Free Republic

President Trump officially commissioned the U.S. Navy's newest and largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday, applauding the military's strength. "When it comes to battle, we don't want a fair fight. We demand victory and we will have total victory, believe me," Mr. Trump said of the powerful aircraft carrier. "American steel and American hands have constructed a 100,000-ton message to the world," he added. "America's might is second to none."

The Berlin administration is reportedly going to suspend military cooperation with the Turkish state on top of the sanctions announced by the German Foreign Minister. According to an article in Bild, one of the best selling daily newspapers in Germany, the Merkel administration is suspending all armament projects with Turkey. The newspaper cites government sources for the article. This will be the first time a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member country suspends military cooperation with another member. Several German arms manufacturers have factories in Turkey. In the previous months, the German government had barred arms sales deals with Turkey,...

PARIS --- In less than a week, France’s boy president has managed to lose whatever credibility he enjoyed with his military establishment, which like the rest of the country was first attracted by his novel and refreshing approach to politics, and then swept off its feet by a promise to quickly boost defense spending to 2% of GDP. This was music to the ears of the armed forces, whose budget had only just begun to recover under Macron’s predecessor, François Hollande, from a quarter-century of hefty spending cuts, even as their foreign deployments and commitments increased in both number and...

China is producing naval vessels at a rate that will soon see the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) eclipse the US Navy (USN) in force structure and capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region. Sources indicate that China is intent on replacing the US as security guarantor for the region, and could use its position to force regional neighbours to serve as tributary states. China’s naval modernisation efforts are based entirely on modelling their navy after the US naval combatant structure, said Chris Cavas, a Washington-based naval analyst. They are emulating the USN’s ‘balanced fleet concept’, he said, with destroyers, frigates, logistics,...

India is estimated to have produced enough plutonium for 150-200 nuclear warheads, say US experts WASHINGTON: India continues to modernise its atomic arsenal with an eye on China and the country's nuclear strategy which traditionally focused on Pakistan now appears to place increased emphasis on the Communist giant, two top American nuclear experts have said. An article published in the July-August issue of the digital journal - After Midnight - has also claimed that India is now developing a missile which can target all of China from its bases in South India. India is estimated to have produced enough plutonium...

BEIJING: China will downsize its 2.3 million-strong army, the world's largest, to under one million in the biggest troop reduction in its history as part of a restructuring process, an official Chinese daily said. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) will increase the numbers of other services, including navy and missile forces, the PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese military, reported. Jun Zhengping Studio, a Chinese social WeChat account run by the newspaper published an article yesterday on structural reform in China's military, saying that "the old military structure, where the army accounts for the vast majority, will be...

A deal Poland is expected to sign with the United States to buy the Patriot missile system includes interceptor missiles from Israel's David Sling system. The deal with US firm Raytheon, worth up to $7.6 billion, will see Poland buy eight Patriot missile defense systems by the end of the year. Poland's Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz announced the deal on Thursday morning, during US President Donald Trump's visit to Warsaw. An illustration of the system in action (Photo: Raytheon) "A memorandum was signed tonight that the US government has agreed to sell Poland Patriot missiles in the most modern configuration,"...

In September this year, a new building will begin to take shape at the Indian Air Force’s frontline Ambala base in the northern state of Haryana, home to the country’s Jaguar fighter-bomber fleet. Within this new building will be equipment Indian pilots have only encountered before at air shows demonstrations and bilateral exercises with foreign forces. The equipment is a set of synthetic collective training simulators built by French firm Sogitec and is almost absurdly ahead of anything IAF crews have had the luxury of calling their own. If you’re wondering about the title of this report, we chose it...

The Embraer Super Tucano is the sole compliant bidder for a Philippines Air Force (PAF) requirement for a new close air support (CAS) aircraft. The PAF has prioritized CAS and air to ground munitions procurement as a result of the takeover by Muslim extremist insurgents of the city of Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao. An Embraer spokesperson said the company is committed to fulfilling the requirement. The PAF is seeking six aircraft for CAS to complement, and eventually replace its aging fleet of OV-10 Bronco twin turboprops. The Broncos have recently flown missions over Marawi, dropping 500-pound Mk...

China's launched its first Type 055 destroyer today—the most advanced surface combatant Beijing has ever designed and fielded. Pictures of the visually striking ship whipped around the internet, with many people being surprised that China was producing such an impressive warship. The truth is, the Type 055 is the J-20 stealth fighter/interceptor of the high-seas, and it not only is a showcase of China's rapidly evolving surface warfare and weapons development capabilities, but also a sign of what Beijing's overall maritime strategy will be in the not so distant future. When it comes to the Chinese Navy, the Type 055...

A new sea-based missile system was presented to the world on June 28 during a naval show in St. Petersburg. However, the project hasn’t yet been greenlighted by the Ministry of Defense, so it remains to be seen if it will be adopted by the Russian military. What’s the difference between the sea and land versions? The new “Pantsir-ME” will be able to intercept missiles during rough seas, rain, wind, and even storms. It will also be more compact and covered with an anticorrosive sheath to ensure its longevity. “The biggest difference is that ‘Pantsir-S’ missiles have to intercept targets...

