Melanie, Chris, and Zack debate Frank Hoffman’s recent article in War on the Rocks about the broader implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine. They discuss whether defensive systems are dominant and how long Russia will take to recapitalize its forces, as well as what this means for future conflicts and U.S. posture globally. Chris warns […]
The post Learning Lessons from Ukraine: Is Defense Dominant? appeared first on War on the Rocks.
Author: Michael
The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has handled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with consummate skill so far, but may be on the verge of making a potentially catastrophic mistake. According to the New York Times, the administration has concluded that if Ukraine “can show Russia that its control of Crimea can be threatened, that […]
The post The Case for Caution on Crimea appeared first on War on the Rocks.
The 18th and final NH90 Sea Lion naval utility helicopter ‘79+51′ arrives at the German Navy’s airbase in Nordholz on 31 January 2023. (Bundeswehr/Julia Kelm)
The German Navy has received its final NH90 Sea Lion naval utility helicopter.
The delivery completes the contract for a total of 18 aircraft awarded by Germany’s Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support of the German Armed Forces (BAAINBw) to NHIndustries in June 2015.
General Atomics
The Pentagon has selected two teams to further develop their designs for a full-scale demonstrator of the Liberty Lifter X-plane. Aurora Flight Sciences (working with Gibbs & Cox and ReconCraft) and General Atomics (working with Maritime Applied Physics Corporation) are pursuing two very different designs for phase 1 of the project, as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) press release distributed on February 1 shows.
You can read more about the launch of the Liberty Lifter project in this previous War Zone feature from May 2022.
Russian Government/Google
On a day when Russia claimed Ukrainian forces unsuccessfully attacked an oil pumping station about 20 miles northwest of the border in Bryansk Oblast, authorities in Moscow announced they have resettled nearly 4,000 residents of Belgorod Oblast due to ongoing attacks inside that region of Russia. And they are considering resettling some residents of the country’s Bryansk and Kursk oblasts for the same reason.
Bell
Bell’s 360 Invictus prototype has been disassembled, trucked from Amarillo to Fort Worth, Texas, and is being put back together in preparation for ground runs and a first flight this year, if all goes to plan.
The company’s pitch for the U.S. Army’s Future Attack Recon Aircraft, or FARA, is 95 percent complete and awaiting the GE T901 Improved Turbine Engine so it can begin ground runs ahead of a planned takeoff sometime in 2023. The engine is being developed by another Army office within the Future Vertical Lift effort.
When The War Zone was given a glimpse of Invictus on Jan.
Defense Innovation Board members plan to use generative artificial intelligence — large language models that can generate audio, code, images, text, videos and other media — to inform reports and studies they’re conducting for Pentagon leaders in the near-term associated with strategic investment capital and other priority research topics.
The SCAR Mk16 is a modern and outstanding rifle even though it wasn’t what SOCOM needed at the time.
The post This is why the SCAR Mk16 rifle never became a special operations weapon appeared first on Sandboxx.
Lockheed Martin
The U.S. Air Force says it would like to have a fleet of next-generation aerial refueling tankers in service by 2040. At least for the time being, the service says that it is willing to consider a wide range of options for what the tankers might actually look like, but says they will need to be able to provide support in “contested scenarios.” Lockheed Martin and Boeing have already been exploring relevant design concepts with blended wing-body planforms and that are at least somewhat stealthy.
A mural depicting mercenaries of Russia’s Wagner Group that reads: “Wagner Group – Russian knights” on a wall in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic).
The Wagner Group, Russia’s notorious private military company accused of war crimes and identified as a “significant transnational criminal organization” by the U.S. Treasury Department, may be trying to recruit American veterans as mercenaries.
A video being shared on social media is purportedly a Wagner recruiting commercial that targets U.S. military veterans.