The Coming of the Barracuda Attack Submarine to the French Navy

07/19/2019
By Pierre Tran Paris - There will be much national pride and honor when French industry hands over July 12 to the Navy the first nuclear-powered Barracuda attack submarine, a new-generation boat three years late and generating an initial loss in the contract worth €9.1 billion ($10.2 billion)  for six…

Visiting the Paris Air Show, 2019: A Retrospective

07/19/2019
By Robbin Laird The challenge of visiting a large exhibition like the Paris Air Show is a bit like the challenge of visiting the Louvre.  It is so big, and so diverse that unless you focus on some core aspects, the panorama overwhelms you. You come away with a blur…

UK Focusing on New Weapons Developments

07/11/2019
According to an article published by the UK Ministry of Defence on July 9, 2019, the UK is focusing on developing new laser and radio frequency weapons. The state-of-the-art weapons systems, known as Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), are powered solely by electricity and operate without ammunition. The systems could be…

Navy League SeaAirSpace Symposium Showcases Emerging Technologies

07/05/2019
By George Galdorisi Occurring less than six months after the publication of the U.S. Navy’s latest strategic document, Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority Version 2.0 (Design 2.0), the recent Navy League SeaAirSpace Symposium and Global Maritime Exposition had a strong focus on the document’s three Lines of Efforts (LOE) (Blue: Strengthen…

The Ch-53K at the Paris Air Show: Preparing for Its Global Role

06/20/2019
By Robbin Laird On June 18, 2019, the President of Sikorsky, Dan Schultz, himself a former CH-53-E pilot, provided an overview brief on the CH-53K and their offering for both Germany and Israel. He was joined by John Rucci, Senior Experimental Test Pilot, who was in the Lockheed chalet, working…

MBDA and FCAS: Building Weapons for the “Combat Cloud”

06/19/2019
By Pierre Tran Paris Air Show 2019 MBDA, a missile builder, displayed at the Paris air show life-size models of concepts for cruise missiles and tactical smart weapons as options for the Future Combat Air System, a European plan for a new fighter jet and other weapons. A Spear missile…

Fincantieri and Naval Group Move Forward on Cooperation: The Poseidon Project

06/17/2019
By Pierre Tran Paris - Fincantieri and Naval Group (NG) signed June 14 an agreement setting out cooperation on their Poseidon project, a joint venture aimed at boosting Italian and French collaboration in building and selling warships for navies at home and abroad. “Following the announcement made on 23 October 2018,…

Thales and the Future Combat Air System

06/14/2019
By Pierre Tran Paris - French electronics company Thales expects to bring greater network connection and speeded up responses as contributions to the Future Combat Air System, a project key to the concept of European defense backed by president Emmanuel Macron. “Clearly the role that we intend to play, in…