A Coast Guard MH-60T Jayhawk was in a festive mood over the weekend, issuing a holly jolly “Ho-ho-ho” in the skies. As spotted by the Flightradar24 flight tracking site and shared on its X account, the Coast Guard helicopter was flying over the Caribbean Sea just off of the coast of Puerto Rico and decided to write out a holiday message. It flew in a few loops and sharp turns to spell out Santa Claus’s go-to exclamation.
The Coast Guard confirmed it was intentional, and happened while the aircrew on the MH-60 Jayhawk had some VIPs on board and some time to kill on Sunday morning.
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The U.S. Air Force has received its first T-7A Red Hawk trainer aircraft, which arrived at Joint Base San Antonio Randolph to serve under the 99th Flying Training Squadron.
At a moment where many Navy shipbuilding programs are stalling, the Constellation-class guided missile frigate stands out as the most behind schedule, the most over budget, and the most emblematic of the systemic faults plaguing naval shipbuilding. Last week, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan canceled the program — one that has spent billions of dollars over five years and still has years of work to deliver a single ship.Earlier this year, I explained which of the most expensive, delayed programs should be canceled. The Constellation-class frigate made my list.
Why did so many downplay the risk of a Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 despite mounting indicators, such as troop build-ups, major exercises, and increasingly aggressive rhetoric from Moscow?Even hours before the first strikes, major media outlets argued that an invasion was unlikely, as it seemed to contradict President Vladimir Putin’s cost-benefit calculus. They assumed he would conclude that the costs of heavy Western sanctions, together with the risk of significant battlefield casualties, outweighed the potential gains.
The leaking of an original set of technical blueprints of the Soviet Object 195 main battle tank has provided new insight into the ambitious program to preserve the country’s qualitative armour advantage into the 21st century. 3D artist Gustiiz3D produced a set of renders “based on an authentic album of schematics that recently leaked online” that provided further details on the tank type, which was known colloquially as the ’T-95.” It would have been the first major clean sheet design to join the Soviet Army since the T-64 in 1964.
Following the deployment of a Chinese carrier strike group built around the aircraft carrier Liaoning for operations near Japanese waters, considerable attention has been drawn to the capabilities of the warships and aircraft forming the core of the group’s combat capabilities.
The carrier strike group led by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy warship Liaoning on December 7 began training flights in the Pacific Ocean, after the ships passed through waters off Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa. Takeoff and landing drills from the aircraft carrier were the first to be confirmed in waters near Japan in several months, and have been speculated to have been initiated in response to a rise in tensions between the two countries.
The Royal Norwegian Air Force has concluded a deployment of F-35A fifth generation fighter aircraft as part of an integrated air and missile defence mission under NATO’s Allied Air Command. The deployment was initiated in August in response to rising tensions with Russia, amid ongoing Western participation in the Russian-Ukrainian War.
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For decades, the Air Force has deployed and operated two elements of America’s nuclear triad – bombers and land-based ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles). The Navy controls the third leg – submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). As a part of deterring missile attacks on America and on US forces overseas, the Army plays a vital role in defending against incoming missiles.
The Navy is the latest service to get into the information warfare fight. On Friday, Naval Information Forces stood up the Information Warfare Squadron Two, the first of a new kind of naval intelligence unit meant to support carrier strike groups.
The new unit, to be based on the East Coast, was officially activated in a ceremony on Dec. 5 in Norfolk, Virginia, according to a release shared by the Navy on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS.
Plans for the new type of squadron were approved in June by the Fleet Commanders’ Readiness Council. Vice Adm.