HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division started topside testing of the electromagnetic aircraft launch system on the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier. EMALS is designed to replace the steam catapults on the U.S. Navy's Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, can operate at a speed of more than 150 miles per hour and works to provide expanded operational capability, more accurate end-speed control and higher launch-energy capacity, HII said Wednesday.

BAE Systems will equip the last four of the Air Force's 10 EA-37B aircraft with advanced electromagnetic warfare mission systems to boost their defenses against jamming attacks. The company said Tuesday the modernized EA-37B planes will replace the Air Force's fleet of 14 EC-130H aircraft that also carries the Compass Call electromagnetic warfare jamming platform.

The U.S. Air Force intends to integrate the Large Aperture variant of Northrop Grumman's LITENING targeting pod onto its inventory of aircraft. Northrop said Tuesday that LITENING is an electro-optical/infrared targeting pod that works to detect, acquire, identify and track targets at extended ranges and that the LA variant offers new video and IR sensors and software that enable faster video processing and imaging at greater distances.

BAE Systems has secured foreign military sales contracts totaling $114 million from the U.S. Army for the procurement of missile warning, hostile fire indication and countermeasure aircraft systems. The company said Tuesday that U.S. allies will use the AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems to safeguard both existing and newly acquired aircraft fleets.

An Advanced Air-Launched Effects platform was released from an MQ-20 Avenger unmanned aircraft system while in flight during a demonstration conducted at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah in November last year. General Atomics' aeronautical systems business said Thursday that the launch capped a series of demo activities of the A2LE platform, which covered not only flight but also manufacturing and structural testing.

Northrop Grumman, AT&T and SEMPRE have collaborated to demonstrate the capability of a digital platform to facilitate the sharing of classified military data between aircraft maintainers and subject matter experts to perform flightline maintenance and sustainment operations. The digital platform, dubbed Flightline of the Future, uses commercial augmented reality headsets combined with private and commercial 5G networks to enable maintainers to securely access information and accelerate repairs and upgrades of assets on the flightline, according to a joint release published Tuesday.

Lockheed Martin has handed over the 75th APY-9 radar for the U.S. Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft under a contract with Northrop Grumman. “As the primary sensor for the E-2D, the APY-9 radar has a long legacy of providing agile deterrence for enhanced 21st century security,” Chandra Marshall, vice president of Lockheed’s radar and sensor systems business, said in a statement published Monday.

Lockheed Martin has handed over the 75th APY-9 radar for the U.S. Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft under a contract with Northrop Grumman. “As the primary sensor for the E-2D, the APY-9 radar has a long legacy of providing agile deterrence for enhanced 21st century security,” Chandra Marshall, vice president of Lockheed’s radar and sensor systems business, said in a statement published Monday.

The U.S. Air Force has named the five companies selected to design and build a next-generation fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles meant to fly in coordination with crewed platforms. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Anduril and General Atomics have been awarded contracts with undisclosed sums to continue rapid development for production for the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.

U.S. Customs Border and Protection intends to award a small business set-aside indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to procure aircraft support services for the agency's fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft fleet. CBP Air and Marine Operations aims to conduct major and minor aircraft modifications, purchase aircraft parts and mission support equipment, perform out-of-cycle heavy aircraft maintenance and acquire specialty aircraft engineering services through the potential four-year contract, according to a notice posted Friday on the Acquisition Planning Forecast System.

NASA and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works formally unveiled the X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft in a rollout ceremony held in Palmdale, California, on Jan. 12. Lockheed said Friday that the experimental airplane was designed to quiet and solve the sonic boom, a persistent challenge of supersonic flight.

Bombardier Defense secured a U.S. Army contract in December to provide a Global 6500 aircraft in support of prototyping efforts under the service branch's High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System program. The firm-fixed-price contract awarded by Army Contracting Command includes options for two additional aircraft over a period of three years, the service said Wednesday.