24 Jul 25. Airbus, TUSAŞ sign deal on Hürjet jet trainer collaboration for Spain. Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) and Airbus, one of Europe’s leading aerospace companies, have inked an agreement to accelerate the export of the Hürjet advanced jet trainer to Spain. Signed during the 17th International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF) here, the pact formalizes the collaboration between TUSAŞ and Airbus on the Hürjet program and defines each company’s role in Spain’s jet trainer procurement process. The move follows a memorandum of understanding signed in May between TUSAŞ and a Spanish defence industry consortium that includes Airbus, focusing on industrial collaboration around the Hürjet. The new agreement aims to accelerate the process of integrating the aircraft into the Spanish Air Force inventory. The partnership also clarifies key details regarding the export of the Hürjet. Under the agreement, up to 30 Hürjet aircraft are expected to be procured to meet Spain’s jet trainer requirement. The final sales contract is scheduled to be signed by the end of 2025, with deliveries planned to begin in 2028. The agreement sets the work-share terms for both parties and is considered the final step before the anticipated order from the Spanish Air Force later this year.
“This agreement, signed between the two companies, outlines how we intend to run the Hürjet program in Spain. It sets the intent and defines the terms — how we are going to work together, who will be responsible for what, and how we will integrate the Spanish team into the Hürjet project,” said Jean-Brice Dumont, head of air power at Airbus Defence and Space.
“We are also building a training system around the aircraft. The aircraft itself is, of course, the flying platform, but the ultimate goal is to train future pilots. That involves simulators, software, and various technologies integrated around the aircraft. All of this is included in our joint agreement.”
When asked about the potential risks the project may face, Dumont told Defense News that one of the key challenges lies in introducing Spanish-specific customization while the aircraft is still under development. This creates the risk of overlapping time horizons, he said.
“To mitigate that, it’s crucial for Turkish Aerospace to complete aircraft development and prepare for delivery, while both teams begin working together to become familiar with the program. This first step is critical,” Dumont said.
“We need a basic aircraft as the foundation, and that aircraft is currently under development. Once that’s ready, we can move forward with the Spanish customization. These two efforts will proceed in parallel. However, we must be careful not to overburden the core development team during this process.”
Dumont said that the company’s goal is to deliver on industrial-policy obligations under the sale.
“The Spanish Ministry of Defense has asked for the incorporation of Spanish content into the Turkish aircraft and the establishment of strong industrial ties between Spanish entities and Turkish Aerospace,” he said. “That is our current priority.” (Source: Defense News)
23 Jul 25. Growth in Participation, New Capabilities Made Talisman Sabre 25 Successful. The Talisman Sabre 25 multinational exercise kicked off last week with more than 35,000 participants from 19 nations, including the United States and Australia. During a discussion yesterday with the Defense Writers Group, Army Lt. Gen. Joel B. Vowell, deputy commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, shared his observations about the exercise, which has been held every two years since 2005. Talisman Sabre has grown significantly since its first iteration, Vowell said. This year, 19 nations participated, with two more observing.
“The growth and attendance of participation is a signal of how important regional stability and security is to everybody,” he said.
What started 20 years ago as a U.S.-Australia bilateral effort now includes Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga and the United Kingdom. Hostile actions and behaviors of the People’s Republic of China, along with aggregated threats from Russia and North Korea, for instance, are driving increased participation in Talisman Sabre, Vowell said.
He added that early in his tenure, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth outlined his priorities for the department, which included working closely with allies and partners to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific. Ensuring interoperability between those nations is a key part of that effort.
At Talisman Sabre, Vowell said, a live-fire demonstration of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System by the U.S., Australia and Singapore exemplified that cooperation.
The U.S. regularly trains with the HIMARS, but Australia and Singapore now own the system as well. This year marked the first time those three nations worked together in a combined battery.
“We had a live-fire event at Shoalwater Bay, where all three countries combined into a composite HIMARS battery, received fire direction — a call for fire … from an observer for a deep strike target,” Vowell said. “You had an integrated fires solution with multiple different platforms from three different countries firing simultaneously on a deep target. That has not happened before. big first: Singapore, Australia, U.S., a combined battery HIMARS live fire, with precision, at distances of about 60 kilometers.”
Also a first, he said, is the U.S. at Talisman Sabre demonstrating the use of its Typhon Missile system, which is a midrange capability that can fire the Standard Missile-6 or the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile.
“We fired SM6 live, first time west of the international date line, from the land and hit a sea target … at 166 kilometers,” Vowell said. “That was emblematic of the requirement the joint forces levied on the Army to be able to have a capability to hold maritime targets at risk from the land.”
The Chinese military anti-access, area denial network already has thousands of missiles pointed at Western Pacific targets, Vowell said, noting that the network has not fully accounted for distributed land forces capable of using surface fires to hit land, maritime or air targets.
“That’s an asymmetric advantage the Army is developing. We show that in Talisman Saber,” he said.
