The Israeli army announced attacks on more than 200 targets in the Gaza Strip after the ceasefire with Hamas expired and fighting continued.

On December 1, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that its divisions launched many new attacks in the Gaza Strip. Israeli infantry destroyed many mined structures, tunnels, rocket sites and other Hamas facilities.
According to the IDF, the Israeli Air Force coordinated with infantry divisions to attack more than 200 targets in the Gaza Strip.

Russia announced that its military will increase the number of troops to more than 1.3 million people to respond to threats such as NATO’s continued expansion.

In a December 1 announcement, the Russian Ministry of Defense said the maximum number of the country’s armed forces increased by 170,000 people, equivalent to about 15%, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin two days earlier. This decision brings the total number of Russian troops to 1,320,000 people.

Capt. James Harney (photo courtesy U.S. Navy).
The commodore of a U.S. Navy amphibious squadron has been relieved of duty this week, according to the Navy. Capt. James Harney, the head of Amphibious Squadron 5, was removed from command due a “loss of confidence” in his “ability to perform his duties,” the Navy announced the evening of Friday, Dec. 1.
That’s a common, vague reason given by the U.S. Navy in response to these firings.

South Korea announced that it had successfully launched its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit from a US base in California.
South Korea’s military reconnaissance satellite was launched at 10:19 a.m. on December 1  from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, USA. The booster used is the Falcon 9 of the SpaceX Group, which billionaire Elon Musk co-founded.

On December 2, the Korean Ministry of National Defense said that the satellite entered orbit about 4 minutes after launch and successfully contacted the ground station at 11:37 a.m., meaning the device worked normally.

The US paired the body frames of two damaged F-35s to create a complete fighter to save costs and components.

On November 30, the US Air Force announced that it is implementing a project to combine two broken F-35 stealth fighters into a new one called Franken-bird (Frankenstein’s monster bird). The project was conducted by the F-35 Program Office (JPO) at Hill Air Force Base in Wyoming, with support from the 388th Airlift Wing stationed at Hill Base, F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin and the logistics force at the base.

John J. Waters, RealClearBooks “West and me took a walk around the big base,” I started.

Francis P.

The Korean Air Force eliminated F-35A fighters that collided with birds last year because repair costs were higher than buying new ones.

On December 1, the Korean Air Force announced a comprehensive assessment showing that the F-35A lost 300 parts after colliding with a bird and then landing on the runway at Seosan base in January 2022, including the fuselage frame. aircraft, engines, control and navigation systems.
Due to high costs, long repair times and other safety issues, the Korean Air Force’s evaluation committee concluded that this F-35A should be scrapped instead of repaired.

L.C. Williams, DefOne
A congressional panel highlights its concerns about infrastructure, the industrial base, keeping up with Russia, and staying ahead of China.

Sean Carberry, National Defense Magazine
If the Defense Department and industry deliver on modernization plans, a plethora of new aircraft, tanks, ships and other weapons currently under…

Graham Allison, Natnterest
I entered Henry Kissinger’s classroom at Harvard University 58 years ago, in 1965. Indeed, I have been learning from him ever since.

Email from Lt. Gen Rod Bishop to the USAFA Superintendent:
Rich–as a die hard Falcon football fan, I certainly share with you (and what coach and the team must be a feeling)–i.e, “disappointment” after an 8-0 start of “what could have been.

Russian drones already pose a considerable threat to Ukrainian service members and civilians. Russia intentionally strikes civilian infrastructure in addition to hitting military targets. Now, it appears to be using that same civilian infrastructure to guide its own drones, the same drones it’s destroying the infrastructure with.
The Kyivstar Network
Kyivstar is the largest cell phone network in Ukraine, serving nearly half of all cell customers there. Russia made targeted attacks against the carrier in 2022, especially with cyberattacks, trying to bring it down.

Via Social Media/X
For the second time since Ukraine began employing Storm Shadow and later SCALP-EG cruise missiles, the wreckage of an ADM-160 Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD) has appeared. The last and only known other time a MALD appeared in Ukraine was in May of last year, right when it became clear Storm Shadows were in use. You can read our report on that incident and all about ADM-160 in our previous report here.

