Congress is of a mind to allow the Pentagon to do more multiyear procurement—in the billions of dollars—particularly of munitions, given the situation in Ukraine and its implications for other potential conflicts, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante said.
One of the biggest lessons to emerge from the war in Ukraine is that weapons that are in production constitute a credible threat to adversaries, whereas weapons that are merely experimental—or are not actually being made in numbers—are not, according to William LaPlante, the Pentagon’s ...
With the Russian army pummeling Ukraine in Europe, and China increasingly threatening its neighbor Taiwan militarily in the Indo-Pacific, the Air National Guard has embraced the culture of can-do innovation at the core of agile combat employment.
A new $775 million security package to help Ukraine fight Russia includes 15 ScanEagle unmanned aerial systems for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance that a Pentagon official said “will enable the targeting of the whole host of artillery capabilities that Ukraine has available.” The official said ...
The Pentagon announced its latest drawdown package for Ukraine, valued at $1 billion and mainly comprising munitions for key systems. But any decision on whether to provide the Ukrainian Air Force with Western combat jets is still to be made, a key Defense Department official ...
Russia’s long-range bombers fire cruise missiles against Ukrainian civilian and military infrastructure nearly unimpeded, so Ukraine needs surface-to-air missile systems that can track and destroy cruise missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force's top enlisted leader told Air Force Magazine. Russian TU-160 and TU-135 strategic bombers take ...
While the air picture has remained static in the Russia-Ukraine war, the introduction of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems has allowed Ukraine to strike surface-to-air missile targets behind enemy lines. Now the U.S. is considering future aviation contributions in Ukraine. Defense officials painted a picture ...
Ukraine’s air space has been contested for more than five months, replete with advanced Russian fighter jets and near-universal Russian surface-to-air missile coverage that make penetration by aging Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29s and Su-25s both risky and dangerous. For the duration of that time, Ukrainian ...
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III held his fourth Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting virtually from the Pentagon amid practically a standstill on the Ukraine front lines in the eastern Donbas region. Austin announced a new presidential drawdown transfer of sophisticated rockets but no aircraft ...
The Pentagon announced a new $400 million aid package to Ukraine to include four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and high-precision ammunition, but a senior defense official said delivery of promised air defenses is still “several months” away. The aid package consists of ...
The Pentagon announced an $820 million aid package to Ukraine that includes the same advanced Norwegian air defense system used to protect the White House. Coupling that with recently arrived multiple-launch rocket systems, the Defense Department said it expects rapid battlefield gains in the Donbas ...
Turkey has agreed to allow Sweden and Finland to join NATO after early negotiations at the Madrid NATO Summit. The accession of Finland and Sweden, who formally applied to join NATO in May, had been an open question going into the summit after Turkey resisted. ...