Poland’s first company of 14 M1A1 tanks arriving at Szczecin on 28 June 2023. (Polish MND)
The Polish Armament Agency announced in a press release that a US shipment of 29 more M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks (MBTs) and 79 Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) All-Terrain Vehicles (M-ATVs) arrived at the Polish Port of Świnoujście on 6 January, followed two days later by the unloading of the vessel.
The delivery followed an earlier US shipment that also arrived at Świnoujście on 21 November 2023 with 26 M1A1s and nine M88A2 Hercules armoured recovery vehicles.

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jarrett Smith
For four days, President Joe Biden had no idea that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized and that many of his authorities for action had been delegated to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks. However, had the unthinkable happened and Biden needed to launch a nuclear attack during that time, would Austin’s unprecedented stealth absence have made a difference? This was certainly a question being asked by many as the bizarre situation began spilling into the public domain.
The answer is no. Let us explain.

The Pentagon. (Associated Press photo).
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin underwent prostate cancer surgery in December before being hospitalized again for complications last week, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Routine health screening first revealed that Austin had prostate cancer in early December, Dr. John Maddox of Walter Reed National Military Center said in a statement.
On Dec. 22, Austin had a minimally invasive surgical procedure known as a “prostatectomy” during which he was under general anesthesia, Maddox said. The surgery was uneventful, and Austin’s prognosis is “excellent.

A detailed analysis of the incorporation of second-stage engines in the Su-57 fighters, scheduled for 2024.

The current Su-57 fleet and the transition to Izdelie 30-engines
According to a report by TASS, the Russian Aerospace Forces have received a fleet of ten Su-57 fighters equipped with phase one engines. This squadron constitutes an integral part of the VKS, standing out in air capabilities with its current design.

Shane James Jr. left the Army in 2015 as a 1st Lt. after being arrested for assaulting his wife on Fort Cavazos, which was then Fort Hood. Law enforcement photo.
A former infantry officer who killed six people, including his parents, in a mass shooting across two Texas cities in December left the Army soon after he was arrested for assaulting his wife in 2014.
An Army police report first reported by KUT News, an Austin public radio station, shows that Shane James Jr.

Advisors from 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade practice the react to contact battle drill during a live-fire exercise on Fort Liberty, North Carolina on Jan. 05, 2023. (U.S. Army photo/Spc. Jonathan D. Vitale).
Archilochus, a Greek poet and soldier from the 7th century BCE, once wrote, “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” The U.S. Army knows this all too well, which is why they have developed 14 battle drills that they expect all soldiers to know, from the youngest private to the most senior leaders at the Pentagon.

U.S. Defense and State Department officials aim to meet with delegates from at least 50 other nations by mid-2024 to discuss the nascent framework and standards doctrine they’ve recently signed onto, pledging to “responsibly” develop and deploy artificial intelligence and autonomous military technologies, according to a top Pentagon policymaker.
Originally produced in early 2023, State spotlighted the Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of AI and Autonomy in November — and confirmed then that more than 40 countries formally endorsed it.

An Army recruiter in Oklahoma allegedly sent a string of harassing texts to a woman after her 17-year-old daughter decided not to enlist, Army officials said.
“If your child wishes to free herself from any toxic control, she’ll reach out to me and others like me,” the recruiter allegedly said in one of over a dozen texts to the woman. “You should feel disgusted you don’t want your child to have the easiest route in America to success.”
The recruiter has been suspended pending an investigation, an Army official told Task & Purpose.

The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower departs Naval Station Norfolk. Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Julie Matyascik.
A landlord company that charged Navy sailors in Virginia thousands of dollars in illegal lease termination fees and extra rental payments has agreed to pay damages and stop those practices as part of a federal settlement, Justice Department officials said.

The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower departs Naval Station Norfolk. Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Julie Matyascik.
A landlord company that charged Navy sailors in Virginia thousands of dollars in illegal lease termination fees and extra rental payments has agreed to pay damages and stop those practices as part of a federal settlement, Justice Department officials said.

PHOTO © 2024 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION
Newly obtained satellite imagery provides our best view so far of the aftermath of last week’s crash of a U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. The images also give a very clear indication of when and where the jet touched down and where it ended up. You can read our initial reporting on this mishap here, as well as an analysis from The War Zone of webcam photos showing the wreck of the bomber here.