⚡️The fallen 🇺🇸American decoy missile AGM-160 MALD, probably in the Kherson region.

(Task & Purpose composite image).
“How can I feel comfortable advocating for military service when so many members of our community don’t feel welcome or even have their needs met?” I asked at a recent panel titled “Changing Perceptions, Shaping Futures: Breaking Down Barriers Between Veterans and Gen Z.” 
The panel’s goal was to clear up misconceptions about the military and panelists included representatives from the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, the Veterans Administration, the Military Officers Association of America, and an active sergeant in the U.S. Army.

The AUKUS alliance will kick off a new innovation challenge series early next year with an initial focus on electronic warfare, defense leaders from the three nations are set to announce Friday.
Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Richard Marles, U.K. Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, met at the Defense Innovation Unit’s headquarters in Silicon Valley, where the primary focus of their discussions was on advancing Pillar 2 of the trilateral military partnership.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob “Jake” Galliher was killed Wednesday in the crash of a CV-22 Osprey in Japan. Photo from Facebook, U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Andre Dakis.
An Air Force linguist from Massachusetts was confirmed to have died in the crash of CV-22 Osprey off the coast of Japan on Wednesday, November 29.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob “Jake” Galliher was trained in Mandarin Chinese and was likely one of the service’s elite language experts known as Airborne Cryptologic Language Analysts.

In a world where air heavyweights like the United States show superiority, Russia sees a new ray of hope in reusing the MiG-35 light multirole fighter.
MiG-35 of the 4++ generation: An unexpected return?
There was a time when the MiG-35 light multirole fighter seemed doomed to oblivion in favor of its heavier competitor, the Su-35S. However, in a sudden turn of events, with 2023 in sight, there is a call for the revival of the MiG-35 to meet the challenge of the fleet of  F-16, F-15, F-35, and F-22 of the United States.

The brewing conflict of Venezuela invading Guyana would be the latest and closest of Xi’s arson campaign

Image by SurinameCentral

The failure of enforcing the Monroe Doctrine is coming home to roost. Ed Martin of the Eagle Forum convened a timely gathering on November 30, 2023 on the importance of the Monroe Doctrine and appeared on Warroom to discuss.
Venezuela, a key proxy of China who hosts a heavy footprint of Chinese, Iranian, Hamas, and Russian advisors is now looking to invade next door Guyana. Evan Ellis discusses this mess in a recent article. Evan is an excellent source.

A new RAND Corporation report found that minority officers stay in the Army longer but receive fewer promotions. U.S. Army photo by Maj. Jason Elmore.
Black, Hispanic, and Asian officers stay in the military longer than their white counterparts, a new report found, but have less success rising through the ranks.
The study was conducted by the RAND Corporation and looked at the Army’s retention of racial-ethnic minorities and made recommendations for the service to improve the career prospects of diverse talent.

USAF
Large sections of two U.S. Air Force F-35A Joint Strike Fighters that were seriously damaged in separate accidents years ago are being grafted together into a single fully operational jet. The hope is that the process of creating this aircraft, which has been nicknamed the “Franken-bird,” will demonstrate new equipment and procedures and help improve and expand the U.S. military’s capacity to repair or repurpose severely damaged F-35s in the future.
The Franken-bird is being assembled at the Ogden Air Logistics Complex (OALC) at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

Bahr served as a medic in 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment for almost seven years. (Courtesy photos/Task & Purpose composite).
Dr. Marshall Bahr, M.D., launched Lead The Way Recovery this week, a new approach to addiction and substance abuse. He saw his first few patients on Monday, applying his experience as a Ranger medic and his extensive clinical background to treat those in need of help.
“Addiction doesn’t spare — it doesn’t care what color your skin is, how rich or poor you are, what your education level is. It just doesn’t care, it doesn’t discriminate,” Bahr said.

