The eu has unveiled its first ever defence industrial strategy, for which it has allocated €1.5bn for its longer-term goals.

The Middle East has long been defined by complex conflicts, yet pride of place is likely Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. U.S. forces, operating there since 2014, officially against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), are involved in one of the more perplexing elements of that conflict. The long-standing debate within and outside of recent administrations over whether those forces should remain has gained new life with the Iranian-backed militia attack on Tower 22, a support base in Jordan for U.S. Syria forces operating just over the border.

Dr. Meg Reiss, the founder and CEO of SolidIntel Inc., sat down with Marshall Kosloff, the national security media and journalism fellow at the Clements Center for National Security, to discuss supply chain risks and how these risks could be mitigated with investments in new technology. The conversation explored the upstream challenges, how to manage China’s role in supply chains, and how to minimize risk factors for the industry. Image: MSC Valencia via Wikimedia Commons
The post AI and Making the Supply Chain More Robust appeared first on War on the Rocks.

US B-52 Stratofortress crews look at an AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) during a hypersonic weapon familiarisation briefing at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on 27 February. The yellow bands on the missile indicate that it is a live round. (USAF/SSgt Pedro Tenorio)
The US Air Force (USAF) has deployed a hypersonic AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) on Guam for testing.
The presence of this hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) was disclosed in USAF-published photographs on 28 February.

US soldiers carry out the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Transportable Tactical Command Communications operational test at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (US Army)
US Army officials are looking to develop a new slate of zero trust software for use on the service’s tactical networks as a way to further insulate battlefield command, control, and communications operations from rapidly maturing cyber threats.

Eileen Vidrine will retire from her role as the Department of the Air Force’s chief data and artificial intelligence officer in the coming weeks, DefenseScoop has learned.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed Thursday that Vidrine will be retiring “at the end of the month.” The spokesperson said they could not immediately provide any additional information about whether officials had identified someone to succeed her as CDAO, nor who would be managing those duties in the interim.
Vidrine has served as the department’s CDAO since January 2023, when she took over for Maj. Gen.

Five months after the attacks by Hamas on Israel sparked what has been an incredibly violent war, according to multiple reports, the Biden Administration is planning to set up a beachhead to move large amounts of aid to Gaza, from ship to shore. Such an operation, which would be fraught with risk, comes days after the United States joined a growing number of countries executing airdrops of aid into Gaza. Significant portions of the Gaza Strip have been largely destroyed by tens of thousands of Israeli strikes and ongoing ground fighting.

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Top 10 Expensive Fighter Jets In The World
The modern era has initiated lots of technology use in defense weapons. Nations in international conflicts prefer combat zone aircraft as the most powerful weapon these days. 
With the latest technology, FIghter jets are a striking force in combat zones and are considered the deadliest. As it is evident, more quality comes with more cost, which is true in fighter aircraft. 
NOW, Get ready to dive into the world of military aircraft as we unveil the top 10 most expensive fighter jets.

As the Air Force looks to integrate new capabilities across the service that hinge on modern software, its top weapons buyer said it needs to have more software developers in its workforce as initiatives progress.
“I see a lot of challenges in our software development,” Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Andrew Hunter said Thursday during the McAleese Defense Programs Conference.

Lt. Col. Orlando Bandeira, 54, an intelligence officer, was found unresponsive at his residence in Jerusalem. Photo from Facebook.
An Army Reserve lieutenant colonel died in a non-combat related incident in Jerusalem on Monday while supporting the U.S. Security Staff at the U.S. embassy, defense officials announced.
Lt. Col. Orlando Bandeira, 54, an intelligence officer, was found unresponsive at his residence, an Army Reserve news release says.
No information about the incident was immediately available. Bandeira’s death is under investigation.

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Ruben Gallego (Front), Cheston Bailon (Left), and John Bailon (Center)
Photo credit: courtesy of Gallego’s office.

An Arizona Congressman will bring two fellow Marines with whom he fought during some Iraq’s deadliest days as guests at the annual State of the Union speech given by President Joe Biden Thursday in Washington D.C.
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Marine Corps combat veteran, will bring John and Cheston Bailon, two Navajo brothers who the lawmaker fought alongside with during some of the most violent fighting of the Iraq war in 2005.

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Why is delivering aid to Gaza by sea quickly becoming complicated?

The Biden administration is working on a plan to move large amounts of aid to Gaza by sea, possibly via military warships.

But this requires overcoming several major obstacles, including protecting troops and safely distributing supplies to desperate Palestinians.
In recent days, the United States has stepped up efforts to deliver aid to the enclave, where 30,000 people have died since Israel began operations in October.

