Category Archives: Aerospace industry

Europe is unprepared for risks from Russia and Trump, says Airbus boss

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Aerospace group chief executive urges UK and Europe to pool efforts and merge fighter jet programmes

Europe is unprepared for war with Russia or the risk that Donald Trump could withdraw the US from Nato and needs to ramp up spending on defence equipment, the boss of Airbus has said.

Guillaume Faury, the chief executive of Europe’s biggest aerospace and defence company, said it was a “defining moment” for the continent’s defence industry, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought war to western Europe’s borders.

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Rolls-Royce swings to £1.6bn profit with cost cuts ‘well under way’

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Engine-maker says it has made £150m of its £400m to £500m savings target, with up to 2,500 jobs to go

The British engine-maker Rolls-Royce has said cost-cutting plans that will result in it axing up to 2,500 jobs by the end of next year are “well under way”, as it swung to a £1.6bn underlying operating profit for 2023.

The aerospace engineering specialist reported the statutory pre-tax profits for 2023 against losses of £1.5bn in 2022, helped by cost savings and better-than-expected revenues.

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Shetland island’s remote location is giving UK space industry a boost

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SaxaVord on Unst has become UK’s first spaceport to be licensed for vertical rocket launches

For centuries, Unst has been famous for its richly varied of wildlife, pristine beaches and unspoilt sea views. Now the remote Shetland island is leading Britain into space.

A former RAF base on a remote peninsula of the island has become the UK’s first licensed spaceport for vertical rocket launches. It will allow up to 30 satellites and other payloads to be launched into commercially valuable polar, sun-synchronous orbits, which are in high demand from satellite operators for communications and Earth observation.

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Spanish company launches reusable rocket in breakthrough for European space ambitions

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Startup PLD Space says launch of Miura-1 is ‘just the beginning’ amid European drive to send satellites into orbit

Spanish company PLD Space launched its reusable Miura-1 rocket early on Saturday from a site in south-west Spain, carrying out Europe’s first fully private rocket launch and offering hope for its stalled space ambitions.

The startup’s test nighttime launch from Huelva came after two previous attempts were scrubbed. The Miura-1 rocket, named after a breed of fighting bull, is as tall as a three-storey building and has a 100kg (220-pound) cargo capacity. The launch carried a payload for test purposes but this would not be released, the company said.

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BAE agrees to buy space technology firm Ball Aerospace for $5.6bn

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Weapon maker’s takeover of US firm comes amid global surge in spending on military and spying technology

Britain’s biggest weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, has agreed to buy the US space technology company Ball Aerospace for $5.6bn (£4.4bn), in one of the largest takeovers by a UK company this year.

The FTSE 100 defence company said the purchase of the Colorado-based business would help it to expand in technologies that are US defence priorities.

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‘More than annoying’: German foreign minister abandons Oceania trip after plane problems

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The Airbus A340 taking Annalena Baerbock to the region twice had to turn back to Abu Dhabi after refuelling

Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has been forced to abandon a trip to Oceania after a problem with her government plane twice forced it to return to Abu Dhabi.

Baerbock set off from Berlin on Sunday, but a mechanical problem with her ageing German air force Airbus A340’s landing flaps meant it had to turn back to Abu Dhabi after a refuelling stop there. The aircraft took off again on Monday night, but the technical problem resurfaced and the plane had to return to the Emirati capital again.

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Saudis ask to join UK, Italy and Japan’s joint air combat programme

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UK-backed move could help spread cost of developing fighter jet and drones, but may prove controversial

Saudi Arabia has asked the UK, Japan and Italy to be made a full partner in their joint effort to build the next generation of fighter jets, in a move backed by the British government.

Companies from the UK, Japan and Italy are working together to build a new fighter jet and other systems such as drones under the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), also known as Tempest. The programme aims to deliver the first planes by 2035, a tight turnaround.

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Ministry of Defence awards £650m to firms working on Tempest fighter jet

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BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce among those funded, with aim of producing new aircraft by 2035

The Ministry of Defence has awarded £650m to manufacturers working on its Tempest fighter jet, in the latest sign that the UK is pushing forward with the aim of producing the aircraft by 2035.

The companies who will receive the money are led by manufacturer BAE Systems, jet engine maker Rolls-Royce, and the UK arms of Italy’s Leonardo and European missile-maker MBDA.

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UK’s first orbital rocket mission takes off from Cornwall

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Virgin Orbit’s Start Me Up mission heralded as start of new space era as Boeing 747 to deliver rocket carrying satellites into orbit

A historic rocket mission has set off from Cornwall as a specially converted Boeing 747 heads out over the Atlantic carrying a payload of nine satellites that it will propel into orbit.

Virgin Orbit’s Start Me Up mission is the first launch of satellites from European soil and is being heralded as the start of a new space era for the UK.

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UK to develop next-generation fighter jets with Italy and Japan

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Rishi Sunak says defence deal for Tempest means ‘outpacing those who seek to do us harm’

Britain will work to develop next-generation fighter jets with Italy and Japan, Rishi Sunak has announced.

The prime minister said the defence partnership will ensure the UK and allies are “outpacing and outmanoeuvring those who seek to do us harm”.

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Farnborough airshow to focus on cleaner flying and potential fighter jet deal

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Manufacturers to emphasise their efforts to reduce environmental impact of planes

Low-emission air travel and a potential deal for Japan to help build the UK’s next-generation Tempest fighter jet are set to take centre stage at the annual Farnborough airshow this week.

Executives from global aerospace manufacturers and airlines will gather at the airport in Hampshire after a four-year gap. The show, which begins on Monday, normally happens every two years but was cancelled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, as the aviation industry faced potential collapse.

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Takeover of UK defence supplier Ultra Electronics set to be approved

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Sonar and radio comms maker expected to be sold to Cobham, owned by private equity firm Advent, in £2.6bn deal

The UK government is set to wave through a £2.6bn takeover of a British defence manufacturer in a deal that will move a US private equity investor a step closer to controlling a significant supplier of nuclear submarine equipment.

Cobham has received the green light to take over Ultra Electronics, a FTSE 250 maker of systems such as sonar and radio communications used by navies and air forces, as well as civilian aircraft. Cobham was itself controversially taken over and broken up by US private equity investor Advent over the course of 2019 and 2020.

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