Aviation Week & Space Technology

With predictions of a slight reversal in 2016 and a return to slow growth in 2018, the business aircraft industry puts its bets on sustained demand for larger, faster, farther-flying jets.

A320neo and C Series enter service; F-35A goes operational, JAS 39E flies; emissions measures and tracking mandates for aviation; contract protests and consolidation pressures; unmanned aircraft and suborbital spaceplanes—things will come in pairs in 2016.

2016 will see several new narrowbody types enter the field, but the dominant players remain Airbus and Boeing.

The government’s ability to boost the non-salary segment of the defense budget will be hampered by other commitments such as pension benefits.

Maritime patrol aircraft are also being sought.

Britain strengthens defenses in response to different threats, including Russian aggression and European terrorist attacks.

“To respond to threats, there must be a balance between the resources that are given to the armies and the missions entrusted to them,” Gen. Pierre de Villiers, chief of staff of the French armed forces, told lawmakers.

Military customers focus on upgrades in the absence of clarity and funding for new programs, while the civil market races ahead in technology and numbers, but remains relatively small in value.

Latin American airlines continue to struggle with weakened currencies and recessions in their home countries.

From terrorist attacks to China’s aggressive “terraforming” of new bases in international waters, threats to a rules-based international order have seldom been so diverse.

The gap between the Defense Department’s plans and actual funding is about $15 billion.

The upcoming fighter competition means defining an operational requirement—something that has received no serious attention since Canada originally joined the JSF program in the early 2000s.

Russia’s upgrade of military capabilities continues, though economic problems are weighing on the defense budget and forcing hard choices to be made.

With deployments in Afghanistan, Mali and northern Iraq, Germany is increasing its defense budget beyond original plans, with new weapons systems accounting for much of the rise.

See the projected MRO spending in 2016 in each region and other details from the forecast.

Jan. 4-8—AAIA/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference. Manchester Grand Hyatt. San Diego. See aiaa-scitech.org/SDM Feb. 2-4—The Unmanned Systems Conference and Exposition. World Forum. The Hague, Netherlands. See tusexpo.com

Aviation Week’s list of avionics companies and MRO services that help companies prepare for the FAA’s 2020 ADS-B Out mandate.

New standards should change how mechanics are taught and how manuals are distributed.

Pros and cons of registering “drones,” reactions to Person of the Year choice

Airline-representative flight testing continues as Bombardier builds the CS100’s maturity ahead of service entry with launch customer Swiss International Air Lines.

Despite some new programs and higher spending in some categories, overall defense spending in Europe has declined for seven consecutive years.

Big orders for antisubmarine warfare aircraft and helicopters, sea-based V-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, a new-technology submarine and surveillance aircraft are priorities in Japan’s 2016 defense budget.

South Korea's 2016 defense budget request is 4% higher than the 2015 budget, a slight slowdown from the 4.9% increase of 2015. The share of investment for new equipment in the total defense budget will hit 30%.

While challenges remain for some legacy carriers, prospects for the Asia-Pacific airline industry appear positive for 2016.

The merger of Aeroflot’s subsidiaries is part of an effort to avoid competition between the groups carriers in a shrinking market, and strengthens the group’s position in all its segments.