![The sights of Avalon Air Show 2025 day one [PHOTOS]](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/roulettes-photo-scaled-e1742890374322.jpg)
![The sights of Avalon Air Show 2025 day one [PHOTOS]](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/roulettes-photo-scaled-e1742890374322-225x150.jpg)
Here’s what the first day of the Avalon Air Show, located just outside of Melbourne, Australia, looked like.
By Michael MarrowAdvances in drone simulation bring mission training to quadcopters
The open QGroundControl software for drone control was improved with a fusion engine to integrate sensors and controls.
Seoul is looking to expand its airborne early warning capabilities, and Boeing has competition at home and abroad for the contract.
By Lee Ferran
One of the key challenges for tracking enemy aircraft from space is that airplanes and drones move much faster than tanks, trucks and ships; confounded by the fact that satellites themselves also move around the Earth extremely fast.
By Theresa Hitchens
The hefty pricetag comes in part due to the need to integrate US-specific requirements on planes already flown by American allies, the company and the Air Force have said.
By Michael Marrow “There is credit here for Boeing and the suppliers. They did really buckle down and get their pencils out and sharpen them and do a good job to bring the cost of the rapid prototyping program down,” said Andrew Hunter, the service’s top acquisition official.
By Michael Marrow and Valerie Insinna
“We think we can substantially improve over what Boeing offered us. I would say we will not meet in the middle,” said Air Force acquisition czar Andrew Hunter.
By Valerie Insinna
Production of an E-7A Wedgetail aircraft has also slipped by a year, according to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.
By Michael Marrow
In EMSO, the small stuff matters
With electromagnetic warfare evolving at an unprecedented pace, the smallest details can make the biggest impact—discover how material science innovations are shaping the future of EMSO and ensuring mission success.
“We were asked to put in our offer and then they [the NATO Support and Procurement Agency] didn’t really go into discussion with us, because they had already decided they had to go and buy Wedgetail,” Micael Johansson, CEO at Saab told Breaking Defense.
By Tim Martin
Despite disagreements with Boeing on pricing for the E-7A Wedgetail, Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter said officials still see the radar plane “as a capability that makes sense and that we need to field in the near term.”
By Michael Marrow
Development of the Air Force’s first two rapid prototype radar planes proved more difficult than expected, according to acquisition chief Andrew Hunter.
By Michael Marrow
As Breaking Defense toured Boeing’s Seattle area facilities where the E-7 radar plane will take shape, company officials talked about getting the bird in the air — and their vision for what it can do.
By Michael Marrow
Asked about the timeline floated by an L3Harris official, a NATO spokesperson told Breaking Defense the alliance is still assessing “the way ahead.”
By Tim Martin
Though the UK will get three planes instead of five, the procurement report estimates that the E-7 program will cost $2.5 billion, only marginally less costly than the $2.7 billion agreed in the original order.
By Tim Martin
In an interview with Breaking Defense, chairman of the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee Rep. Rob Wittman explains the committee’s thinking behind keeping AETP going, as well as the reason for slashing funds from NGAD.
By Michael Marrow
