As Europe Scrambles To Buy UAVs, Where’s The Pilot In That Gripen?
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The Swedes who build the Gripen fighter are known for being practical, producing advanced fighters that are relatively cheap (at least compared to almost everyone else). At the Paris Air Show the Gripen folks, SaaB Group. very deliberately floated an interesting idea. Since the Gripen uses fly-by-wire technology and advanced avionics which virtually eliminate the need… Keep reading →
Foreign Arms Sales, Sequestration And The Future of Aerospace Companies
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PARIS: Every American defense company here wants to sell more weapons to foreign buyers in the Middle East and in Asia as they seek to compensate for flat or declining sales in the United States. Every European defense company wants to sell more weapons to foreign buyers in the Middle East and in Asia as… Keep reading →
Stars of 2013 Paris Air Show: Russian Su-35; European Neuron UAV: NO Americans
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PARIS AIR SHOW: It’s fair to say that the unabashed star of this show was the Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter. It didn’t fly much but when it did, jaws dropped. With no American military fighters, helicopters or cargo planes flying here this year, the Su-35 pretty much had the show to itself, since the European… Keep reading →
BAE Pushes Its T-X Bird At Paris Show; Gen. Welsh Tells DC ‘We’re On Track’
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PARIS AIR SHOW: It is one of the hottest competitions for which there is not yet a formal Pentagon program. The Air Force’s next generation trainer — known as T-X — will be worth some $11 billion for some 350 planes. Lockheed Martin and the South Korean maker of the T-50 have teamed up to… Keep reading →
Marines Launch Drive To Shove Down F-35B Costs
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PARIS AIR SHOW: The top Marine aviator, Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle, announced a “very aggressive program” at the world’s largest airshow to bring down the costs of operating and maintaining the Marines’ F-35B model of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. His choice of Paris as the venue for the announcement spoke volumes. The international partners in… Keep reading →
European Firms– But Not British — Plead For Help To Build UAVs
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PARIS AIR SHOW: If you think times are tough in the United States defense world, consider that three of Europe’s biggest defense companies, where defense budgets have been on a downward trajectory for a decade, have issued a plea for help building a European medium altitude drone. In a press release sent out simulatenously in… Keep reading →
Navy’s F-35 Is Top Priority For New Lockheed Aeronautics Chief; Carrier Landings Key To Confidence
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PARIS AIR SHOW: “The word commitment should mean something. When I give you my commitment you should be able to trust that I’m going to do what I said I’m going to do.” That’s the message Orlando Carvalho, new head of Lockheed Martin’s iconic aeronautics business wants to send the US Navy, the service most… Keep reading →
V-22 Sees Up To 100 Foreign Sales; Drives Flight Costs Down, Boosts Readiness
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PARIS AIR SHOW: Flight hour costs have dropped while readiness rates have improved for the V-22, a rare feat indeed for a modern combat aircraft. Critics have pointed to the V-22’s readiness rates and costs as yet another reason to curtail the program, but when I asked Marine Col. Greg Masiello, manager of the Joint… Keep reading →
Paris Air Show Preview: Boosting Foreign Sales, Arms Exports Hot Topics
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PARIS: Our first video from the 2013 Paris Air Show. To loyal readers, we hope you celebrated our second anniversary yesterday. Our web site went live on June 15, 2011 at the last Paris Air Show. Since arriving in Paris on Friday, I’ve interviewed or taken part in media roundtables with more than a dozen… Keep reading →
The Paris Air Show 2013: Cycles and Realities of the Aviation Market
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America’s defense industry is deep in economic pessimism but the rest of the world isn’t defined by sequestration and the Afghan drawdown, and that will be very clear at next week’s Paris Air Show. This year’s show will probably be defined by commercial aviation, especially the twin aisle jet market. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner will return… Keep reading →