Gareth Jennings

Good news is that my Agile Combat Employment feature sourced largely during a visit to the #Sweden last year (thanks #Saab) is now available to read for #Janes subscribers at customer.janes.com/Janes/Displa.... Bad news is my #ACE Off Base headline suggestion did not pass muster, I'm afraid...

Another very interesting tidbit is that #Stinger is by far the most effective #MANPADS in Ukraine. Partly because of the numbers employed, but also because (for reasons I confess I didn't fully understand) Russian helicopters can't recognise when they're being targeted by it.

Speaker from #NATO #JAPCC noting at #IQPC International Military Helicopter conference 2025 in London that Russia's Ka-52 in particular has gone from "easy target" to "worst nightmare" in #Ukraine. Says lesson is attack helicopters still very viable if used correctly...

Heron TP beim Start Bundeswehr/ Ley

🇩🇪✈️ Premiere für die German Heron TP!

Gestern flog die unbemannte Aufklärungsdrohne zum ersten Mal über eine Landesgrenze hinweg und kreuzte den zivilen Luftraum über Leeuwarden in den 🇳🇱. Der Start erfolgte vom Flugplatz Jagel beim Taktischen Luftwaffengeschwader 51 „Immelmann“.

Shots fired towards #FCAS/#SCAF today from BAE Systems on call to discuss new #GCAP joint venture, with official positing, “Hopefully you will agree with me that the GCAP programme is the only credible sixth-generation programme out there, outside Russia, China and the US.”

With the GCAP treaty now ratified by all 3 parliaments and the GIGO and now the JV agreed, the programme is on course to transition from the current concept and assessment phase to the full development and design phase towards end of 2025. Onwards and upwards...

Will be a 33.3% each way venture. As with the #GIGO joint governmental office, the JV will have its HQ in the UK. Consequently, the first CEO of the GIGO will be from Japan, while the first CEO of the JV will be from Italy.

The good news is the partners have agreed an industrial joint venture to deliver #GCAP. The bad news is we are all going to have to wait a little longer to learn its name. Promised it will be something "iconic", a la #SEPECAT #Panavia #Eurofighter but still to be decided...

March of the KC/C-390 continues, as #Slovakia to join the #Millennium programme with LOI signed 10 December. Set to join Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden in an ever growing European user community.

The story says 11 and 7, not 11 and 9.

First flight 4 November 2024, with three further flight tests following to end of Phase 1 flight testing that concluded last Friday. To pick up flying again in March 2025...

#ISANKE & ICS equipment (inc 10 operator stations & 16 150 kg mission racks) to be fitted mid-2026, when #Tempest mission system testing to begin. Currently a UK-asset, plans to transfer Excalibur to tri-national #GCAP control after Tempest testing concludes late 2027/early 2028.

For the bumps, the airframe now has the two side and one underbelly blisters, as well as a pitot at the top of the fin under Phase 1 Installation. With these verified in flight tests, Phase 2 will see radar and chin fairings, and a larger aft underbelly blister, and wingpods.

New claim to fame is that I was the very first journalist ever to step foot on the Leonardo UK #Excalibur Flying Test Aircraft for #Tempest, by virtue of being faster up the stairs than the others earlier today! Full Janes story to come...

Now, I'm not saying that the drones buzzing US Air Force bases in England are an SAS prank, but they do have form and maybe someone should ask them where they were and what they were doing last week...🤔

Yes, my point was more about the irrelevance of striving for % of GDP targets than about the chronic underspend on defence in Europe and Canada.

Agree that Europe needs to up its game in terms of defence spending, but most European NATO countries don't have the global military commitments of the US, France, or the UK. The US spends 2.9% (have seen other lower/higher numbers), but how much of that relates to NATO?

No Gripens delivered as yet. Focus now on the F-16s.

In the wake of the recent UK defence cuts and being a bit of a masochist, I have had a quick look at the Janes inventory for the Royal Air Force in 2004 - 405 frontline combat aircraft, and on the cusp of receiving 232 Eurofighters! Read it and weep...

#Sweden defence minister Pål Jonson says that the #Gripen spares package promised to #Ukraine covers parts for 14 aircraft (not sure I've heard a number given before). Restates that F-16 is current priority of the international fighter coalition, with Gripens to follow...

I won't mention the award for inventing a ladder for the F-16 that entered service in 1979, as that is actually quite clever...

It's taken 72 years for someone to come up with the idea of an engine cover for the B-52...

In a #GCAP update, @JohnHealey_MP says that following ratification of the treaty by all three countries, the #GIGO trilateral management construct and the 'Panavia-esque' industrial JV to both be signed off by Christmas. Clears way for full development and design phase in 2025.

Today's 24-hour news cycle...

This was taken at FOB Sharana in Afghanistan back in 2011, so no doubt the scheme has changed a few times since then.

Also, seemingly any talk of a #Puma respite/extension quashed, as the 17 remaining airframes also to be canned. The BBC report says to be replaced by H145s, but as we all know that doesn't cover #NMH.

10 yrs since entering service and having never been used on ops except for a few days at the end of Afghanistan (briefly 'Stopping the Boats' in the English Channel in 2020 doesn't count), the plug has now been pulled on the #Watchkeeper by the UK gov.... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Beats the classic air show joke whenever a French fighter flies over:
"Is that a Mirage?"
"No, it's really there."
😐

Snapped perhaps the very same one myself a few years back...