Author: Michael

Image by U.S. Air Force Archive

As the highest ranking officer in the United States armed forces, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) is the primary advisor in military matters to the President, Department of Defense, Homeland Security Council, and the National Security Council. Do the skill sets and history of political activism of the current nominee, General Charles Q. Brown, qualify him to lead the country’s military during these turbulent times?
“Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust.

By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans

The
following list attempts to keep track of military equipment
delivered or pledged to Ukraine by Albania during the Russian invasion of
Ukraine. The entries below are sorted by armament category (with a flag
denoting the country of origin), and due to the confidential nature of
Albania’s arms deliveries they can serve only as a lower bound to the total
volume delivered. This list is updated as further military support is uncovered.

Plenty of wargaming articles quote famous testimonies by Adm. Chester Nimitz or 19th-century Prussian general Karl von Muffling on the critical role wargames play in military success. But it’s often forgotten that the celebrated wargames of Nimitz’s and von Muffling’s eras were designed to be educational, accessible, iterative, and played at the unit of action. Wargaming today, by contrast, risks becoming the exclusive domain of select officers and leadership within the Beltway.

Models of the KAI Marine Attack Helicopter and the KAI Light Armed Helicopter are displayed alongside ALEs at the IDEX 2023 exhibition in Abu Dhabi. (Janes/Akshara Parakala)
Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has launched an ambitious programme to develop manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) and air-launched effects (ALEs) technologies to be operated with domestically developed helicopters.

People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on 12 July. North Korea fired a Hwasong-18 ICBM earlier that day. (Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images)
North Korea has confirmed that the missile it fired on 12 July was a Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), marking another milestone in the country’s strategic weapons capabilities.
The confirmation was provided by state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in a statement published on its website on 13 July.

China’s XAC YY-20A tanker is capable of refuelling the PLAAF’s most advanced and modern aircraft. The aircraft is a critical component of China’s plan to project long-range power beyond the first island chain. (Getty Images/Janes)
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) is operating more Xi’an Aircraft Company Ltd (XAC) YY-20A air-to-air refuellers than before.

A
Janes
assessment of imagery released by the PLAAF and satellite observation has determined that China has at least eight YY-20As in service.

Cobham Aerospace Communications is a supplier for the new Airbus H160M multirole military helicopter. (Airbus Helicopters)
France’s Thales Group has agreed to acquire Cobham Group’s Aerospace Communications (AeroComms) business for USD1.1 billion, expanding its military and civil aviation portfolio, the buyer announced on 12 July.
Based in the Paris region, AeroComms serves military trainer, transport, and fighter aircraft, as well as commercial and regional aircraft, business jets, general aviation aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The US Navy will be operating unmanned platforms such as Wave Glider during the ‘UNITAS’ exercise. (Liquid Robotics)
US Navy (USN) Secretary Carlos Del Toro emphasised the potential for unmanned systems during the ‘UNITAS’ exercise in his keynote speech on 12 July in Cartagena, Colombia.
“As we look for new ways to counter both narcotics smuggling and Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing, this year’s iteration of UNITAS will include several opportunities to experiment with unmanned systems,” Del Toro said.

A US marine operates an Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) during a May 2021 multilateral assault exercise with Australian, French, and Japanese forces at Kirishima Maneuver Area. (US Navy/DARPA)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has recently transitioned control of experimental software, designed to streamline and secure data sharing between US and allied forces at the tactical level, to the US Department of Defense (DoD).

The F-35 Lightning-II fighter jet and the F-22 Raptor are two of the most prominent fighters in the US military fleet. Although they are not in the same category, their comparison is relevant to analyze their efficiency in the current world war scenario.
The relevance of the comparative F-35 and F-22
The F-35 and F-22 fighters represent the spearhead of American aerospace technology.