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The senior team at MD Helicopters, Inc. calls the Army’s Light Utility Helicopter choice “flat-out wrong”. They argue the service stacked the deck for EADS North America, parent of Eurocopter. Managers say the Army brushed past cost data, safety files, and past flight hours that could have swung the verdict. Three vice-presidents used the word “outrageus” in one briefing last week, a slip that showed how tense the mood got inside the Mesa, Ariz. plant.

Plane Insanity: Is the US Air Force too old and

Cubic Corporation has picked up a hefty, fresh slice of work at Fort Polk. A new extension, capped at about 468 milion dollars, keeps its teams locked in with the Army’s Joint Readiness Training Center for up to ten more years. The baseyear runs now, and nine option years sit in line. This step carries on a partnership first inked back in 2007 and, frankly, it shows how much trust the Army holds in Cubic’s way of shaping live training.

Purdue University in West Lafayette has finished a large step in high-speed flight study. The new Hypersonics Applied Research Facility (HARF) cost about $41 million and covers near 65 000 sq ft. It sits inside the Discovery Park District, close to existing engine and rocket labs. Managers say the building links theory with hardware, letting ideas move from slide deck to test article without months of delay.

Russia says its new Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle slices through air at Mach 27—about 33 000 km/h. Officers call it a “shift point” for global power, though they spoke carefuly. Analysts in Moscow add that the craft twists faster than most shields can track.

Singapore Air Force chiefs say the Island Air Defence, or IAD, now works end-to-end over every shipping lane and flight path. Crews pushed the network through months of rough drills, then signed the green card for full use. Analysts call the step a hard boost to the island’s survival margin, yet officers stress it is only part of larger push.

Trieste — The Italian Navy’s new landing helicopter dock Trieste is finishing fit-out work in its namesake port. Crews install last cables, test pumps, and seal bulkhead gaps that slipped first reviews. Yard teams say hand-over stays on the late-2024 window, with sea trials set for early summer 2025.

The Government Accountability Office released two companion studies dated April 25 that paint a stark picture of the F-35’s technical health and budget outlook. The auditors describe a fighter still haunted by fresh defects even as procurement ramps up. They note that a jammed main fuel-throttle valve can lock the engine at full power and fling the jet forward until the pilot shuts everything down. Test crews first spotted the surge during carrier workups in late 2017, and engineers have yet to seal the fix.

The Mitchell Institute today rolled out a 72-page policy paper that warns of a shrinking, aging U.S. fighter force and calls for an urgent production surge of F-35As equipped with Technology Refresh 3 and Block 4 upgrades.