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Defense News
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[l] at 10/23/26 1:39pm
Unmanned systems now inflict more than 90% of Russia’s casualties on the front lines in Ukraine, yet no NATO military, including America’s, has begun the overhaul that kind of war demands, Ret. Army Gen. David Petraeus said Oct. 16, weeks after the Pentagon announced a new command for autonomous warfare.The extent of the drone war is underestimated, with Ukraine and Russia each using roughly 10,000 drones a day, the former CIA director and onetime commander of U.S. Central Command said, speaking at an American Primary Aluminum Association event in Washington.“This is an unmanned systems war,” Petraeus said. “Tanks aren’t survivable there anymore.”For Ukraine, drones and unmanned weapons have become central to how the country has leveraged a smaller, outgunned force against a much larger, better-financed adversary for almost five years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the creation of a new Unmanned Systems Forces military branch in 2024, and the Defense Ministry has said time and again that developing more autonomous weapons is a top priority.But for the rest of the world, Petraeus said, the fighting in Ukraine is a window into the future and a warning about the dangers of being underprepared for the battles to come.“Really, no NATO country and not even the United States is undertaking yet the urgent revolutionary institutional change that should be taken based on what we see in Ukraine, which is the future of war,” he said.The U.S. needs a new concept of warfare that runs through force structure, training, procurement, personnel policy and bases, the general said, replacing much of the legacy, heavily manned equipment with unmanned systems that are cheaper and far more numerous.“What’s going to happen is we’ll see the introduction of autonomous systems really for the first time in warfare,” Petraeus said.Washington is making “some commendable steps” toward developing these weapons, according to Petraeus, including establishing a new Autonomous Warfare Command that requires each military branch to stand up its own component command.“But my hope is that they will not just create an unmanned systems force in terms of force structure, but that they will also spur the initiation of true institutional change,” Petraeus said.That includes how the U.S. buys weapons, Petraeus said, calling for “very, very substantial manufacturing capacity but not necessarily producing all the time.”“You want it to be able to make software changes every week, hardware changes every few weeks, which is what’s going on in Ukraine because the enemy continues to evolve and Russia’s been innovating very substantially as well,” he said.Ukraine will produce as many as 20 million unmanned systems this year, Zelenskyy said in a July speech, with a shortage of trained operators and the acquisition of some weapons components — including optics, gimbals, brushless motors and fiber-optic cable — becoming the domestic industry’s production bottleneck. The general also rejected the idea that the U.S. war with Iran has hurt Washington’s ability to help Kyiv, though he acknowledged the U.S. has used “a fair number of missile interceptors,” which “makes it more difficult to share those with others around the world.”The war has consumed between one-half and two-thirds of the U.S. inventory of certain missile-defense interceptors, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate released in September.“We can help the Ukrainians in any way in which we decide to assist them,” Petraeus said. “These are policy decisions.”

[Category: Pentagon] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/23/26 9:48am
KYIV, Ukraine — Washington blamed Moscow at the United Nations on Wednesday for deliberately moving a Russian military satellite with an undisclosed mission “dangerously” close last week to a U.S.-registered satellite believed to serve Ukraine, with officials vowing to defend American interests in space.The Russian satellite, Cosmos 2612, spent more than two weeks maneuvering toward ICEYE-X36, a radar satellite operated by the American arm of Finnish company ICEYE that supplies imagery to Ukraine’s military through some of its spacecraft, then shadowed it from as close as a third of a mile through the weekend of Oct. 17. U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas G. DiNanno called the Russian satellite’s behavior “threatening,” and said the country had been “intentionally maneuvering dangerously close to a commercial satellite, behaviors consistent with on-orbit weapons operations.”Space historian and former NASA astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said that he believed it is the first rendezvous in low Earth orbit between two active satellites without one owner’s approval. Cosmos 2612 has been “intentionally maneuvering dangerously close to a commercial satellite,” Under Secretary of State Thomas DiNanno wrote on X on Wednesday, adding that the United States “will continue to secure and defend American vital national security interests in, from, and to space.”The close encounter came weeks after Air Force Secretary Troy Meink publicly confirmed that the U.S. has weapons in orbit and the Space Force picked two companies to build space-to-space reconnaissance satellites. It also followed reports that trillionaire Elon Musk — under White House orders — slowed the military-grade Starlink that Ukraine relies on, rendering some of the country’s essential air defense weapons useless.The operation fits a wider Russian campaign of intimidation against Europe and the U.S. that lets Russian President Vladimir Putin “poke the West in the eye and watch the West do nothing,” according to Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They prove a point – the West can’t stop me,” Swope added Wednesday during a CSIS panel on the encounter.As the U.S. and its allies increasingly rely on commercial capabilities for national security, key assets like satellites have “become vulnerabilities that can be exploited by our adversary,” according to Greg Gillinger, senior vice president of strategy and development at Virginia-based Integrity ISR, who also spoke on the CSIS panel.The impact of a possible satellite attack could reach well beyond one company or country, since commercial satellites now carry much of the imagery and connectivity militaries fight with, experts said. Musk’s Starlink slowdown in Ukraine showed how quickly a military force can suffer when that access is throttled without notice — and how easily local geopolitical conflicts can explode into global security crises. On Oct. 12, commercial trackers feeding the U.S. military’s Joint Commercial Operations cell flagged the possible rendezvous when Cosmos 2612 slid into ICEYE-X36’s orbit roughly 345 miles above Earth, according to Integrity ISR’s newsletter.On Oct. 15 and 16, the Russian satellite moved from more than 200 miles behind ICEYE-X36 to roughly 3 miles away before moving in closer and holding position through the weekend, tracking firm LeoLabs said in a statement reported by CNN.Both satellites travel at roughly 4 miles (7 kilometers) per second, so getting two objects “within a hundred meters or even a kilometer” of each other is “the equivalent of flying in a very tight formation in an aircraft,” Gillinger said.“Russia didn’t accidentally get within a kilometer of X36,” he said. “It is an indication of intent that they’re sending a message.”ICEYE, whose radar satellites see through clouds, smoke and darkness, expanded cooperation with Ukraine’s military, pledging continued imagery “on tactical timelines,” according to a January statement. However, the company has not confirmed which of its satellites serve Kyiv.Moscow has warned since the first year of its full-scale invasion that Western commercial satellites helping Ukraine could become legitimate military targets.ICEYE said it is “aware of the situation and tracking it closely” and that its “constellation architecture is designed for continuity and resilience,” a spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine earlier this week.Russia’s intent behind the satellite maneuvers remains unclear. According to LeoLabs, an American space technology company, possible aims range from intelligence collection and close inspection to coercion and groundwork for future operations against satellites.The maneuvers demonstrated capabilities that could be used to “inspect, characterize, shadow, or potentially interfere with another spacecraft,” though they “do not establish hostile intent,” the company said.Analysts could not yet say whether Moscow planned an attack and then reversed course, or was orbiting nearby for another purpose entirely.Russia could have been doing “a dry run” for a future attack, or the satellite could have been carrying a weapon, from a jammer to a laser to a projectile, Swope explained.“Was the intent to blow up the satellite? No,” he said. “Was the intent to put some type of energy on the satellite? Probably… I don’t know why you’d need to maneuver in this way, this close, unless you wanted to do something that involved putting energy on that satellite.”The Russian satellite has since pulled back, but not far.It was again flying at ICEYE-X36’s altitude on Wednesday, holding roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) behind it, and could “easily close that gap again at the time and place of their choosing,” Gillinger said.Russia could try to approach another ICEYE satellite within weeks, as two more satellites from the same launch will soon line up with the orbit of a second satellite, ICEYE-X37, according to Integrity ISR.If they move in, “we could see another scenario where another commercial satellite is closely trailed by one of these Russian satellites,” Gillinger said.The retreat began Oct. 18, two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order waiving tariffs and most economic restrictions on Russia.Swope said Trump’s move to ease sanctions “could have been a reason why Putin said, ‘You know, now’s not the time to exacerbate tensions specifically with the United States. Maybe we should pause this operation.’”“If you’re getting close to a deal on something, why jeopardize that?” he said.The potential for a conflict in space has been growing in recent months.Washington “appears to lack response options” if Russia threatened U.S. military and commercial satellites with a nuclear weapon in orbit, according to the conclusions from a 2025 war-game scenario where fictional Russian space objects threatened American interests. There is no public indication that Cosmos 2612 carries a nuclear weapon, but Swope said that there is also still no internationally recognized rule for determining if a maneuver like this one should be considered hostile — or what international standards should be followed in a response. “Even though we all can make a good case on why this was [hostile], there’s no norm that you could point to,” he said.Without a clear response plan or real consequences for aggression, menacing satellite moves like this one are “literally just a spigot that Russia could turn on and off” to increase pressure on adversaries, Swope said.Russia, he added, “is going to turn it on again.”

