At Exercise ‘Talisman Sabre', which took place in Queensland, Australia, in July and August 2023, the NZDF participated in joint drills incorporating activities including air combat and maritime operations, amphibious landings, and ground force manoeuvres. (Tim Fish)
New Zealand's first National Security Strategy (NSS) was released on 4 August alongside the first two parts of a new defence review that highlight the threats the country faces and how it plans to respond.
The NSS is a cross-governmental analysis of the challenges that face New...
A Royal Australian Navy MH-60R helicopter conducts an in-flight refuel while embarked on HMAS Ballarat . (Department of Defence, Commonwealth of Australia)
The Australian government has moved to strengthen fuel supplies to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in line with requirements outlined in its Defence Strategic Review (DSR) to significantly enhance the management and supply of military fuel.
In recent weeks the Australian Department of Defence (DoD) has awarded two major contracts to local suppliers tha...
Swedish Leopard 2 MBTs and CV90 AFVs donated to Ukraine will receive additional ammunition from Sweden following a military aid package. (Krauss-Maffei Wegmann)
The Swedish government is preparing a SEK3.4 billion (USD313.4 million) military aid package for Ukraine, the authority announced on 15 August.
The assistance includes ammunition and spare parts for several of the equipment donated to Ukraine by Sweden, including the CV90 armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) and Leopard 2 main battle tanks (MBTs).
In addition, Sweden intends to supply...
Defence Minister Andrew Little releases the defence policy papers in Wellington, New Zealand, on 4 August. (Tim Fish)
The New Zealand Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched a National Security Strategy (NSS) alongside the first two parts of a new defence policy that prioritises enhancing security in the Pacific.
Released on 4 August the two policy papers include the Defence Policy and Strategy Statement (DPSS) and Future Force Design Principles (FFDP). Along with the NSS, these set the framework for future decisions about the New Zealand De...
HII is working on workforce issues to help stabilise Virginia-class submarine construction. (Janes/Michael Fabey)
Meeting labour hiring and retention goals will help get the Virginia-class submarine (VCS) programme back on schedule, HII president and CEO Chris Kastner said on 3 August during a quarterly call with investment analysts.
Asked what HII will do to get VCS back on “path” now that it is “well behind the two-per-year delivery objective in Block V”, Kastner said, “The largest obstacle, the largest risk on the VCS programme right now...
The Ukrainian Navy's two newly acquired ex-Royal Navy Sandown-class minehunters completed their latest phase of training in the multinational ‘Sea Breeze' exercise, held in UK waters in late June/early July. (Armed Forces of Ukraine)
The Ukrainian Navy has completed its first multinational exercise series, ‘Sea Breeze 2023', operating the service's two newly acquired ex-Royal Navy (RN) Sandown-class minehunters, Chernihiv (ex-HMS Grimsby) and Cherkasy (ex-HMS Shoreham).
In a Twitter announcement on 12 July the UK RN said the exercise marked...
NATO enlargement from 1952 to the present. (NATO/Janes)
Allied leaders meeting on the second day of the 11–12 July NATO summit in Vilnius agreed to a multi-year assistance programme for Ukraine until it meets the conditions of alliance membership. “Our new multi-year programme of assistance for Ukraine will help you transition from Soviet era to NATO equipment and standards and will make Ukraine's forces fully interoperable within NATO,” the alliance's Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, announced at a joint press conference with Ukrainian...
The US Navy has conducted several transits of the Taiwan Strait in 2023. Its latest transit, on 13 July, by a Boeing P-8A Poseidon, attracted a major response from the Chinese PLA. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense/US Indo-Pacific Command/China Ministry of National Defense)
The flight of a US Navy Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft over the Taiwan Strait on 13 July prompted China to launch 26 combat aircraft, according to the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense (MND).
In a statement issued on 13 July the MND said it “successfu...
Lockheed Martin completed another milestone in its efforts to integrate the PAC-3 missile with Aegis. (Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin's Patriot Advanced Capability – 3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptor successfully communicated with the AN/SPY-1 radar, a key component in the Aegis Weapon System, for the first time, the company confirmed on 10 July.
“This successful test is a major step forward to fully integrate PAC-3 MSE into the Aegis Weapon System,” Tom Copeman, vice-president, Naval Systems, Lockheed Martin Missile...
The USCG and the USN are deploying more cutters and other surfaces ships into Arctic waters. (Janes/Michael Fabey)
A new Arctic landscape being sculpted by climatic changes is recasting US naval concepts and the global geopolitical framework associated with the region, according to a US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.
