Budget, Policy & Operations

Australia has revealed it will be spending A$2.12 billion ($1.4 billion) to acquire RTX AIM-120D-3 and AIM-120C-8 Amraams.

The Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) is overhauling its aviation portfolio, investing heavily in anti-submarine warfare capabilities and uncrewed systems.

The Pentagon on July 2 confirmed it has paused shipments of military aid to Ukraine.

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.

Danish defense supplier Terma says it will support the used Argentinian Lockheed Martin F-16s the South American country bought from Denmark.

Israel has provided more details on its operations against Iran, including more than 500 strikes and interdictions attributed to what it calls its UAV Array.

Europe has added to its weather monitoring and Earth-observation capacity with the launch of the MTG-S1 satellite and the Sentinel-4 instrument.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force is looking to modernize against a wide, growing array of threats, from new ballistic missiles to next-generation fighters.

The U.S. Air Force’s new combat rescue helicopter will take over distinguished visitor airlift and transport in the Washington, D.C., area.

President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” barely passed the Senate on July 1.

Boeing on July 1 announced it is making Stephen Parker its permanent head of Defense Space & Security.

The Swedish government says it will implement export credit guarantees for deals with Ukraine to help provide extra financial security to potential exporters.

The World War II Tizard Mission is a reminder of the power of collaboration.

About $14 million of the overall funding from the U.S. Air Force for JetZero’s Z4 blended wing body demo is at risk of being cut in the fiscal 2026 budget request.

Questions still hang over the implementation of NATO members' increased defense spending goal.

Speaking to the Defense Commission of the Spanish Senate, Defense Minister Margarita Robles said that Spain is budgeting €1.375 billion for the TAI Hurjet buy.

Japan’s Board of Audit raised concerns over the low operational reliability of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft.

Air-launched hypersonic weapons in both glide and powered forms are back in favor.

Sweden is mulling the transfer of its civilian search and rescue helicopter capabilities to another government department.

MightyFly has demonstrated autonomous flight, loading and unloading as well as load balancing during a demonstration of its Cento uncrewed logistics aircraft.

Switzerland has begun negotiations with the U.S. over a potential $1.3 billion increase in the price of the country’s new fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35s.

Diehl and Sener have struck an agreement to work together on projects such as remote carriers and hypersonic weapons technologies.

Israel’s 12-day operation against Iran provided a master class in gaining control of an adversary’s airspace and, with U.S. help, what can be done afterwards.

The UK committed to F-35A nuclear-capable aircraft and joined others in Europe in signaling a greater burden-sharing role in NATO.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.