KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian firm behind many of the long-range drone strikes that now regularly hit Russian oil refineries hundreds of miles inside its borders is moving into missile defense, signing a major deal this month to build a low-cost ballistic missile interceptor with foreign partners — a turn that positions the company as…
The research infrastructure that underpins America’s prowess in defense technology is “deteriorating,” according to a Department of Defense report released Wednesday. One reason is that research funds are being diverted to operations. The Pentagon’s “research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) infrastructure is deteriorating and weakening the Department’s ability to maintain a technically advanced warfighting capability,”…
President Donald Trump’s administration asked the U.S. Congress on Wednesday for $87.6 billion in additional funding, most of it for “urgent needs” related to the Iran war, as well as for a response to the Ebola outbreak in Africa. The request, posted on the White House website, included $67.15 billion for the military. The White…
The U.S. Senate backed legislation on Tuesday directing President Donald Trump to halt U.S. military action against Iran, the latest rebuke of the Republican president from an increasingly restive Congress. The Senate voted 50-48 in favor of the war powers resolution, which passed the House of Representatives early this month, reflecting growing concern even among…
U.S. Marines in Okinawa this month formally received the installation’s first Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System and Marine Air Defense Integrated System, the service announced. The delivery is the service’s latest integration of modernized defenses in the increasingly contested Indo-Pacific. The two systems, NMESIS and MADIS, were welcomed by personnel from the 12th Marine Littoral…
U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning IIs made a historic first impression on Finland this month, when the service’s air crews conducted a series of unorthodox flight operations from a highway in Tervo. The aircraft, assigned to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing’s Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 224 (VMFA-224), became the service’s first to deploy to the…
PARIS — KNDS, the French-German maker of the Leopard tank and the Caesar truck-mounted gun, pitched a new howitzer with a barrel longer than any NATO production artillery, which the company said gives the weapon a range of up to 60 kilometers (37 miles) with standard high-explosive shells. The howitzer uses KNDS Germany’s Artillery Gun…
A Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber plane crashed on Monday in Siberia’s Irkutsk region during a training flight, the Russian Defence Ministry said, but the aircraft’s four-person crew had managed to safely eject. The Tu-22, which can carry hypersonic “Kinzhal” missiles and is code-named “Backfire” by NATO, is a Soviet-era supersonic bomber that Russia has since…
PARIS — French Army Chief of Staff Gen. Pierre Schill, in the job since July 2021, has led the country’s land forces in a push toward higher readiness and preparation for high-intensity warfare, incorporating lessons from Ukraine while preparing for networked and drone-enabled conflict. In an interview ahead of the Eurosatory defense show here, which…
The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter’s readiness rates continued to decline through fiscal 2025, with the fleet’s full mission capable rate falling to 25%, according to a new Government Accountability Office report released Thursday. The mission capable rate, which measures the percentage of time aircraft can perform at least one of their tasked missions,…