Susan Ahn Cuddy had a lot to overcome when she joined the U.S. Navy. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, anti-Asian sentiment in the United States was at a fever pitch and women in the workplace wasn’t yet an accepted social norm. But she came from a family of fighters, stayed the course, and persevered. She would not only be the first Asian-American woman to join the U.S. Navy, she was also the first female gunnery officer.
Cuddy was born in Los Angeles in 1915, at a time when Japan had already occupied her family’s homeland for ten years.

NATO’s premier and largest defensive cyber exercise aims to improve the capabilities of member-states while bringing forward new tactics and lessons for U.S. cyber forces.
The most recent iteration of Cyber Coalition took place Nov. 27–Dec. 1 and included 28 nations. The initiative gathers allied countries together regardless of their cyber expertise to address a common scenario to bolster NATO and each other collectively, according to Candace Sanchez, a senior exercise planner at 16th Air Force.

The main parties of the American Revolution were, obviously, the Continental and British forces. But there were other groups fighting. Perhaps most famous were the Hessians that Gen. George Washington attacked on Christmas by crossing the Delaware River. But France sent two fleets and two armies to help the colonies rebel. And France fought Great Britain across the world to alleviate pressure on the American colonies.
In fact, France, Spain and Britain continued fighting for months after hostilities in North America ended.

(Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) apologized to an already jittery populace for sending out an air raid alert stating a Chinese missile was passing over the island Tuesday. The object was actually a rocket launch for a satellite, but due to an improper translation, the English version of the alert misidentified it.
The alert, three days ahead of a pivotal presidential and parliamentary election, came as China is increasing balloon flights over the island.

Via X
A drone strike today set ablaze a fuel facility in the Russian city of Oryol, in western Russia, according to local officials. The drone in question is said to have hit the Orelnefteprodukt oil depot, while another struck the building of a local energy provider, Oryolenergo.
Oryol is located roughly 230 miles south of Moscow and 140 miles from the Ukrainian border.
The local governor, Andrei Klychkov, took to the Telegram messaging app to announce the strike, saying that the fire at the Orelnefteprodukt facility had been contained.

Metrea
A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft are among the growing number of U.S. military aircraft types that have now refueled from privately owned tankers. A KC-135 from private aerospace firm Metrea refueling Warthogs during an exercise last year also marked the first time a contractor-operated tanker had ever linked up with U.S. Air Force tactical jets.
The Air Force, specifically, has been increasingly making use of private aerial refueling services in the past year, which will help it reduce the burdens on its own tanker fleets.

The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence expressed its interest to “improve existing conscription procedures.

US Army medical institutions and the DRTA will work to develop new drugs to counter resistance in bioweapon bacteria.

FLRAA programme: Bell’s advanced tiltrotor aircraft will receive operator and maintenance training aids from CAE Defense & Security.

The cruise missile that failed to launch on 3 January. (US Central Command)
US Central Command (CENTCOM) effectively confirmed that Iran has supplied cruise missiles to an Iraqi group on 5 January, when it posted a photograph of one it said had been found by the Iraqi Police in Babil Governorate two days earlier.
“The use of Iranian-supplied munitions by terrorist groups within Iraq and Syria endangers coalition forces and local residents,” it said. “The coalition is appreciative of the efforts of the legitimate security forces in Iraq for their efforts to prevent future attacks.

The IRGCN’s new missile-armed catamaran
Martyr Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis
.
(Mehr News Agency)

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy (IRGCN) formally received
Martyr Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis
(PC313-01), a new type of stealthy missile-armed catamaran, during a ceremony held at the force’s main base in Bandar Abbas on 6 January.

Amid kamikaze drone attacks in the Red Sea that are putting military and commercial vessels at risk, the commander of U.S. Naval Surface Forces said he wants to accelerate the fielding of high-powered lasers and microwaves that could counter these types of threats.
U.S. ships and their crews have been using missiles and other traditional types of air-defense weapons in recent months to take down the Houthi’s unmanned aerial systems and platforms.
“What we’re facing in the Red Sea is more than just drones.

Forbes
Overseas threats to U.S. security have steadily increased during the Biden presidency. No one expected when Joe Biden was inaugurated that three years in, Washington would be . . .

Bruce B. Stubbs, WSJ
Many significant issues exist for a transformed U.S.

The US Navy is planning to use HELIOS technology to introduce laser capabilities into fleet operations. (Lockheed Martin)
The successful missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) defence by US Navy (USN) ships in the Red Sea has prompted discussion for accelerated development of lasers on USN surface ships in such scenarios.
However, the USN is still struggling, trying to achieve the power necessary for missile defence, according to defence analysts.