Navy Federal Credit Union partners with Rebuilding Together, through its Veterans at Home program, to make no-cost home repairs and safety modifications for those in the military community and others in need.
More than half a century ago, William Johnson, a veteran of the U.S. National Guard and Army, moved into the right half of a “side-by-side” duplex in Arlington, Va., a stone’s throw from the quiet cemetery where countless veterans rest in peace.
Johnson and his wife, Daisy, rode the ups and downs of life from their cozy red-brick colonial.

National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons
On October 30, 1944, during World War II, the submarine USS Salmon endured near-catastrophic levels of damage, and survived to tell the tale.
The deformation of Salmon‘s hull, resulting in major flooding, was caused by depth charges being deployed by Japanese forces. The extent of the damage “can be considered one of the most serious to have been survived by any U.S. submarine during World War II,” the Navy indicated in a subsequent report.

The Army is conducting market research to determine the best path forward to release a smartphone app that troops can use for timely and true information about the facilities, conditions and supplies on any military installations where they’re visiting or stationed. 
In October, the service’s Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George first told DefenseScoop about how he’d charged a team of Army Software Factory technologists to prototype such a tool — dubbed then “My Army Post” — in a bid to improve soldiers’ and their families’ lives with support from technology.

As it takes stock of potential unmanned systems that could be fielded for the Pentagon’s ambitious Replicator initiative, the Defense Innovation Unit is planning to host a technology summit in the coming months to offer industry more details about the effort.

GM Defense
GM Defense, a subsidiary of General Motors, has been awarded a contract by the Department of State (DoS) to commence full-rate production of heavy-duty up-armored Chevy Suburbans. Once in service, the armored SUVs will be used by the department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) for the transportation of officials and dignitaries in challenging and potentially dangerous locations abroad, as well as for sensitive movements within the United States. You can read our earlier profile on the DSS’s future armored SUVs here.

via X
A recent video shows a Russian Lancet loitering munition — a type of ‘kamikaze’ drone with an integral warhead that can loiter in a target area, before attacking its chosen target by flying into it and detonating — just blew up Ukrainian Su-25 Frogfoot ground-attack aircraft… Or did it? It turns out the footage is not all that it appears to be at first glance, with the Lancet’s actual target being a remarkably accurate decoy of the aircraft in question.

Welcome to Mid-Afternoon Map, our exclusive members-only newsletter that provides a cartographic perspective on current events, geopolitics, and history from the Caucasus to the Carolinas. Subscribers can look forward to interesting takes on good maps and bad maps, beautiful maps and ugly ones — and bizarre maps whenever possible. *** Several people responded to our last map by asking where Greenland went. Apparently in the course of flipping around North America, I lost track of it, and while Iceland ended up over by Kamchatka, Greenland disappeared.

L Todd Wood interviews BG Yossi Kuperwasser (Ret) in Israel, discussing the ‘why’ and ‘how it happened’ behind the Oct 7th attack.
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IDF
Israel and Hamas resumed their war Friday after a week-long pause as negotiations over hostages broke down.
Hamas launched rockets into Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) returned to bombarding Gaza while each side blamed the other for why the ceasefire could not continue into an eighth day. Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts continue for another at least temporary halt to hostilities.
“Following Hamas’ violation of the pause, combat has resumed in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said on Telegram. Since 7 a.m. local time, “the IDF has struck over 200 terror targets.

A report from the House of Lords on AI enabled Autonomous Weapon Systems indicates MoD procurement will need to keep pace with innovation.
The post Lords: MoD need ‘complete reset’ for AI and autonomous weapons appeared first on Army Technology.

FILE: A CV-22 Osprey flies above Tokyo, Japan, April 5, 2018. (Senior Airman Joseph Pick/U.S. Air Force).
The remains of one of the airmen aboard a CV-22B Osprey that crashed on Wednesday off the coast of Japan have been recovered while the seven other airmen who were on the aircraft at the time remain missing, according to U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command, or AFSOC.
U.S. and Japanese forces continue to look for the seven missing airmen, who are officially listed as “duty status-whereabouts unknown,” or DUSTWUN, according to an AFSOC news release on Friday.
The following U.S.

