On November 2, 2023, the U.S. Senate confirmed Adm. Lisa Franchetti as the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations. With her confirmation, Franchetti became the first woman to hold the position as the Navy’s top officer. Moreover, she is the first woman to serve in the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prior to her confirmation, Franchetti served as the Vice Chief of Naval Operations and functionally served as CNO in an acting capacity.
Adm. Lisa Franchetti’s VCNO portrait (U.S.

We received this letter from a reader

Image by Wellcome

Submitted by anonymous…
In early 2020, I contracted Covid.
I became dreadfully sick on the 5th day. I literally couldn’t move for a week.
I told my children that I loved them, and didn’t think I was going to make it.
A friend who is a doctor prescribed me Hydroxychloroquine, as he believed it would help reduce the viral load.
A family member went to the pharmacy and tried to fill the prescription. The woman at the counter asked if it was for Covid. He replied, “Yes.”
She refused to fill the precription.

MBDA Deutschland
More than five months after the possibility of Germany supplying air-launched Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missiles to Ukraine was first put forward, authorities in Berlin have yet to move forward with such a plan. However, if or when that decision is made, it will take around six more months to modify Ukrainian Su-24 Fencer swing-wing strike jets to carry them and train the crews of those aircraft to employ them, according to a report based on comments from the head of the company responsible for manufacturing the missiles.

At D-Day, Allied forces had superiority of fire thanks to Navy ships offshore, air superiority, and three-to-one ratio of forces. While it took great courage to climb into the landing crafts, the odds of success at Normandy were actually good. But forces assigned to the infamous Omaha Beach faced a stacked deck. And two coincidences that intel and planners missed made it worse.
First, a recently arrived, well-trained, veteran grenadier regiment held the naturally strong defensive positions overlooking the beach.

The National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, is probably one of the coolest military museums in the world, and might be the number one military museum in America. It has a number of massive hangars that act as galleries for aircraft, from the beginning of aviation to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They even have a few ICBMs and atomic bombs on display.
It’s important to remember that a lot of these aircraft were actually used in American wars, and as a result, some of the crew members died aboard the aircraft on display.

Hamas screencap
Hamas on Thursday released an intense video highlighting a real-time example of one of the biggest concerns Israeli military planners doubtlessly had for their invasion of Gaza.
The 84-second video is shot from a helmet-mounted camera. It shows a Hamas fighter hiding under the cover of bushes after popping out of a tunnel or hide as an Israeli Merkava main battle tank rumbles down a dusty road east of Gaza City’s Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Pentagon leaders released a new, long-awaited strategic plan that revamps and redefines how U.S. military and defense components adopt and deploy crucial data, analytics and AI capabilities — particularly as they prepare for higher-tech conflicts down the line.
The 2023 Department of Defense Data, Analytics, and AI Adoption Strategy was produced by the Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) and unveiled by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks at a Pentagon press briefing on Thursday.

Christian Beyer, 41, threatened to shoot sliders at Fort Irwin in Youtube videos, according to federal authorities. He was arrested Wednesday in California.
A former soldier who threatened to shoot his way onto Fort Irwin to kill soldiers there is facing federal charges of making interstate threats after being arrested in the northern California town of Petaluma.
Christian Beyer, 41, was arrested and booked into Sonoma County jail on Wednesday after Petaluma police received a call about a disturbance at a local home.

USN
The U.S. Navy drone speedboat armed with Switchblade 300 loitering munitions was able to successfully destroy multiple mock targets at sea during a recent test. A combination like this could be useful in various contexts, including providing close-in protection against swarms of small crewed and uncrewed boats. This also underscores the Navy’s interest, as well as that of the U.S. Marine Corps, in various tiers of armed drone boats capable of carrying out defensive and offensive missions.

The Pentagon organization tasked with spearheading the adoption of artificial intelligence capabilities and other digital tools across the department will hold a conference Nov. 30 to brief industry on its procurement plans, according to a special notice published Thursday.
The inaugural Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO) procurement forum is scheduled to take place at an office building in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia.

Yemen’s Houthi group, a powerful militant organization, has been launching long-range missile attacks on southern Israel since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7. Israel, with the assistance of a US Navy destroyer, successfully intercepted two of the largest attacks on October 19 and 31.
If these attacks continue, which is likely as the Gaza conflict persists, Israel may need to deploy its advanced Sa’ar 6-class corvettes in the Red Sea to counter the various air and maritime threats posed by the Houthis.

