ROME — Italy is considering backing out of a second EU-supported boost to defense spending, taking to about €27 billion ($31 billion) the amount of rearmament cash it could forego as it focuses on tackling soaring energy costs.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has told EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen that Italy may pass on the offer of €14.9 billion in cheap, so-called SAFE…
Operation Epic Fury may have strengthened the case for directed energy weapons, but the U.S. Navy’s dream of putting “a laser on every ship” may take significantly longer than expected to realize.
In a posture statement delivered to the House Armed Services Committee…
The remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper was the workhorse in the U.S. air campaign against Iran, Air Force leaders told Congress on May 20, even as the service’s fiscal 2027 budget request still pours the bulk of aircraft dollars into crewed fighters.
Having repeatedly proven…
ROME — The mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is set to expire at the end of 2026, despite renewed violence in the country that has already claimed the lives of six peacekeepers.
After years of U.S. pressure, the decision was taken by the UN Security Council in August last year through the adoption of Resolution 2790. The decision also tasks the Secretary-General…
VIENNA — Russia launched its largest nuclear exercises in years on Tuesday, mobilizing nearly 65,000 troops, over 200 missile launchers, 140 aircraft, 73 surface vessels and 13 submarines, including eight strategic nuclear submarines, in a three-day drill that runs through…
RIGA, Latvia — NATO’s plans to strengthen deterrence along its eastern flank envision an “autonomous zone” where only unmanned systems operate, with linked sensors, drones and long-range fires to detect and target invading Russian forces at the start of a conflict…
The Pentagon awarded Perennial Autonomy, a California-based startup making headlines for its counter-drone technology, a $500 million contract to accelerate its procurement of the defensive systems.
According to Monday’s press release, the decision to award the contract was made by the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF-401, a Defense Department organization charged with researching…
VIENNA — A NATO air policing jet has shot down what authorities suspect was a Ukrainian drone flying over Estonia, a first after several similar airspace incursions in the Baltic states.
The drone was shot down by a Romanian F-16 fighter jet stationed in Šiauliai…
PARIS — Sweden has picked France’s Naval Group to supply four of its FDI frigates in a deal that could be worth more than 40 billion Swedish kroner, or around US$4.2 billion, with the French offer beating proposals from Spain’s Navantia and the United Kingdom’s…
KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian company has produced the country’s first guided aerial bombs capable of striking targets “dozens of kilometers” behind enemy lines with 250-kilogram warheads, giving Kyiv a homegrown equivalent to Russia’s cheap, devastating glide bombs, the Ministry of Defense announced Monday.
The aerial bomb is a winged but engineless weapon that drops from an aircraft at…
