The Royal Air Force’s Wing Commander Sarah McDonnell recently completed a qualifying course in Australia to operate the E-7 Wedgetail. Administered by the Royal Australian Air Force and Boeing Australia under the RAF’s E-7 Wedgetail AEW1 Programme, the course provided class-based instruction and simulator training to McDonnell and allowed her to fly Australia’s E-7A. The...
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are making significant progress in artificial intelligence and autonomy under Pillar 2 of the AUKUS security partnership, according to Tanya Monro, Australia’s chief defense scientist. Media coverage has focused chiefly on Pillar 1 of AUKUS, which involves providing Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, but Pillar 2 activities are...
The United States, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyz Republic reaffirmed their shared commitment to maintaining peace and sovereignty in Central Asia. Leaders of all six nations held the inaugural C5+1 Presidential Summit Tuesday on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. During the meeting, the C5+1...
The Royal Australian Air Force’s F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters participated in the Australia-Indonesia air combat Exercise Elang AUSINDO 23 for the first time from Sept. 18 to 23. According to the Australian Ministry of Defence, six F-35A fighters were assigned to the exercise based in Manado, North Sulawesi. The training joins 150 RAAF...
The U.K. government said Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel on science and technology research projects with potential access to a $2.1 million fund. The science ministers from both sides met in London for the MOU signing in Whitehall, according to a press statement from the Department for Science, Innovation...
NATO is conducting two exercises in Portugal’s Troia Peninsula to train participants on integrating new maritime technologies into joint military operations and operating autonomous underwater vehicles. The Dynamic Messenger 23 drills commenced training activities on Monday under the joint leadership of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation in the United States and Allied Maritime Command in the...
Bulgaria has established a Cyber Defense Center with funding from the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Military Financing program. The new facility, inaugurated on Thursday, is the latest contribution of the United States to the Balkan nation. In the last five years, Washington has provided more than $238 million in security assistance to help the...
The European Defense Agency has commenced the second phase of its Hybrid Drive Train Demonstrator program. The organization held a kickoff meeting with representatives from participating nations such as Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Poland. The HybriDT program aims to design wheeled and tracked demonstrators with hybrid drive trains to improve defense mobility. Phase 2...
Switzerland hosted the 2023 plenary meeting of the Multinational Industrial Security Working Group as chair of the collaborative body. The event in Zurich from Sept. 11 to 15 saw more than a hundred participants from over 30 countries. The United States attended the plenary through representatives from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency’s Industrial Security Directorate, including...
France plans to reduce its military footprint in Africa and deploy more security forces in the Indo-Pacific region, according to Gen. Stéphane Mille, the chief of staff of the French Air and Space Force. At a news briefing on Monday, the general said France will pull back military forces from Africa in the future. He...
