“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.
Athens International Airport (AIA) has given Baboo its “Best Performing New Airline Award” for 2009 thanks to the airlines recording the highest passenger traffic numbers among all newcomers that launched scheduled operations in 2008.
The photo shows Baboo CEO, Jacques Bankir, with the trophy presented by AIA.
Competing in this category, awarded during the 10th Airline Marketing Workshop organised by AIA, were airlines that had introduced services in 2008 and that operated those services throughout 2009.
Baboo launched two routes, Athens–Geneva and Athens–Nice on 25 October 2008. Soon after the opening, a codeshare agreement was signed with Olympic and the routes have been operated in joint venture by the two airlines since. This includes a reconfirmation of the codeshare agreement with the new Olympic Air which took to the skies at the end of September 2009.
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.