For weeks, Ukrainian troops braced for an unfamiliar enemy: North Korean soldiers sent to bolster Moscow’s forces after Ukraine launched a lightning-fast incursion and seized territory in Russia’s Kursk region over the summer. Their arrival marked a new and alarming phase in the war. And while initially inexperienced on the battlefield, North Korean troops have adapted quickly—a development that could have far-reaching consequences as they gain combat knowledge in the war against Ukraine.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that his military has captured two North Korean soldiers fighting on the Russian side in the Kursk region, likely the first such development since Pyongyang dispatched soldiers to help with the Kremlin’s war in Eastern Europe.
Military bases throughout North America will resume a program that makes it easier for Defense Department personnel to bring visitors onto base, one week after it was suspended amid heightened security concerns from public attacks on New Year’s Day.
The Army is scouring industry for unmanned aircraft systems to launch from medium- or high-altitude platforms that would perform tasks like intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, according to a request for information posted to the federal business opportunities portal Sam.gov.
Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has unveiled a new loitering munition dubbed Rezvan, which it says has a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) range, according to Iranian media. ... The unveiling of the Rezvan came around the same time as separate reports in Iranian media said the military planned to acquire 1,000 “strategic” drones in “coming days.”
We begin our look at the major airpower issues in the year ahead, and China’s Boxing Day surprise, with Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. And we have a lot—a whole lot—of headlines in airpower.
An upcoming executive order soon to be signed by President Joe Biden will include language around using artificial intelligence for cyber defense, along with efforts to broadly tighten the cybersecurity of federal technologies, according to a summary of the executive order shared with POLITICO.
After a year marked by war and calls for isolating Israel on the world stage, its defense industry is on track to sell more weapons than ever in its history, spurred by foreign demand for its aerial-defense systems and significant government spending aimed at funding Israel’s ongoing military campaigns.
The Navy is soliciting industry for handheld, counter-drone systems that use electronic countermeasures to defend against small, unmanned aircraft systems, according to a request for information published this week.
The Danish territory of Greenland and its strategic importance for the U.S. and NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) have been making headlines recently. Largely lost in the media furor, however, are the reasons why Greenland is vital for North American security. One of those reasons concerns the role of a crucial military installation on the world's largest island: Pituffik Space Base.