Staying connected during boot camp is a lifeline for recruits. Letters are a powerful source of motivation and a reminder of the support system waiting for them at graduation. Sandboxx understands this! We make sending physical letters to recruits simple and – completely free for recruiters through our app. With a few taps on your phone, you can include a motivational photo and message, all transformed into a professionally printed letter delivered straight to your recruit’s mail call.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis were reportedly in the vicinity of a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa yesterday. The Greek prime minister described the incident, which came during a scheduled visit to Ukraine, seen in the photo at the top of this story, as “intense.” The timing, location, and weapon used in the strike have led some to propose that it was a decapitation attempt by Russia.

Elsie Dominguez, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a civilian mariner on the Navy’s sealift fleet, alleges that her ship’s captain raped her, according to a complaint filed in New Jersey federal court. (Photo courtesy Elsie Dominguez/US Navy).
A civilian mariner says she suffered deep emotional trauma when she was raped by the captain of the Navy ship she served on after a night out drinking with the crew.

The Army hopes to experiment with different buying models in order to be more adaptive to evolving threat environments and new technologies, a senior official suggested.
In the industrial model that the military has traditionally operated within, programs and capabilities were mostly hardware based and in a fixed manner that took many years to produce with little room for adjustments along the way or once fielded.

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Dassault’s Rafale Fighter Jet is in trouble.
The Rafale is a fourth-generation fighter aircraft known for its quadruple redundant fly-by-wire control system and its aerodynamic configuration that ensures agility and a minimal radar cross-section.
Despite problems in its supply chain, Dassault plans to deliver 20 Rafale fighter jets in 2024, driven by its popularity in India and the Middle East.
Rafale demand exceeds Dassault’s production capacity.
Dassault has committed to delivering Rafale fighter jets to new customers within just three years of signing the contract.

During the 2014 Gaza War between Israel and Hamas, Jacob Stoil wrote “Why a Gaza Ceasefire is So Difficult” for War on the Rocks, in which he sought to answer one question that was as pressing then as it is now: “Why is a ceasefire [between Israel and Hamas] proving so difficult to attain?” A decade later, as talks on a ceasefire in the current conflict appear deadlocked, we asked him to look back on his article. Read more below.

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Challenger 2 Tank Returns to Ukraine
Since its first appearance in August of last year, the Challenger 2 has stood out for its defensive improvements, including a cage structure over its turret and side and frontal protections against anti-tank missiles and drones.
Challenger 2
In the last quarter of 2023, a notable decrease in the presence of the British Challenger 2 tank was observed on the Ukrainian front lines, leading to speculation that Ukrainian forces had almost completely ceased its use. There was even a two-month interval without media reports about his use in combat.

The U.S. Army now has a prototype of a variant of its tracked Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle with an armored turret armed with a 120mm rapid-firing mortar. The combination offers additional protection and much greater flexibility over mortar carrier vehicles now in Army service, and is a general capability it has been interested in acquiring for years now.
BAE Systems announced yesterday that it had delivered the new mortar turret-equipped Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) prototype to the Army for further evaluation. BAE Systems is the manufacturer of the AMPV.

“It takes a village,” is a common saying of coming together for a common cause. For Paul Johnson, it’s a mix of veterans and avid supporters supporting him throughout his world record attempt running from California to New York. (Photo courtesy of Brady Keegan).
Paul Johnson is an active duty lieutenant in the U.S. Navy currently running from California to New York, in a challenge to raise $1 million for Team Red White & Blue and raise mental health awareness.

The Army will be establishing a deep sensing cross-functional team in the coming weeks, the service’s top officer said Thursday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the McAleese Defense Programs Conference, Gen. Randy George, chief of staff, said Army Futures Command will be creating the new group. He declined to offer significant details, deferring to AFC.
Deep sensing is a top priority for the Army and Secretary Christine Wormuth.

The Nexter CAESAR 6×6 self-propelled artillery is one of the four competitors that compete to meet the Brazilian Army’s VBC OAP 155 mm SR project. (Victor Barreira)
The Brazilian Army has shortlisted four companies as part of its VBC OAP 155 mm SR (Viatura Blindada de Combate Obuseiro Autopropulsado 155mm Sobre Rodas) 155 mm/52 wheeled self-propelled armoured combat vehicle howitzer project.

Royal Norwegian Air Force Lockheed Martin F-35 (F-35A) Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters operating over the High North. The Nordic countries have opened a CAOC to protect NATO’s northern flank. (Royal Norwegian Air Force)
The Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden have opened a combined air operations centre (CAOC) aimed at protecting NATO’s northern flank.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has instituted major reforms to tackle corruption at the expense of military procurement.

