Breaking Defense

“The MQ-9B will be the first [unmanned] system we operate with it — the idea is to have those working closely with the aircraft, but step by step,” said Capt. Broder Nielsen, head of the German Naval Aviation Command.

A selection of photos from the Breaking Defense team on the ground in Berlin.

One of the use-cases envisaged for the platform could be to “fly at high-speed and low-level in order to penetrate deep into enemy territory,” Marco Marinoni, head of the AH-249 acquisition program in the Italian Army, said. 

Elbit said that the deal will include local manufacturing and assembly of the system with Diehl, to support “the development of sovereign capabilities and strengthening the German defense industry.” 

The F-35’s full mission capable rate fell to to 25 percent in FY25, the government watchdog found.

Jean-Brice Dumont, head of airpower at Airbus Defence and Space told reporters today that despite the FCAS fighter collapse, “we have not wasted our time,” stressing that technologies linked to the defunct plane can be reused.

The firms said a maritime launch demonstration is slated for 2027. 

Breaking Defense’s Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo cover Day 2 of the German aerospace expo.

SASC members voted the bill through committee in a 18-9 vote on Wednesday.

“When they come to the US and say, ‘We would like to buy the system’ …they are told, ‘Okay, but [it will be delivered in ] 2029-2030 and you know, it still could be delayed,’” said Poland’s Military Representative to NATO, Lieutenant General Piotr Błazeusz.

EDGE Europe will have two sites: a head office in Chaillot in central Paris focusing on government interactions and investments, and a manufacturing site in Bordeaux for design, integration and development of platforms, per the company’s statement.

The European missile house says that the hybrid platform, which could enter service with Germany before the end of the decade, has been designed to address the “growing challenge of small, fast, and low-cost unmanned aerial threats.”

John Healey said lack of sufficient funding in the forthcoming Defence Investment Plan could endanger UK security.

A selection of photos from the second day of Germany’s largest aerospace expo.

Catch what’s new on the first day of the sprawling defense expo outside the German capital.

As global competition intensifies, this new Breaking Defense webinar examines how research security policies and practices are evolving to protect federally funded innovation while maintaining open scientific collaboration.

In remembrance of eight U.S. service members who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their actions during the D-Day assault and the Normandy campaign that followed.

The Navy updated the price ceiling to $2.7 billion in May, up from roughly $1.8 billion.

So far, the department has ordered 20,000 small, FPV-style drones from 10 vendors.

While company representatives were tight-lipped about the exact technical details of their offering, they explained that a flexible, software-based system would allow individual member-nations to connect their sensors to another nation’s command nodes.