Deterrence is another key focus of the exercise because it demonstrates the capabilities and interoperability of the United States and its allies, potentially deterring adversaries’ undesirable actions.
“Our collective readiness, our signaling of what we’re doing forward, provides what has to be inferred and interpreted as a deterrent effect,” Vowell said. “The number of participants signals the resolve that we have in the region to work together.”
Talisman Sabre is not the only event in which the U.S. participates; Vowell said USARPAC is involved in approximately 45 different exercises.
“Throughout the year, our Army formations move from country to country to country to country to do these events, different parts of the exercises, different training objectives, but they all seek interoperability as an outcome; they all seek a deterrent mechanism,” he said.
Interoperability and readiness, he said, mean the United States is ready if called upon to do whatever it’s asked to do. But deterrence, he said, aims to prevent conflict from happening in the first place.
” part of a connected series to provide a deterrent optic across the region from land forces, so we have no war — priority one,” Vowell said. “Priority two, if the national command authority wants us, we are postured and ready to be able to respond in crisis if we have to.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
23 Jul 25. Serbia seeks new trainer and light attack aircraft to replace Yugoslavia-era Super Galebs. Serbia has launched a procurement effort to replace its Yugoslavia-era Soko G-4 Super Galeb (Super Seagull) jet trainer and light attack aircraft with a new type. The Serbian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Republic of Serbia Air Force and Air Defence (Ratno Vazduhoplovstvo i Protivvazduhoplovna Odbrana: RV i PVO) received a demonstration of the Embraer A-29 Super Tucano as one of the number of candidate airframes at Batajnica Air Base near Belgrade during the week beginning 21 July. Designated N-62 in Yugoslav/Serbian service, the Super Galeb was delivered between 1978 and 1991. Of the 85 aircraft originally received, 21 remain in the inventory of the RV i PVO, of which 10 are understood to be fully operational at any given time. It is understood that 24 new aircraft will be acquired to equip two squadrons of 12 aircraft each. Deliveries are slated to begin by 2030.
“We have set a fast pace, and the plan is for demonstrations of the aircraft that will be competing for the acquisition to be held in Serbia this year,” the Serbian MoD’s assistant Minister for Material Resources Nenad Miloradović said during the recent Paris Air Show 2025. (Source: Janes)
22 Jul 25. Sailors, Marines Train to Create a Lethal Joint Force. Sailors assigned to the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and Marines assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit recently completed a Composite Training Unit Exercise, successfully demonstrating their ability to jointly create a lethal, warfighting force. During the three-week exercise, sailors and Marines aboard the USS Iwo Jima, the USS San Antonio and the USS Fort Lauderdale demonstrated they were “capable of delivering decisive combat power in any environment at any time,” said Navy Capt. Chris Farricker, commodore of Amphibious Squadron 8. ” success shows that we are America’s expeditionary quick-reaction force.” The team planned and executed missions including maritime interdiction operations; visit, board, search and seizure; amphibious assaults; tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel; live-fire exercises; reconnaissance and surveillance and noncombat evacuations. Sailors aboard the destroyer USS Bulkeley also took part in the exercise, testing and validating their warfighting capabilities across areas such as maritime security, air defense and surface warfare.
“This exercise wasn’t just about individual readiness — it was about building unbreakable bonds and a shared commitment to mission success. We stand ready to answer the nation’s call, unified in purpose and unmatched in our combined might,” Farricker said. (Source: U.S. DoD)
17 Jul 25. Nordic region floated as location for large-scale Nato exercise. The UK Chief of Air Staff proposed an operational level exercise in Northern Europe, parallel to Bamboo Eagle 25-1, hosted by the US Air Force. Royal Air Force Typhoons complete a landing on an Emergency Landing Strip in Finland, 18 September 2023. Credit: Crown Copyright/UK Ministry of Defence.
The UK Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Richard Knighton, called on Nato to conduct an operational level exercise in Europe to test command and control (C2) among allies.
“We need to test, train, and educate our people in the real world,” Knighton stressed to international counterparts during the Chief of the Air Staff’s Global Air and Space Chief’s Conference on 17 July 2025.
The CAS pointed to a recent exercise led by the United States Air Force Warfare Center, which hosted more than 10,000 air force personnel among Australia, Canada, the UK and US from California in February this year.
“Exercises like Bamboo Eagle [25-1] provide high end, multi domain, multinational, long range exercises where we can test and train ourselves against these kinds of scenarios”.
However, the European continent, which covers less than four m square miles, has proved far less conducive to the large-scale exercises that are played out across the Indo-Pacific expanse, which is considerably larger, exceeding one hundred m square miles.
But this is not impossible as another 10,000 troops from nine different nations proved earlier this year in Nato Exercise Steadfast Dart, which took place in Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece. Although, the aim was to project the Allied Response Force rather than enhancing C2. (Source: naval-technology.com)