Stefan Krause via Wikicommons
Slovakia has joined Poland in making an official decision to provide Ukraine with Soviet-era MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets, the two NATO members becoming the first countries to commit to delivering tactical jets to Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Slovakia ceased flying its MiG-29s last summer and the possibility of transferring these jets to Ukraine had been raised previously, but the earlier plan had collapsed amid U.S. pressure.
A developmental Stork test vehicle going through flight trials. (Animal Dynamics)
Oxford-based Animal Dynamics’ Stork STM parafoil unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been selected by the UK Royal Navy (RN) to participate in the second phase of its Unmanned Aerial Systems Heavy Lift Challenge (UASHLC).
The Department of the Navy needs to optimize its software factories to continuously develop, deploy and update the sea services’ software capabilities, President Biden’s nominee to be the next chief of acquisitions and R&D told lawmakers in response to written questions ahead of his confirmation hearing this week.
Software factories are proliferating across the Defense Department as a way to rapidly create software in-house for the services. According to Nickolas Guertin, the factories have become essential to the Navy and Marine Corps’ modernization efforts.
BAE Systems and Pitch Technologies have been awarded the British Army’s land training contract by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The contract is for the Land Training Test and Reference Capability, which is part of the British Army’s upcoming initiative, named the Collective Training Transformation Programme (CTTP).
The CTTP focuses on providing an integrated, mobile, and digitalised system for future collective training.
This award will help to define the training approach for the army and choose a strategic partner to deliver the system.
An MST special forces FRISC. (MST)
Dutch-owned Damen Shipyardshas awarded UK boatbuilder Marine Specialised Technology Group (MST) a contract to equip the German Navy’s Type 126 frigates with 12 m fast interceptor craft.
Under the contract, announced on 13 March, Merseyside-based MST will supply 12 of its latest-generation Fast Raiding, Interception and Special Forces Craft (FRISC) rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs). The scope of supply includes transportation trailers and a comprehensive integrated logistics support package.
The 12 m variant has a fully loaded displacement of 9.
Russian handlers ordered the agent to assassinate Ukraine’s defense minister, defense intelligence chief, and other public figures.
The post Russian agent sent to assassinate Ukrainian leaders sentenced to jail appeared first on Sandboxx.
Warsaw has promised to deliver four Mig-29 fighter-bombers to Kyiv “in the next few days.”
Last year, just days after the start of the war in Ukraine, Poland announced that it was ready to hand over its Soviet-designed MiG-29 “Fulcrum” to the Ukrainian air force on the condition that other fighter jets could be found with “equivalent operational capabilities’… And for this transfer to be made through the United States… The United States refused after saying it supported the Polish initiative.
AURORA, Colo. — In the aftermath of the days-long spectacle last month when a massive, alleged Chinese spy balloon flew above much of North America before being shot down off the South Carolina coast, U.S. military leaders told DefenseScoop that they remain confident in the services’ technological capacity to sense, spot — and protect the homeland from — such slow-moving, high-altitude threats.
Military history buffs are no doubt familiar with Germany’s World War I flying ace, Manfred von Richthofen. Known as “The Red Baron,” he was the Great War’s Ace of Aces, racking up 80 confirmed victories before being shot down in April 1918. Richtofen’s skill and the fear his red Fokker triplane instilled in enemy pilots led to his reputation setting the standard for air excellence for decades after the war.
When pilots, friend and foe alike, refer to Hiromichi Shinohara as “The Richtofen of the Orient,” they mean it with the utmost respect due to an adversary.
When an enemy gets in behind friendly lines, the result can be devastating. Supplies, reserve troops, and any surprises a force may have had could suddenly (and literally) go up in smoke in a matter of moments. The German Army in France discovered how dangerous this could be during the Battle of Amiens in World War I.
It was a particularly dangerous situation for the Germans, because the enemy cutting a path of destruction behind the front lines was a new weapon in World War I, a tank. And the German Army didn’t have any way of penetrating its armor or even stopping it in its tracks.
