“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.
GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes has announced its preliminary traffic figures for February 2010.
Revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) generated across the whole of Gol’s system totalled 2,523,100,000, a 46.9% increase over February 2009’s figure of 1,718,000,000. Available seat kilometres (ASKs) went up by 18.2% to 3,467,600,000 from 2,932,800,000 in the same period last year.
This resulted in a load factor of 72.8%, a considerable 14.2 percentage points up on the 58.6% achieved last February.
GOL noted that because of its fleet renewal allied to strong demand, aircraft utilisation exceeded 12.5 block hours/day, above the 11 block hours/day recorded in February 2009. These two factors thus helped increase GOL’s cost advantages in its operational markets.
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.