Defense

BESANÇON, France — France’s 7th Armored Brigade is experimenting with breaking up its armored platoons into smaller teams to be more discreet and offer less valuable targets on a drone-dominated battlefield, the unit’s commander said. Whereas a French heavy cavalry platoon typically consists of four Leclerc main battle tanks and four VBL light armored vehicles, the brigade has been testing…

NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan — China’s armed forces will get every possible resource from the home front if needed during a war, according to a change in the law to take effect in October. And its militarily less endowed neighbors such as Taiwan and the Philippines would bear the brunt of a fully kitted People’s Liberation Army, which the updated National Defense Mobilization Law says may draw…

NEW DELHI — India will source nearly all of $11.6 billion worth of recently approved military hardware from domestic manufacturers, underscoring New Delhi’s push to reduce dependence on foreign arms suppliers as it modernizes its armed forces. The Defense Acquisition Council headed by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh granted “in principle” approval, which is essentially a green light to…

LONDON/WASHINGTON — Deep in Arctic waters near the remote Svalbard archipelago this spring, NATO allies caught Russian subs training to unleash a secret weapon designed to disable critical undersea cables without leaving any fingerprints. The clandestine Russian operation, described to Reuters by two Western officials, was carried out by Moscow’s GUGI undersea warfare directorate, which used…