Author: FlyMarshall Newsroom

GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney have both cleared Assembly Readiness Reviews (ARR) for their competing adaptive cycle engines under the US Air Force’s Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program, with the two milestones announced within three days of each other.  Pratt & Whitney was first to announce, on May 8, 2026, that it had cleared the ARR for its XA103 design. GE Aerospace followed on May 11, 2026, with the same milestone for its XA102. Both engines are competing to power the Boeing F-47, the sixth-generation fighter at the heart of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative awarded…

The United States has spent an estimated $29 billion in the war against Iran, the Pentagon said Tuesday, as senior defense officials appeared on Capitol Hill for back-to-back budget hearings.Jules Hurst III, the Defense Department’s acting comptroller, said the increase from $25 billion just two weeks ago reflects “updated repair and replacement of equipment costs,” along with the “general operational costs” of sustaining forces in the theater.Hurst emphasized that the projection does not include expenditures for repairing damaged military installations in the region.“We have a lot of unknowns there,” he said. “We don’t know what our future posture is going…

ArianeGroup and Thales announced on May 12, 2026, that they had carried out the first flight test of the FLP-t 150 ballistic munition the previous week, at the DGA Essais de Missiles range on the Île du Levant off France’s Mediterranean coast.  The test, supported by France’s defense procurement agency DGA, validated the architecture, propulsion, and guidance choices for a guided rocket with an operational range exceeding 150 kilometers, the two companies said.  The announcement comes a month after the competing MBDA-Safran consortium fired its Thundart rocket on April 14, 2026, also at Île du Levant.   Both candidates are competing under the French Ministry of…

VIENNA — America’s allies now outspend it in purchasing power-adjusted defense budgets, a new analysis by the Economist shows. Using data on global defense budgets collected annually by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, the London-based weekly calculated that American allies in the North Atlantic and Indo-Pacific spent 111% of what the U.S. did on its own defense in 2025. The countries included in the tally are the 31 non-U.S. NATO members plus Washington’s treaty allies in Asia: Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Australia and the Philippines. For the first time, spending by the U.S. treaty allies surpassed $1 trillion…

Lufthansa Group confirmed on May 12, 2026, it is moving ahead with the acquisition of a majority stake in Italian flag carrier ITA Airways.  The German airline group will exercise an option to buy an additional 49% in ITA Airways from the Italian state for €325 million, bringing the share of the carrier that it controls from 41% to 90%. As per the conditions of its initial investment, Lufthansa can buy the remaining 10% of ITA Airways later.  The deal, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027, subject to approval by the European Commission and…

Pilots at the long-haul low-cost carrier French bee look set to strike after the National Union of Airline Pilots (SNPL) filed official notice of its intention to take industrial action. On May 12, 2026, France’s National Union of Airline Pilots said it was calling for a rolling strike covering the period from May 13 to May 18, 2026. According to union representatives, French bee’s owners the Dubreuil Group have so far refused to increase its pilots’ salaries. “This carefully considered decision was taken after consulting with French bee pilots, who overwhelmingly rejected management’s ‘proposal’, reflecting the deep unease that has…

RIGA, Latvia — NATO is setting up a marketplace where alliance members can shop for counter-drone systems — a pilot project within a broader push by the organization to speed up procurement and help countries adopt new technology more quickly.The alliance has invited companies to pitch counter-unmanned aerial systems, or C-UAS, by mid-May, and will pick 18 systems in the next one to two months, said Claudio Palestini, NATO head of innovation and technology adoption, in a video briefing with reporters on Monday. The goal is to have contracts in place “by the summer” so nations can start to procure…

South Korea’s low-cost carriers are feeling the pressure of surging fuel costs as the industry braces for a difficult summer., with Jin Air delaying the start dates of newly hired cabin crew and rival airlines rolling out unpaid leave programs. The Chosun Daily first reported on May 12, 2026 that Jin Air had pushed back the onboarding of around 50 new cabin crew members to late September or early October 2026, just days before they were set to begin work on June 1, 2026. The airline had recruited roughly 100 flight attendants in its first-half hiring round. About half had…

A UK High Court judge has dismissed a patent infringement lawsuit brought by ejection seat manufacturer AMI Industries against British rival Martin-Baker Aircraft, ending a dispute over technology designed to protect fighter jet pilots during emergency ejections. Legal online platform Juve Patent reported on May 11, 2026 that Judge James Mellor ruled Martin-Baker’s ejection seats did not infringe AMI’s patent. AMI Industries can still appeal the decision. AMI Industries vs Martin-Baker AMI Industries, part of aerospace and defense giant RTX Corporation, sued Martin-Baker in 2024 over a technology meant to protect pilots’ heads and necks during ejection. The case centered…

Get ready on time! The EU Ground Handling Safety Regulations are effective since March 2025 and will become applicable as of 27 March 2028.Between 2025 and 2028, EASA organises a series of webinars aimed at helping the European industry to prepare for the implementation of the new safety rules on ground handling.Download the compliance checklist to help you complete a gap analysis of your management system and operational procedures against the Ground Handling Regulation (EU) 2025/20.  Topic of the webinar: The Journey of Ground Handling Safety Reports The panellists will provide valuable insight on safety reporting of ground handling events…