Resilience, adaptiveness and collaboration vital for success in space (Studio)
Speakers at the Defence In Space Conference (DISC) 2025 highlighted the critical and evolving role of space in national security, defence and the global economy.
Embraer and Aeroplex representatives during the MoU signing ceremony. (Photo: Embraer)
Embraer and Aeroplex have signed an MoU to cooperate on a project to qualify the latter company as an Embraer Authorized Service Center in Hungary.
The broader goal for Embraer is to support and enable Aeroplex to provide line and intermediate maintenance to the KC-390 Millennium air-to-air refuelling and transport aircraft, two of which have been ordered for the Hungarian Air Force in the configuration.
Leonardo Lopes Ferrucci, head of Embraer Defense & Security Hungary, claimed: ‘The local MRO capability will become an operational advantage for the Hungarian KC-390s support after the entry into service.’
Embraer in August 2021 opened an office in the Hungarian capital Budapest, as the Brazilian company aims to establish new partnerships in select markets with local industry collaboration.
The first KC-390 for Hungary is scheduled to be delivered in 2024. Shephard Defence Insight calculates a unit price of $85 million for the aircraft.
NATO-compatible KC-390s will not only use a probe and drogue system to refuel Hungarian Air Force JAS 39 Gripen multirole fighter aircraft, but they will also be capable of performing medevac or humanitarian missions with an onboard intensive care unit.
Speakers at the Defence In Space Conference (DISC) 2025 highlighted the critical and evolving role of space in national security, defence and the global economy.
Both the US and Canada operate Cold War-era capabilities which cannot defeat today’s and tomorrow’s threats.
Air defence systems are continuing to appear top of countries’ shopping lists but broadly across different capabilities it is a sellers’ market, as demonstrated by backlogs and double-digit percentage point growth.
Mike Moran, Director of US Government Business at Amazon Project Kuiper Government Solutions, highlighted the evolution of space as a critical warfighting domain at the Defence in Space Conference (DISC) 2025, held this week in London.
In May this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the government plans to position Germany as “Europe's strongest conventional army”. A new blueprint outlines how this is going to occur through massive investment.
Two of the concrete projects outlined in the readiness report, the European Air Shield and Space Shield, will aim to be launched by Q2 2026.