This exhibition, held every two years alternately with the Le Bourget exhibition near Paris, could also mark Boeing’s comeback this year, as the company seeks to leave behind a deep crisis that has shaken the entire group in recent years.
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“Due to the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump’s rise to power, the resolution of issues related to sovereignty and rearmament has actually accelerated in Europe,” Pascal Fabre, a representative of the international consulting firm AlixPartners, told AFP.
Although the defense sector usually occupies 40% of the exhibition space, this year it is expected to take up almost as much space as the civil sector, said event executive director Gareth Rogers.
After recently carried out impressive long-range strikes against Russian oil refineries and military facilities, Ukraine will have a large exhibition at the show, with additional space allocated to accommodate its exhibitors.
According to P. Fabre, Ukrainians will certainly attract interest at the Farnborough exhibition for their “battlefield-tested” solutions related to drones, which “interest many industry representatives.”
Boeing drone
With the termination of the SCAF – the French, German, and Spanish fighter program – all attention at the Farnborough exhibition will be focused on its main competitor – the GCAP program, implemented by the UK, Italy, and Japan. This month, the program gained momentum after the three countries allocated £4.6 billion ($6.2 billion) to continue its development. They aim for the fighters to be operational by 2035.
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“All countries will be interested in showing the progress made so far and emphasizing unity now that the United Kingdom has finally committed to large-scale funding,” said Justin Bronkas from the British think tank RUSI.
Boeing will present its MQ-28 Ghost Bat – an autonomous combat drone, introduced as a potential partner for the fighter and developed under the GCAP program. This aircraft illustrates the growing role of drones in modern conflicts, especially now that unmanned systems have radically changed the situation on the Ukrainian front.
German group Rheinmetall has entered into a partnership agreement with Boeing to integrate the MQ-28 into the capabilities of the German Air Force. This aircraft, developed in cooperation with the Royal Australian Air Force, should be available to Germany by 2029.
However, such partnerships reignite discussions about Europe’s ambitions in the field of defense sovereignty.