The ECDI has delivered the Piorun to the EDF (photo of Lt Col Lelov holding the MANPADS). (ECDI/Kermo Pastarus)
The Estonian Centre for Defence Investments (ECDI) announced in a press release on 8 January that it had delivered Polish Piorun short-range manportable air defence systems (MANPADS) to the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF).
An ECDI spokesperson told Janes on 9 January that deliveries were ongoing from 2023 to 2025 but would not disclose numbers. He said training mainly for reservists had begun in mid-2023 as part of the planned deliveries.

Kenya’s defence spending amounted to just $1.14bn in 2019, which decreased to $1.12bn by 2023 despite national security challenges.

The Indian Army seeks to equip its in-service BMP-2 ICVs (pictured above) taking part in an Indian Army exercise – with TI-based DNS to improve their night-fighting capability. (Janes/Kapil Kajal)
The Indian Army has outlined the detailed requirements supporting its acquisition of thermal imager (TI)-based driver night sights (DNSs) for its in-service BMP-2/2K infantry combat vehicles (ICVs).

ULA’s Vulcan rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral on 8 January, launching the Peregrine lunar lander into a trans-lunar injection orbit. (ULA)
United Launch Alliance (ULA) launched its first Vulcan launch vehicle the morning of 8 January, paving the way for a slate of national security, scientific, and private launches.
The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex-41 at 0218 h local time, putting the privately operated Peregrine lander on a path towards the moon.

China said US arms sales were in “blatant violation of the one-China principle” ahead of Taiwan’s crucial elections on Saturday.

The S-BR, 71.6 m long and displacing 1,870 tonnes, can carry 35 crew and has six 533 mm launch tubes firing either Naval Group F21 heavy weight torpedoes or MBDA Exocet SM39 Block 2 Mod 2 missiles. (Marinha do Brasil)

The Brazilian Navy’s Submarine Development Program (Programa de Desenvolvimento de Submarinos: PROSUB) is to reach a new milestone on 12 January with the Submarines Force Command commissioning the second Riachuelo-class conventional attack submarine (SSK), S
Humaitá
(S41), at the Itaguaí Naval Complex (CNI), the navy told
Janes
.

The U.S. Army is currently undergoing significant force structure changes as it wrestles with two major challenges. First, its current recruiting problems have reduced the number of active-duty soldiers by about 30,000 from 2021 through 2024. Second, it is trying to modernize its force structure and capabilities to confront challenges posed by China’s military. To do this, the service’s leaders have chosen to focus on capabilities most “relevant for large-scale combat operations.

An artist’s rendering of Aurora Flight Sciences’ CRANE design. The first flight is scheduled in 2025. (DARPA)
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) selected Aurora Flight Sciences to build the X-65 Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) experimental aircraft, intended to test the viability of manoeuvring without external flight surfaces, according to a 3 January statement from the organisation.

The missiles that the United States has accused North Korea of ​​sending to Russia appear to belong to its new family of nuclear-capable rockets, easy to conceal, quick to deploy and difficult to shoot down.
Images provided by the United States indicate that they are the North Korean Hwasong-11, a broad class of short-range ballistic missiles that can hit targets with a high degree of precision, according to weapons experts.
Since the missiles are among the newest in Kim Jong Un’s arsenal, he is likely to get significant compensation from Russian President Vladimir Putin in return.

Wissam al-Tawil, leader of Radwan special forces, became one of the highest-ranking Hezbollah commanders killed in Israel’s air campaign.

Three security sources in Lebanon said on January 8 that Wissam al-Tawil, deputy commander of a unit of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan task force, and a gunman were killed when an air strike in Lebanon attacked their vehicle. Southern Lebanon, about 6 km from the Israeli border.
It is unclear whether this was a deliberate Israeli attack on Wissam al-Tawil or a conventional air strike.
Israeli officials have not commented on the information.

Israel deployed a giant reconnaissance balloon in the border area with Lebanon as fighting with Hezbollah intensified.

The device called Sky Dew is one of the largest high-altitude reconnaissance balloons in the world today, Israeli media said on January 7. Sky Dew was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and American balloon manufacturer TCOM in a project led by the Israeli Ministry of Defense and funded by the US Department of Defense.

Iran calls on Iraq to end the presence of the US-led military coalition in the country, believing that Baghdad is capable of ensuring its own security.

“The Iranian government has clearly stated its stance on Iraq and the recent moves the US has taken,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said on January 8. Iran believes Iraq has the necessary capacity, strength and authority to ensure security on its territory.
According to Mr.