[Category: Space] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/23/26 8:56am
PARIS — France and the United Kingdom carried out a joint airborne nuclear strike exercise for the first time, with Eurofighter Typhoon jets from the Royal Air Force escorting French Rafale jets on a simulated nuclear-strike mission.The French and British fighter jets flew a joint mission on Tuesday during the exercise Rummy, the French Armed Forces Ministry said in a statement on Friday, calling the drill a show of growing cooperation in the framework of an agreement last year for closer nuclear cooperation and coordination between the two countries.France is working with several European allies on a concept of “forward deterrence” amid uncertainty around United States security guarantees for Europe in the face of an aggressive Russia. While both France and the U.K. operate strategic ballistic-missile submarines as a nuclear deterrent, France has an airborne component, which the U.K. lacks, in the shape of Rafale jets carrying nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.“Having independent nuclear forces doesn’t exclude coordination,” French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin said. “By coordinating, our nuclear forces demonstrate that they can contribute even more significantly to the overall security of the alliance and the peace and stability of the Euro-Atlantic zone.”The British aircraft operated alongside those of France’s Strategic Air Forces over the Mediterranean, with Typhoons escorting Rafale fighters, according to the ministry. While the Rafale jets performed a simulated nuclear strike, the exercise didn’t involve any actual nuclear weapons, the ministry said.In addition to Eurofighter Typhoon and Rafale jets, the exercise included A330 MRTT tanker aircraft, French Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Fabien Mandon said in a post on the social network X. The French and British crews took off from Saint-Dizier air base in northeastern France, and showed a “very high level of interoperability and a capability to coordinate,” he said.Mandon’s post included a picture showing three taxiing Eurofighters, as well as a Eurofighter under a hard cover with the markings of the RAF 29 Squadron.“This is a revolution for the Strategic Air Forces, which have always operated in complete autonomy since their creation in the 1960s,” said Etienne Marcuz, a senior analyst at the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, in a post on X. He called the involvement of at least three British Eurofighter aircraft “quite significant.”The exercise was an important step in the implementation of the Northwood Declaration, showing a determination to deter common threats together, the ministry said. France and the U.K. last year agreed to deepen nuclear cooperation and coordination, stating in the declaration that they agreed there was no extreme threat to Europe that would not prompt a response by both nations.The exercise Rummy took place on Oct. 20 and 21, according to the ministry. France’s Air and Space Force regularly holds simulated nuclear-strike exercises called Poker.The U.K. and France maintain sovereign and independent nuclear forces, and decision-making regarding their use isn’t shared, the ministry said. The countries would only consider using nuclear weapons in “extreme circumstances of legitimate defense,” the French ministry said.

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/23/26 8:29am
The U.S. Air Force is looking to artificial intelligence to improve the performance of its aerial refueling crews.The goal is for AI to automatically analyze refueling operations from cameras mounted on the tankers and provide “hot wash” feedback to the tanker crews.According to an Air Force Small Business Innovation Research solicitation, the service wants a system that can “leverage advanced computer vision, machine learning, and aviation (flight dynamics) analytics techniques to automatically extract operationally relevant performance metrics from aerial refueling events, quantify deviations from desired flight profiles, and generate actionable post-flight feedback to improve aircrew proficiency, reduce human-factor-driven mishaps, and enhance mission readiness.” The application deadline is Nov. 25.The SBIR is focused on the KC-46 tanker, which will feature a remote vision system that will allow operators to remotely operate the refueling boom via cameras and a 3D display. Though the system has been plagued by teething problems, the Air Force says most will soon be resolved.The system would automatically track the tanker and refueling boom, as well as the receiving aircraft. It would measure a variety of data, including position, velocity, alignment and closure rate, and assess whether they deviate from nominal parameters. The Air Force hopes an AI-based assessment system will mitigate the biases inherent in human assessment of aerial refueling, which is among the most demanding tasks for aircrew. “Current aerial refueling training and post-flight assessment processes rely heavily on instructor observation, pilot self-assessment, manual video review, and subjective evaluation of performance,” the SBIR noted. The system would create visual displays to improve the performance of pilots of the aircraft receiving fuel, such as “graphic AI overlays, heat maps, event timelines, and immersive or interactive debrief environments.” It would also have the potential to integrate with other training systems, including virtual and augmented reality, simulators, mission rehearsal systems, and other computer-based training tools. The Air Force sees this as a prototype for future AI-based training systems. “The desired end state is an operationally demonstrated capability ready to implement for at least one type of receiver aircraft and that can support transition into existing aviation training ecosystems and provide a scalable foundation for future AI-enabled aviation performance assessment across the Department of Defense,” the solicitation reads.

[Category: / MilTech] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/23/26 8:10am
Italy’s Leonardo and Germany’s Rheinmetall have secured, through their joint venture, two contracts with the Italian Army worth $4.16 billion in total for armored vehicles, Italy’s MF newspaper reported on Thursday. The orders are for the supply of the A2CS combat vehicles and the new-generation MBT tanks and are part of Italy’s wider military modernization program, the Italian financial daily added. Rheinmetall declined to comment. Leonardo CEO Lorenzo Mariani said he could not confirm whether the contract had been signed “as any communication on the matter must be coordinated with our clients.”Leonardo and Rheinmetall launched their 50-50 joint venture in 2024. “The programme is ready to enter production from our side. We are actively working on both the tank programme and the Future Combat System (FCS), and are progressing on both in close cooperation with Rheinmetall,” Mariani said in Rome.Speaking on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the state-backed Fondo Italiano d’Investimento, he stressed the importance of tanks for the modernization of Italy’s defense, for exports and for the broader partnership with Rheinmetall.