Hosts L Todd Wood and Col John Mills (USA, Ret) discuss the Pacific naval freedom of navigation incident, Ukraine/Poland border, Gaza, and the the brewing war crisis in Latin America with Venezuela.
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Image by MOROVICTOR

Ukrainian special forces have acted deep inside Russia writes UK intelligence firm Inkerman in a recent report.

On the night (local time) of 29-30 November 2023, an explosion damaged a freight train passing through the Severomuysky Tunnel in the Itykit-Okushikan section of the East Siberian (Baikur-Amal) Railway in the Republic of Buryatia in eastern Siberia.

In the wake of the Israel-Gaza war, geopolitical tensions gripped the world, leaving the USA and the UK on the edge of diplomatic uncertainty. As per the UN, the Gaza Strip faced unprecedented devastation.
Ceasefire Extension Drama
Initially set until November 27, the ceasefire agreement witnessed an extension as Israel and Hamas agreed to an additional two days. This extension became a crucial window for Qatari and Egyptian mediators racing against time to secure further agreement or potentially establish a permanent truce.

India’s Defence Acquisition Council approved the Area of Necessity on $26.8bn of defence expenditure across Aland sea and air domains.
The post India clears $26.8bn defence deal with 98% domestic production appeared first on Army Technology.

The BAAINBw has ordered 50 Dingo 2 A4.1 armoured vehicles from KNDS. (Bundeswehr)
The Bundesamt für Ausrüstung, Informationstechnik und Nutzung der Bundeswehr (BAAINBw), Germany’s Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support, and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann + Nexter Defense Systems (KNDS) announced on 30 November that they had signed a contract for 50 Dingo 2 A4.1 armoured vehicles the day before. KNDS said in a press release that the vehicles would replace Dingo 2s transferred by the Bundeswehr to Ukraine.

The US Navy conducted another exercise in the Gulf using unmanned systems such as the MAST-13 USV. (US Navy)
Recent events underscore how military operators are beginning to increasingly test and deploy unmanned systems in the Gulf.

US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) utilised Freedom-class littoral combat ship USS
Indianapolis
(LCS 17) as a staging base and command centre on 27 November for a host of unmanned systems during live weapons firing exercises in the international waters of the central Gulf, US Navy (USN) officials confirmed.

Sandboxx News
After recent rumors surfaced that the United States Air Force is testing a new high-performance spy plane developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, Sandboxx News decided to…

Eric Tegler, Popular Mechanics
The Eagle II boasts capabilities that even fifth-generation fighters don’t have—all in a fourth-gen disguise.

AF Technology
A total of 118 of the advanced air-to-surface missiles will be produced and delivered to the two services, split 84 and 34 respectively.

A Gurkha from 1 Royal Gurkha Rifles with an L85A3 5.56 mm assault rifle (right) next to a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force 1st Airborne Brigade paratrooper with a Howa Type 20 5.56 mm assault rifle (left) during Exercise ‘Vigilant Isles’ in Somagahara Camp, Japan, on 15 November. (Crown copyright)
British Army soldiers embedded with the Japan Ground Self‐Defense Force (JGSDF) for the first time during Exercise ‘Vigilant Isles 23′ in Japan from 15 to 26 November.

In November Oshkosh Defense announced that it had been awarded a $160m deal for additional JLTV for international customers.
The post Israel looks set to become latest JLTV operator appeared first on Army Technology.

John M. Donnelly, Roll Call
Lawmakers say defense contractors are exploiting loopholes on parts’ prices.

Howard Thompson, The Messenger
Once again, political and budgetary dysfunction in our nation’s capital threatens our government’s ability to perform its most basic function: to pay for its…

Joseph DeTrani, The Cipher Brief
OPINION — The Biden-Xi Summit of November 2023 was a step in the right direction. But it was only a step.

NIPP

Joseph S. Nye Jr.

One night in October, Eilat became the target of three missiles launched from Yemen that almost disturbed the peace of the city.

The quiet night of October 31 was disturbed by the launch of three missiles from Yemen towards Eilat, Israel.

Alert at Israeli air base: Rapid response to missile threat
At an Israeli Air Force (IAF) base in southern Israel, alarms rang. The soldiers, sheltered in an underground bunker, began to analyze the approaching supersonic missile.