The Israeli push into Gaza has effectively encircled Gaza City and isolated northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged Palestinian enclave, the United Nations said Thursday.
“Gaza City and northern Gaza have been ‘largely cut off’ from the rest of the strip as a result of the Israeli ground operations and related clashes with Palestinian armed groups,” according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

UK Government invests £256m in its large Cyprus military estate, the second contract in the DIO’s OPC programme, amid geopolitical tension.
The post UK DIO invests £256m in the MoD’s large Cyprus estate appeared first on Army Technology.

Poland has received two AW149 helicopters for its land forces, the same aircraft competing for the UK’s New Medium Helicopter project.
The post Poland induct the AW149 competing to be UK’s New Medium Helicopter appeared first on Army Technology.

Badass alert. This soldier is Skilled in combat as an infantryman, static and freefall parchute operations, air assault operations, and space operations.(creative commons/Wikimedia).
You’re in the checkout line at the shoppette on base, just picking up a few cans of energy drinks to get you through the day. Then you see it. You can’t help but look. Some super-soldier walks in looking like a third-world dictator with how many skill badges they have stacked on their uniform. So. Much. Chest lettuce, you think. Then they look right at you as if to say, hey, my eyes are up here.

Israeli Air Force
Israel has acknowledged that its fleet of F-35I stealth fighters is playing an active role in the current Gaza conflict, with the announcement today that these jets were recently used to intercept and bring down a cruise missile. As well as verifying that these advanced aircraft are engaged in the fighting, this is also the first confirmation that an F-35I has been used to bring down a target of this kind.

L3Harris Technologies enhances the fire control systems on rocket launch vehicles to keep up with the modern battlefield standards.
The post L3Harris wins $124m rocket launch vehicle fire control systems contract appeared first on Army Technology.

In 2014, T.X. Hammes wrote “Israel and the Demise of ‘Mowing the Grass‘” for War on the Rocks, in which he wrote that Israel’s practice of “mowing the grass,” in which they routinely “conduct a major operation[s] to reduce Hamas’ capabilities” could cost Israel in terms of international support and its own military casualties. In light of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, Israel’s subsequent air campaign and, now, the ground campaign in Gaza, we asked T.X. to look back on his article. Read more below. Image via Sgt.

The Senate confirmed Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti as the first woman to serve as Chief of Naval Operations on Nov. 2, 2023. (Jim Cleveland/U.S. Navy).
In the first of what is expected to be three high profile confirmation votes, the Senate has confirmed Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti as Chief of Naval Operations. In assuming the job, she becoms the first woman to be a permanent member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Senate Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is also seeking a floor vote on the nominations for Air Force Chief of Staff and Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.

An unmanned surface vessel operated by Task Force 59 successfully hit a target boat with a “Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System” during an exercise last week, according to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.
The task force, which falls under 5th Fleet, has been using a variety of drones and artificial intelligence capabilities to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions in the Middle East area of operations to monitor Iranian military assets and other activity.

An LMAMS is launched from a T38 Devil Ray USV during Exercise ‘Digital Talon’ on 23 October. (US Navy)

The US 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59 has fitted an unmanned surface vessel (USV) with the Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System (LMAMS),

the fleet revealed on 2 November.

After MBDA Germany and Rheinmetall trialled their LWD, the Bundeswehr has put forward requirements for further development.
The post Bundeswehr wants more from its high-energy Laser Weapon Demonstrator appeared first on Army Technology.

Footage released on 2 November by the Israeli Air Force showing the moments before an F-35I shoots down a Houthi cruise missile. (Israeli Air Force)
An Israeli Air Force (IAF) Lockheed Martin F-35I Adir combat aircraft shot down a cruise missile fired from Yemen by the Iranian-backed Ansar Allah group, known as Houthis.
The IAF announced the event on 2 November, releasing F-35I electro-optical targeting system (EOTS) footage of the engagement.
“In recent days, the IAF’s control and detection systems identified a cruise missile launched from the southeast towards Israeli airspace.

Veteran’s Day was formally created by a Congressional request to the President in 1926 to celebrate Armistice Day at the end of World War One. Then, in 1954, at the urging of major Veteran organizations, it was renamed Veterans Day to honor Active Duty and Veteran service members. Since then, the holiday has become a time for our country to reflect on those currently serving in uniform at home and abroad, and to pay tribute to their sacrifices.

This article is sponsored by Navy Federal Credit Union. Navy Federal Credit Union is federally insured by NCUA.
Veterans Day is a time to honor and express gratitude to the brave men and women who have served in the United States military. It’s a day to recognize their sacrifices, courage, and dedication to our country.
Here are five meaningful ways to spend Veterans Day as a family, including activities that offer military discounts:
1. Visit a military museum or historical site
One fantastic way to spend Veterans Day as a family is by visiting a military museum or historical site.