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/23/26 7:57am
Saudi Arabia appears to be expanding its ballistic missile factory to build larger solid-fuel missiles that could fly farther or carry heavier payloads, according to two U.S. researchers who analyzed more than a year of commercial satellite images.More capable missiles could help Saudi Arabia to deter attacks by Iran and make its military more self-reliant, while possibly strengthening its position in a deadly conflict with Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi fighters.But they risk fueling a regional missile race and could deepen opposition in the U.S. Congress to a U.S.-Saudi civilian nuclear agreement that has already raised concerns about proliferation.Satellite company Planet Labs, based in the U.S., took images of the al-Duwadimi complex about 125 miles west of Riyadh between April 2025 and September 2026.The two researchers, Sam Lair and Michael Duitsman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, assessed that those images show a new building that houses casting pits — wells in which a mixture of fuel ingredients is poured into missile motor casings and allowed to harden.The Saudi embassy and Information Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.The building, flanked by what appear to be walls to protect nearby structures from accidental explosions, is at least twice as large as the one believed to house the plant’s existing casting pits, Lair and Duitsman said in their assessment. The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is a non-partisan research organization in Philadelphia.A second new building could be used to store fuel ingredients or finished missile components, they said.The imagery “suggests that Saudi Arabia is expanding the infrastructure at the missile production complex, likely to produce larger missiles which could deliver larger payloads or reach longer ranges,” they wrote.Militaries favor solid-fuel missiles because they can be stored for long periods and launched more quickly than liquid-fuel systems.Lair and Duitsman and experts from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the CNA research and analysis organization told Reuters that the makeup of Saudi Arabia’s missile force suggests that the al-Duwadimi complex relies on Chinese technology. Lair and Duitsman said that its characteristics are also similar to Chinese missile plants.Saudi Arabia secretly acquired about 40 liquid-fuel DF-3 ballistic missiles from China in 1987, according to a 1991 declassified CIA estimate. It displayed two of them for the first time in an April 2014 military parade, according to a YouTube video and photographs of the event.The FPRI team also recently identified from social media videos and photos what they assessed was the wreckage in Yemen of a Saudi-fired Chinese-designed DF-15 missile.Lair said the kingdom may now be producing the solid-fuel DF-15, and that the expansion of a1-Dumadimi is likely for the production of the longer-range DF-21 or a similar missile.Riyadh is believed to have turned to Beijing because Washington has long restricted exports of longer-range missile systems.The Chinese embassy and defense ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The CIA declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.Missiles would alter the balance of powerSascha Bruchmann, a research fellow at IISS, said longer-range missiles would allow Saudi Arabia to strike Iran without risking its U.S.-supplied F-15 jet fighters against Iranian air defenses.“You’d want a system to threaten whatever is holy to Tehran ... if you don’t have the political will to send an F-15 with JDAMs over Tehran,” said Bruchmann, referring to U.S.-made satellite-guided bombs. “Iran has a lead because its missiles and drones can strike Saudi wherever it wants. The Saudis could close that capability gap a bit.”Bruchmann, who reviewed the FPRI analysis at Reuters request, concurred that the expansion of al-Duwadimi could be for producing more powerful solid-fuel missiles.Janes, the defense intelligence company, also reviewed it and said the buildings “may suggest an effort to expand production capability or support the development of longer-range missiles.”Saudi Arabia’s apparent pursuit of more powerful missiles comes as other Gulf powers are also seeking to expand their offensive and defensive arsenals, said Decker Eveleth, a CNA analyst who has been tracking the al-Duwadimi construction with commercial satellite imagery and concurred with the FPRI assessment. “This is being replicated across the Middle East,” he said. “You see exactly the same thing happening in the UAE. You see the exact same thing happening in Turkey. Everybody is doing this now.”The expansion of al-Duwadimi could have political consequences in the US by stiffening bipartisan congressional opposition to a US-Saudi agreement under which the US would help Riyadh establish uranium enrichment for power generation.Opponents say that the deal lacks sufficient safeguards to prevent Riyadh from secretly building a nuclear weapon. The kingdom has denied any such plan. Work began last yearThe FPRI assessment said the Planet Labs imagery showed that the expansion at al-Duwadimi began in April 2025 with ground-clearing and digging for the suspected storage building. Work on the suspected casting-pit building began later that month or in early May, it said.A December 12, 2025, photo showed what researchers assessed were two deep pits inside the building that had no roof yet. A Sept. 18, 2026, photo shows the roof still partly missing and “heavy duty blast diverting walls” on either side to prevent accidental explosions from damaging adjacent structures.The walls, the researchers said, are somewhat similar to those depicted in imagery of US and Iranian missile plants and “further evidence the building is for casting solid propellant motors.”Finishing the roofs would not take long, the FPRI said, but installing casting equipment may take several months. The facility could be ready to start producing missiles as early as the end of the year.

[Category: / Mideast Africa] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/23/26 6:35am
NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan— China’s first aircraft carrier, heavily watched around East Asia as an emblem of Beijing’s growing naval power, had made at least six faraway deployments since its completion 14 years ago.It made another in October.So frequent are the Chinese aircraft carrier CNS Liaoning’s publicly visible voyages that military analysts presume that the People’s Liberation Army Navy has fixed a routine that will let the relatively aged carrier help train and equip the fleet’s two more modern ones.Still, the carrier group’s passages not far from Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines – places that have political or maritime sovereignty disputes with China – have raised alerts.“The current voyage by the Liaoning appears to be part of an established evolving pattern of far-seas training deployments,” said Carl Thayer, an Asia specialist and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.“The Liaoning demonstrates China’s naval military capability and political influence through its constant presence in China’s near and far seas,” he said.The aircraft carrier led a naval task group to the western Pacific Ocean on Oct. 14 for training, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy said via China’s official Xinhua News Agency. Citing the navy, Xinhua called the expedition a “drill” and part of an annual routine training plan aimed at “testing and improving combat readiness.”China’s state-controlled Global Times news outlet called the Liaoning’s October voyage its second in the distant seas and hailed the carrier’s long-term progress as going from a “coastal pathfinder” to a “far-sea blade.”The vessel, categorized as a “short take-off but arrested recovery” aircraft carrier, measures about 305 meters (1,000 feet) long and with flight deck width up to 75 meters.As of Oct. 23, the carrier group had done exercises near the southernmost Japanese outlying islands and was headed for the South China Sea near the Philippines, according to local media reports in East Asia. The reports said it went with two large destroyers and a guided-missile destroyer.The deployments are meant to show China’s two more-modern carriers, the CNS Fujian and the CNS Shandong, how to adopt new technology, experts said.The nine-year-old Shandong carrier would learn about “new and emerging” technology as the older Liaoning tests flight operations, sensors and modern aircraft, said Collin Koh, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.“The Shandong aircraft carrier is basically an improved version of the Liaoning,” Koh said. He said the current deployment was probably “meant maybe to validate certain technologies.”Being the oldest of China’s three carriers, the Liaoning would “not be the frontline reaction force if there were a contingency”, said Alexander Huang, chairman of the Council of Strategic and Wargaming Studies in Taipei.China’s maritime rivals have taken notice.The Taiwan Ministry of National Defense said in mid-October it was monitoring the possibility of large-scale Chinese military exercises nearby as an outcome of the Liaoning’s movements.China claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to take it. The PLA has stepped up military activity in waters near the island since 2022.In the South China Sea, Beijing has already shored up its sovereignty claims over the past two decades by building artificial islands, often for military use. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam dispute parts of the sea with China.In Tokyo, which disputes a group of uninhabited islets with Beijing, the defense ministry said it had seen fighter aircraft taking off and landing from the Liaoning carrier 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Japan’s Ishigaki Island.The Chinese carrier group launched and recovered aircraft in Japan’s maritime exclusive economic zone during its deployment, said Colin Karotam, senior resident fellow with the Defence Strategy Program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. That activity is “uncommon,” Karotam said, though it may have taken place before.The Chinese carrier group’s activities also began shortly before the Keen Sword 27 U.S.–Japan military exercises launched on Oct. 19. The exercises on Ishigaki are biennial and include the Philippines among other nations. China sees the United States, a treaty ally of both Japan and the Philippines, as a military rival in Asia.Xinhua said the Liaoning’s movements in October comply with international law and “are not directed at any specific country or target.”

