“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.
airBaltic is to launch flights from Riga to Umeå in Sweden and between Vilnius and London.
The start date for the former is 29 March, with the latter’s commencement still to be confirmed.
Tero Taskila, the airline’s chief commercial officer commented, “airBaltic will become the first airline in history to link Umeå and Riga – two cities that have been nominated to become Europe’s cultural capitals in 2014. airBaltic made a similar step already at the end of last year when the link between two European Capitals of Culture 2011 Turku and Tallinn was established.
“airBaltic has worked hard to expand its list of destinations in Scandinavia. We want to allow people from the region to visit Latvia or to use Riga as a transit airport for flights to destinations such as Barcelona, Berlin, Zurich, Venice, Vienna, Moscow, Kaliningrad, and many others. Umeå is a lovely destination, and the new airBaltic route will surely attract increasing numbers of travellers from Western Europe, the Mediterranean and the CIS.”
Until 30 May, airBaltic will fly from Riga to Umeå four times a week – Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays (from Umeå to Riga on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays). Beginning on 31 May, the flights will be offered daily. The flights to and from Umeå will make a stop at the Finnish town of Vaasa and will be operated with Fokker 50 aircraft.
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.