Author: FlyMarshall Newsroom

Germany has ordered eight MQ-9B SeaGuardian remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, adding a long-endurance unmanned layer to its future maritime patrol posture.  The Bundeswehr confirmed the purchase on January 12, 2026. The order includes four ground control stations and will be executed through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA). First systems are expected to enter service from 2028.  The SeaGuardian fleet will be operated by the Marinefliegergeschwader 3 “Graf Zeppelin” at Nordholz, with personnel training and infrastructure upgrades already planned. The aircraft are intended for over-water operations in areas such as the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea, supporting sea lane monitoring and protection of critical maritime infrastructure.  GuardMQ-9B…

By Scott Hamilton Jan. 13, 2026, © Leeham News: Boeing delivered 600 airliners last year, its best year since 2018—the last normal year before the 737 MAX grounding began in March 2020. In 2018, Boeing delivered 813 airliners. The MAX grounding lasted 21 months. This was followed by the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in April 2020, lasting about two years. In October 2020, deliveries of most 787s were suspended due to a production flaw. From September to November in 2024, Boeing’s assembly workforce, the IAM 751, went on strike for 53 days, halting all deliveries. Steady progress Boeing delivered 447 737s…

Delta Air Lines has placed an order for up to 60 Boeing 787-10 aircraft (30 firm orders plus 30 orders), according to an announcement made by the US aircraft manufacturer on January 13, 2026.  This is the first Dreamliner order for the Atlanta-based airline, which has previously opted for Airbus models, such as the A350 or the A330, when it came to renewing its long-haul fleet. These aircraft will be deployed primarily on Delta’s transatlantic and South American routes.  The announcement was made on the same day that the airline giant posted its financial results for the full year of…

Lufthansa Group is the latest major player in the airline industry to sign up for SpaceX’s Starlink connectivity service.  The group’s multiple airlines (including Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, among others) will start offering Starlink’s satellite-based internet connectivity in the second half of 2026. The installation process will take a couple of years, with the whole fleet expected to be connected by 2029.  During this transition period, Lufthansa Group will continue to offer the current inflight internet service, FlyNet, which is based mostly on Viasat’s Ka-band service and is offered at a charge to Economy Class passengers (with some limited…

BERLIN — Germany has ordered eight MQ-9B SeaGuardian remotely piloted aircraft from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in a €1.52 billion ($1.77 billion) contract executed through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency.The procurement, approved by the parliamentary budget committee on Dec. 17 and announced on Monday, includes four complete systems − each comprising two aircraft − along with four “certifiable” ground control stations that will allow the aircraft to operate alongside civilian traffic. First deliveries are expected in 2028, with the German Navy’s Marineflieger planning to operate the platforms from Naval Air Wing 3 Graf Zeppelin in Nordholz.The SeaGuardians will focus…

Airbus delivered 793 commercial aircraft to 91 customers in 2025, a 4% year-on-year increase that puts the manufacturer slightly above its revised guidance after a late-year disruption tied to A320-family fuselage panels.  The final figure broadly matches expectations after Airbus adjusted its outlook in December 2025, trimming its initial target of around 820 aircraft to approximately 790 due to “supplier-related quality issues.”  A320 family leads, A220 grows, widebodies steady  Narrowbodies again dominated Airbus’ production mix. The A320 family accounted for 607 deliveries, up slightly from the year before. The A220 program posted the strongest growth, reaching 93 deliveries compared to 75 in 2024.  Widebody output was largely stable,…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok will join Google’s generative AI engine in operating inside the Pentagon network, as part of a broader push to feed as much of the military’s data as possible into the developing technology.“Very soon we will have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department,” Hegseth said in a speech at Musk’s space flight company, SpaceX, in South Texas.The announcement comes just days after Grok — which is embedded into X, the social media network owned by Musk — drew global outcry…

In the modern flight deck, the primary threat to safety is no longer a lack of information, but the friction required to process it. While aviation has made monumental strides in hardware reliability and procedural standardization, a significant gap remains in how critical operational data is translated into situational awareness. As flight turnarounds compress and regulatory requirements for “evidence-based” briefing expand, the industry faces a growing Time-Information Paradox: pilots are expected to be more informed than ever, yet they have less time to synthesize the disparate data points required to achieve that state. The cost of cognitive friction Operational risk…

By the Leeham News Team Christian Scherer, the former CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft. Credit: Leeham News.  Jan. 13, 2026, © Leeham News: Deliveries for the Airbus A350 fell last year compared with 2024, reflecting supply chain challenges. Christian Scherer, the former CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft, said, “The ‘stagnation’ of A350 deliveries is not a lack of demand. There is a center section of the A350 fuselage that is being built by a company formerly known as Spirit Aerosystems. They ran into trouble. They were the pacing item.” Airbus acquired Spirit’s Airbus business when the company merged with Boeing…

PARIS – Huntington Ingalls Industries has doubled the footprint of its site on the south coast of England as the American shipbuilder seeks to service its growing business of unmanned underwater vehicles for the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy and other navies in western and northern Europe.The enlarged HII site in Portchester, England, will now be able to assemble the company’s Remus 620 medium-class modular UUV, and allow the company to increase the pace of training for allied navies, Nick Green, the manager in charge of the facility, said in a Jan. 12 briefing with reporters.Growing technological maturity means navies are…