14 May 25. Airbus, TA team to bid Hürjet for Spain. Airbus and Turkish Aerospace (TA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) geared at bidding the Hürjet advanced jet trainer aircraft to Spain. The industrial MOU signed at the International Defence and Security Exhibition (FEINDEF) 2025 held in Madrid from 12 to 14 May follows a national MOU signed between the governments of Spain and Türkiye in December 2024.
“Spanish industry, led by Airbus, and Turkish Aerospace have signed a memorandum of understanding to identify and develop potential areas of collaboration on the Advanced Jet Trainer Aircraft, Integrated Training System – Combat (ITS-C) programme, which aims to replace the [Northrop] F-5M [/EF-5M] trainer aircraft of the Spanish Air and Space Force,” Airbus said.
“This collaboration would leverage Airbus’ design, manufacturing, in-service support, and training expertise with Turkish Aerospace’s innovative design of the Hürjet, an advanced single-engine, tandem-seat, supersonic jet trainer aircraft with advanced capabilities,” the company added.
Turkish media has previously linked a possible Spanish procurement of the Hürjet with a transfer of six contracted but unrequired Spanish Airbus A400M transport aircraft to Türkiye. (Source: Janes)
13 May 25. Bull Shark: U.S., Partners Train to Respond Together. Soldiers conducted hoist operations, patrols and provided simulated security and real-world communications during Exercise Bull Shark 25-2 at Arta Beach, Djibouti. The semiannual exercise is led by the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, alongside Djiboutian, French, Japanese and European Union naval forces. The exercise strengthened communication and collaboration among international partners and allies throughout East Africa and to increase crisis response and personnel recovery skills. Service members also demonstrated agility and interoperability through joint maneuver and casualty evacuation drills. (Source: U.S. DoD)
13 May 25. Cubic Delivers Cutting-Edge Shoot-Back System to Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute (SAFTI) City. Cubic Defense announces the completion and delivery of the laser-based shoot-back systems with automatic target detection, recognition, and instrumentation to the world’s largest urban training facility, SAFTI City.
“The impressive engineering project was a collaborative effort consisting of teams from across the Asia-Pacific region, all coming together to design, manufacture, deliver, and install a range of advanced training systems for SAFTI City,” stated Russell Marsh, President of Cubic Defense. “The live training simulation systems provide world-class training results, ensuring the Warfighter of the future is well prepared for the demands of complex, urban environments.”
Cubic’s deliverables included an advanced computer vision system for tracking targets and enabling the targets to autonomously shoot-back at training forces. Additionally, Cubic provided 11,000 sensors, which consist of 8,000 building-integrated anchors with ultra-wideband indoor tracking and 3,000 shoot-through-wall modules.
Alicia Combs, Cubic’s Ground Training Vice President and General Manager, said, “We are extremely proud to have delivered the next evolution of vehicle and soldier tracking instrumentation with new enhancements included. The vehicle instrumentation system now shows crews the direction from which they were hit. The soldier system enables seamless tracking from outdoors to indoors, by using GPS and radio communications outside and pairing with building infrastructure to use ultra-wideband communications indoors.” Cubic’s work at SAFTI City involved team members from Cubic Defence New Zealand, Cubic Technologies Singapore and Cubic Defence Australia. (Source: ASD Network)