“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.
Midwest Airlines is to launch nonstop service between Kansas City and both Columbus, Ohio and New Orleans.
“Kansas City remains an important part of our expanding network,” said Greg Aretakis, the airline’s vice-president of revenue production. “We’re pleased to provide our loyal Kansas City customers even more opportunity to fly Midwest Airlines.”
The nonstop service to Columbus begins on 3 May 2010, while the service to New Orleans starts on 20 May. Together with sister carrier Frontier Airlines, customers can now choose from 70 destinations throughout the branded network of parent company Republic Airways including 13 destinations served nonstop from Kansas City.
The service to Columbus will use 99-seat Embraer 190s, while the New Orleans flights will be operated with 76-seat Embraer 170s. Both aircraft feature an all-leather seating configuration, buy-onboard meals and snacks, and complimentary baked-onboard chocolate chip cookies.
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.