One of the two Lockheed Martin-converted Kaman K-MAX optionally manned helicopters during a trial with the US Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC) at Fort Benning, Georgia. (Lockheed Martin)
Kaman Corporation announced it will end the K-MAX production line, citing “low demand and variation in annual deliveries, coupled with low profitability and large working capital inventory requirements”, according to an 18 January statement.
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Pearson Engineering
The Pentagon has announced a new tranche of military assistance for Ukraine, valued at $2.5 billion. It includes many 8×8 Stryker wheeled armored vehicles, something that hasn’t been found in any previous U.S. aid packages for Ukraine, and landmine-defeating rollers to go with them. More tracked Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Avenger air defense systems, and a slew of other missiles and artillery ammunition, are also included, among other things.
This new aid package is a so-called “Presidential Drawdown.
Krauss-Maffei Wegmann photo
As Ukraine and Russia battle fiercely in places like Bakhmut and Kreminna, Kyiv’s allies are dealing with their own contentious issue – the ongoing to-be-or-not-to-be saga of sending modern tanks to Kyiv.
But this might all come to ahead tomorrow during the eighth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, where some 50 nations are gathering to determine how best to arm Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
There was action on tanks even before that meeting.
Real-world battles, such as that that defined in the world wars, is indescribably brutal. It’s why only participants can truly understand its terror. The carnage of “The Great War,” with its years spent in mud-packed, rat-infested tunnels and trenches, was punctuated with a whole set of new weapons. Gargantuan artillery guns rained death on millions of men hunkered in their holes. It’s no wonder “shell-shock” plagued armies on both sides, while political leaders dined on delicacies in their palaces.
Why do men fight when all is lost? It’s a question that calls out to history’s bravest. It’s about fighters on the battlefield realizing all is lost, but continuing on anyway. Physical courage, as Victor Davis Hanson wrote, cannot be dismissed by the lesser natures in our world. Too many actual stories spotlighting it still thrills us and inspires us, even the many of us that will never smell death on the battlefield. One such engagement is relatively well-known today in America, though many details are also more obscure, even jarring.
We’re not talking about Miss Cleo here. Russians are a deeply mystic people, and upwards of 60 percent of Russians believe in some form of magic. The heavy hitting decision makers at the Kremlin aren’t exempt. Their newest concern, according to leaked memos, is that the West will make a psychic attack on Russia, its leadership or its forces over the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The West has offered military support in many forms to the Ukrainian armed forces.
The year is 2026 and the tiny but formidable island of Taiwan is under attack by the army, navy and air forces of the People’s Republic of China. China’s navy is moving from the mainland but American and Japanese forces are moving to aid the Pacific ally caught in the Chinese crosshairs. The lives of 24 million Taiwanese citizens hang in the balance.
This was the scenario played out by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the recent wargame “The First Battle of the Next War.
In 1835 a revolution took place in Mexico, literally and figuratively. It enacted a new constitution under President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, one intended to address the country’s ongoing stability issues, collect taxes and tariffs, and handle an influx of immigrants in its border areas. With a new central government enforcing its laws equally – especially anti-slavery laws – the residents of Mexican Texas began a revolt. Calling themselves Texians, they pushed the Mexican Army out of the area and occupied an old Spanish mission, the Alamo, as an outpost.
Ubi Soft/Red Storm Entertainment
Time flies, doesn’t it? Case in point, this month marks the 30th anniversary of German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch’s USP line of sidearms. The gun was a massive success for HK and quickly became something of an icon thanks to the cover of the 1998 video game Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. To this day, whenever I hear the term ‘operator’ in regard to special operations forces I think of that balaclava and Oakley goggle-clad commando pointing the USP’s trapezoidal business end at the camera.
Air defense capabilities will likely prove vital for Ukraine in the next phase of its unfolding war against Russia, according to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl.
Kahl spoke to reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday — not long after he returned to the U.S. after visiting Ukraine and other nations to engage with dozens of international partners ahead of the Defense Contact Group meeting that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is hosting in Germany on Friday.