The UK Spring Budget reiterates the importance of supporting Ukraine against invading Russian forces, which Ukrainian investor applauds.

The Air Force has awarded Leidos a follow-on contract to continue development of a command-and-control software capability and proliferate its use across the service, DefenseScoop has learned.
The contract — awarded by the service’s Kessel Run software factory — will allow Leidos to scale the Air Force’s Command and Control Incident Management Emergency Response Application (C2IMERA). The agreement has a six-month base period of performance, as well as four one-year options and two additional six-month options. If all options are executed, the contract will be worth $158 million.

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract to expedite the production of Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) for the US Army.

The first Saab 340 Erieye AEW&C aircraft for Poland was delivered on 6 March. (Polish Ministry of National Defense)
Poland has received the first of two Saab 340 Erieye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft contracted in 2023.
Secretary of State at the Ministry of National Defense (MND) Paweł Bejda made the announcement on 6 March, saying in-country acceptance testing will take place before the aircraft is handed over to the Polish Armed Forces.

BAE Systems has delivered its mortar turreted variant of the Armoured Multi Purpose Vehicle system to the US Army for evaluation.

One of the first three F-16 Block 70 aircraft bound for Bahrain departs the Greenville production facility in the US on 6 March. (Lockheed Martin)
The first Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 Fighting Falcon combat aircraft for Bahrain departed the United States for the Gulf on 6 March.
The manufacturer announced the milestone, saying the first three of 16 jets had left the Greenville production facility in South Carolina bound for Bahrain.
To date, Lockheed Martin has produced five F-16 Block 70 jets for Bahrain, with the additional 11 in various stages of production and testing.

HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, officially opened a permanent UK military facility on an airbase in the United Arab Emirates on 6 March. (Crown Copyright)
The United Kingdom has opened a permanent military facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on 6 March.
Named Donnelly Lines, the facility at Al Minhad Air Base (AMAB) was officially opened by the UK’s Princess Anne and senior military and political dignitaries from both countries on the same day as the announcement.

A computer-generated image of Damen’s MPSS 7000 design, with the larger MPSS 9000 behind. (Damen)
The Portuguese Navy has signed a contract covering the design, construction, and outfitting of one of Damen’s new Multi-Purpose Support Ships (MPSSs), the Dutch shipyard group announced during the DIMDEX 2024 show held in Doha from 4 to 6 March.

Three Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawks of the Indian Navy in operation in February 2024. (Indian Navy)
The Indian Navy has commissioned its first Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk multirole helicopter squadron.
According to the navy, the new unit, Indian Naval Air Squadron (INAS) 334, was commissioned on 6 March at Indian Naval Station Garuda in the southwestern Indian city of Kochi.
In a video of the commissioning, the Indian Navy displayed four MH-60Rs (serial numbers IN751, IN752, IN753, and IN755). However, the unit likely had at least six MH-60Rs at the time of commissioning. Helicopter no.

A Tactical Resupply Vehicle-150 takes off from a Stern Landing Vessel to conduct a ship-to-ship experimentation as part of Project Convergence Capstone 4. (US Army 24th Theater Public Affairs Support)
The US Marine Corps’ (USMC’s) experimental Stern Landing Vessel (SLV) made an impact at one of its first joint experiments as one of three support vessels participating in the 2024 Project Convergence Capstone 4 event.

The Ground Alerter 10 mortar detection radar and alerting system in-service with the French and German armed forces is receiving an MLU. (Thales)
France and Germany’s Ground Alerter 10 (GA 10) anti-mortar radar will receive a mid-life upgrade (MLU) to bolster its capabilities and address obsolescence.
The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) will manage the MLU, with a contract totalling EUR15 million (USD16.2 million) expected to be awarded in early 2024, the authority detailed in its 2024 business plan published on 5 March.

Savronik’s latest high-speed SDR at the DIMDEX 2024 show in Doha. The system is designed to transmit real-time ISR information from aerial platforms to a dedicated ground station. (Janes/Ajay Shankar Pandey)
Turkish defence manufacturer Savronik unveiled the latest iteration of its High-speed Software-Defined Radio (SDR) at the DIMDEX 2024 show held in Doha from 4 to 6 March.
The latest SDR supports twice the data rate of its predecessor – from 137 Mbps to 274 Mbps – as well as the latest custom waveforms and encrypted solutions, depending on user requirements.

Albania used the occasion of the opening of the Kuçovë Air Base to showcase its newly acquired Bayraktar TB2 UCAVs. (Albanian MoD)
The Kuçovë Air Base (Baza Ajrore Kuçovë) in Albania was officially inaugurated as NATO’s first tactical airbase in the western Balkans, with an opening ceremony on 4 March.
The work for transforming the Warsaw Pact-era MiG base into a modern facility to support NATO air transport, logistical support, and air policing missions across southeast Europe was first announced by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in August 2018.