“The diminishment of Arctic ice is creating new operating areas in the Arctic for [US] Navy (USN) surface ships and [US] Coast Guard (USCG) cutters,” the CRS said in its updated report Changes in the...
JCO-UK became operational on 26 June and is based at the UK Space Operations Centre, which monitors space 24/7, 365 days a year. (Crown Copyright)
UK Space Command has officially established a space domain awareness (SDA) cell in co-operation with the US to enhance orbital surveillance, the Royal Air Force (RAF) announced on 4 July.
A UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson informed Janes the cell would be based at RAF High Wycombe.
The cell is known as JCO-UK (‘Joint Task Force-Space Defence Commercial Operations Cell') and is an extens...
The US is making investments in its submarine industrial base to help meet AUKUS and US Navy needs. (Janes/Michael Fabey)
Country members of the AUKUS security pact – Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – have begun to work towards Pillar 2 of the pact, according to US officials.
“We have begun efforts associated with Pillar 2,” Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant to the president and co-ordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs on the National Security Council, said on 26 June during an AUKUS discussion at the Center for Strategic an...
A screenshot from a video shared by the Wagner paramilitary group's social media accounts shows its convoy seemingly being hit with an airstrike. (Wagner/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) suffered significant losses during the seeming mutiny of the Wagner Group on 24 June.
Footage posted online during the event showed a number of fixed- and rotary-winged aircraft types of the VKS being shot down by Wagner forces during the mercenary group's short-lived insurrection against the Russian military and p...
GE Aerospace is working with the US government to secure the necessary export authorisation for the joint production of its F414-INS6 engine with India. (GE Aerospace)
The leaders of the United States and India have announced agreements to accelerate defence industrial co-operation including the potential joint production of General Electric (GE) F414 engines for future combat aircraft.
The agreements were made following discussions between US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington on 22 June.
A keystone...
South Korea approved the deployment of the THAAD system at Seongju base. The picture shows a THAAD interceptor launching from the Republic of the Marshall Islands during a flight test in 2019. (US Missile Defense Agency)
South Korea's Ministry of Environment (MoE) has completed an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the US Army's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system temporarily deployed at the US military base in Seongju – nearly 215 km southeast of Seoul.
According to a press release by South Korea's Ministry of National...
A model of the New Generation Fighter element of the wider FCAS/SCAF programme at the Paris Air Show 2023. Belgium announced that it is to join the programme in an observer capacity. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)
Belgium has joined France, Germany, and Spain in the Future Combat Air System (FCAS)/Système de Combat Aérien du Futur (SCAF) programme, with Belgian Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder saying the country will have an observer status.
Announced to coincide with the Paris Air Show 2023 at Le Bourget, the agreement revealed on 19 June by De...
NATO defence ministers' meeting in Brussels on 15–16 June agreed on a new package of regional defence plans for approval by the alliance's 11–12 July Vilnius summit. (NATO)
NATO defence ministers' meeting in Brussels on 15–16 June agreed on a new package of regional defence plans designed to substantially boost allies' military high readiness and return them, at least partially, to Cold War-era territorial defence assignments. Its final approval will be given by allied leaders during NATO's 11–12 July Vilnius summit.
A year in the making, t...
Work to test elements of the Tempest demonstrator is now under way, including sled testing of the aircraft's ejector seat system. (BAE Systems)
Testing of components and systems intended for the Tempest Future Combat Air System (FCAS) Flying Technology Demonstrator (FTD) is accelerating at BAE Systems' Warton site and at the facilities of partners companies around the UK.
Work on the demonstrator was announced in July 2022 by UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, with a declaration of intent for it to fly “within five years”.
Industry executiv...
Bucha has been assigned to the river flotilla based on the Dnipro river in Kiev region. (Ministry of Defence, Ukraine)
Ukraine has commissioned its eighth Gurza-M (Viper-M) missile-armed riverine patrol boat into service.
The new boat, named Bucha (P 181), has been assigned to the river flotilla based on the Dnipro river in Kiev region, which was established in 2022.
Bucha started construction at Kuznia na Rybalskomu (previously Leninska Kuznia) shipyard in Kiev in 2019 and was launched on 3...
A US Air Force F-35A flies over the Toronto waterfront during the 2021 Canadian International Air Show. (US Air Force)
The Canadian Department of National Defence (DND), which is reviewing its six-year-old defence policy, has received more than 1,500 public comments as part of the process, according to a DND spokesperson.
The DND is “taking into account these submissions in crafting” a defence policy update (DPU), the spokesperson told Janes on 8 June. The DPU “is currently under way and we look forward to releasing it...