Paris – The German parliament approved Berlin’s share of a budget worth €4.5 billion ($5.4 billion) for development work on a European Future Combat Air System, an industry source said June 24. That long awaited June 23 vote by the Bundestag budget committee authorized funding for the German share of…

By Pierre Tran Paris – The French air and space force should not have to wait for a future combat air system to gain access to a highly capable command and control network, a senior French air force officer said June 22. “We cannot wait for SCAF/NGWS. “We need to…

By Audrey Fritz When the University College Cork in Ireland withdrew from a partnership with Minzu University of China (MUC) in 2021, speculation cited concerns linking MUC with human rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang. This included the arrest of a Uyghur professor at MUC who was accused of separatism…

By Pierre Tran Paris – France, Germany and Spain said last month they had reached agreement to launch a long awaited development phase for a European future combat air system, but it has emerged there were still industrial and political issues to resolve. What has emerged is that the key…

By Pierre Tran Paris – France, Germany and Spain have agreed the industrial organization for development of a future combat air system, including a demonstrator for a new generation fighter to fly by 2027, the defense ministers of the partner nations said May 17 in a joint statement. “The industrial…

By William Gourlay It’s said that politics makes for strange bedfellows. In diplomacy, it would seem that it’s seating arrangements that can be tricky. At a 6 April meeting of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council head Charles Michel with Turkey’sfamously combative President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,…

According to a story published by the Japanese Ministry of Defence: On January 13, 2021 Major Howlett of the Australian Army was appointed as liaison officer at the HQ Ground Component Command. It is the first time for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) to accept a liaison officer from…

Periodically, the Japanese Ministry of Defence publishes updates on the threat envelope for Japan. This month, the MOD published three briefings, one each for China, Russia and North Korea. Notably, all three of these are nuclear powers, which means that the alliance with the United States needs to deliver credible…