Military

The man is insistent: Our ship is in difficulty, so keep your distance, he instructs another vessel over the radio.
“Warship on your course,” he says. “I am drifting. I’m not under command.”
The broadcast, according to military officials, came from a Russian spy ship, the Kildin, as the vessel packed with intelligence-gathering equipment drifted temporarily out of control off the Syrian coast on Jan. 23, with flames and black fumes rising from its smokestack.
The Associated Press obtained audio of the broadcast, as well as video and photos showing the blaze, that three military officials said were gathered by a ship from a NATO nation operating nearby. The officials, also from a NATO country, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the fire and radio transmission that Russian authorities haven’t publicly reported.
The audio provides an unusual peek inside Russia’s fleet of spy ships that NATO nations are watching closely because of..

Texas-based Saronic Technologies announced Tuesday it raised $600 million in private funding to build an autonomous shipyard it’s calling Port Alpha.
The company plans to use the facility to grow its fleet of medium- and large-class autonomous surface vessels amid demand from the Pentagon for more drones of all kinds, including ships.
“It is going to be the most advanced shipyard in the world,” CEO Dino Mavrookas told reporters. “We’re going to build it right here in America. We’re going to build it from the ground up.”
Saronic hasn’t yet picked a site for Port Alpha, but the company is working with state governments throughout the U.S. to find the right fit. Texas and the Gulf Coast are among the regions the firm is closely exploring, according to Mavrookas.
The company declined to offer specifics on how much the project would cost, saying only that it planned to funnel “billions and billions of dollars” toward the effort ove..

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish Ministry of National Defence has signed a deal to buy more than 200 AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missiles-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) from the United States, becoming the region’s first ally to secure an advanced capability to destroy enemy radar emitters associated with air defense systems.
The contract to purchase the missiles, made by Northrop Grumman, comes as Poland is awaiting the delivery of the first batch of its 32 ordered F-35 fighter jets next year.
Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that the missiles will represent a significant reinforcement of the aircraft’s combat capacities, according to a statement released by his ministry.
Under the latest deal, Warsaw is buying “anti-radiation missiles that target, find and affect enemy air defense systems, anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
“This is a breakthrough purchase. Only in..

PARIS — France’s Naval Group has criticized Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems for hurting European submarine vendors by transferring technology to countries that later managed to build their own boats for export.
TKMS “are champions at creating new competitors,” Guillaume Rochard, Naval Group’s head of strategy, partnerships and mergers, said at a round table in Paris to discuss France’s defense-industrial base earlier this month. “They’ve made extremely significant technology transfers to Turkey and Korea, two nations that are now in the submarine export market.”
Naval Group and TKMS regularly face off on submarine contracts, and Rochard described the German firm as his company’s main competitor in conventional submarines. The executive said Naval Group is “very careful” regarding transfer of technology in order to not create or intensify competition, an approach he contrasted with that of TKMS.
TKMS den..

PARIS — Airbus Defence and Space, together with Naval Group, won a contract worth as much as €480 million (US$504 million) to upgrade the communications system of the French Navy to prepare for collaborative and networked combat.
Airbus is leading an industrial consortium that will equip more than 80 vessels of the French naval forces with the RIFAN 3 network, including the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, amphibious helicopter carriers, frigates and submarines, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The system will be deployed on ships between 2028 and 2032, according to Airbus.
The third stage of the RIFAN network aims to boost connectivity between ships, equipping frontline vessels with high-speed and low-latency systems that will allow for collaborative combat, according to Airbus. The network will also feature enhanced security to deal with increased cyber threats, the company said.
“With RIFAN 3, we are preparing for the next stage, that of collaborative ..

The U.S. Marine Corps released a revised aviation strategy Monday that focuses on using autonomous systems, drones and artificial intelligence-driven software to ensure its aircraft fleet can survive in a fierce war zone.
And the Corps is also shifting its procurement plans for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to buy more carrier-based F-35Cs and fewer of the B variants that can hover and vertically land.
The Corps billed its 2025 Marine Corps Aviation Plan, the service’s first in three years, as a “roadmap to enhancing operational readiness and ensuring Marine aviation remains a lethal force.” A centerpiece of the plan, signed by deputy commandant for aviation Lt. Gen. Bradford Gering, is a modernization strategy the Corps calls “Project Eagle.”
“We are committed to shaping a future aviation force that is ready, resilient and capable of rapidly responding to emerging threats, wherever they may arise,” Col. Derek Brannon of Headquarters Marine Corps Aviation said. “Proje..

MANILA, Philippines — U.S. and Philippine fighter aircraft staged a joint patrol and training Tuesday over a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese fighter jets fired flares last year to drive away a Philippine aircraft, Philippine officials said.
The joint patrol and air-intercept drills over the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines were the first by the longtime treaty allies since U.S. President Donald Trump took office again.
Trump’s “America First” foreign policy thrust has sparked concerns among Washington’s allies in Asia about the scale and depth of U.S. commitment to the region in his new term. His predecessor, former President Joe Biden, had moved to strengthen an arc of security alliances in the region to counter China’s increasingly assertive actions.
China pushing Philippines ‘to the wall’ with sea aggression: Manila
Two U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber aircraft and three Philippine Air Force FA-50 fighter jet..

Following a lengthy delay as the U.S. Army and Navy struggled to test the round, the Army will field its long-range hypersonic weapon to the first unit by the end of fiscal 2025, a defense official confirmed Wednesday in a statement to Defense News.
The Army had planned to field the live, ground-launched hypersonic rounds to the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state by the fall of 2023. But the milestone continued to be pushed back after several aborted tests in 2023 due to challenges at the range, related not to the round, but the process of firing up the missile for launch.
Testing the all-up round was considered critical to ensure the system was safe, effective and ready for fielding, said then-Army acquisition chief Doug Bush.
The U.S. is in a race to field the capability and develop systems to defend against hypersonic missiles. China and Russia are actively develo..

MILAN — NATO showed off its underwater surveillance capabilities in an unmanned surface vessel demonstration in the Baltic Sea as part of alliance efforts to deter acts of sabotage against critical undersea infrastructure in the strategic area.
The trials took place in waters near Denmark from Feb. 17 to 20 and involved integrating manned and unmanned assets in live-firing events and tactical maneuvers.
Participating drone boats were fielded through the Task Force X initiative established earlier this month by the alliance’s top transformation branch as part of patrolling activities in Baltic waters.
“It provides a framework for all nations to contribute by enabling the deployment of their autonomous capabilities. … This collaborative effort will fill gaps in surveillance, particularly in areas not covered by existing systems like the Automatic Identification System,” Adm. Pierre Vandier, commander of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, said in a ..

An important series of tests for the latest upgrades to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will likely not begin until two years after these jets started hitting the field — and at least three years following their original due date.
The Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation said in its annual report, submitted to Congress on Jan. 31, that dedicated operational tests for the F-35’s Technology Refresh 3, or TR-3, upgrades will probably start in mid to late fiscal 2026, or around next summer. Those tests are intended to determine whether TR-3 is operationally effective.
Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, the military’s F-35 program executive officer, said in a statement to Defense News that as of January, Lockheed Martin has delivered more than 100 TR-3 equipped fighters. All of those jets have software allowing its pilots to conduct training flights, including combat training.
“We are aggressively implementing comprehensive test plans to ensure this critical upgrade deli..