The European aerospace, defence and security industry experienced a 14% drop in hiring activity in Q4 2023, led by Thales’s 20% share, according to GlobalData

The Singaporean aerospace, defence and security industry experienced a 13% drop in hiring activity in Q4 2023, led by RTX’s 34% share, according to GlobalData

The Italian aerospace, defence and security industry experienced a 57% drop in hiring activity in Q4 2023, led by Thales’s 25% share, according to GlobalData

The Canadian aerospace, defence and security industry experienced a 51% drop in hiring activity in Q4 2023, led by RTX’s 18% share, according to GlobalData

In a recent turn of events, the US and its allies’ missile attack on Houthi targets in Yemen has sparked concerns over the potential escalation of conflicts in the Middle East. Here’s a breakdown of the situation:
A Swift Retaliation: Unveiling the Houthi Response
Following ongoing efforts to contain tensions in the region, the US-led coalition launched a targeted strike on Houthi positions. Despite prior diplomatic warnings, the attack aimed to deter further actions by the group, which had previously targeted cargo ships in the Red Sea.

Twitter screencap
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said they attacked “espionage centers” and “gatherings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups” with ballistic missiles near Iraq’s northern city of Erbil, according to Iranian state media reports late on Monday that were cited Reuters.
There were “no U.S. facilities impacted by Iranian ballistic missiles” that struck facilities in Erbil, Iraq, a U.S. defense official told The War Zone Monday afternoon. “There were no injures or damage to infrastructure” at the U.S.

Via X
A U.S.-supplied M1A1 Abrams tank in Ukrainian service appears to have been upgraded with explosive reactive armor. The addition of the explosive-filled bricks to the tank’s hull, seen in recent video footage and imagery, provides it with extra protection against incoming anti-tank rounds and other weapons. 
Visuals of the M1A1 in question began circulating on various social media platforms on January 14. However, The War Zone cannot independently verify exactly where and when the videos and images were captured.

Then-Cmdr. Geoffry Patterson during a change of command ceremony for the USS Maryland. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Bradley J. Gee/U.S. Navy).
The captain of a guided missile submarine, the USS Georgia, was fired from the position, the service announced on Monday, due to “a loss of confidence in his ability to command.”
Navy Capt. Geoffry Patterson was relieved as the commanding officer of the Georgia’s Blue Crew by Navy Rear Adm. Thomas “T.R.” Buchanan on Jan. 12. according to a Navy news release.
“Capt.

Then-Cmdr. Geoffry Patterson during a change of command ceremony for the USS Maryland. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Bradley J. Gee/U.S. Navy).
The captain of a guided missile submarine, the USS Georgia, was fired from the position, the service announced on Monday, due to “a loss of confidence in his ability to command.”
Navy Capt. Geoffry Patterson was relieved as the commanding officer of the Georgia’s Blue Crew by Navy Rear Adm. Thomas “T.R.” Buchanan on Jan. 12. according to a Navy news release.
“Capt.

The global aerospace, defence and security industry recorded a 13% drop in advanced materials hiring activity in Q4 2023, according to GlobalData

The global aerospace, defence and security industry recorded a 10% drop in 3D printing hiring activity in Q4 2023, according to GlobalData

The global aerospace, defence and security industry recorded a 35% drop in social responsibility hiring activity in Q4 2023, according to GlobalData

The global aerospace, defence and security industry recorded a 11% drop in robotics hiring activity in Q4 2023, according to GlobalData

The global aerospace, defence and security industry recorded a 18% drop in cybersecurity hiring activity in Q4 2023, according to GlobalData

The global aerospace, defence and security industry recorded a 15% drop in corporate governance hiring activity in Q4 2023, according to GlobalData

The global aerospace, defence and security industry recorded a 6% drop in artificial intelligence hiring activity in Q4 2023, according to GlobalData

The disclosure of documented deficiencies raises questions about the effectiveness of existing oversight systems hampered by non-compliance by partners in Ukraine.
January 14, 2024, in War zone
According to a Pentagon report, the US Department of Defense faces obstacles in delivering military hardware to Ukraine.
Irregularities in the supply of military material to Ukraine
The US Department of Defense has released a report highlighting significant challenges in supplying military hardware to Ukraine.

