Latest news with #defence
Reuters
an hour ago
- Business
- Reuters
Spain's commitment to NATO 'total', defence minister says
MADRID, June 20 (Reuters) - Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Friday her country is totally committed to NATO, a day after Madrid asked the alliance to be exempted from the proposed increase in the defence spending target to 5% of gross domestic product. "Spain and its armed forces are a serious, trustworthy, responsible ally that is absolutely committed to the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance," Robles said in Madrid. "No one can call it into question." Her comments came following a letter by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to NATO chief Mark Rutte on Thursday that could derail a summit at which the military alliance plans to ask them to commit to the 5% target. In his letter, Sanchez requested a "more flexible formula" that either makes the spending target optional or excludes Spain from its application. At an estimated 1.28% of GDP, Spain had the lowest proportion of expenditure on defence in the alliance last year, according to NATO estimates. Sanchez agreed in April to accelerate efforts to meet NATO's current target of 2% this year.
The National
4 hours ago
- Business
- The National
Ballistic missiles 'keywords' at Paris Air Show as Israel-Iran conflict looms large
The Israel-Iran conflict loomed large over the Paris Air Show this week, accelerating talks on defence products and forcing airlines to suspend routes to the Middle East. The conflict brought a sense of urgency to the defence discussions at the event, which showcases the latest technology in defence and commercial aviation. 'Because of the geopolitical context and what is currently happening in the [Middle East] and a bit in Europe, a keyword here is ballistic and anti-ballistic [missiles],' Hervé Dammann, executive vice president of land and air systems at Thales, told The National on the sidelines of the show. 'How can we make sure our countries are protected well enough against ballistic and hypersonic threats – the two kinds of missiles that are currently believed to be in use in the Middle East? This is really the key topic of discussion: What do you need to detect, what do you need to intercept and which kind of system can be used. 'The mood here is the need to accelerate and implement those kind of capabilities. For the industry, it means that we need to be agile and ramp up production capacity. We need to find ways to accelerate putting solutions in the market, maybe in an incremental approach rather than waiting for having developed a full solution,' Mr Dammann said. In response to increasing customer demand, Thales has tripled the production of sensors in radars and quadrupled the production of effectors, he said. 'We are continuing to invest in support of the higher demand requests we have coming from many [ministries of defence], whether in the Middle East or in Europe or in Asia,' the Thales executive said. On the first day of the show, France's move to shut down the main Israeli company stands for refusing to remove attack weapons from display sparked a furious response from Israel. The show, which ends on Friday, displayed cutting-edge military technology and staged flight demonstrations that ripped through Le Bourget's blue skies. They were also a stark reminder of military capabilities used to deadly effect thousands of kilometres away in Tehran and Israel. 'We see it more as citizens at the moment: it is extremely worrying to see tensions and escalation in this region of the world,' Jean-Brice Dumont, head of air power at Airbus Defence and Space, said at a press briefing during the air show. 'For ethical reasons, I would say we refrain from making business interpretation out of it. Now, it is true that it is one more sign of an escalation somewhere in the world, which, overall, in military volumes, is leading the volumes up.' The European plane maker is pursuing potential new buyers, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, for its A400M military transport aircraft. Mr Dumont said there are 'quite intense' discussions with the UAE's air force, Tawazun and defence entities in the government. 'The discussions are very, very constructive,' he said. 'Now, it's a competition. The one who's going to win will be the supplier of the mobility of the future for the UAE. We believe we have the right solution, having an aircraft that is the strategic and tactical one.' Flight disruptions In the skies beyond Le Bourget airport, some US airlines began suspending daily flights to Gulf countries amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East. American Airlines on Thursday suspended daily flights from Philadelphia to Doha until June 22. United Airlines temporarily halted services between its hub at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and Dubai and aims to resume 'when it's safe', according to its website. American Airlines' move comes after the US embassy in Qatar advised its personnel and US citizens in the country to 'keep a low profile' and 'stay alert' at locations publicly associated with the US. 