The U.S. Air Force has already flown multiple prototypes of the new F-47 fighter, which is part of the Next Generation Air Dominance program that includes uncrewed loyal wingman drones and new adaptive engines. It is planned to be cheaper than the F-22, with a larger fleet and an export version.
Europe appears to have accepted the prospect of acting independently of the United States, with a new rearmament program proposed by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, last week.
Ukraine has agreed to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia in exchange for resumption of suspended military aid and intelligence after talks between the two countries in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
As NATO races to supply Ukraine before Trump takes office, Europe is struggling to touch two percent of its GDP on defence expenditure while Russia plans to spend more than 32 percent of its national budget on its military.
Romania has signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance for 32 F-35A aircraft that are expected to cost around $6.4 billion. Romania already operates the Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter and has become the 20th member of the club of F-35 operator countries.
A total of 168 KC-46A tankers are on contract around the world with the latest order for the aircraft worth $2.38 billion. The order for the P-8A worth $1.6 billion brings the number of aircraft on contract to 207, of which 135 have been ordered by eight other countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “has long since switched completely to a war economy,” and the country is currently producing as many weapons and ammunition in three months as the entire European Union does in a year, Pistorius said.
F-35C fighters from the U.S. Marine Corps’ VMFA 314 squadron aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln conducted multiple strikes on Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen. The F-35C stealth fighter model has longer, folding wings and, like the F/A-18, is designed to be launched from the catapults of aircraft carriers, allowing it to carry heavier payloads than the F-35B.
The strategy paper that is said to be an evolving, ‘living document,’ includes ‘detailed plans’ for eventualities that range from defending Germany to deterring Russian manoeuvres on NATO’s eastern flank and anticipates that Germany might have to become a ‘hub for tens or hundreds of thousands of troops’ that have to be transported east, besides logistics for war materiel.
Ukraine struck Russia’s Bryansk region with U.S.-supplied ATACMS systems while President Vladimir Putin has signed into decree, his country’s revised nuclear doctrine, which has enlarged the conditions under which adversaries would be subject to nuclear deterrence.
Damage to submarine communication cables between new NATO members Finland and Sweden and their alliance partners Germany and Lithuania was likely sabotage, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday. “No one believes that these cables were cut by mistake,” Pistorius said in Brussels at an EU defence ministers meeting to discuss the different threats facing the European Union.
Shortly before the conversation with Putin, however, Scholz also reiterated in remarks to parliament that Germany would not supply Ukraine with the long-range Taurus cruise missiles, which Ukraine has repeatedly requested.
Russian officials did not, however, specify the country that has ordered the aircraft, the export variant of which is called the Sukhoi-57E. Potential customers for the Sukhoi-57 in the past have included India, China, Vietnam and Algeria.
The nomination of a television program co-host with credentials lighter than a feather, for the senior cabinet position of Secretary of Defense, will make it easier to side-line or remove senior military officers whom Trump has said he would fire for being ‘woke.’
An analysis of the military capabilities of the Western alliance and Russia “leaves no doubt about NATO’s overall military superiority.” Only in terms of nuclear weapons do the two sides have parity, concluded the study’s authors.
