An interceptor that works costs more than the thing it destroys, and there are fewer of them than anyone would like. That exchange ratio has become the organizing problem of modern weapons development. A one-way attack drone assembled for a few tens of thousands of dollars can force the launch of a missile costing several million, and no magazine survives that trade for long.
This section covers the effectors and the software around them. Missiles and munitions, unmanned systems, air and missile defense, electronic warfare, cyber, lasers and high-power microwave, autonomy, propulsion, and the mission software that decides how quickly any of it can be changed.
Demonstrations are treated as demonstrations. A laser that shot down a drone on a range in good weather is not a fielded capability, and coverage says which one it is.
Production rate matters as much as performance. A weapon nobody can build at scale is a briefing slide.
The Royal Australian Air Force keeps 41 de-commissioned F/A-18A/B Hornets in climate-controlled hangars at RAAF Base Williamtown. Canberra, Washington, and Kyiv are now in formal talks that could move a portion of that fleet to Ukraine instead of a scrapyard.
The United Kingdom faces fresh budget pain round its next-gen Protector RG Mk 1 drones. Latest figures show the bill jumping forty per cent above first plan. Ministers stay quiet on why the math went off, yet insiders point at fast-shifting specs
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
Finland has decided to keep its backbone air-surveillance radars in shape for another five years. Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö authorized the Defence Forces Logistics Command to sign an extension with Thales LAS France S.A.S.
The Government Accountability Office released two companion studies dated April 25 that paint a stark picture of the F-35’s technical health and budget outlook. The auditors describe a fighter still haunted by fresh defects even as procurement ramps up. They note that
The Pentagon owns many early-lot F-35s that cannot meet full combat standards. Commanders now stand at a fork in the road: pour money into deep retrofits or buy fresh jets straight off Lockheed Martin’s moving line in Fort Worth. Vice Adm. Mat
The United States has cleared the sale of twenty-two MQ-9B Guardian unmanned aircraft to India, opening a path for New Delhi to field its first long-endurance maritime surveillance fleet just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets President Donald Trump. U.S. officials
The Indian Space Research Organisation marked a decisive step toward air-breathing launch systems with the first flight of its Scramjet Engine Technology Demonstrator from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 06:00 IST on 28 August 2016. A twelve-hour countdown ended with a
The F-35 is entirely dependent on the ALIS system for its maintenance, and on US-based software laboratories for its mission data loads, so that its operation requires secure and high-speed Internet links between its operating bases and the US. (USAF photo)
KESTEREN, Netherlands --- Last week’s grounding of the F-35 fleet puts the Pratt & Whitney F-135 engine back in the public spotlights, just one week before the planned international debut of the F-35B at the RIAT 2014 and Farnborough Airshows.
Missiles / Drones / Directed Energy carries the effectors: cruise and ballistic weapons, loitering munitions, unmanned systems, and the lasers and high-power microwave now being fielded against them. What all of it is aimed at, and what shoots it down, is in Air & Missile Defense Systems.