'Out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities, the US Embassy has advised its personnel to exercise increased vigilance and has temporarily restricted access to Al Udeid Air Base. We recommend that US citizens in Qatar take similar precautions,' it said in a statement on its website. The US airlines' flight suspensions are the first disruptions on the doorstep of some of the region's busiest air hubs. Previous flight suspensions were limited to Israel, the countries surrounding it and the airspace above countries where Iranian missiles pass. Dubai and Doha are home to Emirates and Qatar Airways that use their strategic locations for long-haul travel, connecting passengers between the US, Europe and Asia. Emirates has suspended all flights to Amman and Beirut until June 22. Flight suspensions to Tehran, Baghdad and Basra will continue until June 30. Elsewhere, Saudi Arabian low-cost carrier flyadeal said it is experiencing only minimal disruptions. 'We've not had any significant impact as a result of airspace closure in parts of the region. While our flights to and from Amman have been cancelled until further notice, operationally, we're only experiencing minor disruptions with changes to flight routings on a few services to avoid the affected areas,' Steven Greenway, flyadeal's chief executive, told The National. 'With the upcoming peak summer season, we are preparing for a busy flying programme that will maximise our fleet utilisation.' The Israel-Iran attacks are the latest global conflict to ratchet up airlines' security concerns, while weighing on their operations and profitability. Airlines are grappling with airspace closures, threats from missiles, drones and GPS jamming. 'The big topics that we are facing is the global navigation satellite system (GNSS), so we see more and more … areas where the signal is not available or is spoofed,' Denis Bonnet, head of innovation research and technology at Thales, told reporters. 'We are working very hard with our [original equipment manufacturers] to make sure that we are more resilient to this … so it's becoming safer and safer.' The number of global positioning system (GPS) signal loss events increased by 220 per cent between 2021 and 2024, according to International Air Transport Association data. It is 'difficult to see this trend reversing in the near term', Iata said in a statement this week. Thales' flight management system, installed on more than 7,000 planes and cumulating more than 100 million flight hours, allows pilots to modify the flight trajectory quickly and simply, Mr Bonnet said. 'The capability we try to bring to airlines is to detect those threat areas and modify the trajectory … usually we prefer to do this before take-off,' he said. Another key topic is the use of satellite communications onboard aircraft, particularly in remote areas. 'When there is this huge tension between Israel and Iran, a lot of aircraft has to be re-routed and [satellite communications] have been absolutely vital to connect the crew in areas that are not really well covered by connectivity,' Mr Bonnet said. Airbus aircraft orders This Paris Air Show was unusually subdued following Air India's Boeing 787 crash, which created a sombre mood and kept Boeing's leadership away to focus on the accident investigation. Airbus secured firm orders for 142 aircraft. This does not include the six Airbus A350-900 announced by Egyptair at the show as this was a previously unidentified customer on Airbus' previous order reports. It also recorded 102 provisional orders that would increase its haul if airline customers choose to exercise those options. The firm orders are worth $14.2 billion including Egyptair's deal, plus 102 provisional orders worth $6.7 billion, Reuters reported, citing estimated delivery prices from UK-based Cirium Ascend. The air show is usually a hard-fought competition between the duopoly of plane makers. But Boeing had a quiet show as it chose to postpone any commercial announcements following the Air India crash just a few days before the expo. The 787 Dreamliner crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on June 12, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and at least 30 more people on the ground. Air India's Boeing plane was 'well-maintained' before it crashed a week ago, AFP reported, citing an airline statement on Thursday. Indian authorities have yet to reveal the cause of the crash as investigators work to retrieve data from the plane's black boxes – the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
Reuters
7 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Norway to meet 5% NATO goal on defence, security spending, prime minister says
OSLO, June 20 (Reuters) - Norway plans to raise its defence spending to 3.5% of the country's GDP, and also aims to use an additional 1.5% for broader security related purposes, its prime minister said on Friday, in line with a planned common goal among NATO states. NATO chief Mark Rutte has proposed that member nations should agree at a June 24-25 meeting in The Hague to aim for spending of a total of 5% of their gross domestic product on defence and broader security measures. "We must do more to secure our country and contribute to our common security with our allies in NATO," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a press conference on Friday. The 3.5% spending includes Norway's financial support to Ukraine's military defence, he said. Norway in 2024 spent an estimated 2.2% of GDP on defence, up from a low of 1.4% in 2022, the national statistics agency (SSB) said in April, and the government said in May it aims to spend 3.3% in 2025.
