Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
The NATO exercise BALTOPS – to be held on the Baltic Sea next week – is the latest showing of unity and military strength as Sweden and Finland trade neutrality for NATO’s embrace in the wake of Russia’s three-month-old invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. military is mulling how to increase its participation in planned military exercises with Sweden and Finland as NATO member nations consider their applications.
The accession of Finland and Sweden, historically neutral nations, is expected to transform Europe’s security landscape for years to come. Their armed forces and geography would seriously complicate any further aggression Russia might want to try in the region, defense officials and national security experts say.
The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will send Ukraine a $700 million in new military aid that includes high-tech, medium-range rocket systems, a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been pleading for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region.
The top U.S. military officer warned this week that the military may need to reorganize itself to fight future wars, which will be profoundly changed by artificial intelligence, robotics and other advanced technologies.
Amid mounting calls to break Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports for grain exports, America’s top military officer said that to do so militarily would amount to a “high risk military operation.”
U.S. defense and aerospace firms are asking Congress for a defense budget for 2023 that exceeds inflation by 3 to 5 percent and challenged lawmakers to pass their annual defense bills by Sept 30.
Denmark will arm Ukraine with with modern Harpoon anti-ship missiles to protect its coasts, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday after concluding the latest U.S.-led meeting of international defense chiefs to coordinate military aid for Ukraine.
A group of international defense chiefs convened by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to coordinate military aid for Ukraine is likely to be larger when it meets for the second time on Monday.