Feature

The Systems Division of Tenix Defence Systems today closed the Critical Design Review for the ELTA EL/L-8222 electronic-countermeasures pod Software Support Facility. Built at Mawson Lakes, South Australia, the new suite will stand ready for the Royal Australian Air Force’s Electronic Warfare Squadron in June 2001. The work finishes on time and within contract cost.

Ian Will, Manager of Electro-optic EW Systems at Tenix Defence Systems, confirmed today that a foreign customer has placed an order for three Mallina long-range ultraviolet stimulators. Each unit will ship from the company’s Welshpool facility before the end of the calendar year. The deal, while modest in quantity, marks the first export sale of the Mallina series and signals growing confidence in Australian-designed threat-emulation equipment.

Foreign air forces that bought the F-35A woke up this week to a blunt statement from Major Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, the U.S. Air Force officer who runs the program. He told Reuters on April 7 that engineers had started scoping a new radar, fresh avionics, and even a more efficient engine because present hardware “cannot keep pace with rapid technology advances by potential adversaries”. The jet is still a year from initial combat status, yet its core systems already trail the threat curve.

The French, German, and Spanish defense ministries have committed to the next stage of the tri-national Future Combat Air System. Their signature on Phase 1B unlocks €3.2 billion for a thirty-six-month round of design and demonstration work. The agreement comes two weeks after negotiators settled the final work-share split. The French Directorate General for Armaments notified the prime contractors – Dassault Aviation, Airbus Defence and Space in Germany and Spain, Indra, and the engine joint-venture EUMET.

Early F-135 advocates promised a smooth learning curve. They said each production lot would cost less than the one before. Fresh data show the opposite. Unit prices still hover near $30 million, even though annual output has more than doubled since 2011. 

PARIS — MBDA, Europe’s largest missile maker, has shown a new low‑cost drone called the One‑Way Effector (OWE). The idea is simple: send many cheap drones first, force the enemy to shoot them down, then fire expensive cruise missiles through the gaps. Company engineers began work only six months ago, a pace that matches the urgent need for mass seen during two years of drone‑heavy fighting in Ukraine.

The Navy has issued a $646 million contract option to Raytheon for four additional AN/SPY-6(V) radars. Defense officials confirm this is the fourth option exercised under a five-year hardware, production, and sustainment agreement signed in 2022.

The Philippine Department of National Defense (DND) has approved a fresh contract for 12 additional FA-50PH light combat aircraft from Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). The agreement, signed in the first week of June and publicly confirmed on 10 June 2025, is valued at about $700 million, or 975 billion South Korean won. Delivery of all aircraft is due by mid-2030.