Craig is the head of Aviation Week Network's defense data team responsible for managing the company’s defense-related databases and leading on consultancy projects.
Prior to joining Aviation Week Network in March 2019, Craig spent 12 years at Jane’s, as lead analyst and consultant for military aircraft markets and later for global defense-spending trends focusing on Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. He has extensive consulting experience on behalf of both government and industry clients. Craig has a degree in History and Politics from the University of Leicester and a Master’s in Intelligence and International Security from King’s College London.
A slow but steady stream of data has been released on the U.S. FY26 defense budget request, which would represent a substantial hike of 11% in nominal terms.
NATO’s June 2025 summit will no doubt go down as a key point in the alliance’s history. Headlines since the start of the meeting in the Hague firmly suggest that member states agreed to a massive increase in defense related spending with NATO shifting guidelines levels of defense spending from 2% of GDP to 5% by 2035. On paper this would increase European NATO member spending from $476.2 billion in 2024 to well over a trillion dollars by the middle of the next decade based on alliance figures.
