A consortium of Thales and Airbus Defense and Space has been awarded a contract by the French National Institute of Geographic and Forestry Information to provide digital geographic data to the French defense ministry. Thales said Tuesday the consortium will work to build up the GeoMaps database using images generated by two Pleiades satellites. The contract, which […] More

Airbus‘ defense and space subsidiary and Actia Telecom have landed a contract from the French defense procurement agency to install naval satcom terminals on 17 French navy vessels. The two companies will work together to equip the vessels with the Comcept broadband communication system, an all-IP network utilized by the French armed forces in 2015, Airbus said Monday. The […] More

Airbus Defense and Space has received an order for two Zephyr 8 pseudo-satellites from the U.K. Defense Ministry to help provide land and sea surveillance to the client. The solar-powered Zephyr 8 high-altitude craft operates as guided by a ground controller in order to deliver surveillance, hosting communications links support, Airbus said Thursday. Airbus Defense […] More

Airbus Helicopters, Thales and Helisim have teamed up to design and deploy the full flight simulator (FFS) for the H160 helicopter. The partnership is intended to provide H160 operators a suite of training services based on a level D flight simulator, Thales said Wednesday. “This partnership is an essential milestone in the H160 program and […] More

Airbus’ defense and space business has teamed up with satellite Internet provider OneWeb to launch a new joint venture that will work to develop a constellation of 900 satellites designed to provide Internet communications services worldwide. Brian Holz, vice president of space systems at OneWeb, will serve as CEO of OneWeb Satellites joint venture, Airbus said […] More

Airbus‘ U.S. subsidiary and Perlan Project sponsor Dennis Tito have opened a new facility at the Minden-Tahoe Airport in Nevada to house the volunteer-run project ahead of a summer flight for the Perlan 2 glider. Airbus Group said Dec. 9 the new hangar will accommodate Perlan 2 before it departs for Argentina, where the engineless glider will work to soar toward […] More

Airbus’ defense and space business has concluded a series of factory assessment tests on a radar system for integration with the U.S. Navy’s Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship-17. TRS-4D is a rotating active electronically scanned array radar that works to detect surface and aerial threats and perform target acquisition and surveillance operations, Airbus said Monday. The radar […] More

NASA has received an Orion spacecraft module test model built by an Airbus Group subsidiary for evaluation at the agency’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio. Airbus Defence and Space developed the hardware on behalf of the European Space Agency and to support a future U.S.-led manned deep space exploration mission, Airbus said Monday. NASA and ESA signed an […] More

Airbus‘ defense and space business has built four titanium fuel tanks for the European Service Module of NASA‘s Orion spacecraft ahead of assembly and initial testing activities. The company said Tuesday the tanks are the first completed hardware for Orion and have a total payload capacity of close to 9.9 tons. Airbus will deliver the tanks to Italy for the […] More

Airbus Defense and Space will work to update the information technology infrastructure of NATO’s Allied Air Command headquarters at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Airbus said Tuesday it will install new Secret LAN, Mission Secret LAN and Public LAN for NATO in order to virtualize user workstations and implement a voice over Internet Protocol system. Germany’s […] More

Airbus and Lockheed Martin have been selected to update eight of the German navy’s warfare airplanes. The companies will perform re-winging services on the P-3C Orion maritime patrol and anti-submarine fleet under an eight-year contract, Airbus said Wednesday. “Once installed, these new wings will extend the life of each German Navy P-3 by 15,000 hours […] More

OneWeb has partnered with Airbus Group to design and manufacture a new constellation of small satellites meant to facilitate Internet service delivery worldwide. Airbus said Monday it agreed to help produce as many as 900 microsatellites that OneWeb intends to send into low-Earth orbit starting in 2018. Francois Auque, head of space systems at Airbus […] More