[Category: / Asia Pacific] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/23/26 3:18am
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force, Air Marshal Tony Davies, has informed Defense Minister Paul Goldsmith that he is resigning his role.Arrangements are underway to transition responsibilities to the Vice Chief of Defence Force, Rear Adm. Mat Williams, who will serve as Acting Chief of Defence Force.Air Marshal Davies said: “The resignation is for personal reasons, and results from errors of judgement made by me in the past, for which I am taking responsibility. The errors of judgement were contrary to the values of the Defence Force.“These matters revolved around an inappropriate relationship I had when in a position of unit command, and I regret not disclosing this when I had the opportunity to do so.”Appointed as the Chief of Air Force from 2016 before becoming the Vice Chief of Defence Force in 2018, Air Marshal Davies, born 1966, was promoted to his current rank on appointment to Chief of Defence Force on June 6, 2024.The Chief of Army, Maj. Gen. Rose King, will act as Chief of Defence Force until Sunday before Williams takes on the role.

[Category: / Asia Pacific] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/22/26 1:27pm
The U.S. Army is looking for new manufacturers to build barrels for 155mm howitzers amid concerns at the Pentagon that the government’s only plant for manufacturing them can’t keep up with the increased demand for artillery.The Army wants contractors that can manufacture up to 10 barrels per month within three years, according to the Sources Sought notice. The deadline is Nov. 23.Companies were asked to provide details of their ability — or their subcontractor’s capacity — to make barrels, including whether they could add “chrome bore coatings on a steel tube up to 30 [feet] long and up to 7,500 pounds in weight,” the notice said. They should also provide the maximum length and weight of tube that they could coat.Also desired are details on a company’s boring, milling and rifling capabilities, as well as details on raw materials, such as “steel preform production, forging, guide bore, and heat treatment.”The notice asks contractors to estimate their capacity to manufacture 155mm barrels within 18 months, and up to 10 barrels per month within 36 months. Companies should also offer a cost estimate for an “initial production quantity of 40 cannon tubes (broken down by caliber or indicating pricing for a combined/flexible mix),” the Army said.Currently, the Army makes large-caliber barrels for howitzers and tanks only at the aging Watervliet Arsenal in New York. While America and Europe have been focused on expanding production of howitzer ammunition to meet demand in the Ukraine war and replenish domestic stockpiles, another problem is a lack of manufacturing capacity to replace worn-out cannon barrels. A 2024 Pentagon budget document stated that Ukraine’s heavy use of M777 howitzers created a demand for more than 30 M776 tubes per month, according to The War Zone. The document admitted that Watervliet could not keep up with demand, and asked for emergency funding to be transferred to enable a second manufacturer of barrels.The new notice doesn’t mention how many additional barrel manufacturers are needed. However, the Army is exploring whether to replace the M777 with a weapon based on Korea’s popular K9 howitzer.

[Category: Land] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/22/26 1:03pm
COLOGNE, Germany — The Danish government plans to buy two types of “long-range,” precision-strike missiles, one air-launched and one ground-launched, to retaliate against adversaries after an attack on the country, officials announced on Thursday.The shopping list includes the Kongsberg-made Joint Strike Missile, which F-35 fighter aircraft can carry, and the Anthem missile by U.S.-based company Covenant as a ground-launched option, Defense Minister Jeppe Bruus said.Officials released few details, leaving open the question of when the armed forces would receive the missiles, how many of them and at what cost, broadcaster TV2 reported in a live blog of a defense ministry press conference about the planned acquisitions.Long-range missiles are very much en vogue in Europe at the moment, as countries are equipping themselves as a deterrent against Russian aggression. Governments here consider the capability to strike back on their own all the more urgent because U.S. assistance with such weaponry in case of a conflict is considered uncertain under the presidency of Donald Trump.The ranges of strike missiles labeled as long-range are a bit of a guessing game, as manufacturers and governments keep performance information close to their chests so as to avoid tipping off adversaries. Typically, they fall in the range of 500 kilometers to 1,500 kilometers, depending on engine and warhead configurations.Danish officials cite a NATO contribution target as a key motivator for the envisioned weapons class, which would constitute a qualitatively new capability for the small country, according to TV2. Copenhagen is on the hook to offer the alliance a long-range strike capability by 2030, according to the defense ministry.“These acquisitions represent a significant step toward improving Denmark’s self-defense capabilities, strengthening NATO, and enhancing our capacity to strike back,” Defense Minister Bruus was quoted as saying in an agency statement.According to TV2, the envisioned Anthem missiles for Denmark, which have never seen combat, are to be produced in Germany. Manufacturer Covenant announced a new production site in Leipzig, Germany, last month, claiming it could churn out missiles there beginning in early 2027.The German defense ministry has so far said only that there are talks with Covenant about buying the weapons to plug Germany’s long-range strike gap.The manufacturer’s pitch is that Anthem missiles will be cheaper than products available on the market now. Reuters has previously reported a mid-six-figure target price per unit set by company executives during serial production.

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/22/26 11:17am
Stephen Hubbard, a retired U.S. teacher and Air Force veteran, was released from Russian custody on Wednesday after spending over four years in prison.Hubbard was serving a roughly seven-year sentence after being accused by Russia in 2022 of working with Ukraine as a mercenary. American President Donald Trump announced his release from prison on social media, saying it was out of respect for the president and nothing was asked of the U.S. in return.“This release was not part of an exchange — and we extend our thanks to President Putin for releasing him on President Trump’s request,” Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said on social media after he retrieved Hubbard in St. Petersburg.Hubbard, 74, was an active-duty airman beginning in March 1974, an Air Force spokesperson told Military Times. He was an Airman 1st Class as an apprentice administration specialist, with his last duty station at Mather Air Force Base, California. He separated from the service in March 1978.Mather closed as a military base in 1993 and is now operational as the Sacramento Mather Airport.After active duty, Hubbard served in the Air National Guard, but due to the age of the records, information regarding his role as a guardsman in the force’s system is sparse, the spokesperson said.The National Guard did not return a request for comment.Although Trump said “no swap” was necessary for Hubbard’s release, he told reporters outside the White House and in a subsequent social media post that if he placed sanctions on Russia, Hubbard’s release would not have occurred.He said that people who “don’t know how life works” questioned his decision to waive sanctions on Russia during the negotiations to release Hubbard.“If I would’ve done that, you would not have Mr. Hubbard coming back,” he told reporters.“If you would’ve put those sanctions on, or whatever you want to call them, you could forget about him, you’d never see him again,” he continued. “He’d be back in jail for 25 years.”Hubbard’s release comes less than a week after Trump prevented new sanctions on Russia, which were intended to target the country’s largest buyers of oil and gas, drawing criticism from members of Congress who support the legislation and Ukraine.Alongside Hubbard, the administration has negotiated the release of other Americans from Russian custody since returning to office last year, including Robert Gilman, Ksenia Karelina and Marc Fogel, Witkoff said.

