Aviation Week & Space Technology

Middle East nations arm themselves for continuing conflict, from fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria to operations in Yemen.

While challenges from low-cost carriers remain, legacy airlines in North America expect to continue their return to profitability in 2016.

From terrorist attacks to China’s aggressive “terraforming” of new bases in international waters, threats to a rules-based international order have seldom been so diverse.

With deployments in Afghanistan, Mali and northern Iraq, Germany is increasing its defense budget beyond original plans, with new weapons systems accounting for much of the rise.

Budget cuts amid political and economic instability in Brazil is forcing rethinking of major defense projects.

See the projected MRO spending in 2016 in each region and other details from the forecast.

Pros and cons of registering “drones,” reactions to Person of the Year choice

Airline-representative flight testing continues as Bombardier builds the CS100’s maturity ahead of service entry with launch customer Swiss International Air Lines.

Air cargo continues to battle weak yields and overcapacity as multi-modal transport gains traction.

Commercial lows and military highs help define a challenging time for the rotorcraft industry.

To counter distant threats, Israel has reinforced its “long arm”—first established to deter missile attacks—enabling the military to operate thousands of miles from Israel’s borders.

Despite some new programs and higher spending in some categories, overall defense spending in Europe has declined for seven consecutive years.

South Korea's 2016 defense budget request is 4% higher than the 2015 budget, a slight slowdown from the 4.9% increase of 2015. The share of investment for new equipment in the total defense budget will hit 30%.

Britain strengthens defenses in response to different threats, including Russian aggression and European terrorist attacks.

“To respond to threats, there must be a balance between the resources that are given to the armies and the missions entrusted to them,” Gen. Pierre de Villiers, chief of staff of the French armed forces, told lawmakers.

While challenges remain for some legacy carriers, prospects for the Asia-Pacific airline industry appear positive for 2016.

The merger of Aeroflot’s subsidiaries is part of an effort to avoid competition between the groups carriers in a shrinking market, and strengthens the group’s position in all its segments.

Reported reforms could include slashing army troop levels by 300,000 but a great increase in the PLA’s ability to project power abroad.

Military customers focus on upgrades in the absence of clarity and funding for new programs, while the civil market races ahead in technology and numbers, but remains relatively small in value.

Latin American airlines continue to struggle with weakened currencies and recessions in their home countries.

The gap between the Defense Department’s plans and actual funding is about $15 billion.

The upcoming fighter competition means defining an operational requirement—something that has received no serious attention since Canada originally joined the JSF program in the early 2000s.

Russia’s upgrade of military capabilities continues, though economic problems are weighing on the defense budget and forcing hard choices to be made.

With airlines set to modernize their fleets in the coming years in a big way, MROs will need to ramp up their services on a number of fronts.

Jan. 4-8—AAIA/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference. Manchester Grand Hyatt. San Diego. See aiaa-scitech.org/SDM Feb. 2-4—The Unmanned Systems Conference and Exposition. World Forum. The Hague, Netherlands. See tusexpo.com