Europe’s Combat Aircraft Conundrum: Will UK Partner With France, Germany?

Europe’s Combat Aircraft Conundrum: Will UK Partner With France, Germany?
Europe’s Combat Aircraft Conundrum: Will UK Partner With France, Germany?

Barring the collapse of the British government, London plans to unveil its Combat Air Strategy during the Farnborough Air Show. Unlike its Brexit strategy to leave the European Union, there is general consensus here around the broad thrust of the document: position the UK to remain a key player in the design, development and manufacture…

Uneasy Times In Europe As Continent Mulls Next Fighter

Uneasy Times In Europe As Continent Mulls Next Fighter
Uneasy Times In Europe As Continent Mulls Next Fighter

If the re-emergence of an assertive and occasionally belligerent Moscow was an unattractive possibility for Europeans of a cautious nature, an American president whose election campaign comments inadvertently or otherwise questioned his commitment to Article 5, the very heart of NATO, seemed unimaginable. Today, Europe is faced with both a Russia that is a strategic rival…

Hawk Carlisle On The Way Ahead: DE, EW, Data

Hawk Carlisle On The Way Ahead: DE, EW, Data
Hawk Carlisle On The Way Ahead: DE, EW, Data

  Gen. Hawk Carlisle has been at the center of global allied operations for several years, first at Pacific Air Forces and now at Air Combat Command. Recently, we interviewed him at Langley AFB, home of Air Combat Command. During his watch, several new combat assets have come to play in Middle East operations. “Each of the…

Acrobatics, Big Planes (A380 & A400M) & Little Planes (Gripen & Starduster)

Acrobatics, Big Planes (A380 & A400M) & Little Planes (Gripen & Starduster)
Acrobatics, Big Planes (A380 & A400M) & Little Planes (Gripen & Starduster)

The F-35B isn’t flying again til Friday so you won’t see it here. Today was the first day of halfway decent weather at the biennial air show so we’ve got some pretty lovely flying and perspectives here. Enjoy!

F-35B Hovers, Finally, At Farnborough; Lots More Planes!

F-35B Hovers, Finally, At Farnborough; Lots More Planes!
F-35B Hovers, Finally, At Farnborough; Lots More Planes!

Video of the F-35B hovering at the Farnborough airshow for the first time.

F-35 Wins Denmark Competition: Trounces Super Hornet, Eurofighter

F-35 Wins Denmark Competition: Trounces Super Hornet, Eurofighter
F-35 Wins Denmark Competition: Trounces Super Hornet, Eurofighter

[UPDATING with Aboulafia analysis of questionable pricing] The F-35 just won a competition — and it wasn’t even close. In every category, from combat performance to cost, the Danish government rated Lockheed’s F-35A Joint Strike Fighter as superior to Airbus’s Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing’s F/A-18F Super Hornet. What’s striking here is not that the F-35 won: Denmark…

F-22, Typhoon, Rafale: Lessons From The Trilateral Wargame

F-22, Typhoon, Rafale: Lessons From The Trilateral Wargame
F-22, Typhoon, Rafale: Lessons From The Trilateral Wargame

As former Air Force Chief of Staff “Buzz” Moseley once declared, “there is not a place on the face of the earth that the USAF will not fight their way into.” But this aspiration has been complicated by 15 years of fighting low-end opponents like the Taliban even as peer adversaries like China and Russia…

Britain To Buy P-8s, Reaffirms Full F-35 Buy; Doubling Special Forces Spending

Britain To Buy P-8s, Reaffirms Full F-35 Buy; Doubling Special Forces Spending
Britain To Buy P-8s, Reaffirms Full F-35 Buy; Doubling Special Forces Spending

WASHINGTON: The British have released their Strategic Defense Review, declaring they will plug the gaping hole in their anti-submarine warfare capabilities by buying nine P-8s from Boeing and showing considerable confidence in Lockheed Martin’s F-35 as they pledge to buy more earlier. The “National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review” also restated its commitment to…

$5B And 700 High Tech Jobs: Reasons Why F-35 Has Friends

$5B And 700 High Tech Jobs: Reasons Why F-35 Has Friends
$5B And 700 High Tech Jobs: Reasons Why F-35 Has Friends

PARIS AIR SHOW: Critics of the F-35 have long wondered why friends and allies have stuck with the program. It can’t be, they argue, because of the aircraft’s capabilities. It is, they say, years behind schedule, billions over budget and won’t be able to deliver all its weapons for years. Ah, grasshopper, but there are…

The Paris Air Show and Military Aviation’s Future

The Paris Air Show and Military Aviation’s Future
The Paris Air Show and Military Aviation’s Future

The Paris Air Show is dominated by the commercial sector, which in terms of market and money is clearly more important than the defense aerospace market. But the simple size of that civilian market is not the most critical consideration. As the aerospace world meets in Paris in 2015, national survival is becoming a more pressing concern…

European Air Power: A Grizzly Outlook

European Air Power: A Grizzly Outlook
European Air Power: A Grizzly Outlook

Douglas Barrie knows aerospace. He was the European mastermind of Defense News when I was editor and now he works for the respected International Institute for Strategic Studies. The core of his job there is analyzing global air power capabilities for IISS’ flagship publication, Military Balance. He’s authoritative. Here he writes about the Paris Air Show and the very uncertain state…

No US Military Planes Will Fly At Paris Air Show; Pakistan’s JF-17 Will

No US Military Planes Will Fly At Paris Air Show; Pakistan’s JF-17 Will
No US Military Planes Will Fly At Paris Air Show; Pakistan’s JF-17 Will

WASHINGTON: At least the US military is attending the Paris Air Show in some force this year, but right now none of the American aircraft pictured below are scheduled to fly at the show. Some 90 US military personnel will be on hand to maintain the aircraft and safeguard them. Here’s the list of military aircraft that…