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/22/26 11:15am
The Defense Department and Lockheed Martin agreed to a 10-year framework that the Pentagon says guarantees at least 850 F-35 Lightning II fighters for the U.S. military, pending congressional approval and funding.The framework, announced Thursday, includes initial spare parts plus 10 years of modification kits and sustainment. It also covers orders from foreign customers, with production continuing at 156 aircraft per year, according to Lockheed.In exchange for the decade-long commitment, Lockheed will self-fund at least $7 billion in initiatives supporting the F-35 program, the Pentagon said.“With the greater certainty that comes from the U.S. government’s transformative approach to F-35 production and sustainment, we can make the upfront investments needed to expand capacity, improve efficiency, and build a more resilient supply chain,” Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet said in a statement. “That’s good for the taxpayer, good for our suppliers and, most importantly, good for the United States and its allies.”Neither announcement gave a total value or per-jet price. Lockheed said the F-35 Joint Program Office and the company will work out terms, pricing and schedules in a formal contract if Congress approves a multiyear buy and provides the money in the coming months.A multiyear buy lets the Pentagon purchase a weapon across several years under one contract instead of negotiating annually, which generally lowers unit cost. Lockheed said the framework is expected to save taxpayers billions of dollars through “long-term pricing and industry volume discounts.”“We have fundamentally changed how we stabilize the American defense industrial base to produce at speed and scale,” said Michael Duffey, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment. “This agreement with Lockheed Martin proves it. By aligning financial incentives with actual performance, we are ensuring our warfighters are equipped with the lethal capabilities they need to fight and win.”Neither the Pentagon nor Lockheed described those performance-based incentives.At 850 jets over 10 years, the framework averages 85 U.S. aircraft per year. That matches the Pentagon’s fiscal 2027 request for 85 F-35s across the services. In fiscal 2026, Congress funded just 47 F-35s.The framework comes days after the Air Force told Congress it needs 1,509 combat-coded fighters, or jets assigned to combat units, by 2035. The request came in a force structure report sent Oct. 16. F-35As would make up about 40% of that fleet.The House and Senate versions of the annual defense policy bill would both let the Pentagon sign multiyear F-35 contracts. The House passed its bill in July. Senate Democrats blocked theirs from reaching the floor that month, and leaders have put it off until after the November midterm elections. The framework can’t become a contract until both bills pass and are merged into a single law.The framework also faces a funding hurdle. Congress has not yet approved a full-year defense budget. A stopgap funding law keeping the government open through Dec. 11 holds spending at last year’s levels and generally bars the Pentagon from starting new programs or multiyear buys.Lockheed pitched the framework as a readiness fix, saying steady orders will improve the F-35’s mission-capable rate, the percentage of time jets can fly at least one assigned mission.“Predictable demand from long-term contracts with suppliers will enable bulk procurement of raw materials and critical parts, slashing turnaround times and reducing logistics bottlenecks,” Lockheed said. “This will result in better mission-capable rates by eliminating the annual contracting cycle that has historically strained the industrial base.”A Government Accountability Office report in June found that the rate fell from 67% in fiscal 2021 to 44% in fiscal 2025, while the share of time jets could fly all assigned missions dropped from 38% to 25%. Later that month, F-35 program chief Lt. Gen. Gregory Masiello told senators the fleet had outgrown its support system.The F-35 deal follows a string of Pentagon framework agreements aimed at speeding up weapons production.In January, Lockheed reached an agreement to speed PAC-3 MSE output, then signed another weeks later to quadruple THAAD interceptor production. The THAAD deal led to a contract worth more than $35 billion in June. Last year’s defense bills had already approved multiyear buys for both interceptors.On Oct. 19, the Pentagon announced a framework with BAE Systems covering up to seven years of buys of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System laser-guidance kits.Lockheed said the program will support 317,000 U.S. jobs and roughly $79 billion in yearly economic activity over the decade.

[Category: Air Warfare] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/22/26 8:55am
From Balabac in the southern Philippines to Hokkaido in northern Japan, U.S. Army soldiers have stepped up their training with new long-range weapons along the first island chain, working with allies in exercises that have grown larger and more complex over the past half-decade.Freed from Cold War-era constraints, the U.S. Army has been upgrading its existing missiles and rocket artillery and developing new, longer-range systems. Those investments are largely in response to the growing size and sophistication of China’s missile arsenal, which the U.S. military worries could deny its forces access to the Western Pacific during a conflict. The intensification of training with the Philippines and Japan reflects a shared concern about China’s military capabilities.The emphasis on long-range fires in the first island chain is visible in the extended deployments and first-of-their-kind drills involving those weapons, especially the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. HIMARS can conduct land-attack and maritime-strike missions using guided rockets with ranges of a few dozen miles or ballistic missiles with ranges of a few hundred miles.U.S. Army HIMARS operated in Japan for the first time in 2021 during an exercise in Hokkaido and were first deployed to Japan’s Southwest Islands, which separate the East China Sea from the wider Pacific, in 2022 for an exercise on an island northeast of Okinawa. Since then, HIMARS has been a common feature of U.S. exercises with Japan, most recently this year’s Keen Sword, for which Army HIMARS were sent to a Japanese island that is only 150 miles east of Taiwan.The Army’s HIMARS has a longer history in the Philippines, but in recent years, U.S. and Filipino troops have employed it in new roles, such as anti-ship strikes, and in new parts of the country. Exercises in 2024 and 2025 saw HIMARS deployed to Palawan, facing the South China Sea, and to the northern coast of Luzon, facing Taiwan. This year’s edition of Balikatan, the two countries’ largest annual exercise, showed their ability to move HIMARS around the country by land, sea and air: In April, U.S. soldiers and airmen transported a HIMARS to Itbayat, the Philippines’ northernmost municipality and only 100 miles from Taiwan, for a dry-fire exercise. A few weeks later, an Army watercraft transported a HIMARS launcher to Balabac Island, south of Palawan, for the first time for a live-fire exercise, which showed its ability “to protect shipping going into the Sulu and Celebes Sea,” the Army said.The ability to move forces into and across the first island chain demonstrates alliance integration and sends a message to rivals, according to Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific. “It’s really a joint success story,” Clark said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. this month. Clark pointed to a recent exercise for which soldiers loaded HIMARS launchers on aircraft at a base in Washington state and flew them to the Philippines, all of which was visible to adversaries. “We then join munitions from Korea that were drawn out of stocks there to the Philippines, where our adversary could see it, and then we conduct a live-fire on the backend of a HIMARS rapid-infiltration operation,” Clark added. “Being able to do that, it, one, takes a lot of skill. Second, it takes a tremendous amount of partnership with, in this case, allies to assist us.”Clark said improving capabilities in increasingly complex exercises affects adversaries’ thinking. “To be able to conduct operational maneuver and have tremendous tactical effects that then have a strategic effect on our adversary is exactly what we were looking to gain, because what that does is it gives them pause.”Over the past two years, the U.S. Army has introduced its Mid-Range Capability, a new ground-based missile system known as Typhon, to its training in the first island chain. Typhon can fire SM-6 missiles at air and maritime targets a few hundred miles away and Tomahawk missiles at land targets up to 1,000 miles away, bringing swathes of China and Russia into range from the Philippines and Japan. Typhon’s first overseas deployment was in 2024 in the Philippines. It has remained there since then, and in May this year, it was test-fired for the first time, striking a target in central Luzon from nearly 400 miles away. The Army sent a Typhon to Japan for the first time in August 2025 for an exercise the following month, but the weapon lingered until November that year. It returned to Japan this summer, deploying to the southernmost of Japan’s main islands for exercises in June and September and moving to a base on Okinawa for storage in October. U.S. officials told Tokyo the deployment isn’t meant to be permanent, but it has no official end date.The Typhon was sent to the Philippines at Manila’s request and “has maintained forward presence for now over 30 consecutive months,” Maj. Gen. Bernard Harrington said in a presentation at the AUSA conference. Harrington commands the recently established 7th Infantry Division/Multi-Domain Command-Pacific, which combines the 7th Infantry Division’s ground-maneuver elements with the long-range fires and non-kinetic effects of the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force.Typhon’s presence in the Philippines has allowed for extended in-theater training, giving soldiers more insight into issues like “How do we sustain in the environment? How do you protect those types of systems in the environment? How do you connect sensor to shooter?” Harrington said in his presentation. “To be able to do that persistently forward and persistently with our ally in the Philippines and our partners is incredibly important for us.”While the presence of HIMARS and Typhon in new places has been widely publicized, those deployments also create opportunities for U.S. troops to do less visible work to improve communications links and enhance their command-and-control networks, ensuring that friendly forces have a common operating picture of the battlefield and can use their weapons effectively in combat.China has watched these developments warily. Beijing regularly criticizes U.S. exercises with Japan and the Philippines as provocative and destabilizing, and it has singled out Typhon deployments for vitriol. But experts cited by Chinese state media also say China has an advantage against weapons like HIMARS when they are deployed on islands near Taiwan because the islands’ small size and terrain will hinder mobility and concealment and their remoteness will make it easier to spot and block resupply efforts.The logistical challenge is real. U.S. war games also emphasize the difficulty of resupplying small islands near Taiwan — but Harrington said it underscores the need for US forces to disperse and adopt lower-cost, lower-signature weapons alongside expensive missiles. “This maximizes options for the Joint Force while also enhancing the protection and survivability of our soldiers,” Harrington told Defense News at AUSA. “For example, the employment of systems such as long-range one-way-attack drones, unmanned surface vessels, and long-range launched effects may enable our division to achieve a desired effect for the Joint Force while also preserving our larger, more exquisite systems until needed for a specific purpose.”

