“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.
Southwest Airlines has announced its traffic figures for January 2010 featuring a load factor increase of 9.3 pp.
The airline flew 5,499,087,000 revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in January 2010, a 7.1% increase from the 5,135,380,000 RPMs flown in January 2009. Available seat miles (ASMs) decreased by 6.7% to 7,622,575,000 from the January 2009 level of 8,172,539,000.
The load factor for the month was 72.1%, compared with 62.8% for the same period last year. For January 2010, passenger revenue per ASM is estimated to have increased in the 14%-15% range compared to January 2009.
Revenue passengers carried numbered 6,500,716, an 8,6% increase on January1009’s figure of 5,988,116.
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.