Defense

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Army officials from 25 different Indo-Pacific nations recently met in New Zealand to hammer out cooperative defense strategies. Simultaneously, the top political leaders in the United States were sending conflicting messages about its partnerships in the region. The 50th Indo-Pacific Armies Management Seminar (IPAMS) was held in Auckland in late September, and it…

GLASGOW, Scotland — A Russian factory that Ukraine struck on Sept. 26 supplies electronics for a wide range of Russia’s missiles, potentially leaving Moscow without a fallback supplier, according to leaked documents obtained by the Ukrainian private intelligence firm Dallas Analytics. The documents about the factory in question, Azov Optical-Mechanical Plant (AOMZ) in Russia’s western Rostov…

VIENNA — The United Arab Emirates, a Western darling for security cooperation in the region, appears to have regularly used Aviacon Zitotrans, a sanctioned Russian airline linked to the Kremlin’s military and paramilitary operations, over the course of the past year, a Defense News investigation shows. Analysis of thousands of flight records as well as gigabytes of leaked internal company…

BESANÇON, France — The French Army’s 68th African Artillery Regiment is reorganizing its gun batteries into smaller units and creating a dedicated section to prepare firing positions and set up decoys, a move aimed at increasing survivability on a modern battlefield where drones and counter-battery fire pose a constant threat. The 68e RAA is reshuffling its batteries of 155 mm Caesar…