Today's headlines

Dassault chief rejects 'sleeping partner' role with Thales
Dassault Aviation has no intention of taking a back seat in decision-making at Thales, after the maker of the Falcon business jet invested more than €1.6bn ($2.2bn) to buy 26 per cent of the French defence electronics group.
Financial Times

France eyes UAE base, big military, nuclear deals
France prepared to open its first military base in the Gulf Arab region on Monday as it eyed multi-billion-dollar deals to supply the United Arab Emirates with nuclear power plants and advanced military aircraft.
Reuters

Germany ready to order third tranche of Eurofighter

The German Ministry of Defence said that an order for the first batch of the third tranche of Typhoon Eurofighter will be placed before the summer recess begins and thus before the federal election in September.

Defpro

India to buy Airbus MRTT tanker in a $1 billion deal

The Indian Air Force has decided to buy the Airbus A330 multi-role tanker transport (MRTT) instead of the Russian built Ilyushin-78 air-to-air tanker, the Hindustan Times reported

Defpro

France's Dassault likely back in race for Indian warjet deal

French firm Dassault Aviation, expelled from a 12-billion-dollar Indian warjet contract, is now likely to rejoin the race, with five other global firms vying for the deal, officials said Monday.

Google News

Boeing Wins $250M Special Ops Contract for ScanEagle ISR Services

Boeing announced that it recently received a contract from U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) services using the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The contract has a potential value of $250 million.

Boeing Press Release

Lighter and more lethal: US Army unveils new weapons systems

Two weapons in development are expected to be more precision-oriented, lighter and lethal: the laser-sighted XM-25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System and the Lightweight .50-Caliber Machine Gun.

Defpro

Typhoon decision blows a welcome wind to Lancashire

The British government's decision this month, after much prevarication, to press ahead with a third order of Eurofighters took plenty of flak from armchair generals who believe the aircraft is a cold war relic. But there has been only praise in Lancashire, where parts of the Eurofighter Typhoon are designed and made.

Financial Times

Women in ground close combat roles - review

The MOD has today launched a review into its policy governing women serving in ground close-combat roles. Servicewomen are currently excluded from roles where there is a requirement to deliberately close with and kill the enemy face to face.

MoD Press Release