Author: Defenceline Webdesk

John G. Ferrari, RealClearDefense For the Navy, the doctrine says disposable; the checkbook says exquisite. Source link

The foreign ministers of the Philippines and China yesterday exchanged “strong” protests over an encounter between the two countries’ ‌vessels at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea earlier this week. In a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila, Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro reiterated the ​protest over China Coast Guard (CCG)’s “unacceptable actions against Filipino personnel,” she said in a post on X. The incident in question took place on Monday at Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, during a confrontation between Philippine marines…

M. Humpert, gCaptain The recent Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Last month, more than 400,000 people signed a petition on Change.org calling for the removal of Rohingya refugees from Malaysia. The petition is part of a widening hate campaign targeting Rohingya refugees and others, fed by fabricated allegations of criminality and dangerous misinformation about an already vulnerable community. Malaysia has long been a refuge for various communities from Myanmar, including the Rohingya, Chin, Bamar, Karen, Rakhine and other ethnicities. No refugee community should be subjected to hostility or abuse, and the recent targeting of Rohingya refugees reflects a broader failure to protect people fleeing violence and persecution in Malaysia. The…

S. Holliday, L. Seligman & S. Kalin, WSJ The influx of troops, medics and weaponry follows the deaths of three American soldiers in Iranian attack at a base in Jordan Source link

Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have expressed “serious concern” over the renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran and called for the resumption of free movement through the Strait of Hormuz. In a joint statement released after the close of the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila on Tuesday, ministers from the 11-nation bloc said that they were “deeply concerned that these developments severely undermine the ongoing efforts of key mediators and diminish the prospects for a peaceful resolution through dialogue and diplomacy.” “We called on all parties concerned to exercise utmost self-restraint…

Saab and Embraer have signed a Heads of Agreement at the Farnborough International Airshow that sets out a framework for producing 20 additional Gripen E/F fighters at Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto complex in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The arrangement expands an existing industrial partnership rather than representing a fresh aircraft order, and neither company has named a customer for the potential tranche.¹ Embraer’s Gavião Peixoto site is currently the only Gripen final assembly location outside Sweden, and under the framework it would take on the extra aircraft alongside Saab’s primary line in Linköping.² The Brazilian company already assembles 15…

Leonardo and Baykar have declared their LBA Systems joint venture fully operational, announcing at the Farnborough International Airshow that the necessary regulatory authorizations are in place and that the new company’s Lead has been appointed. The equally owned venture, with its legal and operational headquarters in Italy, completes an arrangement the two firms set in motion with a memorandum of understanding in March 2025. The company is built to design, develop, manufacture and support uncrewed aerial systems, pairing Leonardo’s electronics, payload and effector integration with Baykar’s platform designs and manufacturing. Both partners describe the result as a new player in…

It seems that Pakistan’s current approach to counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) involves disparate systems – both soft-kill and hard-kill – trying to stop quadcopters and loitering munitions. Moreover, the employment of C-UAS, currently at least, seems localized, but with limited upward connectivity to a broader system. This matters because in a state-on-state conflict, the drone threat is not a localized problem as it might be in counterinsurgency (COIN) and counter-terrorism (CT). Rather, enemy states will use drones as a piece of a wider attack strategy, which could manifest in many different ways, from large-salvo strikes through a large number of…

The United States Congress has cleared the export of General Electric F110 engines for Türkiye’s KAAN fifth-generation fighter, after a joint resolution seeking to block the sale failed to advance during the mandatory 15-day review window.¹ Turkish Aerospace chief executive Mehmet Demiroğlu confirmed at the Farnborough International Airshow that the company now holds the export licence and is working with GE Aerospace to secure the powerplants.² “We can say that we have the export licence for the engine,” Demiroğlu told reporters at the show.² The engine at the centre of the arrangement is the F110-GE-129E/F, a low-bypass afterburning turbofan in…