[Category: / Asia Pacific] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/22/26 7:45am
The Pentagon wants ketamine wafers. And it seems to want them now. Earlier this year, the Defense Department awarded a nearly $41 million development contract to Singapore-based iX Biopharma to develop Wafermine, a small, ketamine-packed wafer that dissolves under the tongue.Recently, the drug’s manufacturer announced that it is pursuing an emergency authorization that could make the medication available to troops before it receives full Food and Drug Administration approval, citing a September U.S. declaration of a military emergency that justifies the emergency use of drugs deemed necessary by the Pentagon. A federal emergency use approval declaration by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Sept. 3 opened the possibility of early official authorization, giving the FDA a route to use unapproved medications to treat war wounds. According to the notice, on July 15, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth determined “a military emergency, or significant potential for a military emergency, involving a heightened risk to U.S. military forces of an attack with a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agent or agents,” or an attack with agents that would cause life-threatening injuries. The declaration continues: “Injuries arising from these attacks may cause those forces to experience moderate to severe acute pain and place them at risk of developing life-threatening hemodynamic instability, including shock or respiratory distress.”Because of Hegseth’s determination, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. declared that “circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of drugs” identified by the Pentagon. The notice did not elaborate on the emergency circumstances or state which drugs would be identified for emergency authorization. A Politico investigation published Tuesday found that iX Biofarma’s domestic manufacturing partner lacks the Nevada license required to operate. iX Biofarma called the non-opioid medication the “world’s first sublingual ketamine for acute moderate to severe pain,” and said the wafer enables a different delivery mechanism, letting patients absorb the ketamine through the mucous membrane into the bloodstream. Typically administered via injection, ketamine can alleviate pain, increase euphoria and cause dissociation and amnesia. A 2023 study found that opioid use to alleviate battlefield injuries decreased between January 2010 and December 2019, while ketamine use increased. The researchers found that “ketamine is generally used first for more severely injured patients and has increasingly been employed by the U.S. military as the primary analgesic for combat casualties.”The company said it received a “sole-source” award for Wafermine development, meaning it did not solicit other vendors.

[Category: Pentagon] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/22/26 7:03am
A pair of Marines filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against the Pentagon over a data breach at the Defense Manpower Data Center, or DMDC, arguing it allowed scammers to obtain and use their personally identifiable information, or PII.In the complaint filed in federal court in the District of Columbia, Marine veteran Tristyn Edwards and active-duty Marine Morgan Stampfli allege that they experienced fraudulent charges on their financial accounts and an increase in spam messages because of the breach.In September, the DMDC said it had discovered a vulnerability on July 16 in a file-sharing system that allowed unauthorized users to access unencrypted files containing personal information, including full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and military occupations.According to the lawsuit, the vulnerability exposed millions of files containing information on service members and people affiliated with the military for approximately nine months before it was discovered. The lawsuit also alleges that the DMDC failed to “promptly notify” affected individuals, some of whom were informed two or three months after the breach was found.“The exposure of Plaintiff and Class members’ PII will cause various types of misuse in the coming months and years, including but not limited to, unauthorized credit card charges, unauthorized access to email accounts, identity theft, and other fraudulent use of their Private Information,” the lawsuit says.The lawsuit argues that the Pentagon violated federal privacy laws by failing to protect personal records and maintain compliant cybersecurity systems, despite internal warnings about issues in its systems.The complaint cites multiple reports from the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General describing failures by both the department and the DMDC to implement adequate cybersecurity controls. In a report published days after the breach, the OIG said that “officials have not taken the necessary actions to demonstrate that they were operating at an effective level for 14 of the 20 [Inspector General Federal Information Security Modernization Act] core metrics.”News of the Defense Department breach emerged alongside reports of a cyberattack targeting FBI personnel files. However, the group responsible for the FBI incident has not been linked to the Pentagon breach. The department offered affected individuals 12 months of credit monitoring and identity-restoration services.“Had [the Defense Department] properly implemented standard cybersecurity controls — such as regular review of accounts, scanning for vulnerabilities, field encryption or tokenization of sensitive PII like SSNs, and routine monitoring of system logs for suspicious activity — the Data Breach could have been avoided,” the lawsuit says.

