The result brings several paradoxes: major aviation manufacturers, particularly Boeing and Airbus, now have multiple years of orders for airliner types dating back several decades. Older jet fighters such as the 1990s-era Eurofighter and Lockheed Martin F-16 are also seeing ongoing and often rising sales on the back of growing tensions.
Simultaneously, other new technology is leaping forward. Dutch company Robin Radar Systems – which started out building small airport radars to detect flocks of birds but has since moved into anti-drone technology – was just one of several that told this columnist their firms were undergoing very rapid growth.
In total, Farnborough recorded almost $85 billion in deals, both military and civilian – plus a host of announcements from missile manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and European conglomerate MBDA aimed at driving down the cost of delivering air defence and strike missiles.
With the U.S. now racing to replace now heavily depleted stocks of high-tech long-range and air defence missiles such as the Tomahawk and Patriot, the show included a large number of firms offering more "affordable" one-way strike missiles as well as long-term reusable drones.
"We are literally learning in real time," said former RAF Typhoon jet fighter pilot Andrew Hawkes, now leading the European rollout of defence tech firm Shield AI's stealth vertical takeoff X Bat drone, describing the "evolving threat environment" as a key driver of developments.
Shield AI – founded in 2015 by former U.S. Navy SEAL Brandon Tseng – is already operating its non-stealth V-Bat in Ukraine and other combat zones. The company says the new X-Bat will fly for the first time before the end of the year under the control of an autonomous AI pilot, and, when operational, will be able to carry all the same weapons as a much more expensive U.S.-made piloted F-35 for a fraction of the cost.
While the basic engine for the X-Bat is one that has been fitted for years to U.S. fighters such as the F-15 Eagle, the drone benefits from new composite materials and a dramatic reduction in the weight of the computing power required for the on-board AI systems.
Other projects can still take years to move from the design screen to production. Some of the largest announcements in Farnborough this year related to the Anglo-Italian-Japanese Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), intended to deliver a new "sixth-generation" stealth fighter into service by 2035.
Such a delivery schedule for a major new combat aircraft is a big acceleration from the most recent generation of equivalent aircraft such as the U.S. F-35, which began its design life in the 1990s and only entered service this decade.
With European and Pacific nations increasingly nervous over the long-term commitment of the U.S. to their defence, that collaboration is also seen as increasingly important by its member nations – with Canada announcing last week that it was also joining GCAP as an observer.
Under U.S. President Donald Trump, Washington has pledged that it will not export its own equivalent fighter, the Boeing-manufactured F-47 – the number a reference to Trump as the 47th president – which is slated to fly for the first time in 2028.
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