Defense

PARIS — European Union member states approved five projects for joint defense-industrial investment in priority areas including drones and counter-drone systems as well as air and missile defense, part of efforts to encourage more cooperation on defense spending and avoid overlap in the 27-nation bloc. The five projects approved on Monday are now eligible for EU funding via the €1.5 billion…

The Trump administration has made legally binding commitments to spend almost all of the $400 million Congress approved for military aid to Ukraine late last year, ensuring that the money will not expire on Sept. 30, according to three sources familiar with the plan. As of early this week, $307 million of the $400 million of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funding had been…

NEW DELHI — The U.S. Air Force’s F-35 fighter jets are joining a multinational air exercise hosted by India, bringing a fifth-generation fighter to Indian air drills for the first time and giving the Indian Air Force and other participants direct exposure to operating alongside an advanced stealth aircraft. The drills get underway Saturday at the Jodhpur air base in Rajasthan state, which lies…

VIENNA — The CIA has warned European countries of a suspected Russian plot to launch Gerbera-type drones from aboard commercial vessels in the Mediterranean, a new report says. Major Spanish daily El Mundo published the article, which was based on testimony from an anonymous Lithuanian intelligence source, late Wednesday local time. According to the paper, the CIA had assessed that Spain…