USAF
U.S. satellites with very high-fidelity infrared sensors detected what appears to have been an explosion at Ukraine’s Nova Khakovka dam right before it failed earlier this week, according to a new report. You can read more about what else is known about this incident, over which Ukrainian and Russian authorities continue to trade accusations, in The War Zone‘s earlier reporting.
The New York Times first reported earlier today on the U.S.
Russian troops defending the front lines against the Ukrainian advance are discovering a lurking danger that threatens to make their positions more precarious.
“The enemy is remotely undermining our rear, ammunition supply routes and reserves,” Alexander Sladkov, a leading pro-Russian military blogger, wrote in a Telegram post on Thursday.
Sladkov wrote that Ukrainian forces were firing the Remote Anti-Armor Mine System, a US-made artillery shell that lays anti-tank mines by dropping them over the front line.
Independent government auditors have found that the Navy’s Virginia-class fast attack submarine program continues to “degrade” and that problems with “staffing estimates and labor efficiency” will take each Block V ship an average of “two years more than was reported last year.”
“Due to the delays, program officials are developing a new, more realistic schedule for Block V. They said they hope to complete this process by early 2023,” according to a new Government Accountability Office report outlining the status of several of the Pentagon’s major weapons systems programs.
On Tuesday, Korea Aerospace Industries fired the first shot of an IRIS-T missile from the new KF-21 Boramae platform. The European short-range air-to-air missile (identification AIM-2000), with its unrivaled close combat and interception capabilities, has been chosen to be integrated into the Korean indigenous fighter.
Just 10 months after the first flight, the fighter program fired the first live shot.
Turkey’s first Bayraktar Kızılelma unmanned combat aircraft, developed by Baykar Technologies, is moving towards serial production, with plans to start in 2024.
Baykar, a leading Turkish defense company, achieved a major milestone when the Kızılelma rolled off the production line in November 2022. A series of ground tests were then successfully completed at the flight training and test center of the northwestern province of Tekirdağ, in the district of Çorlu.
The next target is to start serial production of the warplane in 2024.
U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. James Merriman)
The U.S. Navy’s Infrared Search And Track System, or IRST, intended for its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets, is still to join the fleet, more than four years after it entered production. The podded IRST, seen as a critical tool to retain the Navy’s air-to-air advantage over potential adversaries, was first flown on a Super Hornet in late 2019, but operational testing is not now expected to begin until early next year.
The U.S.
Capt. John William Kurtz, commanding officer of USS Somerset, gives opening remarks during a 9/11 remembrance ceremony. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Heath/U.S. Navy).
The former Navy commanding officer of the amphibious transport dock USS Somerset, who was officially censured for a training accident in which eight Marines and one sailor died, will not command an aircraft carrier after all.
Navy Capt. John William Kurtz was the Somerset’s captain when an amphibious assault vehicle, or AAV, sank while returning to the ship during a July 30, 2020 training exercise.
As Ukraine continues its counteroffensive in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts, the first images of destroyed and damaged U.S.-donated M4A2-ODS Bradley Fighting Vehicles have emerged.
One image shows that Ukrainian forces apparently abandoned four M2 Bradleys as well as one Leopard 2A6 tank and one BMR-2 Mine-Clearing vehicle during an attack in the Zaporizhzia region, according to the open source intelligence group Oryx. The organization has been tabulating destroyed, damaged and captured vehicles from both sides, publishing information only about those it can visually confirm.
Sergeant First Class Christopher A. Celiz was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on December 16, 2021. He served in with 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.
Background
Sergeant First Class Celiz was born in Summerville, South Carolina on January 12, 1986. After high school, he studied at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. Then, in 2006, he joined the U.S. Army and trained as a combat engineer. During his career, he deployed several times between 2008 and 2018, including Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
From left to right: Gomer Pyle, Corporal Klinger, and Oddball.
When it comes to portrayals of martial valor in popular movies and television series, officers tend to get a lot of credit, like Patton’s eponymous general. Then there are heroic non-commissioned officers, like Saving Private Ryan’s Sgt. Horvath and Heartbreak Ridge’s Gunnery Sgt. Highway — all certified badasses, and all thoroughly committed to living the values of the military.
