Angus Batey has been contributing to various titles within the Aviation Week Network since 2009. He has reported from military bases, industrial facilities, trade shows and conferences, on topics ranging from defense and space to business aviation, advanced air mobility and cybersecurity.
Fallout from the 2008-09 financial crisis continues to affect political decisions worldwide, leaving militaries to assess how best to plan and prioritize in an era of austerity. The British military, for one, has two goals as it restructures: to move from a decade of combat operations to a period of contingency; and to redesign a shrinking fighting force around a dramatically increased reliance on reservists. All three services are feeling the pinch of austerity pressures, but they are likely to impact the army acutely.
NATO member-nations face difficult choices when it comes to maintaining the alliance’s airborne warning and control system system (AWACS) capability into the middle of the century.
LONDON — The U.K. Royal Air Force expects to soon receive confirmation that its fleet of five Sentinel R-1 surveillance aircraft is to be retained in service. The airborne stand-off radar (ASTOR) system, operated by 5 Army Cooperation Squadron from RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, was scheduled to be withdrawn from service in 2015, following the end of combat operations in Afghanistan.