Although 3D printing is not intended to replace standard manufacturing processes, it can be used to manufacture specialist parts quickly.

YouTube screencap
A Marshall Islands-flagged, U.S. owned and operated container ship was struck by a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile on Monday, U.S. Central Command said.
There were no injuries or significant damage to the vessel, the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, which is continuing its journey. The vessel is a 200-meter long Ultramax container ship, according to its U.S. owner, Eagle Bulk Shipping.

On Jan. 15 at approximately 4 p.m.

The US Navy is accelerating delivery of its new Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers just as there has been demonstrated greater strategic and operational need for the capability provided by an aircraft carrier, said the executive director of the Aircraft Carrier Program Executive Office ( PEO) of the USN at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in Arlington, Virginia.
In his speech at the event, Justin Meyer also highlighted the advantages for the United States that the US Navy buys, builds and operates aircraft carriers in pairs.

A WMA301 fire-support vehicle displayed during an inspection of new equipment by the president of Burkina Faso on 12 January 2024. (Présidence du Faso)
Burkina Faso is the latest African military to procure 105 mm WMA301 fire-support vehicles made by Chinese company Norinco, it was revealed on 12 January when President Captain Ibrahim Traoré attended a ceremony to mark the delivery of a consignment of new military equipment.

A file photo of a Russian A-50 AEW&C aircraft of the type that Ukraine says it shot down along with an Il-22 on 14 January. (United Aircraft Corporation)
Russia lost two intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft on 14 January, the Ukrainian military has said.

A file photo of a UH-60A Black Hawk, of the type that Albania has received from surplus US Army stocks. (US Department of Defense)
A pair of US Army surplus Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters were delivered to Albania on 13 January, Albanian Minister of Defence Niko Peleshi disclosed on the same day.
Delivered aboard a US Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster III strategic airlifter, the helicopters were transferred to Rinas Air Base, near Tirana.

America’s pilots are no longer warriors – they are beauty queens.

America’s pilots are no longer warriors – they are beauty queens.
U.S. Air Force officer Madison Marsh is 2024’s Miss America, reports People.
This is a long-planned information operation by our globalist overlords, to destroy the culture of the United States military.
Back in the day we trained in the eighties – it was about Fly, Fight and Win!
Now, it’s about see through gowns and bling.
If you believe she didn’t know she would win, I have a bridge in Arizona to sell you.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force is relocating an undisclosed number of Reaper UAVs from the Caribbean to Romania. (Royal Netherlands Air Force)
The Netherlands is to deploy General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9A Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Romania to help bolster NATO’s eastern flank, it was announced on 12 January.

SPONSORED BY NAVY MUTUAL

Upon joining the military, a servicemember is automatically provided with $500,000 of Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) coverage unless they opt out of the program or decide to decrease their coverage amount. This provides peace of mind to their loved ones, ensuring that they would be taken care of should anything happen during the servicemember’s term of military service.
Family SGLI, or FSGLI, extends a military member’s SGLI coverage to their spouse and dependent children.

Bath, Stars and Stripes
Two Navy SEALs still are missing in the Gulf of Aden more than two days after conducting nighttime operations off the coast of Somalia.

T&P
Two Navy SEALs went missing during a Visit, Board, Search and Seizure action near Somalia. Former SEALs say those VBSS missions were always among their most dangerous.

John Konrad, gCaptain
Today, the U.S. Navy is experiencing two contrasting situations.

Announcements in recent month by Ukroboronprom point to a greater need for Ukrainian industry to produce more of its war materiel needs.

Spyder’s interception capabilities have been enhanced through the collaborative efforts with Israel’s MOD DDR&D.

