Financing of the new rearmament plan will depend on “political and budgetary choices” with a war finance meeting, led by Sébastien Lecornu, France's defense minister and Eric Lombard, economy minister, scheduled to take place on March 20.
The upgrade allows existing radar warning receivers to analyze unfamiliar signals in real time — fast enough to warn the pilot if it’s an enemy radar locking on. “It could go on any kind of F-16” or a wide range of other aircraft, Raytheon Vice President Michael Baladjanian told Breaking Defense.
At the previous edition of IDEX, which took place in early 2023 and just a few months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian companies were not listed as official exhibitors and relegated to a separate outdoor pavilion.
The firings of Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Gen. James Slife follows tonight's removal of Gen. CQ Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Trump announced he would nominate retired three-star Air Force general Dan Caine as his chairman of the joint chiefs.
Running through potential winners and losers under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's move to shift $50 billion towards different priorities in fiscal 2026.
"We should sort of understand that we need to do more in Europe, nation by nation, of course, but also as part of the alliance, being a strong pillar in NATO" said Saab CEO Micael Johansson.
"So in Turkey, this is in progress. Every year we are delivering new systems of the Steel Dome concept, and it will be beneficial for our region," Ahmet Akyol, president and CEO of Turkish electronics giant Aselsan, told Breaking Defense here in Abu Dhabi.
The two companies are facing off under the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion program, which is developing a powerplant for an Air Force next-generation fighter — assuming one comes to pass.
“There is no single silver bullet. We have to look at this as a layered approach that we look at both really exquisite capability to get after a [UAS] threat, but also trying to get after more affordable capability," Maj. Gen. David Stewart told Breaking Defense.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk is “helping us in a big way” to speed up the schedule for the two planes, as setbacks risk delaying their delivery until after Trump leaves office.
The three-year sustainment deal covers over 400 F119 engines that power the F-22 Raptor fleet.
"We've been doing export for 15, 20 years, but it's just been in recent years that we've really been reaching out to create global defense industrial base, creating global partnerships, partnerships in local countries," Hanwha Global Defense President & CEO Michael Coulter told Breaking Defense.
Breaking Defense obtained a list of the 17 priority categories that are to be financially protected in FY26.