Image by osunpokeh
The former head of the Electromagnetic Defense Task Force Major David Stuckenberg, USAF declared yesterday the Chinese balloon incident was likely a dry run for an EMP attack, which would devastate America.
NEW: “China’s balloon flyover of the United States is clearly a provocative and aggressive act. It was most likely a type of dry run [for an EMP attack],” said ret. U.S. Air Force Maj.
The United States Air Force shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. This ended days of controversy and doubt.
Senior U.S. defense and military officials confirmed that at 2:39 p.m. Eastern time, an F-22 Raptor from the 1st Fighter Wing at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder at the balloon, sending it plummeting toward the Atlantic Ocean.
Vice President Joe Biden announced that “we successfully took it down,” and he praised the pilots involved.
Senior leaders at the Pentagon love their acronyms and buzzwords. The soup du jour is “innovation,” embodied in various entities such as the Defense Innovation Unit, Defense Innovation Board, Small Business Innovation Research, Rapid Innovation Fund (now defunct), Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies, National Security Innovation Network — the list goes on. […]
The post Back From the Future: Stop Saying the Military Has an Innovation Problem appeared first on War on the Rocks.
The Norwegian Government has purchased 54 Leopard 2A7-type battle tanks from the German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.
There is now a signed option to purchase an additional 18 automobiles. The delivery of the first of the brand-new tanks is anticipated for the year 2026. This is an undeniable boost to Norway’s defence capability and overall readiness as a nation.
“The new tanks are of great importance for the Armed Forces and represent a significant reinforcement of the Army. Close defense cooperation in Europe is becoming increasingly important in the current security situation.
According to the latest UK Defense and Security Review, published in 2022, the Royal Air Force [RAF] is expected to dispose of 30 of its older Eurofighter [i.e., Tranche 1] aircraft by 2025.
London may reconsider its plans due to the war in Ukraine. The Defense Committee of the British Parliament does not rule out maintaining these 30 aircraft in service if they can be updated to the “tranche 3” [T3] level at an affordable cost. He wondered if BAE Systems, a Eurofighter consortium member with Airbus and Leonardo, would consider such an operation.
A new satellite image shows a Chinese air defense facility on the Paracel Islands. Analysts say that the People’s Liberation Army now has permanently-ready surface-to-air missiles in the two disputed archipelagos of the Sea from South China.
The Paracel Islands, or Xisha in Chinese, are claimed by China, Vietnam, and Taiwan but have been fully occupied by Beijing since 1974 after the Chinese Navy defeated the then-South Vietnamese Navy in a brief but bloody naval battle.
The new domestically produced Hürjet light attack and training aircraft launched its engine yesterday Friday, the head of the Defense Industries Presidency (SSB), Ismail Demir, reported on his Twitter account.
“Under the strong leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a Turkish defense industry, our work continues at full speed in the next centenary of our republic,” he noted.
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), which is developing the aircraft, also shared a statement on the company’s official Twitter account: “We are happy to fulfill our promise to our nation.
British MOD
The British Ministry of Defense released pictures of Ukrainian troops training with Challenger 2 “Driver Training Tanks,” a unique turretless variant with a weighted superstructure and room for instructors.
The Ukrainians are less than a week into training on the Challenger 2 after the first tank crews arrived on January 29.
Tank crews from the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been quick to master the controls of the mighty Challenger 2 this week.
The UK is providing Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine to help them defend their homeland and retake territory.
The Navy, Marine Corps and FBI are working to recover what the Pentagon is calling “sensitive” Chinese technology from the high-altitude balloon that traversed across the North American continent this week.
Under President Biden’s direction, the balloon was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet at 2:39pm EST Saturday, senior government officials told reporters in a briefing shortly after that “engagement” to wipe out the platform.
Multiple U.S.
Tyler Schlitt Photography / LiveStormChasers.com
The U.S. has shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina as multiple assets have entered the area to recover its debris.
The saga that began with the balloon’s appearance high above Billings, Montana, on February 1 reached its climax Saturday with an explosion and the balloon’s subsequent fall from high altitude. Videos of the shootdown showed an F-22 Raptor launching an air-to-air missile at the balloon for the kill. This would be the F-22’s first ‘kill.
