At the summit in Vilnius, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană reinforces the commitment to Ukraine. The country is to “move closer to the defense alliance than ever before.”On August 23, the new NATO-Ukraine Council met for the first time. It brought together representatives of NATO and Ukraine around one table. This included the President…
The “Next Generation Airborne Unmanned Close-In Reconnaissance Equipment” (LUNA NG) will be deployed in Ukraine. Rheinmetall will supply the system on behalf of the German government before the end of the year. The supply contract is worth a low double-digit million sum. The LUNA NG Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) consists of a ground control station…
In addition, the Polish Ministry of Defense is procuring an armored transport vehicle. Although the Ministry is generally satisfied with the KTO Rosomak wheeled armored vehicle from the Polish company Siemianowice Śląskie, it feels that it lacks modification options. For this reason, it is turning away from the wheeled armored vehicle built under Finnish license…
After ten years of vacancy, the Bundeswehr again took part in the Rapid Viking exercise in Iceland. The focus was on rapid logistical deployment. The participation also highlights the tactical importance of the Arctic. Tactical Air Squadron 73 “Steinhoff” flew all the material needed for the exercise to Iceland within a week. In addition, the…
Funded by the International Fund for Ukraine, Norwegian company Kongsberg is building Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems (C-UAS) for Ukraine. Several Cortex Typhon systems are to be supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces. The contract is worth £56 million. The Cortex Typhon system is designed to defend against a variety of unmanned aerial objects. To repel…
Defense against hypersonic weapons poses challenges for current air defense systems. After all, these cruise missiles – at least according to current classification – do not fly ballistic curves and remain maneuverable during flight. For Europe, they may pose one of the great threats of the future. Now the European Commission has announced its selection…
Almost three dozen Ukrainian soldiers are being trained in CBRN defense as part of the EU training mission EUMAM. They will be taught how to use the main decontamination station 70 (HEP 70) supplied by Germany. The HEP 70 is used to decontaminate vehicles contaminated with nuclear, biological or chemical agents. Two 1,500-liter tanks are…
The Romanian Armed Forces have contracted Polaris Government and Defence to deliver more than 50 Dagor tactical light vehicles. Romania is procuring the vehicles through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. The light vehicles are intended for troop transport. They are assembled from commercially available individual parts and can carry up to 1.814 kilograms.…
Rheinmetall AG takes over all shares of the Spanish company Expal Systems S.A.U.. The purchase price for the acquisition amounts to approximately €1.2 billion. From now on, the Madrid-based company will be known as Rheinmetall Expal Munitions, S.A.U.. The takeover was already scheduled for last year, but required the approval of the Spanish authorities. Expal…
The land forces are the main core of defence. With the New Force Model, NATO is also realigning itself in this area. In addition to the return to regional defence responsibility, the adapted force structure is a decisive element. In the future, NATO will have more than 240,000 ready forces of the member states in…