Author: Defenceline Webdesk

Naval mines remain one of the cheapest ways for an adversary to disrupt global commerce, restrict military movement, and turn strategic waterways into global flash points. Clearing them can take weeks or months and expose sailors and ships to both the minefield and enemy fire. To discuss how unmanned vessels, advanced sonar, artificial intelligence, and remote effectors will accelerate that mission, Breaking Defense spoke with Mark Bock, vice president for strategy and business development at Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC), a Thales company. Breaking Defense: What is a modern naval mine, and why does it remain such a serious strategic threat?…

The ECT kits are built to scale beyond individual crew training. Credit: © BAE Systems. BAE Systems OneArc has received a contract from the US Army to integrate its Embedded Collective Training (ECT) solution onto a platoon of combat vehicles stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.   The contract, awarded under the Force Development Innovation & Assessment (FDIA) initiative, marks the first time a commercially available embedded training system will be installed on a US Army combat platform.  Discover B2B Marketing That Performs Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms. Find out more According…

The biggest viral video of the recently concluded BRICS Summit in New Delhi was not of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim singing a Hindi film song. At a gala dinner during the summit, Anwar spotted a pianist in the hotel lobby and started singing Kishore Kumar’s evergreen “Khwaab Ho Tum Ya Koi Haqeeqat” from the 1965 Dev Anand film, “Teen Deviyan.” Indian movies are very popular in Malaysia, and Anwar must have grown up listening to Bollywood songs because he has sung this song many times…

RAUFOSS, Norway — The CEO of one of Europe’s major ammunition and rocket motor engine producers has warned that any potential cutting off of industrial cooperation with the US risks European allies suffering a loss of capability that could take up to a decade to replace. “If we cannot deliver AMRAAM rocket motors to Raytheon, well, none of the European F-35s” will have the weapons equipped on the fifth-generation fighter jet, Morten Brandtzæg, CEO of Norwegian manufacturer NAMMO, said Wednesday during the opening of the company’s multipurpose symposium here. American AMRAAM-maker Raytheon is heavily dependent on NAMMO-supplied rocket motor engines…

On their Whale Hunting blog in August 2025, Tom Wright and Bradley Hope began exposing the vast financial network built by the Cambodian businessman Yim Leak and the South African Benjamin Mauerberger, known in Bangkok as Ben Smith. In May 2026, the U.S. House Select Committee on China published a bipartisan report, “Crime, Corruption, and Power.” The report claims that a “South African fixer” is alleged to have operated between Cambodia’s crime hubs, developers linked to the Chinese Communist Party, and Thailand’s elite economy, laundering enormous illicit proceeds into Thai markets. All three footnotes cite Wright and Jacob Sim, a…

WASHINGTON — The Air Force is shopping for a 737 MAX to boost its executive airlift fleet, seemingly marking the first time that planemaker Boeing’s beleaguered jetliner will be purchased for military missions.  After the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act authorized $250 million “to expand C-40 capabilities,” the Air Force intends to satisfy that requirement by buying a 737 MAX aircraft, a spokesperson for the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command told Breaking Defense. The C-40 is the Air Force’s term for earlier versions of the 737 modified for military executive airlift.   The spokesperson did not respond by press…

In this episode of The Pentagon Buzz, Breaking Defense’s Ashley Roque describes how the Pentagon is testing new technology along the US-Mexico border, including high-energy lasers, unmanned boats and drones. Officials are looking to expand those efforts next year, potentially adding more autonomous systems and counter-drone capabilities, Roque reports after speaking with Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas Security Affairs Mark Ditlevson. Subscribe to our Pentagon newsletter to get the latest information from the building delivered directly to you. Source link

Rheinmetall UK and Mercedes-Benz UK unveiled Timber Wolf and Silver Wolf at DVD 2026. Credit: Credit: Rheinmetall via LinkedIn. Rheinmetall UK and Mercedes-Benz UK have formalised their partnership as they plan to support the British Army’s future tactical mobility requirements under the Land Mobility Programme. Under the Team Wolf initiative, the companies will combine Mercedes-Benz’s vehicle technology with Rheinmetall’s defence integration expertise. Discover B2B Marketing That Performs Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms. Find out more To facilitate the partnership, they will set up a Vehicle Integration Centre at Rheinmetall BAE…

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have reached an initial agreement to ramp up production of the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), the secretive weapon set to succeed the AMRAAM. The framework agreement sets the stage for future multi-year procurement (MYP) of JATM and boosting foreign military sales, the Pentagon stated in a news release. The announcement did not include information about the scale or timeline for the production ramp up, nor the dollar amount associated with the agreement. In a news release today, Lockheed stated that the company “will support necessary investments to drive the production increase…

HexaForce was successfully tested during NATO CWIX 2026. Credit: Gauthier Chauffrut. Thales has launched HexaForce, a new command and control (C2) digital platform designed to support military operations across multiple domains and facilitate integration among allied forces. The announcement comes as defence organisations contend with increasingly complex, coalition-based missions and a need for faster decision-making in high-intensity conflict scenarios. Discover B2B Marketing That Performs Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms. Find out more According to Thales, HexaForce can act as a sovereign solution that allows armed forces to tailor their data…