A Navy SEAL climbs a caving ladder during visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) training on Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in 2013.Photograph by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class William S. Parker.
A Navy SEAL who spent a dozen years in the elite combat units said the “sketchiest” training of his career was intercepting a ship and boarding it at night — the tactic at the heart of the mission from which two SEALs went missing Thursday when their team boarded a ship in the waters off of Somalia looking for Iranian weapons.

About 30% of Houthi attack equipment was destroyed after suffering the first missile attack from the US and its allies, according to Washington officials.

On January 12 and 13, US and British forces launched more than 150 precision-guided shells to attack about 60 missile launch points and drones (UAVs) of the Houthi forces in Yemen, the first response. of the international coalition led by Washington in response to recent raids by armed groups on cargo ships in the Red Sea.

People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on 14 January. North Korea was said to have fired a ballistic missile that day and this was confirmed by Pyongyang on 15 January. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images)
North Korea has claimed that the weapon it tested on 14 January was a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that was tipped with a hypersonic warhead.

North Korea fired a long-range ballistic missile, a weapon capable of threatening the US base in Guam, in its first launch of 2024.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea launched a ballistic missile from an area near the capital, Pyongyang, into the eastern sea of ​​the peninsula at 2:55 p.m. today. The projectile landed in an area about 1,000 km from the launch pad, in the sea between North Korea and Japan.
The Japanese Coast Guard said the missile fell outside the country’s exclusive economic zone.

Immediately after I completed my upgrade to F-15E multi-ship flight lead in 2017, my squadron deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. A flight lead is trusted to command a four ship of fighter jets and, as part of this upgrade training, I had spent the previous six months learning how to lead counter-air and contested air-to-ground missions against a peer threat. Put simply: I was trained to fight and defend against other fighter jets.

U.S. defense planning has long been undergirded by a sense of technological optimism. This is nowhere more evident than in official statements concerning command and control networks, which inevitably assert that this or that new network will make the joint force “greater than the sum of its parts.” In response, the Chinese government has spent nearly two decades developing the ability to target U.S. military networks as part of its doctrine of “systems destruction warfare,” with which it hopes to induce operational paralysis resulting in a loss of U.S.

A screengrab from the 501st Separate Marine Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Grifon 501) destroying a Russian armoured vehicle with a UAV, possibly an MBT or TOS-1 MLRS, because of the large explosion. (501st Separate Marine Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine)
Russia is said to have lost approximately 90% of its military equipment in Krynky, Kherson, likely because of a shortage of Russian electronic warfare (EW) systems in the area, according to a UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) intelligence update on 12 January.

Russian MoD
A Russian A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) jet and an Il-22M airborne command post were successfully engaged by Ukrainian air defense over the Sea of Azov Sunday, according to a Ukrainian legislator who heads a prominent defense committee, as well as Ukrainian media.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not officially commented on this claim, which The War Zone cannot independently verify. If true, losing these two command and control aircraft would be a major blow for Russia because only a handful of each exists.

The USS Laboon patrolling the Red Sea on Dec. 25, 2023. (Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alice Husted/U.S. Navy).
Despite two waves of attacks on their installations in recent days, Houthi rebels in Yemen appear undeterred. On Sunday afternoon the group fired an anti-ship cruise missile over the Red Sea in the direction of the US Navy destroyer the USS Laboon, U.S. Central Command announced.
U.S. fighter jets shot down the missile before it could reach the USS Laboon. No one was injured, according to CENTCOM. The missile was shot down at around 4:45 p.m.

USN
An unspecified U.S. fighter shot down an anti-ship cruise missile fired from Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen. The missile was heading toward the Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Laboon in the southern Red Sea, U.S. Central Command said Sunday evening eastern.
The incident happened about 4:45 p.m. Sanaa time, according to CENTCOM. The missile was shot down in vicinity of the coast of Hudaydah by U.S. fighter aircraft. There were no injuries or damage reported.

