Author: Michael

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin has abandoned plans to offer contract aerial refueling services using a version of the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT). Teamed up with Airbus, Lockheed Martin had originally announced this possibility back in 2019, as part of a raft of different aerial refueling proposals, mainly pitched for the U.S. Air Force. The A330 MRTT aircraft was later rebranded as the LMXT in the specific configuration being offered to that service, although Lockheed has now determined there is no credible business case for it to offer contracted tankers to the U.S.

Israel has reasserted its pre-emptive strike capability against Iran, which would likely lead to a multi-front war with serious ramifications for the region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his threats against Iran on Sunday during a cabinet meeting held as part of a mock national war.
“The reality in our region is changing rapidly. We are not stagnating. We are adapting our combat doctrine and our possibilities of action based on these changes,” Netanyahu told the meeting held in an underground military bunker in Tel Aviv.

DOD

The U.S. Marine Corps has formally activated its first unit that will be equipped with ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. The Marines are currently in the process of determining exactly how this unit will be equipped and employed, but the service expects to have a fully operational Tomahawk-armed battalion before the end of the decade.
Cathy Close, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps’ Combat Development and Integration (CD&I) Command, confirmed that this unit stood up earlier this year and provided additional details about it to The War Zone.

The Department of Defense is looking to mature edge computing with an “intermediary capability” to bridge enterprise and tactical networks.
The issue currently is reducing the amount of systems each unit across the services has to bring to support their missions.

Australia, the United States and Ukraine are considering sending 41 Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornet fighters to Kyiv to fulfill part of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request for fighter jets rather than scrapping them as planned.
Sources have told The Australian Financial Review that the United States, which has recently authorized other Western allies to supply Ukraine with advanced fighter jets, including US-made F-16s, welcomes the idea of ​​giving away the F/A-18 to Ukraine.

According to a Nikkei analysis of customs clearance data, Russia is suspected of buying back military supplies previously sent to Myanmar and India.
The study found records of Russian buybacks of tank and missile parts that had been exported to Myanmar and India. Russia may be re-importing components to upgrade older weapons intended for use in Ukraine with the help of countries with which it has long-standing military ties.

The Army is shaking up how it acquires and manages software for new contracts, according to a top official.
Gone are the days of stringent and onerous requirements. Now, for software intensive programs, industry can expect brief outlines of what the Army wants, Jennifer Swanson, deputy assistant secretary for data, engineering and software, told a forum.

Despite all of the technologies that render the battlefield more transparent, the fog of war has yet to lift over the front in Ukraine.
The post Ukraine’s offensive has begun (and we won’t know everything about it) first appeared on Sandboxx.
The post Ukraine’s offensive has begun (and we won’t know everything about it) appeared first on Sandboxx.

By Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans
 
Much attention has been devoted to Poland’s defence spending boost (not the least through our dedicated article) to give the country the largest army in the European Union. [1] Other NATO member countries are making an attempt to follow suit, with Romania currently embarking on a smaller but similarly ambitious rearmament programme.

FILE: Members of 5th Special Forces Group (A) conducting 50. Cal Weapons training during counter ISIS operations at Al Tanf Garrison in southern Syria in November 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jacob Connor).

With much of the world focused on the impending Ukrainian offensive and continued belligerence from China, U.S. troops continue to battle the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria long after the fall of ISIS’ caliphate.
U.S. troops conducted a total of 38 missions against ISIS in Iraq in Syria during May, according to U.S. Central Command.