Ballistic missiles 'keywords' at Paris Air Show as Israel-Iran conflict looms large

Airbus secures 244 firm and provisional plane orders as Boeing deals with Air India crash

A Thales Talios targeting pod beside a Dassault Rafale B fighter jet at the Paris Air Show. Bloomberg

The Israel-Iran conflict loomed large over the Paris Air Show this week, accelerating talks on defence products and forcing airlines to suspend routes to the Middle East.

The conflict brought a sense of urgency to the defence discussions at the event, which showcases the latest technology in defence and commercial aviation.

“Because of the geopolitical context and what is currently happening in the [Middle East] and a bit in Europe, a keyword here is ballistic and anti-ballistic [missiles],” Hervé Dammann, executive vice president of land and air systems at Thales, told The National on the sidelines of the show.

“How can we make sure our countries are protected well enough against ballistic and hypersonic threats – the two kinds of missiles that are currently believed to be in use in the Middle East? This is really the key topic of discussion: What do you need to detect, what do you need to intercept and which kind of system can be used.

“The mood here is the need to accelerate and implement those kind of capabilities. For the industry, it means that we need to be agile and ramp up production capacity. We need to find ways to accelerate putting solutions in the market, maybe in an incremental approach rather than waiting for having developed a full solution,” Mr Dammann said.

In response to increasing customer demand, Thales has tripled the production of sensors in radars and quadrupled the production of effectors, he said.

“We are continuing to invest in support of the higher demand requests we have coming from many [ministries of defence], whether in the Middle East or in Europe or in Asia,” the Thales executive said.

On the first day of the show, France's move to shut down the main Israeli company stands for refusing to remove attack weapons from display sparked a furious response from Israel.

The show, which ends on Friday, displayed cutting-edge military technology and staged flight demonstrations that ripped through Le Bourget's blue skies. They were also a stark reminder of military capabilities used to deadly effect thousands of kilometres away in Tehran and Israel.

Israeli stands at Paris Air Show shut by French government

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“We see it more as citizens at the moment: it is extremely worrying to see tensions and escalation in this region of the world,” Jean-Brice Dumont, head of air power at Airbus Defence and Space, said at a press briefing during the air show.

“For ethical reasons, I would say we refrain from making business interpretation out of it. Now, it is true that it is one more sign of an escalation somewhere in the world, which, overall, in military volumes, is leading the volumes up.”

The European plane maker is pursuing potential new buyers, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, for its A400M military transport aircraft.

Mr Dumont said there are “quite intense” discussions with the UAE's air force, Tawazun and defence entities in the government.

“The discussions are very, very constructive,” he said. “Now, it's a competition. The one who's going to win will be the supplier of the mobility of the future for the UAE. We believe we have the right solution, having an aircraft that is the strategic and tactical one.”

Flight disruptions

In the skies beyond Le Bourget airport, some US airlines began suspending daily flights to Gulf countries amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

American Airlines on Thursday suspended daily flights from Philadelphia to Doha until June 22. United Airlines temporarily halted services between its hub at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and Dubai and aims to resume “when it’s safe”, according to its website.

American Airlines' move comes after the US embassy in Qatar advised its personnel and US citizens in the country to “keep a low profile” and “stay alert” at locations publicly associated with the US.

“Out of an abundance of caution and in light of ongoing regional hostilities, the US Embassy has advised its personnel to exercise increased vigilance and has temporarily restricted access to Al Udeid Air Base. We recommend that US citizens in Qatar take similar precautions,” it said in a statement on its website.

The US airlines' flight suspensions are the first disruptions on the doorstep of some of the region's busiest air hubs. Previous flight suspensions were limited to Israel, the countries surrounding it and the airspace above countries where Iranian missiles pass.

Dubai and Doha are home to Emirates and Qatar Airways that use their strategic locations for long-haul travel, connecting passengers between the US, Europe and Asia.

Emirates has suspended all flights to Amman and Beirut until June 22. Flight suspensions to Tehran, Baghdad and Basra will continue until June 30.

Elsewhere, Saudi Arabian low-cost carrier flyadeal said it is experiencing only minimal disruptions.

“We've not had any significant impact as a result of airspace closure in parts of the region. While our flights to and from Amman have been cancelled until further notice, operationally, we're only experiencing minor disruptions with changes to flight routings on a few services to avoid the affected areas,” Steven Greenway, flyadeal's chief executive, told The National.

“With the upcoming peak summer season, we are preparing for a busy flying programme that will maximise our fleet utilisation.”

The Israel-Iran attacks are the latest global conflict to ratchet up airlines' security concerns, while weighing on their operations and profitability.

Airlines are grappling with airspace closures, threats from missiles, drones and GPS jamming.

“The big topics that we are facing is the global navigation satellite system (GNSS), so we see more and more … areas where the signal is not available or is spoofed,” Denis Bonnet, head of innovation research and technology at Thales, told reporters.

“We are working very hard with our [original equipment manufacturers] to make sure that we are more resilient to this … so it's becoming safer and safer.”

The number of global positioning system (GPS) signal loss events increased by 220 per cent between 2021 and 2024, according to International Air Transport Association data.

It is “difficult to see this trend reversing in the near term”, Iata said in a statement this week.

Thales' flight management system, installed on more than 7,000 planes and cumulating more than 100 million flight hours, allows pilots to modify the flight trajectory quickly and simply, Mr Bonnet said.

“The capability we try to bring to airlines is to detect those threat areas and modify the trajectory … usually we prefer to do this before take-off,” he said.

Another key topic is the use of satellite communications onboard aircraft, particularly in remote areas.

“When there is this huge tension between Israel and Iran, a lot of aircraft has to be re-routed and [satellite communications] have been absolutely vital to connect the crew in areas that are not really well covered by connectivity,” Mr Bonnet said.

Airbus aircraft orders

This Paris Air Show was unusually subdued following Air India's Boeing 787 crash, which created a sombre mood and kept Boeing's leadership away to focus on the accident investigation.

Airbus secured firm orders for 142 aircraft. This does not include the six Airbus A350-900 announced by Egyptair at the show as this was a previously unidentified customer on Airbus' previous order reports. It also recorded 102 provisional orders that would increase its haul if airline customers choose to exercise those options.

The firm orders are worth $14.2 billion including Egyptair's deal, plus 102 provisional orders worth $6.7 billion, Reuters reported, citing estimated delivery prices from UK-based Cirium Ascend.

Paris Air Show opens amid safety concerns after Air India crash

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The air show is usually a hard-fought competition between the duopoly of plane makers.

But Boeing had a quiet show as it chose to postpone any commercial announcements following the Air India crash just a few days before the expo.

The 787 Dreamliner crashed in the Indian city of Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on June 12, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and at least 30 more people on the ground.

Air India's Boeing plane was “well-maintained” before it crashed a week ago, AFP reported, citing an airline statement on Thursday.

Indian authorities have yet to reveal the cause of the crash as investigators work to retrieve data from the plane's black boxes – the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.