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A Russian Su-35 Flanker fighter jet is seen maneuvering unprofessionally within 2,000 feet of a U.S. Air Force fighter jet during an intercept in Coalition Force airspace over Syria on April 18, 2023. (U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Jermaine Ayers).

The skies over Syria are starting to look a lot like Tom Cruise’s first encounter with the MiGs in Top Gun.
Despite established rules designed to prevent any sort of conflict between Russian and U.S. forces operating parallel to one another in Syria, Russian pilots are locking onto U.S.

GA-ASI has secured a contract to provide four MQ-9B SeaGuardians (pictured) along with two ground control stations, spares, and support equipment to Taiwan. (General Atomics)
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) has secured a contract to provide four MQ-9B SeaGuardian medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the Republic of China (RoC) Armed Forces. .
The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced on 1 May that the value of this “undefinitised contract action” secured by GA-ASI will not exceed USD217.6 million.

The planned deployment of new IFC-4 configuration Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Tritons on Guam is expected to improve Australia’s ability to develop advanced capabilities for its own Triton fleet. This photo features an earlier IFC-3 configuration MQ-4C on Guam in 2020. (US Air Force photo/Senior Airman Michael S Murphy)
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is to receive forward operating base (FOB) equipment for its on-order Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton fleet at the end of 2023.

Imagine a tank with a sweet cage. No, not the one in the photo below. Those are trash cages for trash tanks. No, we’re talking about those sweet, sweet British tanks from World War I with special friends who go to war with you: Pigeons.
It might seem odd that tanks, a symbol of industrialized warfare like machine guns and planes, would have pigeon cages, a relic of war dating back to at least 530 BC. But pigeons served through World War II in Allied armies, including on tanks and even bombers.
The pigeons, as might be expected, mostly served as messengers.

Singapore has selected the Colt Infantry Automatic Rifle 6940, an example of which is pictured above, as the army’s new section automatic weapon, replacing the Ultimax 100 Mk2 in service. (Janes/Patrick Allen)
The Singapore Army has selected American firearms manufacturer Colt’s Infantry Automatic Rifle 6940 (IAR6940) as the new section automatic weapon (SAW) to replace in-service ST Engineering’s 5.56 mm Ultimax 100 Mk2 light machine gun (LMG).

Seapower
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier force is losing relevance because of a lack of investment in the aircraft that it carries, a naval analyst said.

Dmitry Filipoff, CIMSEC
Introduction
China’s arsenal of anti-ship weapons is truly a force to be reckoned with, and is superior to that of the United States in many…

China’s ZBL-09 infantry fighting vehicle, seen here from Russia’s Victory Day parade, is armed with a 30 mm cannon, a 7.62 mm machine gun, and anti-tank guided missiles. The country has deployed 18 such vehicles in Eastern Theatre Command. (Russian MoD)
Northern Theatre Command (NTC) of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has inducted several ground force components including ZBL-09 infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), ZSL-10 armoured personnel carriers (APCs), and ZTL-11 fire support vehicles (FSVs).

The U.S. Intelligence Community’s 2023 Annual Threat Assessment contains some alarming estimates, especially as it relates to the cyber capabilities of the People’s Republic of China. It states that Beijing would “almost certainly consider undertaking aggressive cyber operations against U.S. homeland critical infrastructure and military assets worldwide” if they thought war was “imminent.” These operations […]
The post Are We Asking Too Much of Cyber? appeared first on War on the Rocks.

Security cooperation has been a critical pillar of U.S. statecraft for decades. However, the enterprise has gotten a bad reputation since the beginning of the 21st century because of the costly misadventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. But perhaps the problem is that we are not evaluating it the right way.  Much of Washington’s […]
The post U.S. Security Cooperation Deserves a Fair Evaluation appeared first on War on the Rocks.