[Category: Pentagon] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/22/26 5:07am
PARIS — The United Kingdom’s Royal Navy has a “serious anti-submarine warfare gap” that weakens the country’s ability to respond to Russia’s submarine and underwater-sabotage threat, a parliamentary committee on defense in the High North found.The Royal Navy currently has only five Type 23 frigates for anti-submarine warfare in service, compared with a stated requirement of eight, and analysis suggests the number of frigates equipped with a towed array sonar could remain as low as five for the next three years, the Defence Committee wrote in an inquiry report published on Thursday.Anti-submarine warfare frigates are “critical” to helping locate Russian submarines, both in the High North as well as in British home waters, including to protect the U.K.’s ballistic missile submarines that provide the country’s nuclear deterrent when entering or leaving their base in Faslane, Scotland, according to the report.“Although new frigates will eventually join the fleet in sufficient numbers, the current fleet readiness picture raises doubts about whether the U.K. could sustain the maritime tasks required in the High North by 2030,” the committee said.Citing the critical role of anti-submarine operations in the High North, the committee recommended the government ensures no further Type 23 frigates equipped with towed sonar leave Navy service until they’re replaced on a one-on-one basis by the future Type 26 frigates.The U.K. has ordered eight Type 26 frigates from BAE Systems for the anti-submarine warfare role, with the lead vessel scheduled to enter service in 2028, and Minister of State for Defence Luke Pollard said in June that the program remained on track. Norway said in August 2025 it would buy five Type 26s, with delivery to start in 2030.Should two of the Type 26 frigates being built for the U.K. instead go to Norway to meet the delivery deadline, the Royal Navy would take until 2037 to meet its requirement for a fleet of eight frigates equipped with a towed array sonar.“Export success must not come at the expense of the Royal Navy’s own Type 26 frigate delivery timelines,” the committee said. “The government must ensure that naval exports expand industrial capacity and allied capability, rather than competing with U.K. requirements for scarce ships, systems and skilled labor.”The High North, which the committee defined as the greater Arctic and parts of the North Atlantic, “has become central” in U.K. defense and security concerns, with climate change increasing access to the region, according to the report.As melting ice sheets and sea ice expose Russian bases that were previously mostly inaccessible, Russia is seeking both to defend those bases as well as project force into the Atlantic and U.K. territorial waters, according to the committee. That threatens NATO supply lines from the United States to Europe, as well as undersea and onshore infrastructure, including the U.K.’s nuclear deterrent.Lack of a credible under-ice capability means the Navy is less able to contest Russian freedom of action in the High North, which risks forcing the U.K. into a more defensive posture, according to the report. The Defence Committee asked the government to brief panel members on progress towards re-establishing an under-ice capability for at least some of the country’s Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarines.The Navy’s ASW frigates and nuclear-powered submarines offer the greatest deterrent against the threat posed by Russian submarines and underwater sabotage, though “unfortunately, they are either aging or too often unavailable due to maintenance issues,” the committee report said.For the U.K. to lead an effective coalition would require the country to address “glaring gaps” in the availability of its maritime forces, and an agreed plan with European allies to deter and if necessary defeat any aggression in the High North from 2030, according to the report.The committee asked the Ministry of Defence to provide a classified assessment of the capability gaps in case of a conflict in the High North in 2030 in which the U.K. and allies would operate without U.S. support.“Royal Navy equipment readiness and platform numbers in particular are currently far worse than the government’s stated requirements,” the report said. “With 2030 identified as a key date by which to be ready to deter or defeat any Russian threat, dramatic progress is required before the end of the decade to improve the availability and capabilities of the U.K.’s Armed Forces for operations in the High North.”The Royal Navy has a requirement for 13 frigates and six destroyers, but has struggled to meet those numbers, the committee said, with only the five Type 23 frigates and six Type 45 destroyers in service.With the Northern Sea Route becoming more accessible, Russia may try to turn control there into a monopoly, and the government should prepare options for a U.K. state-owned vessel to transit the route to support freedom of navigation, the committee said. Sailing from Shanghai to Rotterdam takes about 14,900 kilometers via the northern route, compared with 19,500 km via the Suez Canal.The report raised questions about the U.K.’s Hybrid Navy program to combine crewed and uncrewed vessels, saying the High North is “an exceptionally demanding environment” for autonomous systems, and the concept should not become a substitute for crewed capability before unmanned systems have been proven in harsh Arctic conditions.The committee recommended the government explain within a year how it will test the Hybrid Navy’s main uncrewed systems in High North conditions before relying on them for operational tasks, looking at issues such as cold-weather performance, resistance to jamming and protection from capture.

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/22/26 2:58am
NATO will allow Ukraine to buy weapons, ammunition and military equipment via its centralized procurement agency, potentially allowing Kyiv to obtain defense supplies faster and more cheaply, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. “It provides Ukraine with the ability to have a more structured framework to leverage a broad range of capabilities that we offer: procurement expertise, support services and access to established industrial base,” the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) director of support to operations, Jacqueline Borsboom, told the FT.The deal comes amid worsening U.S.-Ukraine relations since U.S. President Donald Trump announced a diesel export deal with Russia this month to lower U.S. fuel prices.Ukraine has complained of disruption to some intelligence sharing and its use of the Starshield satellite system, though Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a meeting in Oslo on Tuesday had agreed to resolve those issues.

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/21/26 1:01pm
The U.S. Air Force says it needs 1,509 combat-coded fighters, or jets assigned to combat units, by 2035, according to a new force structure report the service sent to Congress Oct. 16.Lt. Gen. David Tabor, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, described the report at an Oct. 20 Pentagon roundtable with reporters, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported. Reporters did not receive a copy of the report, and the service did not respond to a Defense News request for it by publication.F-35s would make up about 40% of the fleet by 2035, up from about 30% today, according to figures Tabor cited. F-22s and their replacement, the F-47, would make up about 20%. The service plans to replace its F-22s with about the same number of F-47s, Tabor said. F-15s and F-16s would split the remaining 40% about evenly. The figures exclude A-10s, which are not currently part of the Air Force’s plans for 2035.Tabor said the analysis was based on what regional commanders say they need to carry out their missions at medium risk. The military rates risk on four levels: low, medium, significant and high. At medium risk, forces would likely achieve their goals but could be strained in long operations.The analysis began before the war with Iran this year and was not driven by it, Tabor said. He cautioned that the 1,509 figure is likely to change with world events, new requirements and the rise of new technology.Reaching the goal depends on Congress funding the jets and on Lockheed Martin and Boeing building them in time, Tabor said. Industry has “assured us that they can, and we believe them,” he told reporters, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.Air Force officials have long said the service needs to buy 72 fighters a year. The fiscal 2027 request seeks 38 F-35s and 24 F-15EXs, a total of 62. Tabor said purchases can increase over time.The budget counts on $2.34 billion to pay for 14 of the 38 F-35s. That money would come through a reconciliation bill, a budget package that can pass the Senate with a simple majority. If that bill fails, Tabor said, the service could pull money from other programs or push the buys to 2028.The Air Force is seeking multiyear contracts for the F-35 and F-15EX, a request now pending in Congress. Tabor said such deals would give industry more stability to expand production. Older F-16s reach the end of their service lives in the mid-2030s, Tabor said, but the service has not decided whether to buy a new-build F-16, tentatively called the F-16G. That decision likely won’t come in the fiscal 2028 budget, he said.The 1,509 figure does not count Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCAs, the drone wingmen that will fly alongside crewed fighters. The Air Force plans to field 500 CCAs by 2032. Tabor said the drones are not yet changing the fighter requirement but could reduce it in future reports.