One of Saudi Arabia’s Al Jubail (Avante 2200) corvettes. Royal Saudi Navy
Saudi Arabia has almost 1,000 miles of Red Sea shoreline with several major ports and has fought a nearly decade-long bloody war with the Houthis in neighboring Yemen. Despite that, Riyadh is among the vast majority of Arab nations who have passed on taking part in Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG). The U.S.-led operation was created last month to provide greater security for ships transiting the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Retired Saudi Rear Adm.

Navy petty officer Wenheng Zhao was sentenced to just over 2 years in prison for selling sensitive Navy documents to a Chinese spy. Navy Photo from 2019 by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael Lopez.
A former Navy sailor will spend a little more than two years in prison and pay $5,500 in fine after pleading guilty to selling sensitive information and documents to a Chinese spy.
Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, 26, who is also known as Thomas Zhao, was sentenced by a federal judge to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5,500 fine for transmitting sensitive U.S.

Iranian State Media
Evidence that Russia is using Iranian jet-powered Shahed-238 kamikaze drones to strike targets in Ukraine has emerged. The Shahed-238 is derived from the Shahed-136, which Russian forces have already been using for more than a year. If this proves to be the case, as The War Zone previously explored in detail, the Shahed-238’s increased speed over its propeller-engined predecessors and other additional capabilities present serious new challenges for Ukrainian air defenses.

This article dives into the analysis of the F-16 SFW, an advanced design with forward-swept wings, and its impact on military aviation.

Introduction to the revolutionary concept of the F-16 SFW in aviation
The F-16 SFW (Swept Forward Wing) represents a milestone in aeronautical experimentation, especially with regard to the layout and design of wings on combat aircraft. This aircraft, although it never entered production, symbolizes a challenge to established aeronautical regulations and a testimony of technical innovation.

U.S. President Joe Biden talks with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after delivering the State of the Union address on February 7, 2023. (Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images).
There are no indications that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin might lose his job for the massive communications breakdown that led to the White House and most of the military being unaware for days that the Pentagon boss was hospitalized and in intensive care.

GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images
Missiles filled with water instead of fuel and lids on silos that do not work properly were among the factors that led to the sacking of China’s defense minister and a slew of other senior officials last year, according to a recent report. These issues, blamed primarily on corruption, have in turn reportedly rattled Chinese President Xi Jinping’s confidence in his country’s armed forces, including its ability to conduct major operations, such as an invasion of Taiwan.

The Space Development Agency has added Rocket Lab National Security as the third vendor for the Beta variant of its future constellation aimed at providing global satellite communications for warfighters.
The California-based company has received a $515 million prototype agreement to build and operate 18 Beta variant satellites for SDA’s Tranche 2 transport layer, the agency announced Monday.

The Space Force announced Friday that it has given Microsoft a contract to continue work on a simulated environment where guardians can train, test new capabilities and interact with digital copies of objects in orbit.
Under the $19.8 million, one-year contract from Space Systems Command (SSC), Microsoft will develop the Integrated, Immersive, Intelligent Environment (I3E) — an augmented reality space simulation powered by the company’s HoloLens headsets.

@detresfa_
High-altitude balloons, launched by China, are once again in the headlines, this time with a spate of sightings over and around Taiwan. Tensions between the island and Beijing are already strained, with elections due later this week. As a result of the recent spike in balloon flights, Taiwan has accused China of psychological warfare as well as threatening international aviation safety in the region.
The incidents come close to a year after U.S.

The Army will no longer store household goods or privately-owned vehicles for “soldiers deployed for contingency operations,” according to an Army memo.
(U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Larissa Greatwood).

Soldiers on deployment will have to figure out where to store their personal cars and other belongings and pay for it out of pocket after the Army cracked down on reimbursing unauthorized storage fees.
As of Oct. 1, 2023, Army Sustainment Command stopped funding storage requests for deployed soldiers, according to a memo confirmed by Task & Purpose.

Who doesn’t love a good cat video? Well, apparently NASA is on board. On December 11, the organization proudly beamed its first ultra-high definition streaming video from a record-setting 19 million miles away (about 80 times the distance between Earth and the moon). And although they could choose from literally any video in the universe, they created one of an adorable cat named Taters chasing a laser.
According to NASA, the demo transmitted the 15-second test video via a cutting-edge instrument called a flight laser transceiver.

Many European countries are looking to replenish national stockpiles having donated thousands of rounds to Ukraine.