In this edition of the Middle East Defense Digest, Breaking Defense Middle East Bureau Chief Agnes Helou catches you up on some of the biggest developments in the region — literally in the case of Egypt’s new and quite large military facilities. There are also takeaways for Turkey from the annual NATO summit, which was…
“Five thousand planes taking off from European bases based on bilateral basing agreements in the first, in the six weeks between end of February and mid-April, till a ceasefire came into force.” With Nato’s Nordic countries uncomfortably close to Russia’s massive cluster of nuclear-armed submarine bases in the Kola Peninsula on Russia’s Arctic coast, Rutte…
WASHINGTON — Hours after throwing some stinging jabs towards NATO members, President Donald Trump ended his trip to Ankara today with what appeared to be a more upbeat attitude toward the alliance and toward Ukraine, which he said could soon be allowed to produce their own Patriot air defense systems. “I just want to say…
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a longtime favorite punching bag of President Trump’s. At rallies and in interviews, he has repeatedly chastised members of the Western alliance for not spending enough on military budgets, criticized their armed forces as weak and suggested that the United States might not defend them in an attack. As…
At the summit, Sir Keir is expected to underline the threat posed by Russia to the UK and Nato. The government said Nato had scrambled fighter jets to intercept Russian aircraft approaching allied airspace more than 700 times and that Russian military activity around UK waters had surged 30%. Sir Keir is expected to stress…
In this episode of The Pentagon Buzz, Pentagon reporter Ashley Roque previews the 2026 NATO summit, which Turkey is hosting in its capital city of Ankara. The summit is the first since the recent announcement that the Pentagon is reviewing its troop posture across Europe, which could affect the future of trans-Atlantic relations. Subscribe to…
During a frozen morning in Arctic Norway, a group of British and Norwegian soldiers padded softly through a snow-blanketed birch forest. They were on a simulated NATO reconnaissance mission, among some 30,000 troops who took part in a drill rehearsing a counter-attack against an invading “enemy to the east,” a euphemism for Russia, Norway’s Arctic…
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 — European manufacturers have unveiled the latest iterations of two main battle tanks at Eurosatory, with the Franco-German group KNDS pitching a design for the French Army and Leonardo-Rheinmetall offering one for the Italian Army, both eyeing entry into service by 2030. KNDS showcased its new CaPINT Maine Battle Tank for the first time…
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…
