SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says the US has flown a B-1B bomber for its first precision-guided weapon bombing drill in seven years.
Ukraine is using US-supplied Bradley fighting vehicles in unorthodox ways and making an impact.
Vice Adm. Eduardo Santos discussed grounding the BRP Sierra Madre in the South China Sea to create an obstacle and disrupt China's territorial claims.
Strike Fighter Squadron 105 was stationed aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and racked up a number of firsts during combat missions.
The US has restricted Ukraine from using its powerful long-range missiles to strike air bases inside Russia.
A Ukrainian commander said Russia will be forced to scale back its frontline assaults in under 2 months due to losses, and will switch to defense.
The bodies of five Israeli hostages retrieved this week from the Gaza Strip had been held in a tunnel deep underground, Israel's military said on Thursday. The retrieval operation was carried out using intelligence gathered and analyzed in recent weeks, said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. It took place "in the heart" of the city of Khan Younis, where Israeli forces returned to operate this week, he said.
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine said on Friday its missile forces struck a Russian military airfield in Crimea that has been used for long-range attacks against it, the latest in a series of blows to the Russian military on the occupied peninsula. Ukraine has ramped up long-range attacks on Crimea in recent months and says the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, which is headquartered in Sevastopol, has been forced to move its combat vessels to safer harbour elsewhere. The Ukrainian military's general staff said in a statement that Russia's Saky airfield in western Crimea was the latest target to be struck and that it was assessing the aftermath.
Russia intends to destroy dozens of US-built warplanes as soon as they arrive in Ukraine.
Gen. Sir Roly Walker said Russia's minimum goal of taking four oblasts would, based on current attrition rates, cost it more than 1.5 million troops.
Senior figures in Israel's government have said it is closing in on its war aims of defeating Hamas militarily and the return of hostages seized on Oct. 7. After nine months of pummelling by one of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East, Hamas is much weakened from the force that carried out the cross-border attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Early in the war, Hamas propaganda videos showed well-drilled fighters in body armour and battle fatigues, their torsos wrapped with ammunition belts.
Ukraine said Russia is trying to make naval drones by learning from fragments of Ukrainian ones. A drone war expert said it's unlikely to help.
Russia's RIA state news agency on Friday broadcast a video in which a Russian citizen said he had blown up a military officer in his car in Moscow earlier this week at the behest of the SBU Ukrainian security service. The Kommersant newspaper reported on Wednesday that a car bomb had injured an officer from Russia's military intelligence agency in northern Moscow. Other media said the injured man was a regular military officer.
MOSCOW (AP) — A former Russian defense ministry official was arrested on corruption charges, the Russian security services said Friday, the latest in a series of high-profile military arrests.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A North Korean military intelligence operative has been indicted in a conspiracy to hack into American health care providers, NASA, U.S. military bases and international entities, stealing sensitive information and installing ransomware to fund more attacks, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
STORY: From above, it's clear to see that Tindal Air Base, set in remote shrub-land of northern Australia, was designed as a small airfield with fast jets in mind.Now, it's buzzing with new construction.The United States has quietly begun overhauling it...... constructing hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of facilities there to support B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters, and refueling and transport aircraft.The expansion aims to help U.S. ally Australia project power into the South China Sea, if any crisis erupts with Beijing.The Australian government also has its own program of new projects at Tindal...... spending US$980 million on hangars, a new airport terminal, and other facilities, which are near completion.Fiona Pearce is a Royal Australian Air Force Wing Commander."What we are moving towards is a multi-purpose base so we are going to be big enough to take any aircraft in the world and to park and fly every different variant of aircraft. So there's runway increases, fuel increases and a whole bunch of other facilities that are being worked on as well."Australia is the top overseas location for U.S. Air Force and Navy construction spending under 2024 and 2025 U.S. Congressional Defense Authorizations, totalling over $300 million.A few hundred miles north, a base in Darwin is also being upgraded with U.S. help.Tender documents show intelligence briefing rooms, runway upgrades, warehouses and maintenance hangars are in the works. U.S. Marine Corps have routinely trained in Darwin since a 2011 agreement between Canberra and Washington.Commanding officer of the U.S. Marine Rotational Force Colonel Brian Mulvihill says that's now evolved into a regional deterrence role of about 2,000 Marines each year, and future upgrades to RAAF Darwin aim to support specific needs of the Marines."The United States paid to have larger fuel storage put in place at RAAF Darwin in support of our aviation assets. As well as, that's done, and then the next project is to expand the parking apron for the MV-22 Ospreys to give them more space in and around the busy airport that is Darwin and RAAF Darwin."While remote locations pose challenges to sourcing materials and a workforce...... Indigenous Australian residents also have complaints about the new developments.Seventy-five-year-old Tibby Quall, is among several Traditional Owners who say growing demand for defense-related housing in Darwin has led to land-clearing of forests they want protected, while rising prices have pushed Indigenous families out of the city.While U.S. and Australian officials say they can visit sacred sites on the bases...Quall says his family has no real voice on how the land is used.
NORAD intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what a US defense official said was the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India and China have agreed to work urgently to achieve the withdrawal of tens of thousands of troops stationed along their disputed border in a long-running standoff, India's government said.
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Finland suspects a Russian vessel violated the Nordic country's territorial waters on Friday, the government said, in the latest incident to cloud relations between the two countries. The government said Friday's incident took place in the eastern Gulf of Finland. "The Border Guard is investigating the incident and will provide further information as the investigation progresses," the Finnish defence ministry said in a statement.
VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Southeast Asian foreign ministers and top diplomats from key partners including the United States and China are gathering in the Laotian capital on Thursday for the start of three days of talks expected to focus on the increasingly violent civil war in Myanmar, tensions in the South China Sea and other regional issues.
The U.S. military is building infrastructure in northern Australia to help it project power into the South China Sea if a crisis with China erupts, a Reuters review of documents and interviews with U.S. and Australian defence officials show. Closer to the Philippines than Australia's east coast capital, Canberra, Darwin has long been a garrison town for the Australian Defence Force and a U.S. Marine Rotational Force that spends six months of each year there.
