The AN/APG-63(V) is the fire control radar for the F-15A/B/C/D Eagle fighter. A modified version, the AN/APG-70, superseded the APG-63 on the F-15E Strike Eagle, but was then itself to be replaced with the APG-63(V)1, as part of a comprehensive APG-63 upgrade. The APG-63(V)1 LRIP contract was awarded in August 1997, with full rate production beginning in 2002. Japan and South Korea also chose the APG-63(V)1 (Japanese license production by MELCO was just beginning in2006).

Sure, I could write yet another piece about the A380. My favorite target was back in the news for all the wrong reasons this month. Airbus spent its investors' conference grappling with the A380's grim commercial situation, with one executive implying that the plane could die in a few years and another promising that it would be rejuvenated with new engines. There's so much to say about this. 

In the midst of a series of technical glitches that delayed the planned launch of the Orion capsule by a Delta IV rocket on Thursday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is reported to have told NBC News, "We're now on the way to Mars, and that's what's most important." Uh, no. First of all, we're not anywhere close to being on our way to Mars, or even the Moon, for that matter.

NASA is preparing to launch its new Orion capsule on Thursday, December 4. It will be the first test launch of the spacecraft, which is being billed as kind of a big deal because it represents the agency's first major step toward regaining an inhouse manned spaceflight capability -- something it has not had since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.