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[l] at 10/21/26 9:55am
The Pentagon office tapped in 2022 to oversee the military’s responsible use of artificial intelligence had filled just three of its 10 authorized positions for the mission as of February 2026, even as the department pursues a strategy to accelerate AI development, a government watchdog found.The Government Accountability Office discovered that 29 of 64 efforts outlined in the Defense Department’s Responsible AI Strategy and Implementation Pathway remained incomplete as of April 2026. According to a report published Oct. 14, the GAO also found that staffing shortages had hindered the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer’s ability to take additional steps to implement responsible AI, which the department uses to help accelerate AI adoption.GAO recommended that the department address staffing needs in its Responsible AI Division, which falls under the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, and issue a formal charter for the working council.“Responsible AI should be considered the same as operationally effective AI,” said Owen Daniels, associate director of analysis at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.Effective testing, evaluation, verification and validation practices can help the military manage risks while ensuring systems operate as intended and operators understand their strengths and limitations, Daniels said.Council ‘at risk of lapsing’The GAO found that the Responsible AI Working Council did not meet from late 2024 until August 2025. Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, or CDAO, officials told the watchdog agency that other priorities, including developing guidance for generative AI and contributing to government-wide AI risk-management resources, had prevented the Responsible AI Division from organizing meetings.Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., raised a related concern about accountability during a May 2025 hearing regarding the Pentagon’s AI posture.“It’s my observation that the Defense Department doesn’t lack in the number of principals, but rather, it often struggles with too little clarity in who is responsible for what.”Officials from four DoD components told the GAO they faced implementation challenges during the hiatus that could have benefited from greater collaboration. Six of the 10 DoD components surveyed said sharing responsible AI resources and best practices would increase their ability to incorporate the department’s six Responsible AI tenets into their AI use cases.The council resumed meetings in August 2025, but the GAO found it still lacked a formal charter defining its responsibilities and specifying how frequently it should meet.“Without a charter that defines roles and responsibilities for the council ... and that specifies the frequency of council meetings, the council is at risk of lapsing again,” the GAO report reads. “Such a lapse could increase the risk of DOD facing Responsible AI implementation issues that it would not have the collaborative capacity to swiftly and effectively resolve.”Slow staffingCDAO officials told the GAO they were unlikely to fill vacant positions or increase staffing while the office underwent restructuring, following its realignment to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. In response, the GAO argued that “by ... taking action to ensure it has staff in place to meet those needs,” CDAO could make better progress toward its goal of accelerating AI across the department.Daniels said the staffing shortfall could make it more difficult to build AI literacy throughout the force.“Operationally, the force needs to become AI literate, as warfighters will be responsible for determining when to deploy AI-enabled systems,” he said.Service members need to understand AI systems’ limitations and recognize when delegating decisions to machines may be inappropriate, rather than defaulting to a machine’s judgment, Daniels said.“Exercising meaningful human control — or to use the department’s term, appropriate levels of human judgment — over a military AI system requires robustly understanding a system’s operating boundaries through development, rigorous testing and evaluation, and training,” he said.Congress’ roleThe DoD agreed with the GAO’s two recommendations to issue a charter for the Responsible AI Working Council and address the Responsible AI Division’s workforce needs, according to the watchdog.The GAO also urged Congress to order the department to implement earlier recommendations, including defining the responsibilities of organizations involved in AI activities and assigning responsibility and a timeline for identifying and managing the department’s AI workforce.In a Sept. 21 letter, Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Chris Coons, D-Del., expressed concern that the Pentagon’s AI push could be outpacing its governance efforts.“Recent events have given us growing concern about the extent to which agencies under your oversight have prioritized acceleration of AI capability adoption and ‘experimentation’ over effective governance,” the letter reads.Reed has also called for Congress to establish clearer guardrails for military AI. “Congress must do its job and provide balanced oversight, standards, and rules of the road,” he said.

[Category: Pentagon] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/21/26 9:18am
Thirteen U.S. Army Veterinary Corps officers milked a trip to Denmark last month, completing Europe Dairy Pasteurization Audit Training in the seaport city of Kolding.The service said the course — which included on-site field evaluations at eight Danish dairy facilities currently approved for U.S. military procurement — aimed to ensure military members and their families overseas receive dairy that meets or exceeds U.S. standards. In the U.S., commercial milk must be processed according to the Food and Drug Administration’s Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. Because commercial pasteurization methods are “udderly” different across the world, the course gives officers the skills to evaluate pasteurization technology in different regions, the Army said in a Monday release. The course has been taught and revised since 2004. Military auditors from around the world, including Public Health Command Pacific, Area Support Group Kuwait and Public Multinational Force and Observers Egypt, trained to improve their pasteurization skills. Public Health Command Europe is unique, the service said, because it offers military inspectors the chance to see more than 65 pasteurizer setups. During the course, led by Chief Warrant Officer 4 Clayton Davenport, the command food safety officer for Public Health Command Europe, the Army said officers gained realistic experience assessing equipment in operation. “The primary training objective was to provide progressive and sequential auditor development training in pasteurizer operations that enhances understanding of the public health controls of various pasteurizers,” Davenport said in the release. “Maintaining specialized auditing capabilities remains essential to force health protection, particularly amid budgetary pressures.”

[Category: / Europe] [Link to media]

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[l] at 10/21/26 8:27am
VIENNA — Germany’s military, the Bundeswehr, has raised its assessment of the Russian sabotage threat to its second-highest level, warning that German forces themselves could face attacks at home, according to a classified internal analysis reported by public broadcaster WDR and newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Oct. 21.The report’s findings point to a potentially broader threat than German military security specialists had previously anticipated. Their concerns had centered on installations training Ukrainian troops, alongside naval bases and shipyards. The new assessment says authorities can no longer geographically confine specific sites deemed vulnerable, warning instead of an all-around deterioration in the security situation, with concrete actions possible in the near term.The reassessment follows the discovery of an apparently crashed drone near Wunstorf air base in northern Germany in September. Investigators found a can containing explosives a few meters away, according to the report. They suspect the aircraft may have targeted military planes rather than civilian cargo aircraft.WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that investigators believe the Wunstorf drone had lain near the base for about two years, citing technical analysis by Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office. Its construction resembled an explosives-equipped drone used in a failed attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport in early August, the outlets reported, though it would have significantly predated the Leipzig incident. The military analysis draws a distinction between the two incidents: While Leipzig presented an indirect threat to German forces, targeting Ukrainian aircraft instead, Wunstorf likely involved the Bundeswehr itself as the target. The assessment describes Russia as almost certainly possessing the capability, and very likely an increased motivation, to act against German forces and facilities, as well as Ukrainian partners in Germany.It also concludes that Russia’s use of drones as weapons crossed a previously anticipated “red line” involving an intention to cause physical damage or potentially lethal effects. The German government has publicly attributed the Leipzig drone attack to Russia following a month-long investigation. The analysis links the suspected campaign to efforts to weaken political and public support for Ukraine in Germany. At the operational level, it assesses that Moscow seeks to disrupt equipment deliveries and training, undermining Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.An Operational Command spokesperson told WDR that the Bundeswehr currently considers the sabotage risk “substantial” because of the increased threat. This places it at the second-highest level of the military’s risk assessment scale, SZ reported. The military is strengthening protective measures at its installations to safeguard personnel and facilities, the spokesperson said.The warning follows suspicious drone flights over sites associated with Germany’s Arrow 3 missile-defense system and Patriot maintenance facilities. German security authorities suspect Russian involvement in those and other surveillance incidents, WDR reported. Russia has consistently denied involvement in sabotage and hybrid attacks, and has blamed Germany for staging incidents to whip up anti-Russian sentiment. Moscow’s ambassador to Berlin previously dismissed Germany’s allegations over Leipzig as “absurd” and described the incident as a “provocation.”

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