The UK will save £500m by scrapping old military equipment early, the defence secretary has announced, despite a warning that the UK faces "increasing global threats".
Ships, drones and helicopters - some more than 50 years old - will be decommissioned ahead of schedule, John Healey told the Commons.more
Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Andrei Kielin has stated that the authorities in London are “directly involved” in the war in Ukraine, as British Storm Shadow missiles have been used to attack facilities on Russian territory, Sky News reported yesterday.more
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated today that the US anti-missile base in Poland has long been among the possible priority targets for Russia. MFA spokesman Pavel Vronsky stressed that the Redzikowo installation is purely defensive in nature.more
Ukraine has, for the first time, fired on targets in Russia with British-made longer-range Storm Shadow missiles, the Bloomberg news agency reported yesterday, citing officials from Western countries, who requested anonymity.more
The Pentagon intends to soon announce another package of military aid for Ukraine worth at least $275 million, AP reported yesterday, citing an anonymous Pentagon official, who also confirmed the use of ATACMS missiles by Ukraine, saying that Russia shot down two of the eight missiles used.more
Following US President Joe Biden's authorisation of Ukraine's use of ATACMS missiles to attack targets inside Russia, a similar decision by the UK authorities is expected for Franco-British Storm Shadow missiles, ‘The Guardian’ daily reported yesterday.more
Vladimir Putin's signed amendment to the nuclear doctrine, which stipulates that any conventional attack on Russia assisted by a nuclear power can be considered a strike made jointly, lowers the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, AP assessed today.more
In recent days, the presence of Russian naval vessels in waters under Portuguese jurisdiction has significantly increased, said the commander of the Portuguese Navy, Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo.more
Russia has brought the war back to Europe, and even troops from North Korea. The threat of an armed attack on an EU member state is higher than at any time since the end of the Cold War, said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, speaking yesterday at the Finnish-Swedish cooperation forum in Espoo.more
The European Commission yesterday dismissed media reports that it intended to send troops from European countries to Ukraine as part of a US plan to ‘freeze the war’ in the country.more
Someone moved the UK's oldest satellite and there appears to be no record of exactly who, when or why. Launched in 1969, just a few months after humans first set foot on the Moon, Skynet-1A was put high above Africa's east coast to relay communications for British forces.more
The German government approved a draft of a new model for military service yesterday. Young men who turn 18 next year will have to fill out a questionnaire about their readiness and fitness for service. For young women, providing such information will be voluntary.more
Over the past two decades, China has modernized its military without precedent and has already overtaken the United States in some areas, writes The Economist.more
North Korea boasted Friday that the new intercontinental ballistic missile it just test-launched is “the world’s strongest,” a claim seen as pure propaganda after experts assessed it as being too big to be useful in a war situation.more
The UK has already trained 200 Ukrainian pilots who will fly the F-16 multi-role aircraft being handed over to Kyiv, British Deputy Defence Minister Luke Pollard announced on Tuesday night.more
The defence ministers of the UK and Germany, John Healey and Boris Pistorius, signed a defence cooperation agreement between the two countries in London yesterday in response to Russia's increasingly aggressive policies.more
Donald Trump has secretly spoken to Vladimir Putin several times already after leaving the White House, CNN TV reported. It was also revealed, among other things, that in September 2022, the authorities in Washington estimated the probability of Russia using nuclear weapons at 50 per cent.more
‘Poland's strong economy, military strength and awareness of the Russian threat make it a key country in Europe, which is particularly important in the face of US indecision,’ Edward Lucas, this newspaper's columnist and security expert, writes in ‘The Times’ today.more
Israel has failed to fully achieve either of the two objectives of the operation launched after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, the only thing Israel has fully succeeded in is revenge, assessed Dr Ahron Bregman of the Department of War Studies at King's College London.more
The Israeli army today announced the destruction of a 3.5km tunnel under Lebanon's border with Syria through which Hezbollah was smuggling Iranian weapons. It added that around 100 Hezbollah fighters were killed yesterday in fighting in the south of the country. Israel is continuing air strikes. One was carried out near a hospital.more
The fact that Poland is able to finance arms purchases on this scale is proof of your country's success,’ stated James Cartlidge, the Conservative Party's shadow defence minister counterpart. He stressed that the war in Ukraine proves that heavy equipment has not become a relic.more
British troops assisted Israel in repelling an Iranian missile attack last night, Defence Minister John Healey confirmed. He did not specify the extent of the support, but aircraft were involved, according to the BBC.more
The Israeli army launched ‘limited and targeted’ ground operations against terrorist Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon a few hours ago, an armed forces communiqué issued Monday night said.more
