraft. Textron said Thursday it expects production of the Bell V-247 Vigilant tiltrotor UAS to  begin in 2023 to support operations in maritime environments and locations without runways. Bell developed the UAS platform to help military customers […] More

A Govini report indicates the U.S. military unmanned aerial systems market has experienced a compound annual growth rate of about 6 percent over the past five fiscal years, Defense News reported Wednesday. Lara Seligman writes the research firm observed the Defense Department‘s strategic pivot  to the Asia-Pacific region and efforts to implement a third offset strategy have […] More

A Custom Market Insights report predicts the military unmanned aerial vehicle market will reach $11 billion in value by 2021 from $3 billion in 2014. “Quantities of fielded military and commercial systems of every size and description are set to increase,” Custom Market Insights said Feb. 3. According to the report, persistent military drones will account […] More

A new Research and Markets report has predicted the global small drones market to hit $10.04 billion in value by 2020 as demand for commercial application increases. Research and Markets said Wednesday defense and commercial sector operations and tasks that use small drones increase over the past 10 years following the advancements in payloads technology. […] More

Raytheon will confirm on Monday its partnership with Alenia Aermacchi and CAE to compete for the U.S. Air Force‘s T-X trainer replacement contract, Defense News reported Tuesday. Aaron Mehta and Lara Seligman write Raytheon likely will hold a prime role on the team, which will propose a variant of Alenia’s M-346 aircrew training system for the competition. General […] More

Beechcraft Defense Company has been selected to manufacture military training aircraft for the U.K. defense ministry under a contract with Affinity Flying Training Services. The Textron subsidiary will produce 10 Beechcraft T-6C Texan II aircraft to replace the Shorts Tucano T1 aircraft under the U.K. MoD’s military flying training system program, Textron said Wednesday. The aircraft […] More

An RnR Market Research report predicts the military unmanned aerial vehicles market will achieve a 6 percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years. The company said Wednesday large defense UAVs that can perform surveillance, intelligence gathering, target designation, fire support and strike missions accounted for a total of about 76 percent market share during […] More

A Visiongain study, released by ReportLinker, forecasts global revenue from border security platforms and services will be approximately $16.4 billion this year. The 364-page market research report examines key factors that Visiongain believes can affect worldwide, regional and national spending on products designed to help authorities monitor cross-border activities, ReportLinker said Wednesday. Visiongain categorized the […] More

A new Visiongain report forecasts the demand for military armored vehicles worldwide to reach $12.4 billion in 2015. The report covers armored vehicles that are designed to endure mines and improvised explosive devices, Visiongain said Friday. Visiongain also presents in the report the global and national shares of the armored vehicle market from 2015 through 2025, […] More

Research and Markets has released a new report that forecasts smart commercial drones markets will grow to $27.1 billion by 2021 from $3.4 billion in 2014. The report predicts commercial-grade consumer video drones will take the largest chunk of revenue throughout the forecast period, Research and Markets said Sept. 11. According to the data services provider, the growth […] More