As Europe Scrambles To Buy UAVs, Where’s The Pilot In That Gripen?

As Europe Scrambles To Buy UAVs, Where’s The Pilot In That Gripen?
As Europe Scrambles To Buy UAVs, Where’s The Pilot In That Gripen?

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…

Foreign Arms Sales, Sequestration And The Future of Aerospace Companies

Foreign Arms Sales, Sequestration And The Future of Aerospace Companies
Foreign Arms Sales, Sequestration And The Future of Aerospace Companies

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…

Stars of 2013 Paris Air Show: Russian Su-35; European Neuron UAV: NO Americans

Stars of 2013 Paris Air Show: Russian Su-35; European Neuron UAV: NO Americans
Stars of 2013 Paris Air Show: Russian Su-35; European Neuron UAV: NO Americans

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…

BAE Pushes Its T-X Bird At Paris Show; Gen. Welsh Tells DC ‘We’re On Track’

BAE Pushes Its T-X Bird At Paris Show; Gen. Welsh Tells DC ‘We’re On Track’
BAE Pushes Its T-X Bird At Paris Show; Gen. Welsh Tells DC ‘We’re On Track’

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…

Marines Launch Drive To Shove Down F-35B Costs

Marines Launch Drive To Shove Down F-35B Costs
Marines Launch Drive To Shove Down F-35B Costs

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…

European Firms– But Not British — Plead For Help To Build UAVs

European Firms– But Not British — Plead For Help To Build UAVs
European Firms– But Not British — Plead For Help To Build UAVs

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…

Navy’s F-35 Is Top Priority For New Lockheed Aeronautics Chief; Carrier Landings Key To Confidence

  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…

V-22 Sees Up To 100 Foreign Sales; Drives Flight Costs Down, Boosts Readiness

V-22 Sees Up To 100 Foreign Sales; Drives Flight Costs Down, Boosts Readiness
V-22 Sees Up To 100 Foreign Sales; Drives Flight Costs Down, Boosts Readiness

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…

Paris Air Show Preview: Boosting Foreign Sales, Arms Exports Hot Topics

Paris Air Show Preview: Boosting Foreign Sales, Arms Exports Hot Topics
Paris Air Show Preview: Boosting Foreign Sales, Arms Exports Hot Topics

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…

The Paris Air Show 2013: Cycles and Realities of the Aviation Market

The Paris Air Show 2013: Cycles and Realities of the Aviation Market
The Paris Air Show 2013: Cycles and Realities of the Aviation Market

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…

China Set To Grab UAV Market While US Restricts Sales

China Set To Grab UAV Market While US Restricts Sales
China Set To Grab UAV Market While US Restricts Sales

PARIS: Psst. Hey mister. Wanna buy a UAV? China’s got drones for shooting, drones for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and drones for target practice. Cheap prices and no arms export restrictions. And China may grab a significant share of the international market for just those reasons, according to a new report by the U.S-China Economic…

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…

Deloitte Details Bleak Outlook For Global Defense Industry

Deloitte Details Bleak Outlook For Global Defense Industry
Deloitte Details Bleak Outlook For Global Defense Industry

Deloitte LLP’s 2013 “Global Defense Outlook,” released today, is basically all bad news. Even the silver linings turned to lead when we talked them over this morning with the chief of the defense practice at the giant consulting firm, retired Air Force Gen. Charles Wald. As US defense spending staggers, there are some other places…