Europe   Military Aircraft Procurement   Aviation Safety & Regulation   Missile Systems & Strategic Weapons   Defense Industry & Major Contractors   Geopolitical Developments & Conflict Impact   Thales  
AeroTime • Clement Charpentreau

Rafale captures Thales 24x laser-guided rocket fit for anti-Shahed; DGA targets capability by summer 2026

First images show a French Rafale configured with 24 Thales laser-guided rockets, signaling a dedicated anti-Shahed mission set. France’s DGA says the capability is on track to be ready by summer 2026, aligning platform integration timelines with counter-UAS urgency.

2026-04-16T06:57:20.561985-07:00
UAV Development & Drone Programs   Satellite   Space Defense & Militarization   Cybersecurity (Cyber Threats & Protection)  
Reuters • David Jeans

Exclusive: Starlink outage hit drone tests, exposing Pentagon’s growing reliance on SpaceX

By Reuters: Last August, U.S. Navy officials carrying out a test of unmanned vessels realized they had hit a single point of failure: Starlink. A global outage across Elon Musk’s satellite network affecting millions of Starlink users had left two dozen unmanned surface vessels bobbing off the California coast, disrupting communications and halting operations for almost an hour.

Also: Seeking Alpha, tass.com and techstartups.com
2026-04-16T03:40:59.653806-07:00
Military Aircraft Procurement   Aircraft Manufacturing (OEMs)   Defense Policy   Boeing  
FlightGlobal • Greg Waldron

Canberra starts search to replace E-7A with ‘next-generation aircraft’

By FlightGlobal: Australia has started looking at what could replace its Boeing E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft. In the country’s 2026 National Defence Strategy document, Canberra lists nine priorities for the future of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), which will be “an air force with long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance [ISR] and….

2026-04-16T02:09:21.630712-07:00
Event   AI   Defense Policy  
DefenseNews.com • Cristina Stassis

US Air Force debuts operational AI wargame system

By DefenseNews.com: WarMatrix is an AI-powered system meant to keep human judgement central to wargaming and was marked operational during an event in late March.

Also: AirForceTimes, c4isrnet.com and Military Times
2026-04-15T23:13:00.733819-07:00