RNZ News
7 hours ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Defence heads face scrutiny week hearing, promise to be fiscally responsible
Defence secretary Brook Barrington. Photo: Ministry of Defence Defence heads have assured politicians their huge new budget takes into account soldiers actually having to fire their weapons. They fronted up to an even-tempered scrutiny week hearing with MPs at Parliament on Thursday afternoon. Greens MP Lawrence Xu-Nan asked whether the budget boost of $9 billion new spending over four years allowed for buying the likes of replacement Javelin missiles, which cost $400,000 each. Defence secretary Brook Barrington responded that the increased budget meant troops could now move past the approach from the last 50 years of being only partly equipped. "The defence force is actually being provided with funding to ensure that, if we upgrade the capabilty, we are also able to shoot things with it," he said. Along with defence force Chief Air Marshal Tony Davies, Barrington laid out a raft of measures they said would enable them to buy weapons and other systems faster and smarter. "The demand queue is growing," Barrington said. "The longer it takes us to lodge an order, someone else has got their place in the queue before us and some of this stuff takes three years. "You know, you lose your place in the queue... and you're losing time." They felt a sense of urgency, but also had to ensure quality thresholds were set, so that in 3-4 years he was not up before MPs again being told, "We knew we couldn't trust you folk to bloody get your way out of a paper bag", he said. "We've got to find a sweet spot between rigour, confidence and pace." He added defence had already met with 280 people from 174 companies, both last month and this month, and that an industry strategy would be put out soon. They would be fiscally responsible with the billions of taxpayer money, Davies said. Defence Force Chief Air Marshal Tony Davies. Photo: RNZ / Ashleigh McCaull To accelerate, they would drop the old approach of trying to get 30 years of life from gear and retreading it, and instead, look at getting a "minimum viable product" quickly out to the field, he said. "Simple... quick... lean." On the personnel front, they had to rebuild forces, he said. The budget and plan had "buoyed" personnel, but their thinned-back ranks still constrained how much notice they needed to deploy, how long they could deploy for and whether they could mount multiple operations. Personnel turnover had fallen to less than seven percent, but vacancy rates in February were about 30 percent, an Official Information Act request (OIA) showed. The army was short 1500 people, Air Force 660 and navy 630. Defence was "over-training" people to hit 100 percent, when it did not need to, so was reviewing how to speed training up, Davies said. The 15-year plan was to add 20 percent to combat forces - or 2500 people - and the only way to do that currently was to cut civilian jobs down, he said. "At the moment, we've got ships tied up that can't go to sea, because we haven't got the sailors. We've got people that are going on their fifth deployment overseas, because we don't have the number of soldiers. "We've got Joint Force headquarters out at Trentham with watchfloors that can't be filled, because we haven't got the uniformed people with those skills. "We need those. The money is tight, still, even with uplifts." An OIA response showed that, in March, a hefty 313 positions were vacant at Joint Defence Services, far more than in other sections. Defence Minister Judith Collins said the point was to be able to defend against anybody who "threatened our people, or our assets". "Our people are not going to have to wave a white flag anymore. They are going to be able to get out there and protect themselves." She said she had told "prime" multinational defence contractors their best bet for getting a share of the business was to involve New Zealand firms. The small firms would not be written "out of the equation", Barrington said. He added the business cases for two very large projects - replacing the 757s and the maritime helicopters - were well advanced. Other business cases would be made short and sharp. The fleet renewal planning was by far the biggest job, but the budget gave the ministry a couple of million dollars extra for teams to do that. "What happens in two years, if the world situation's got worse and we need to step it up again?" Davies said. "How are we going to accelerate our capability acquisition process. It might be that we need to double our efforts there, so we are constantly looking at ways to fine tune it." The budget set aside $155m over four years for new military allowances for deployments and hundreds of millions for more operations. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
Closing arguments conclude in Australia's mushroom trial as jury deliberation approaches
Closing addresses from the prosecution and defence have now concluded in the triple murder trial of Erin Patterson. Next it will be up to the jury to deliberate and reach a unanimous verdict. Patterson faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a lunch she served at her house in Victoria's Leongatha on 29 July 2023. She has pleaded not guilty to murdering three relatives of her estranged husband, Simon Patterson, and attempting to murder another. Guardian Australia's justice and courts reporter, Nino Bucci, has been attending the trial since it began, and explains the latest developments
