Royal Marines conduct jungle training in Ghana in 2013 (Picture courtesy of the British Ministry of Defense).
An American Marine officer graduated as the stop student from a rigorous 13-week All-Arms Commando Course run by the Royal Marines, according to a news story from Forces, which falls under the British Ministry of Defence.
U.S. Marine Capt. Joseph Z. Brown, an infantry officer, not only earned the right to wear the Royal Marines’ green beret, but his fellow students voted to award him the Commando Medal, the news story says.

Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa (Photo by Bernd von Jutrczenka/picture alliance via Getty Images
Russian drones targeting Ukraine entered NATO airspace over Romania during the night, leading to the scramble of NATO fighters deployed in that country. The Romanian Ministry of Defense has confirmed that at least one of those drones exploded in its territory, although it was not shot down. Meanwhile, Romania has summoned Russia’s envoy over what is the latest in a series of drone violations of its airspace.

The Su-57 Blue emerges as another piece in the pompous parade of Russian military power. Although it claims to be a leviathan of the air, this Sukhoi Su-57 fighter is rather a bold attempt by Moscow to show off its war technology, even though its true effectiveness remains an enigma.

Su-57 Blue: Russia’s new publicity stunt
This aircraft, touted as a triumph of fifth-generation combat engineering, attempts to dazzle with features that, on paper, seem impressive: supercruise capability, state-of-the-art avionics, and a reduced radar signature for stealth operations.

In 2017, Raphael Cohen wrote “Five Lessons from Israel’s Wars in Gaza” for War on the Rocks, in which he looked at how the Israel Defense Forces’ “operations in Gaza provide an example of the challenges that advanced militaries face when confronting determined, adaptive, hybrid adversaries in dense urban terrain,” especially after Operation Protective Edge, in 2014. In light of the current war in Gaza, we asked him to look back on his piece and reflect on those five lessons. Read more below.

Northrop Grumman Corp. is set to rapidly refine and advance the Defense Intelligence Agency’s data collection, processing and analytics assets, and prototype new sensing capabilities via a nine-year contract worth up to $700 million. 
A press release published by the company on Wednesday briefly highlighted this new effort and recent award — dubbed Neptune Phoenix — but beyond that, little has been shared publicly about the work to date.

Marine Sgt. Matthew K. Bylski was killed on Tuesday when an Amphibious Combat Vehicle rolled over at Camp Pendleton, California.
Marine Corps officials have identified the Marine killed on Tuesday’s tactical vehicle rollover as Sgt. Matthew K. Bylski.
Bylski was one of 15 Marines in an Amphibious Combat Vehicle, or ACV, when it rolled over at Camp Pendleton, California, a Marine Corps news release says. One Marine remains hospitalized and is listed in good condition. The other Marines in the vehicle have been treated and released.

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YouTube screencap
For the third time this week, a commercial vessel came under Iranian-backed Houthi missile attack near the Bab al-Mandab Strait Thursday, a U.S. military official told The War Zone. Now that ship’s owner is calling for “political action” to stop these incidents.
“A ballistic missile was fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen at the Maersk Gibraltar,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. The missile missed and there was no damage to the ship or crew and no U.S. vessels in the area, said the official.

The maritime capability coalition will support Ukraine’s two newly acquired ex-Royal Navy Sandown-class mine countermeasure vessels,
Chernihiv
 (ex-HMS
Grimsby)
 and
Cherkasy
(ex-HMS
Shoreham
), which were commissioned into service in July 2023.
Cherkasy
is pictured during the flag-raising ceremony, which was held in Glasgow, Scotland.

The H145M LKH will bridge the Tiger in the light attack role, as Germany considers its longer-term replacement options. (Airbus)
Germany has placed the largest ever order for Airbus H145M battlefield support helicopters, with the Bundeswehr contracting the rotorcraft and accompanying weapons systems to partially replace its Airbus Tigers and to support its special forces.

WZ551 armoured vehicles lined up behind a WMA301 self-propelled gun at a range in Inkomo. (Office of the President and Cabinet (Zimbabwe))
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa attended an event on 13 December to receive a consignment of Chinese military equipment that included new armoured vehicles.
“This is a result of the unapparelled strategic partnership that exists between Zimbabwe and China,” Mnangagwa posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account. “I express gratitude to China for their generosity and our ongoing relationship.

Ukrainian officers believe that Russia has a huge advantage when it owns 7 times more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) than its opponent.

