Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO Eric Trappier talks to Aviation Week about the market, the company’s hefty R&D investments and why he is confident Dassault will gain ground on Gulfstream in China. Since since taking the top job in January 2013, he has focused intensely on the company’s business-jet dossier, which accounts for 70% of sales. The 5X and 8X mark Dassault’s expansion into the super-midsize and long-range markets.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft, fielded for training and operations around the country, continue to fly under a restricted envelope following a June 23 engine fire in an F-35A. The Pentagon has yet to announce a definitive path to dealing with the design problem on the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine that prevented the F-35 from making its international debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough air show in July.
The Pentagon's long-awaited deal with Pratt & Whitney to build the seventh low-rate production lot of F135 engines for the multinational F-35 fighter has finally been signed, though officials have not yet outlined a clear path forward to address the design issue that led to an engine fire that grounded the fleet of single-engine aircraft this summer.
At 7,000 troops, the Peace Mission 2014 military exercise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was not large militarily. But its geopolitical importance was considerable: It was the biggest exercise to date for a budding anti-democratic alliance that includes two nuclear powers and could soon gain three more.
Pan-European cooperation in military Earth observation could see progress by the end of this year as France presses for allied contributions to the next-generation Optical Space Component (CSO) system in exchange for access to its high-resolution imagery.
Developments in next-gen wearable and handheld IT products to bolster soldiers’ gear has lagged at some companies, but not at Chemring Technology Solutions
This expanded issue of Aviation Week’s Defense Technology International edition is the first of a series planned to coincide with major defense shows worldwide. This week, the Association of the U.S. Army convention and show opens in Washington—an event that grew rapidly during the 2000s as the U.S. committed soldiers and weapons to the longest land conflict in its history.
With the evolution of modern satellite-based navigation, miniaturized inertial measurement systems, advanced electro-optical and laser sensors and powerful yet compact computing and advanced data links, robots are becoming smart enough to carry out autonomous missions as efficiently, or better than, their human counterparts.
