“Capital follows confidence” as defence courts private money
Outside investment and the direction in which venture money flows may reveal what defence will buy years before formal programmes begin.
US Airways has reported February 2010 combined traffic figures for Piedmont Airlines and PSA Airlines, its two wholly-owned subsidiaries which operate under the US Airways Express brand.
The airlines generated 137,840,000 revenue passenger miles (RPMs), a 7.1% decrease compared with last February’s 148,355,000. Available seat miles were also down, by 13.0%, to 209,951,000 from 241,407,000 for the respective periods.
With ASMs falling more than RPMs, the load factor went up by 4.2 percentage points in February to 65.7% from 61.5% a year ago. Passenger numbers were also down though at 499,594 from last February’s figure of 554,389, a 9.9% decrease.
Outside investment and the direction in which venture money flows may reveal what defence will buy years before formal programmes begin.
The Department of National Defence expects initial contracts to deliver thousands of uncrewed systems, but has yet to establish the quantities, capability mix or deadline behind Ottawa’s promised tenfold expansion.
The company told Shephard that Ukraine is operating modified Protector weapon stations originally supplied for armoured vehicles, with human operators authorising engagements from hundreds of kilometres away.
A report from the Council on Geostrategy argues the UK should move away from a traditional balanced force and shift investment to naval, air and space capabilities, backed by a larger fleet of attack submarines and deeper AUKUS integration.
At its technology summit in London, attended by Shephard, Thales UK examined the importance of speed to delivery, the growing focus on cross-domain capabilities and how procurement reform could be crucial for future battlefield advantage.
Are all systems ready for the next mission? Have upgrades been applied? Are all assets aligned to deploy together, on time and fully prepared? In modern defence operations, readiness is no longer measured platform by platform. It is measured by how well people, assets, data and decisions move together — across land, sea and air.