“In key areas on the front line, we have to accept the following ratio: for every Ukrainian UAV, there are 5-7 Russian ones,” said Yury Fedorenko, commander of the Achilles company of the 92nd assault brigade. Ukraine, December 12 said.
According to Fedorenko, Russia’s and Ukraine’s tactics are different because of the difference in the number of UAVs. Because they possess fewer UAVs, Ukrainian units must use them more cautiously.

NATO announced an increase in its military budget by 12% in 2024, to 2.03 billion euros, to respond to common security challenges more effectively.

NATO announced on December 13 that members after a meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC), the bloc’s political decision-making body, agreed on the 2024 civil budget at 431.8 million. euro, the military budget is 2.03 billion euros, an increase of 18.

Public Domain

Faced with the reality that drones are reshaping the modern battlefields in Ukraine and Gaza, the Pentagon has been tasked with finding a budget-friendly solution to eliminate these ‘flying IEDs.’ While missiles are too expensive, and laser beams are a distant dream, the next best cost-effective weapon US military officials are eyeing up could be electromagnetic pulse weapons to counter drone swarms.
According to the System for Award Management (SAM.

US intelligence said nearly half of the 29,000 bombs Israel dropped on Gaza were “unintelligent” and could cause major casualties among civilians.

CNN‘s source on December 14 cited an assessment by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as saying that about 40-45% of the 29,000 bombs that the Israeli army dropped on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the conflict were of this type. Without guidance equipment, also known as “non-smart bombs.

A new intergovernmental agency, named GIGO, has been set up by Japan, the United Kingdom, and Italy to manage the sixth-generation Global Combat Air Programme. (Leonardo)
Japan, the United Kingdom, and Italy have signed a treaty to establish a new intergovernmental organisation to advance the joint development of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) sixth-generation combat aircraft.
Japan’s Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara and his Italian and UK counterparts, Guido Crosetto and Grant Shapps, signed the treaty in Tokyo on 14 December.

Robert Ham worked closely with Saifullah and Ismail Haqmal, two Afghan interpreters that helped him and many other Americans during their deployments in Afghanistan. Photos courtesy of Robert Ham.
The fall of Afghanistan back into Taliban control in 2021 left veterans feeling betrayed and helpless as their Afghan allies were hunted down. U.S. Army veteran Robert Ham was one of them. Fortunately, he was able to get the interpreters he worked with on his deployment out of Afghanistan — but not without heartache.
“There’s a lot of people that are fucked up.

Bill Gertz, WashTimes
The 2024 defense authorization bill now in its final stages on Capitol Hill contains a provision that would restrict the Pentagon from spending money on an advertising…

Dylan Malyasov, Defence Blog
Survivability and mission success hinge on how well the F-35 operates in the electromagnetic spectrum.

Politico
The policy bill faces a tougher vote in the House, which could take place as soon as Thursday.

R.

Poland’s military communication capability is being modernised with the help of the US State Department’s approval.

Developing new technologies and architectures to enable the U.S. military’s ambitious vision for Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control may take a while. In the near term, the Department of Defense needs “bridging” solutions that might be discarded once better capabilities come online, according to a top official overseeing the initiative.
The aim of CJADC2 is to connect the various sensors, shooters and data streams of the armed services and their international partners, under a more unified network.

Italian and German defence primes, Leonardo and KNDS, have agreed to strengthen their industrial production of land platforms.

Officers from the Royal Australian Air Force fly their racing UAVs during Air Force Drone Racing Association expo day at Canberra in June. The Australian Defence Force is increasingly engaging in drone racing to enhance their understanding of new UAV technologies, and support associated research and development. (Commonwealth of Australia)
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is increasingly engaging in “drone racing” events to enhance their understanding of new technologies related to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and support associated research and development (R&D).

Ukraine’s pavilion at COP28 in Dubai focused heavily on the emissions and environmental damage of Russia’s invasion.

Norway will donate NASAMS air defences to Ukraine worth $31.7m, amounting to the same number of systems previously donated.

As an instructor on Indo-Pacific security, the most common question I receive from students, ranging from undergraduates to senior military officers, is: Why do some countries in Asia still deeply resent Japan, while others display a warm fondness towards Tokyo? Layers of nationalism, politics, and historical memory make sweeping generalizations about “Asian” perceptions of Japan meaningless. In South Korea, vigorous youth-led campaigns to boycott Japanese goods underscore this enduring legacy of animosity and mistrust.

