To commemorate the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, the Arsenal of Democracy World War II Victory Capitol Flyover in Washington featured aircraft flying in formations representing 15 major battles. The aircraft flew from Culpeper Regional Airport and Manassas Regional Airport, down the Potomac River and back again.

Aviation Week defense editors on the recent success of Dassault’s Rafale and Saab’s Gripen fighters and what that means for the rest of the market. Will it spell doom for the Eurofighter Typhoon? Does Boeing’s F-18 have a shot at more orders in Kuwait. And a peek at the upcoming competition for a Turkish fighter.

Our roundup of some of this week’s top stories in aerospace and defense.

Dozens of prototypes built and flown over decades have given Dassault an ability to design advanced combat aircraft that belies the company’s relatively small size for a defense contractor, says Aviation Week contributing columnist Antoine Gelain. As Dassault’s Rafale enjoys belated export success, we look back over some of those many prototypes.

By implementing common interfaces, software and hardware, the U.S. Army anticipates considerable savings in development time, testing, procurement, training and, ultimately, deployment.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force and its Navy will enhance air-defense capabilities via six Smart-L early-warning-capability radars.

Despite many procurement disappointments, there are also many examples of defense programs which have worked as planned and have stood the test of time.

The cost and scope of two projects in Brazil—co-development and production of Saab JAS 39E/F Gripen fighters and construction of five submarines, the last of them nuclear-powered—will delay launching other major projects, such as renewal of the country’s surface fleet and the SisGAAz ocean and littoral surveillance system, according to industry executives at the LAAD defense and security show here in April.