China, COVID-19 and 5G; Golden Opportunity For The West

China, COVID-19 and 5G; Golden Opportunity For The West
China, COVID-19 and 5G; Golden Opportunity For The West

Wars and pandemics, great destroyers of the status quo, often generate enormous societal change. An outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in the early 20th century, for example, gave the internal combustion engine a permanent lead over steam-powered automobiles. The First World War saw more improvements in aeronautical engineering and airplane manufacturing than the previous decade.  The…

Coronavirus Outbreak Shutters F-35 Facilities in Japan, Italy; First Strike Against Defense Industrial Base

Coronavirus Outbreak Shutters F-35 Facilities in Japan, Italy; First Strike Against Defense Industrial Base
Coronavirus Outbreak Shutters F-35 Facilities in Japan, Italy; First Strike Against Defense Industrial Base

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col Mike Andrews added in a statement that the temporary Mitsubishi closure only affects Japanese aircraft, while Lockheed “is restricting travel” to the Cameri facility, based on a US Embassy travel warning.

Israel Tests New Air-Ground Tactics Vs. Islamic Jihad

Israel Tests New Air-Ground Tactics Vs. Islamic Jihad
Israel Tests New Air-Ground Tactics Vs. Islamic Jihad

The Israeli Air Force just wrapped up a “Blue Flag” wargame with the US & European allies and a real war with Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Euro Tanker Program Plans To Expand

Euro Tanker Program Plans To Expand
Euro Tanker Program Plans To Expand

Didier Plantecoste, head of the MRTT program at Airbus, says the allied tanker program is wooing new European customers in “the South.”

Leonardo’s New UAV Targets Pay-As-You-Go ISR Market

Leonardo’s New UAV Targets Pay-As-You-Go ISR Market
Leonardo’s New UAV Targets Pay-As-You-Go ISR Market

Fabrizio Boggiani, senior vice president of airborne marketing, says he sees “significant opportunities” for expanding Leonardo’s market share by selling mission packages to international institutions and countries who don’t “want to buy and own the asset, but want us to fly where they ask us to fly.”

NATO’s Strength: A Burden-sharing Success Story

NATO’s Strength: A Burden-sharing Success Story
NATO’s Strength: A Burden-sharing Success Story

In an era when NATO gets slammed on a regular basis by President Trump, there’s one key alliance success — the ability of 29 countries to work together on the battlefield.

India Is Going Big on New Fighters; Lockheed, Boeing Pledge Indian Plants

India Is Going Big on New Fighters; Lockheed, Boeing Pledge Indian Plants
India Is Going Big on New Fighters; Lockheed, Boeing Pledge Indian Plants

Boeing, Lockheed, Dassault Aviation of France, the European Eurofighter consortium, Sweden’s Saab, and United Aircraft Corporation of Russia are all jockeying for position for an Indian fighter contract worth $15 billion for 110 planes, and an $8 billion navy program of around 60 aircraft.

From Paris To Orbit: France’s New Space Strategy

From Paris To Orbit: France’s New Space Strategy
From Paris To Orbit: France’s New Space Strategy

With the landmark CSO-1 satellite launch December 19th and a new space strategy out soon, the French government is finally stepping up in space. A French-led, Europe-wide effort to modernize space capabilities had been announced in 2010, but it had been stalled for lack of urgency and funding. Now that’s changing.

Boeing-Leonardo Team Scoops Up $2.38B UH-1N Replacement Deal

Boeing-Leonardo Team Scoops Up $2.38B UH-1N Replacement Deal
Boeing-Leonardo Team Scoops Up $2.38B UH-1N Replacement Deal

The head of Strategic Command must be very happy this evening, having learned that the Air Force is finally buying a new helicopter to guard America’s ICBM fields. The Boeing-Leonardo team won the contract to supply 84 helicopters.

Aid To Israel Isn’t Foreign Aid; It’s An Investment

Aid To Israel Isn’t Foreign Aid; It’s An Investment
Aid To Israel Isn’t Foreign Aid; It’s An Investment

Israel faces increasingly tight restrictions on its Foreign Military Financing from the U.S., as Breaking D readers know. In the past, when the US provided Israeli with grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, Israel could convert 25 percent of the aid from dollars into shekels to buy Israeli products and support local R&D. The…

Trump’s Wrecking Ball Ideology

Trump’s Wrecking Ball Ideology
Trump’s Wrecking Ball Ideology

A year ago, it would have been tempting to write off President Trump’s “bull in a china shop” diplomacy as the product of inexperience and impulsiveness. However, after eighteen months in the White House tenure, Trump is looking like a man with a method, a leader acting according to a consistent ideology — if not…

Can’t Spend? Won’t Spend? 4 Lessons From NATO’s Bottom Lines

Can’t Spend? Won’t Spend? 4 Lessons From NATO’s Bottom Lines
Can’t Spend? Won’t Spend? 4 Lessons From NATO’s Bottom Lines

Most NATO nations don’t pay much. Most nations CAN’T pay much. Most spend on the wrong things. But most of them are moving in the right direction.

China’s Eating Up US Drone Market; U.S. Troops At Risk

China’s Eating Up US Drone Market; U.S. Troops At Risk
China’s Eating Up US Drone Market; U.S. Troops At Risk

While Washington struggles to update its arms export policies, China is spreading its influence, one drone sale at a time.

Not Cutting F-35 Buy, But Depot Structure May Change: CSAF Goldfein

Not Cutting F-35 Buy, But Depot Structure May Change: CSAF Goldfein
Not Cutting F-35 Buy, But Depot Structure May Change: CSAF Goldfein

WASHINGTON: The Air Force does not plan to cut its planned purchase of 1,763 F-35As — in fact, it’s not even not considering doing so — but it is pushing hard to bring down the sustainment costs of Lockheed Martin‘s prize program, the Air Force Chief of Staff told reporters this morning. “We are all…