Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is keeping up pressure on Turkey to drop plans to buy a Russian missile-defense system, stressing Washington’s desire to keep its NATO ally in the next-generation F-35 jet program. Speaking at a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, Shanahan said “we need Turkey to buy the Patriot,” referring to… read more
In a surprise, unscheduled national address on Wednesday, March 27, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the country had successfully carried out its first-ever anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test. The test, codenamed “Mission Shakti,” took three minutes and destroyed a target satellite at an altitude of 300 kilometers, in low-Earth orbit (LEO), Modi said. He applauded… read more
The National Defense Strategy is the undisputed driver of the president’s fiscal year 2020 budget request for the Defense Department, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan said today on Capitol Hill. Shanahan and Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee the $718 billion request… read more
The United States has hit Tehran with new sanctions, targeting 31 Iranian scientists, technicians, and companies it says have been involved in the country’s nuclear and missile research and development programs. In a statement on March 22, 2019, the U.S. State Department said the 14 individuals and 17 entities targeted were affiliated with Iran’s Organization… read more
UPI – Boeing was awarded a $4.1 billion contract to provide development services on the Ground-based Midcourse Defense anti-ballistic missile system. The new deal, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, combines with a $6.56 billion award Boeing awarded in January 2018 for upgrades to the GMD system, bringing the total value of the contract… read more
Popular Mechanics – We’ve heard plenty of bombastic claims about new Russian weaponry in the past few years. But U.S. intelligence believes that the development of new arms—many of them nuclear-capable—is experiencing decidedly mixed success. According to MSNBC, the Avangard and Kinzhal hypersonic weapons could be operational by 2020, but the Buresvestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile… read more
RT- Pakistan has deployed more Chinese medium-range air defense missiles across several cities and military bases, to prevent any intrusions after the Indian Air Force carried out cross-border anti-terrorist strikes last month. Five units of LY-80 (HQ-16) surface-to-air missiles (SAM) and IBIS-150 air defense surveillance radar units were spread across Pakistan following New Delhi’s strike… read more
WASHINGTON – The German foreign ministry declined to reveal statistics covering illegal Iranian efforts to secure nuclear and missile technology across Europe, according to a March 18 ministry letter reviewed by The Jerusalem Post. “A statistic in the field of foreign trade is not kept at the [German] customs criminal office,” in connection with the… read more
Stars and Stripes: YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Navy has sailed a guided-missile destroyer between mainland China and Taiwan for the third month in a row, contentious passages meant to ensure vessels can freely navigate there. The USS Curtis Wilbur and U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bertholf passed through the Taiwan Strait overnight Sunday into… read more
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford says he has no idea if North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is serious about the promises he has made to President Trump, including his pledge to continue a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests while talks over denuclearization continue. But Dunford told a forum at the Atlantic Council in… read more