Ukraine is escalating its drone ambitions, with newly revised “manufacturing plans for every type of drones this yr, together with FPV, bombers, reconnaissance, and long-range drones for particular missions,” President Volodymir Zelenskyy announced on social media.
Greater than 750 days into Russia’s Ukraine invasion, Zelenskyy met with navy officers to speak expressly about drones for nearly three hours on Monday at the very least partly as a result of “Frontline [battlefield] wants are consistently altering, and our producers should reply in a well timed method,” the president stated.
Amongst Ukraine’s high drone priorities: “streamlin[ing] procurement procedures and element imports, increas[ing] the manufacturing of fees for drones, and practice[ing] operators,” stated Zelenskyy.
Growing: Ukraine’s navy can be engaged on “an built-in digital warfare management system to guard our warriors and gear from Russian UAVs,” the president stated Monday. “It’s already being examined in sure areas,” with plans to “scale it as much as your entire entrance,” he stated.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart Friday. Austin and Protection Minister Rustem Umerov discussued Ukraine’s artillery and air protection wants, in addition to their mutual need for Home lawmakers to cross laws authorizing extra funding for Ukraine’s protection. The Senate handed their model of the extra funds in early February, however Home Speaker Mike Johnson has thus far refused to advance related discussions within the decrease chamber, which is able to return to Washington subsequent week after its newest recess.
Replace: Russia has attacked Kyiv with missiles and drones greater than 180 occasions because the begin of the yr, together with with at the very least 5 of its new hypersonic Zircon missiles, Reuters reported Monday.
Further studying:
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Manila-Tokyo-Washington summit preview: The Japanese, U.S., and Philippine navies will plan to collectively patrol the South China Sea someday later this yr, Politico reported late final week, forward of an upcoming assembly between leaders of the three nations on the White Home on April 11.
An American soldier was arrested in South Korea this weekend for allegedly “stealing a automotive and driving drunk earlier than crashing into different automobiles from behind,” South Korea’s Yonhap information company reported Monday. The soldier is “in his 20s [and] stationed at an American navy base in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul,” in line with Yonhap. He’s now in U.S. navy police custody. Story, right here.
From the area:
Northrop Grumman teamed up with the Navy to shoot down a big check ballistic missile over the Pacific ocean final week.
Concerned: The Navy’s ship-based Aegis missile protection system, which detected and intercepted a two-stage, strong rocket-fueled ballistic missile in its closing part of flight utilizing a Commonplace Missile-6 Twin II variant with a software program improve.
The check occurred Thursday off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii, to check the Navy’s Flight Check Aegis Weapon System-32 (abbreviated as FTM-32 however often known as Stellar Laelaps), together with officers from the U.S. Missile Protection Company. It was simply the second time this specific system—Aegis Baseline 9.C2, often known as BMD 5.1—was used to shoot down a medium-range ballistic missile with the upgraded SM-6.
The Australian navy participated as nicely, contributing “radar capabilities of the ANZAC Class frigate HMAS Stuart, along with an Australian E-7 Wedgetail plane aiding in knowledge assortment and communications,” U.S. officers stated in an announcement Friday.
Try the Navy’s USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), which participated within the check as service’s first Flight III Aegis Destroyer outfitted with SPY-6 radar, through a sequence of pictures printed Friday on DVIDS, right here.
Air Pressure desires better-linked cargo planes. “Now we have extra connectivity in our vehicles and on our cell telephones than we do within the ahead fringe of the mobility platforms proper now—and now we have bought to aggressively depart from that,” Gen. Mike Minihan stated throughout Protection One’s State of Protection sequence. The service’s Air Mobility Command chief desires one thing like a palette that may be loaded onto airlifters to provide extra automated situational consciousness than can at present be had by “squeezing a microphone set off”—i.e., speaking through radio. D1’s Audrey Decker reviews.
And lastly: The Pentagon now has its first-ever Assistant Secretary of Protection for Science and Expertise. Following her Senate affirmation in late February, three-decade plus NASA veteran Aprille Ericsson took the oath of workplace Friday on the Protection Division, after transferring from the Goddard House Flight Middle’s Instrument Techniques and Expertise Division.
Ericsson is the primary Black girl to earn a PhD in mechanical engineering from Washington’s Howard College, and she or he’s the primary Black girl to earn a PhD in engineering from Maryland’s NASA Goddard House Flight Middle.
Her new posting is certainly one of three introduced for the Pentagon in July. The opposite two are Assistant Secretary of Protection for Essential Applied sciences, at present held by Maynard Holliday in an performing capability; and Assistant Secretary of Protection for Mission Capabilities, held by Thomas Browning in an performing capability.