On 12 October, Airbus announced the first European flight of its U740 Valkyrie, an uncrewed combat aircraft developed with the American company Kratos. The flight had taken place on 29 September at an undisclosed location in northern Europe. A rocket-assisted…
On 11 October, the Financial Times reported that intelligence officials from five European countries had warned of a growing Russian effort to target senior executives in the European defence industry. According to the officials, the campaign forms part of a…
On 10 October, Northrop Grumman announced that 21 satellites had been launched and deployed into low Earth orbit for the US Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer. The satellites form the company’s first orbital plane within the Proliferated Warfighter…
On 8 October, Raytheon announced a five-year contract, with two additional option years, worth up to $6.3 billion for the production and sustainment of Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptors. The agreement is intended to replenish American missile-defence inventories following the…
Airbus’s announcement on 7 October that Romania will acquire 12 H225M military helicopters gives a useful view of how Europe’s new defence financing architecture is beginning to turn into actual procurement. The aircraft will start replacing Romania’s ageing IAR-330 Puma…
On 6 October, the first Gripen E produced in Brazil took off from Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto complex in São Paulo State. The flight was the aircraft’s first production acceptance test and opened the final phase before delivery to the Brazilian…
The agreement in principle between Rheinmetall and Alstom over the future of Alstom’s locomotive plant in Kassel looks, at first sight, like a local industrial transaction. The contractual details are still being negotiated, and the final arrangement with employees and…
Boeing’s approximately $14.7 billion agreement with Lockheed Martin for PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement seekers is interesting for a reason that can easily disappear behind the size of the contract. Boeing does not manufacture the complete interceptor, yet the planned expansion…
For most of the war, European support to Ukraine has been described through the language of aid: packages, pledges, deliveries and financial commitments. That vocabulary remains useful, but it increasingly obscures a more consequential development. During Friedrich Merz’s visit to…
The competition for the next generation of Britain’s Skynet military communications satellites has developed into something considerably larger than a procurement decision. Airbus and Lockheed Martin are competing for a contract worth as much as £2 billion, but the argument…