Lockheed Martin is set to build more than 100 F-35 combat units following Italy“™s launch of a $1 billion assembly line for the aircraft, Flightglobal reported Thursday. Luca Peruzzi writes Lockheed Martin and partner Alenia Aermacchi will manufacture 60 conventional take-off and landing F-35As, 15 short take-off and vertical landing F-35Bs for Italy“™s air force […] 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

 An ATK and Alenia Aermacchi team has been chosen by the Italian Air Force to deploy a mission and weapons system for a multi-mission aircraft. The ITAF’s MC-27J aircraft will be installed with a gun and command and control system  designed to be palletized, offer roll-on/roll-off capabilities and support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations, ATK […] More

ATK and Alenia Aermacchi have performed the first of a series of tests on an U.S. Air Force aircraft model developed to carry out both cargo handling and attack missions. The companies integrated ATK’s GAU-23 cannon into Alenia“™s C-27J Spartan airlifter to assess its weapons systems and firing configurations, the companies said Friday. Bill Kasting, […] More

Vectrus announced on Thursday that Mario Coracides has been appointed senior vice president of enterprise vectrus operations. Coracides will provide leadership for a primary dimension of the business, which includes business advisory and program initiatives. 

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Sierra Nevada Corp. and Turkish Aerospace Industries have developed a trainer aircraft in order to compete for the U.S. Air Force“™s T-X program that seeks to replace the T-38 jet, Quwa reported Monday. Bilal Khan writes SNC and TAI established a Colorado-based subsidiary, Freedom Aircraft Ventures, to offer the Freedom Trainer aircraft. The Freedom Trainer jet will be equipped with […] More

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 U.S. Air Force wants to test four aircraft platforms from Textron, Embraer and Leonardo-Finmeccanica in an effort to augment the service branch’s fleet of A-10 Warthogs, The Witchita Eagle reported Wednesday. Jerry Siebenmark writes the Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation office looks to conduct a 135-day test of Textron’s Scorpion jet and AT-6 Wolverine as […] More

Leonardo-Finmeccanica has introduced a dual role model of the M-346 trainer, developed by the Italian conglomerate’s subsidiary Alenia Aermacchi, and expects the new aircraft to enter service in 2018, Defense News reported Sunday. Tom Kington writes the M-346FT trainer is designed to shift between pilot training application and combat operations. The aircraft incorporates a new tactical datalink and five hard points […] More

An Esterline subsdiairy has been chosen to supply a suite of avionics systems for the C-27J Spartan platform a General Dynamics-led team aims to offer to Canada’s Fixed-Wing Search and Rescue program. Team Spartan comprises General Dynamics’ mission systems business, DRS Technologies and Leonardo-Finmeccanica‘s aircraft division, Esterline said Wednesday. The consortium seeks to integrate Esterline CMC Electronics‘ CMA-9000 Flight Management System, TacView Portable […] More

Airbus has selected Flatirons Solutions to provide software for work to produce and maintain the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft for Denmark. Flatirons“™ CORENA software will be incorporated into the Danish Fighter Replacement Program to fulfill the requirements for full content lifecycle management, Flatiron said Thursday. Geoffrey Godet, Flatirons CEO, said the company will extend its partnership with Airbus […] More

A consortium of BAE Systems, Airbus“™ defense and space business and Finmeccanica“™s Alenia Aermacchi subsidiary has won a contract to provide 28 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to Kuwait. The contract award to Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug comes after Kuwait signed an aircraft procurement agreement with the government of Italy in September 2015, Eurofighter said Tuesday. The consortium will produce […] More