The Donald Trump Pentagon, in so many words, is saying that the Obama administration’s decision to waive punitive sanctions and buy combat helicopters from Russia was a bad deal. The Pentagon’s first congressionally required report on Afghanistan under President Trump says the Russian Mi-17 chopper has proved a failure in the long war and will be phased out in favor of American-made UH-60 Black Hawks. The Obama administration came to realize the failure in its last weeks in office and stopped the deal. The report this month on “Enhancing Security and Stability in Afghanistan” marks official confirmation that the Russian...

South Korea has successfully fired a fourth prototype Hyunmoo-2C short-range ballistic missile, which can reach any target in North Korea. The country’s new President Moon Jae-in lauded the test, which follows months of North Korean missile launches and escalating rhetoric on the Korean Peninsula, as in line with his administration’s foreign policy plans. On June 23, 2017, the South Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) conducted the test at its own facility approximately 120 miles southwest of Seoul. Video of launch showed the system’s standard semi-containerized truck-mounted launcher onboard either a ship or a sea platform. ADD, the country’s state-run...

The Senate on Tuesday narrowly turned back a bipartisan bid to rebuke Saudi Arabia and reject President Donald Trump's plan to sell the kingdom more than $500 million in precision-guided munitions, sparing the new Republican administration an embarrassing defeat. The vote Tuesday was 53-47, clearing the way for the sale to be finalized. The precision munitions are part of Trump's proposed $110 billion arms package to Riyadh, which the administration said would create U.S. jobs while also improving a key ally's military capability. But opponents of the deal, led by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have been...

American aerospace giant Boeing and France's Dassault Aviation are among the four entities that have responded to he Indian Navy’s 'Request for Interest (RFI)' to provide 57 multi-role carrier borne fighters, industry sources said. The other two are Sweden's SAAB and Rosoboronexport of Russia. While Boeing has pitched its F/A-18 Super Hornet, Dassault has briefed the navy on its Rafale. SAAB has offered the maritime variant of its Gripen single-engine fighter jet. Naval Chief Sunil Lanba confirmed the development. "We will examine the RFI and take it forward," he told this newspaper. The deal is valued over Rs 50,000 crore....

Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi middleman-for-hire who amas­sed huge wealth and influence peddling everything from American weapons to favors for Riyadh’s rulers and CIA spymasters, only to see his fortunes collapse amid the Iran-contra affair and other scandals, died June 6 at a hospital in London. He was 81, by most accounts. The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, the family said in a statement reported by the Associated Press. Mr. Khashoggi’s name may have lost its luster since his peak in the 1970s and 1980s, but not so the list of misdeeds and abuses that remain defining events of the...

Though Russian officials have delayed plans to move forward with two of its major surface ship programs indefinitely, including a new aircraft carrier, the Kremlin insists it will move ahead with work on a modern amphibious assault ship. Despite assurances to the contrary, there is little evidence that the country’s shipbuilding infrastructure is anymore ready for this task, and the project could easily end up deferred in the face of other priorities. On June 4, 2017, Russia’s state-owned news outlet Sputnik reported that the Ministry of Defense had included the proposed Lavina-class amphibious assault ship in its up-coming modernization plan,...

Boeing believes it has prospects and contracts for its F-15 Strike Eagle aircraft up until at least 2019 and likely beyond 2022. The company has deliveries ongoing for Saudi Arabia, which has ordered 84 aircraft, as well as an undisclosed customer and, according to a company official, is about to sign another contract with an unnamed operator, believed to be Qatar, for up to 72 aircraft. Over the last seven years the company has carried out major improvements to the original variant which has meant, according to officials, taking the life of the aircraft from 9,000 flight hours to 20,000...

As Russia is building literally a new armada of new icebreakers, ice-capable supply ships, a massive arctic "research" submarine and icebreaker surface combatants armed with cruise missiles, the Pentagon is now looking at arming its relatively tiny fleet of future icebreakers with similar weapons as well. The revelation came during a House subcommittee on Homeland Security hearing where Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft was discussing the service's plans to build three new medium icebreakers, with the first delivery occurring by 2023. A major design study is underway now and the nature of the icebreaker's capabilities still remain up for...

RIYADH // Lockheed Martin said on Sunday it inked a US$28 billion deal with Saudi Arabia to supply a wide range of military equipment and set up a facility to assemble about 150 S-70 Black Hawk helicopters. The deal is part of an estimated $110bn of defence agreements signed on Saturday between the US and Saudi Arabia, where President Donald Trump is leading a high-level delegation on his first international trip since taking office. The Lockheed deals will create 18,000 skilled jobs in the US and thousands of jobs in Saudi Arabia as both countries seek to be active in...