Douglas Barrie

Stories by Douglas Barrie

Europe’s Combat Aircraft Conundrum: Will UK Partner With France, Germany?

Europe’s Combat Aircraft Conundrum: Will UK Partner With France, Germany?
Europe’s Combat Aircraft Conundrum: Will UK Partner With France, Germany?

Barring the collapse of the British government, London plans to unveil its Combat Air Strategy during the Farnborough Air Show. Unlike its Brexit strategy to leave the European Union, there is general consensus here around the broad thrust of the document: position the UK to remain a key player in the design, development and manufacture…

Uneasy Times In Europe As Continent Mulls Next Fighter

Uneasy Times In Europe As Continent Mulls Next Fighter
Uneasy Times In Europe As Continent Mulls Next Fighter

If the re-emergence of an assertive and occasionally belligerent Moscow was an unattractive possibility for Europeans of a cautious nature, an American president whose election campaign comments inadvertently or otherwise questioned his commitment to Article 5, the very heart of NATO, seemed unimaginable. Today, Europe is faced with both a Russia that is a strategic rival…

Brexit, Russian Threat Shape Farnborough; F-35 Dominates Show

Brexit, Russian Threat Shape Farnborough; F-35 Dominates Show
Brexit, Russian Threat Shape Farnborough; F-35 Dominates Show

The Lockheed Martin F-35B advanced short take-off and vertical landing aircraft will make its debut at this year’s Farnborough International Air Show. The last combat aircraft in this class to premiere at Farnborough was the Yakovlev Yak-41 (Yak-141) Freestyle more than 20 years ago. How times have changed. The Freestyle was unarguably a star of what…

European Air Power: A Grizzly Outlook

European Air Power: A Grizzly Outlook
European Air Power: A Grizzly Outlook

Douglas Barrie knows aerospace. He was the European mastermind of Defense News when I was editor and now he works for the respected International Institute for Strategic Studies. The core of his job there is analyzing global air power capabilities for IISS’ flagship publication, Military Balance. He’s authoritative. Here he writes about the Paris Air Show and the very uncertain state…

The F-35 Flies Amid Europe’s Mature Aeronautics Market

The F-35 Flies Amid Europe’s Mature Aeronautics Market
The F-35 Flies Amid Europe’s Mature Aeronautics Market

The F-35 Lightning II European debut in July will be welcome, but it remains the Punch and Judy program of the defense aerospace sector, with boosters and detractors taking turns to bash each other’s argument as to the project’s value — or lack thereof. The debate, though sometime not worthy of the word, has risked…

Will Europe Ever Build Its Own Fifth Generation Fighter?

Will Europe Ever Build Its Own Fifth Generation Fighter?
Will Europe Ever Build Its Own Fifth Generation Fighter?

This year’s Paris Air Show promises to be one of the most lackluster for the defense sector in at least a decade. America is sending virtually no military aircraft to fly the all-important afternoon displays: no F-22s, no F-35s, no C-17s, no C-130s. American companies have scaled back their executives’ participation, not because it saves any…

Grim Watch at Farnborough: How Far Will US, Euro Defense Spending Fall

The ebb and flood of transatlantic defense relations has long been in evidence at the Farnborough air show, at the political and industrial level both. A question on the minds of many of the more than 100,000 daily attendees will be just how low the spending tide could eventually drop, as Washington’s interest is now…