On Jan. 14 at approximately 4:45 p.m.

One of two F-16s handed over to Slovakia. (Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin has formally handed over to Slovakia its first F-16 Block 70 Fighting Falcon multirole combat aircraft, the manufacturer announced on 10 January.
The first two of 14 jets were delivered to the Slovak Air Force at Lockheed Martin’s Greenville production facility in South Carolina.
Lockheed Martin told Janes that, in this context, ‘delivery’ “refers to the acceptance of the two Slovakia F-16 Block 70s by the [US] Defense Contract Management Agency.

The configuration of China’s J-11B fighter favors air superiority, although it can also attack ground targets. The J-11B, although not comparable to the F-22, is a formidable fighter, crucial in Chinese military strategy in the Taiwan Strait.
Technical analysis of China’s J-11B fighter and its operations in the Taiwan Strait
The Shenyang J-11B, a variant of the  Russian Sukhoi Su-27SK, plays a significant role in Taiwan Strait tensions. Manufactured by  Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, this single-seat twin-engine fighter has carried out several raids, challenging Taiwan’s sovereignty.

The aircraft carriers Gerald R. Ford and Dwight D. Eisenhower along with their strike groups operating together in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea on Nov. 3, 2023. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Janae Chambers/U.S. Navy).
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is a massive vessel and the lead ship in a carrier strike group. It’s currently in the Red Sea, taking part in operations meant to stop attacks on shipping routes by the Houthi movement out of Yemen. On Thursday, Jan. 11 it launched F/A-18 fighter jets that took part in joint U.S.-U.K. strikes on Houthi-controlled areas around Yemen.

AVDIIVKA AREA, UKRAINE – DECEMBER 4: A Ukrainian soldier is seen near a Bradley Fighting vehicle as the Russia-Ukraine war continues in Avdiivka, Donbas, Ukraine on December 4, 2023. (Photo by Marek M. Berezowski/Anadolu via Getty Images).
One of Russia’s most modern main battle tanks, a T-90, was captured of video losing a face-to-face duel with a Ukrainian Bradley Fighting Vehicle, a far lighter-armed and armored U.S. made troop carrier whose design dates to the Vietnam War.

If your child recently decided to join the Army, you may be wondering about their new career as a soldier. It can be an emotional journey from the moment your soldier leaves for Basic Combat Training (BCT). 
No matter what your soldier’s job is or where they go, always remember what they are fighting for as you both embark on this journey.
Basic Combat Training (BCT)
You may have heard of reception. It’s where basic training starts after your son or daughter arrives on base.

Public Domain

After my 30 year USAFA reunion, I wrote an article titled, “The United States Air Force Academy Doesn’t Train Warriors Anymore.”
It seems nothing has changed in the last decade, in fact, it’s gotten worse.
I read this weekend an article in The Epoch Times about a female USAFA grad, who became Miss Colorado apparently while at the Academy, and now is being allowed to compete for Miss America as an officer.

KAGOSHIMA – JAPAN – DECEMBER 01: (—-EDITORIAL USE ONLY – MANDATORY CREDIT – ‘JAPANESE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE / HANDOUT’ – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS—-) A screen grab captured from a video shows Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force conducts search operation after US Air Force base Yokota’s CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed into the sea on Wednesday 29th off coast of Japan Island Yakushima, in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Kagoshima, Japan, on December 1, 2023.

With its F-35s stationed at Evenes Air Base, the Royal Norwegian Air Force also plays a crucial role in policing Norwegian and adjacent airspace.
January 13, 2024, in War zone
Norwegian F-35 fighter jets operate from Iceland on NATO air policing missions.
From 15 January to mid-February 2024, Norway deployed four F-35 fighter jets to Keflavík Air Base, Iceland, marking its fourth participation in NATO air policing missions. This deployment is part of a broader NATO effort to secure airspace in the High North region.
The Norwegian contingent is the first of three deployments planned for 2024.