The SIG716 is a gas-cycled, air‐cooled, magazine box-fed weapon of a conventional layout with a maximum hitting range of 800 m. (SIG SAUER)
India’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved the procurement of 70,000 additional SIG Sauer’s SIG716 7.62×51 mm rifles worth INR8.4 billion (USD100 million) for the Indian Army, A Bharat Bhushan Babu, principal spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD),told Janes on 14 December.

Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the UN is focused on making better use of digital technology. He is pictured at the UN’s recent Peacekeeping Ministerial meeting in Accra, Ghana. (UN Peacekeeping)
Technological developments in areas such as data exploitation, digitisation, and artificial intelligence (AI) were a major theme at the recent United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping Ministerial in Accra, Ghana, with the international organisation seeking to adapt to an evolving military landscape.

Being built by Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Titania is a demonstrator satellite exploring the validity of using optical laser technology to transfer data to and from space at speeds equivalent to superfast broadband. (Crown Copyright 2022)

All UK Space Command’s operational concept demonstrator satellites under project Minerva and part of the wider ISTARI programme will launch by 2026,
Janes
learnt.

Lockheed Martin has fielded the first F-35 fighters equipped with the advanced TR-3 hardware and software upgrade in Fort Worth, Texas, a major milestone announced in late November. This achievement follows the first test flight with the TR-3 software in January, conducted by a development team at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The advancement of The F-35 fighters TR-3 and block 4 technology
The update, called Technology Refresh-3 (TR-3), opens a new era for the  F-35, allowing the implementation of a set of new capabilities known as  Block 4.

A new, flexible silicon-on-polymer chip developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and American Semiconductor has a memory capability 7,000 times higher than the current slate of flexible, integrated circuits on the market. (US Air Force)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is teaming with Raytheon to develop new diamond-based substrates for gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors in a bid to push high-powered radar and radio frequency (RF) communication applications down to the tactical level.

Twitter Screencap
Among the most notable developments in the war in Ukraine is the ubiquity of First Person View (FPV) drones, a highly maneuverable loitering munition both sides are using to devastating effect. They are now dominating the battlefield to a degree. We have showcased numerous videos of the FPV drones damaging or destroying tanks, trucks and even individual soldiers. Less commonly seen are incidents in which vehicles survive multiple such attacks.
That was the story, however, behind a lucky T-80BVM tank crew recently.

capture via X
A new video released by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, perhaps ironically, offers one of the best looks to date at the Israeli-made Trophy active protection system in action. The system in this case is installed on one of Israel’s Merkava tanks involved in the current conflict in Gaza. The clip also underscores the exact kind of use cases where this kind of additional protection is especially valuable.
The video in question is the first in a montage of clips, seen in the social media post below.

Photo by Valentyna Polishchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Image
Russia launched another large-scale missile attack against Ukraine this morning, apparently focusing on the capital, Kyiv, where authorities reported that at least 53 people — including six children — had been injured by debris after Ukrainian air defenses shot down 10 ballistic missiles.
The attacks may well have been timed to strike Kyiv only minutes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met his U.S. counterpart President Joe Biden for talks in Washington.

Israeli Defense Forces
Israel’s ability to sustain its fleet of F-35I Adir stealth fighters during combat operations against Hamas is providing important lessons for the United States, especially in terms of potentially fighting a conflict the Pacific, Pentagon officials said during testimony before Congress Tuesday.
U.S. military’s concerns over sustaining its F-35 Joint Strike Fighters through the so-called ‘just-in-time’ logistics model that underpins the program, especially during a time of war, have risen dramatically as we noted in April. Overall, U.S.

The era of the  F-22 Raptor, the jewel of American air superiority, is approaching its end, marking a crucial change in the Air Force’s aerial arsenal.
The Rise and dominance of the F-22 Raptor in military aviation
Initially deployed in 1997, Lockheed Martin‘s  F-22 Raptor took to the skies as an unstoppable force, leading the 5th generation fighter squadron. With a quarter-century of combat history under its belt, this titan of the air is still considered by many to be the supreme predator in air-to-air duels.

A new Army supercomputer is now known as “Carpenter,” after Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter. US Army photo.
A supercomputer run by the Army is now named after a Marine recipient of the Medal of Honor.
“Carpenter” is an HPE EX 4000 at an army computing lab in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The supercomputer has 277,248 core, 563 terabytes of memory and, as of Tuesday, one Medal of Honor recipient — Corporal Kyle Carpenter — as its namesake.
Carpenter was a Lance Corporal in 2010 in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Dubbed “Operation Christmas Drop,” crews from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Canada dropped more than 200 packages of supplies and toys to over 40,000 people living on 58 islands throughout the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Brooklyn Golightly).
Hundreds of packages filled with food, fishing supplies, school books, and toys rained down on Pacific islands earlier this month as part of an annual U.S. military Christmas tradition.
Dubbed “Operation Christmas Drop,” aircrews from the U.S.

