Defence`s Feeds

Closely examined by cyber specialists in the US and Taiwan, the first threat intelligence report from China's Pangu Lab, published

The US subsidiary of the Dutch Advanced Semiconductor Material Lithography (ASML) group, which is currently relaunching a public relations campaign

The Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) investments report presented on 2 February by the Fudan University's Green Finance & Development

The organisation of the first Franco-Russian hydrogen forum, which is currently due to be held on 12 September, 10 months

Though CMA CGM won the contract for the management of the Beirut container ship terminal on 17 February (IO, 17/02/22),

Americas

Lockheed Martin won a $128.2 million contract modification by the US Air Force for the exercise of an option for hardware spares and the partial exercise of an option for an additional 123 Lot 20 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) – Extended Range missiles with containers. According to the company, JASSM is a long-range, conventional, air-to-ground, precision standoff missile for the US and allied forces. Designed to destroy high-value, well-defended, fixed and relocatable targets, JASSM’s significant standoff range keeps aircrews well out of danger from hostile air defense systems. Work will take place in Florida and Alabama. Expected completion date is January 30, 2026.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) announced the awards of three prototype agreements worth approximately $1.8 billion to establish the foundation for Tranche 1 Transport Layer (T1TL), a mesh network of 126 optically-interconnected space vehicles (SV). The SVs will provide a resilient, low-latency, high-volume data transport communication system, and be ready for launch starting in September 2024.

Middle East & Africa

Kellogg Brown & Root Services won a $7.7 million contract modification for base operating support at several locations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The work to be performed provides for but is not limited to, all management, supervision, tools, materials, supplies, labor and transportation services necessary to perform galley services, laundry services, facility management, emergency service requests, urgent service, routing service, preventive maintenance, inspection, testing and certification, facilities investment, custodial, pest control service, integrated solid waste, grounds maintenance, wastewater, and base support vehicles, at Jebel Ali, Fujairah, Sas Al Nahkl and Al Minhad, United Arab Emirates. Work will take place in the UAE. Expected completion date is February 28, 2023.

Europe

The Italian Ministry of Defense’s Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness Directorate (DAAA) recently approved a contract for the technical-logistical support of the Air Force’s C-130J Super Hercules airlifter fleet. The agreement, which lasts five years and is worth a total of €380 million, was signed on January 28, 2022, between the Italian Air Force and the Temporary Business Grouping (RTI) formed by Leonardo, Avio Aero and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.

Finland will send weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Monday. This marks a shift in policy. The shipment will include 2,500 assault rifles, 150,000 bullets, 1,500 anti-tank weapons and 70,000 food packages, Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen said.

A cruise missile strike at the largest square of Europe, Freedom Square in Kharkiv leading to dozens of victims should be counted as a war crime said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “The cruise missile that struck Kharkiv, fired from the Russian city of Belgorod is terror against the city. There was no military target on the square. Just as in those residential areas of Kharkiv hit by rocket artillery. The rocket aimed at the central square is an outright, undisguised terror,” the president said in a statement posted on the Ukrainian MoD’s website.

Asia-Pacific

An anonymous defense official from India told The Hindu that Paris and New Delhi are close to concluding an agreement to develop the engine for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and French engine maker Safran will work together to develop the 125KN engine. Meanwhile, Girish S. Deodhare, Director General of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), says design configuration of the AMCA has been frozen.

Today’s Video

WATCH: Italy Signs €380M Technical Logistical Support Contact for C-130J Fleet!

Russian Losses in Ukraine

Russian Losses in Ukraine (April)

A number of major public works in Tel Aviv connected to the city's new underground service have woken up the Israeli authorities to the growing Chinese presence in Israel's economy (IO, 24/02/22). China's state-owned Changchun Railway Vehicle Co. (CRRC) and

The orbital data and risk management specialist Share My Space and its consortium are, according to our sources, in the

According to our sources, RSB Group, the company founded by former officers of Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, and

According to information gathered by Intelligence Online, the Belarusian military intelligence agency, the GRU, informed its Russian homologue, the GU

An information report submitted to France's National Assembly on 17 February by the information mission on defence issues in the

At a French senate hearing into the launch of a media campaign by the new French anti-foreign manipulation service Viginum,

The clamping down by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev against his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev's networks following January's violent protests in the country,

I was on the Defense One Radio Podcast on Friday, together with some other guests, talking about the larger context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. You can listen or read the transcript here. Here’s a sample:

Watson: I’m wondering, what is your read on this next generation of power brokers in Russia, and their interest in Putin’s kind of, you know, revanchist tendencies here?

Gorenburg: It’s, you know, it’s really hard to tell what, how things, you know, what any of these next generation people really think. And, you know, one movie that I think is well worth watching, not just for the history, but also for just when you start thinking about how a bunch of psychopaths interact with the Supreme Leader’s, is the “Death of Stalin.” And you see that kind of cow-towing, right? But also, what the actual history of that time tells us is that the survivors, the people who stuck around in positions of power became very good at hiding their true beliefs while Stalin was around. And so, we don’t really know what a lot of these people think, because the ones that had clear positions that were contrary to what Putin wants have been sidelined.

…

Watson: What are the long-game considerations that maybe the U.S. officials in the policy community may not have been thinking about as much as perhaps they ought to? 

Gorenburg: Well, I think we’re heading into clearly a time of NATO-Russia confrontation. A lot will depend on how this goes. If this goes well and easily for Putin, then I think the appetite may increase. If it becomes complicated and painful, then there’ll be a time of reckoning, recalculation, or even just a time of trying to assimilate what’s been gained. But if it does go well, then I worry a bit about Moldova, honestly.

The fact that a large delegation of Argentinian officials is quietly planning a trip to China in March is confirmation that hiding behind Buenos Aires's deal with the International Monetary Fund to restructure $44bn of its 2018 bailout lies a

According to our sources, the French private investigation firm Cristal Group, founded by former lawyer Kevin Rivaton, is poised to

At the heart of the conflict provoked by Moscow in Ukraine is the fate of the 11 Antonov cargo aircrafts

The large-scale World Defense Show (WDS), which will run from 6 to 9 March, and should put Riyadh on the