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...

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...

🇩🇪✈️ 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.”

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.

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...🤔

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...

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...

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...

If I had written the RAND report including this sentence, and an editor added the parenthetical clause, I would be tempted to perform an act of grievous bodily harm.

Question - what do you call 'tweets' here?

Have taken the #Bluesky plunge, and it feels fine...