The crew of an MH-60 Knighthawk helicopter from the Navy’s Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 hoists missing divers to safety off the coast of Guam on Oct. 28, 2023. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Oliver Menet/U.S. Coast Guard).
The Coast Guard used a high tech tracking buoy to help a Navy helicopter search the right area to find three missing scuba divers, who had drifted away from their dive boat off the coast of Guam, Coast Guard and Navy officials said.

A South Korean defense research body has recommended reducing production of domestically produced KF-21 fighter jets.
Concerns over price competitiveness and uncertainties surrounding the South Korean KF-21 Boramae project have led the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis to recommend reducing initial production volume.
The original plan called for the production of 120 KF-21 fighters by 2032, but this could now be reduced.
Launched in 2015 with a budget of 8.9 trillion won (about $6.

The Indian Navy has retired the last of its Ilyushin Il-38 ‘Sea Dragon’ maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) after more than four decades in service.
The deactivation of India’s last Il-38s took place at INS Hansa near Goa on October 31, according to the country’s Defense Ministry.
“With its unique capabilities, striking power and extended range covering the vast Indian Ocean region, the Il-38 SD has proven over the years to be a formidable force multiplier,” the ministry says.
The model has been in service with the Indian Navy since 1977, serving with 315 Sqn.

The first training sortie for the reformed 42 Squadron was flown on 26 September. (Crown Copyright)
The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has reformed 42 Squadron as a joint operational conversion unit (OCU) for its Boeing 737-based aircraft, it announced on 1 November.
Most latterly the former OCU for the BAC Nimrod MR2 maritime patrol aircraft before its disbandment in 2010, 42 Sqn was stood up at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland on 21 September.

Washington, over the past 20 years, has not focused on monitoring Hamas but has relied on information from Israel, causing Hamas’ raids to cause damage to the two countries, according to US media.

US intelligence has almost stopped tracking Hamas and other Palestinian Muslim organizations since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to free up resources to hunt for senior members of al-Qaeda, the perpetrators of the attack. Attack, and the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS), WSJ, on November 1, quoted unnamed US officials as saying.

One of the two embarked F-35Bs from VX-23 completes an SRVL recovery to HMS
Prince of Wales
during DT-3 testing. The SRVL manoeuvre is designed to significantly increase bring-back payload.
( Kyra Helwick/DVIDS)
The UK Royal Navy (RN) and the US F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) are progressing new trials of the shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) recovery manoeuvre onboard the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.

Our youth face the consequences for their socialist/democrat votes
Gen-Zers are making it clear they will not fight any wars for the military-industrial complex. 
Besides war, he said, “We [Gen-Z] have things to do nowadays, like work and be bisexual.” 
They never learned the wise man’s words — ‘Respect your elders, and learn from them.’

Your #GenZ nugget for the night. Prepare accordingly. 😆 pic.twitter.

South Korean intelligence believes that North Korea, in the past three months, has transferred more than a million artillery shells to Russia for use in the conflict with Ukraine.

After a congressional hearing with intelligence agencies, Congressman Yoo Sang-bum said on October 1 that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) believes that North Korea transferred the above artillery shells to Russia by trains and other means of transport since August. This amount of ammunition is enough for the Russian army to use for two months on the battlefield in Ukraine.
According to Mr.

The US detonated a Minuteman III missile without a warhead over the Pacific Ocean because the projectile encountered problems after leaving the launch pad.

“Delta 30 unit safely destroyed an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Minuteman III without a warhead in the Pacific Ocean in the early morning of November 1, due to an unusual incident after launching from the space base. Vandenberg headquarters in California,” the US Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) said.

Israeli intelligence claims to use AI technology to quickly and accurately identify targets in the campaign against Hamas.

The General Directorate of Military Intelligence of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on November 2 that hundreds of soldiers in this country are “making efforts to identify new targets on a large scale.” One senior official said that the adversary’s actions during the war “created new opportunities” for intelligence.

Officials have stated the US has the ability to sustain support to both Ukraine and Israel as each engages in respective combat operations.
The post US DoD heads to Senate for extra $55bn to support Israel and Ukraine appeared first on Army Technology.

Leidos reported a net loss of £396m in their Q3 results, attributed to non-cash impairments from its Security Enterprise Solutions unit.
The post Signal: Checkpoint security drills $396m net loss into Leidos Q3 financials appeared first on Army Technology.

It is time to clarify some crucial points: the term “refugee camp,” which is often associated with Gaza, has its origin in 1948, in a context where Gaza was part of Egyptian territory since the consolidation of Egypt as a state in 1922.
Refugee camps, designed as provisional solutions after forced displacement, seek to facilitate the eventual resettlement of those affected. However, war brings territorial and demographic changes that sometimes complicate this process.