MDA
In the wake of its latest test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency has published a video explainer that provides a very useful description of what exactly happened in that complex engagement process, as well as how much of the overarching U.S. missile defense architecture actually works. The test earlier this week also showcased an upgraded version of the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) — the lethal component of the GMD system that is intended to physically knock out ballistic missile threats to the U.S.

The Eighth Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group earned the nickname ‘The Bloody 100th’ due to its hard luck, brutal encounters with the German Luftwaffe and heavy losses. Now, their story will be told in the upcoming miniseries Masters of the Air, created by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and the award-winning team behind Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
Here’s the official synopsis: 
“Based on Donald L.

Remington is a legendary name among firearm manufacturers like Colt, Smith & Wesson, and Beretta. While Beretta holds the title of oldest firearm manufacturer in the world, Remington claimed to be the oldest U.S. factory still making its original product. The Ilion, New York, facility began producing firearms in 1816. Although it has seen layoffs, temporary closures, and bankruptcies, Remington’s 2020 bankruptcy was the beginning of the end for the historic factory.
A Security Forces airman behind an M24 sniper rifle, based on the Remington Model 700 (U.S.

Sandia National Laboratories capture
A picture has emerged showing an F-16 Viper fighter that appears to be sitting at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands with an inert training version, or “shape,” of the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb under its wing. This offers a rare glimpse into the ongoing work to field America’s latest nuclear bomb in Europe as part of NATO’s nuclear sharing agreements.

FILE: U.S. Marines drive a new Amphibious Combat Vehicle ashore at AVTB Beach on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Dec. 18, 2019. (Lance Cpl. Andrew Cortez/U.S Marine Corps).
One Marine was killed, and 14 others were hospitalized after their Amphibious Combat Vehicle rolled over on Tuesday at Camp Pendleton, California, Corps officials have announced.
The name of the Marine who died is being withheld pending next of kin notification, a Marine Corps news release says.

The Indian Army is set to strengthen its arsenal with a significant weapons upgrade as the Defence Ministry greenlights the procurement of an additional 73,000 SiG Sauer assault rifles from the United States. This move follows the acquisition of approximately 72,000 SiG Sauer rifles earlier, aimed at bolstering the firepower of troops deployed on the frontlines.
Background
Previous Purchase and Delays
The decision to acquire more rifles stems from persistent delays in the manufacturing of Russian AK-203 Kalashnikov rifles within India.

The declassified estimate says that 315,000 troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine.
Russia has lost a staggering 87 percent of the total number of active-duty ground troops it had before launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its tanks before the invasion, a source familiar with a declassified intelligence assessment told CNN.
Despite heavy losses in men and equipment, Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to press ahead as the second anniversary of the war approaches early next year, and U.S. officials warn that Ukraine remains very vulnerable.

A lot happens every day. Alliances shift, leaders change, and conflicts erupt. With In Brief, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Each week, experts will dig deep on a single issue happening in the world to help you better understand it. *** Last week, voters in Venezuela backed a referendum to assume control of an oil-rich region in neighboring Guyana.

The Australian Army’s capabilities are set to be enhanced as Hanwha Defense Australia prepares to deliver 129 new vehicles.
The post Australian Government signs deal for Redback vehicles appeared first on Army Technology.

We remember the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor as the beginning of America’s full involvement in WWII. 1942 saw the Doolittle Raiders strike back at the heart of Japan in April, the Battle of Midway turned back the Japanese fleet in June, and the Guadalcanal campaign saw the U.S. go on the offensive in August. However, the threat and fear of an invasion of the mainland was very real. Especially in coastal communities, wartime preparations were made, like the construction air raid bunkers and distribution of gas masks. In Washington, D.C.

Alf van Beem via Wikicommons
A U.S. warship destroyed a drone launched from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen after responding to reports of a commercial vessel coming under an anti-ship ballistic missile attack in the southern Red Sea, a U.S. official told The War Zone.
The latest in a series of Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping began around 8 a.m. local time when the M/T Ardmore Encounter reported that they were being approached by men in skiffs, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details.