A file photo of AASM Hammer guided bombs (in their imaging infrared seeker configuration) of the type Russia now claims to have intercepted over Ukraine. (Safran)
Russia has claimed to have intercepted a Safran Armement Air-Sol Modulaire (AASM) Hammer launched at its forces in Ukraine.
Russian state-controlled media reported the claim on 6 March, quoting the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation as saying that ground-based air defences had shot down a single guided bomb “in the zone of a special military operation”.

A model of the GCAP fighter displayed at DSEI Japan 2023 in Chiba. (Janes/Jon Grevatt)
Japan is considering the implementation of further reforms to support military exports. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on 6 March that the additional reforms are necessary to allow future Japan sales of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) aircraft to international customers.

A GQM-163 Coyote target overflies a mobile ship target. (Orbital Sciences)
The US Navy (USN) is looking to expand the kinematic envelope of the GQM-163A Coyote supersonic aerial target to enable more stressing and realistic threat representations.
US Naval Air Systems Command’s (NAVAIR’s) Aerial Targets program office (PMA-208) in February issued a pre-solicitation of its intent to contract Northrop Grumman for a 12-month study to increase the target’s performance envelope. A contract award is anticipated in the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2025.

The Gaza UAV displayed at the Iranian stand at DIMDEX 2024. (Janes/Ajay Shankar Pandey)
Iran promoted its Gaza unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for export for the first time at the DIMDEX 2024 show held in Doha from 4 to 6 March.
A model of the Gaza UAV was displayed at the Iranian stand and it was detailed in a brochure alongside the M129, which is the export name of the Shahed-129, the Iranian military’s primary long-endurance UAV.

Of all the symbols of American power abroad, the U.S. special operations soldier occupies a unique place in the public’s imagination. The public appetite for tales of derring-do and gutsy ventures is limitless, and U.S. special operations provide enough of these, routinely and visibly, to propel that mystique. Such publicity obscures a less splashy type of special operations that work in a different meter. These are the special operations advisors who work quietly, persistently, and ethnographically with U.S. partners fighting their own wars.

Today, the U.S. Air Force faces an almost-existential crisis. During the past several years, the service has been battered by the loss of its prestigious space mission to the nascent U.S. Space Force. It has also struggled to balance the continued acquisition of stunningly expensive new manned aircraft with the rapid developments in unmanned technologies, which are making pilots increasingly superfluous. What a difference a few years makes. In 2016, we published a column entitled “The Catastrophic Success of the U.S.

Emirati defence conglomerate, EDGE Group, and Spanish defence supplier, Indra, have formed a joint venture in military radar systems.

A U.S. Air Force pilot says they saw something they couldn’t readily identify that was the “size and shape” of an “Apollo spacecraft” during a sortie from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida last year, according to recently declassified documents. Three other unidentified objects were also tracked on radar during the incident, which Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz first publicly disclosed last summer.

The first Block 70 F-16C/Ds have left Lockheed Martin’s production facility and are headed on a long delivery flight that will cross a good portion of the globe. Their final destination is Bahrain, which has bought 16 of the advanced Vipers.
The delivery mission is a massive milestone for F-16 line that was moved from its long-time home in Fort Worth, Texas to Greensboro, North Carolina some time ago.

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World War 2 German Air Force Badges: In Detail
World War 2 German Air Force Badges: In Detail – A comprehensive look at the badges and honors awarded to Luftwaffe members during World War II.
Introduction
Traveling back in time, we trace the World War II German Air Force Badges on a historical journey. This is a recollection of those eventful years and an in-depth analysis of the German Air Force’s honor system.

Over 80% of Texas Republican voters approved a non-binding ballot measure known as Proposition 6 during the state’s primary election on Tuesday. The measure, which has no force of law, read: “The Texas Legislature should prohibit the deployment of the Texas National Guard to a foreign conflict unless Congress first formally declares war.” (U.S. Air National Guard photo by 1st Lt. Alicia Lacy/Released).
Republican voters in Texas overwhelmingly want to stop the state’s National Guard from deploying to foreign conflicts without a formal declaration of war from Congress.

Senior leaders from the Marine Corps Recruiting Command and Manpower and Reserve Affairs visited Johns Hopkins APL, September 22, 2021. The Marines received presentations from the APL staff members on how Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence can support the Marine Corps’ force design efforts of recruiting and retaining talented Marines. (Sgt. Kenny Gomez/U.S. Marine Corps).