The beginning of November brought news from the Ministry of Defense, announcing a significant agreement between  Norway,  Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace  (KDA) and the American firm  Raytheon to advance the development of the  NASAMS missile system.
Norway and the US Strengthen Defense Cooperation  Bjørn Arild Gram [Sp], the Minister of Defense, highlighted in a recent press conference that this new agreement between KDA and  Raytheon marks the beginning of a promising era for the NASAMS  defense system, enhancing its ability to counter emerging threats.

A scale model of the ADE Abhyas at ADMS 2023. (Janes/Akshara Parakala)
Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) – an agency under the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) – revealed an updated configuration of the Abhyas High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) at the eighth Aerospace & Defence Manufacturing Show (ADMS) 2023 held in Bangalore on 26 and 27 October.
The original configuration of Abhyas was launched in 2013 and featured twin underslung boosters.

Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa nominated 61 generals for promotion late Tuesday night, drawing individual objections to each from Sen. Tommy Tuberville, center, who has held up close to 400 promotions since February. Video captures from C-Span.
Two Republican Senators with military backgrounds took direct public aim at Sen. Tommy Tuberville Tuesday night, aiming barbed and even mocking comments at the Alabama lawmaker while forcing him to stand on the Senate floor 61 times to publicly objectto the promotions of generals and admirals.

Defense Minister Shoigu said that Russian air defense only needed 20 days to take down all the F-16 fighters that the West pledged to transfer to Ukraine.

“Over the past month, air defense units intercepted more than 1,400 weapons and air attack vehicles of the Ukrainian armed forces, including 37 aircraft and 6 US-made ATACMS tactical missiles,” Minister Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting on November 1.
According to Mr. Shoigu, 37 Ukrainian fighter jets were downed, “nearly twice the number of fighter jets pledged to be transferred to Ukraine.

The post Excellence Awards Guide appeared first on Army Technology.

A scale model of the ADE Archer (SRUAV-W) pictured at ADMS 2023. (Janes/Akshara Parakala)
India’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) – an agency under the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) – has disclosed new details about the development and testing of its new Short-Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Weaponised (SRUAV-W) – also known as ‘Archer’.

MBDA Deutschland is offering more applications for the Enforcer missile system, including anti-tank, air-launched, and V/SHORAD versions. (MBDA)
MBDA Deutschland presented international journalists visiting the company on 27 October with more applications for the Enforcer missile system being procured by the Bundeswehr for its Leichtes Wirkmittel 1800+ requirement for a lightweight, day/night, precision-guided, shoulder-launched 89 mm weapon with a range of more than 1,800 m. The new applications are anti-tank, air-launched, and very short- and short-range air defence (V/SHORAD).

Denmark is now the third country in Europe after Norway and the Netherlands to acquire the Thales Ground Master 200 Multi Mission Compact radar. (Thales)
Denmark will acquire five new Thales Ground Master 200 Multi Mission Compact (GM200 MM/C) radars under a government-to-government deal with the Netherlands.

The shock of Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault continues to reverberate around the world amidst fears it will be the catalyst for a wider regional war. Many observers are comparing it to the 1973 Yom Kippur war, arguing that Israel repeated many of the same mistakes in failing to anticipate the attack. But this was more than an intelligence failure. It was failure of imagination. Israel grew comfortable managing its relationship with Hamas in Gaza, keeping rocket attacks and suicide bombings to a relatively low level for almost a decade.

USAF
The U.S. Air Force says an unarmed LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was “safely terminated” over the Pacific Ocean after an unspecified “anomaly” occured during a routine test launch overnight. A delegation from South Korea also observed this particular test, in line with a new bilateral strategic cooperation agreement the country signed with the United States earlier this year.
The most recent LGM-30G missile test flight came to an end at approximately 12:06 AM PST, according to a press release from Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC).

NASAMS, or the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, is the world’s first Network-Centric short-to-medium-range ground-based air defense system. It features numerous simultaneous engagements and Beyond Visual Range capabilities that are tightly integrated and tailored to a nation’s integrated air and missile defense.
NASAMS’ network widens the protected area and improves the Armed Forces‘ overall combat capacity. It has been evolving continuously since its inception in Norway.

U.S. Green Berets and elite Marine special operators are learning languages that aren’t always useful on deployments and missions abroad, a Government Accountability Office report found.
And those elite troops often let their skills in those languages lapse as their careers go on.
The new report sites examples like Special Forces soldiers who learn French as their assigned language, but find it useless in most European assignments, especially since the U.S. trains directly with French forces less often than many other allies in the region.