DefenceTalkSecretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced today a comprehensive action plan to reform to the nuclear enterprise and called for additional critical investments in sustainment as well as measures to address longstanding cultural issues that have hurt the morale of the nuclear force. In February of this year, following a series of events involving the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/secretary-of-defense-hagel-announces-nuclear-force-reforms-61004/

DefenceTalkMilitary air operations typically rely on large, manned, robust aircraft, but such missions put these expensive assets-and their pilots-at risk. While small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can reduce or eliminate such risks, they lack the speed, range and endurance of larger aircraft. These complementary traits suggest potential benefits in a blended approach-one in which larger […]https://www.defencetalk.com/wanted-ideas-for-transform-planes-into-aircraft-carriers-in-the-sky-60986/

DefenceTalkThe U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin have reached an agreement in principle for the production of 43 F-35 Lightning II aircraft. Officials anticipate the Low-Rate Initial Production lot 8 (LRIP 8) contract to be finalized in the coming weeks. The contract is for fiscal year 2014 with deliveries beginning in 2016. Cost details […]https://www.defencetalk.com/dod-and-lockheed-announce-principle-agreement-on-purchase-of-f-35s-60882/

DefenceTalkThe Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, General Jarmo Lindberg, has taken note that activity levels on the Baltic Sea have increased of late. He says the Baltic Sea is now the scene of more military exercises, as well as more air and sea traffic. “There has been more of everything,” Lindberg said during his […]https://www.defencetalk.com/defence-chief-nato-has-committed-four-to-five-times-more-aircraft-to-the-baltics-60755/

DefenceTalkTwice in just the past 15 years the U.S. government has made the decision to shrink the size of the Army. Under the Bush Administration the argument was that the real threat was from rising near-peer powers and regional adversaries empowered by advanced weapons technologies. Combatting these threats required investment in transformational capabilities that would […]https://www.defencetalk.com/downsizing-us-army-when-well-need-an-army-you-can-bet-well-need-it-bad-60763/

DefenceTalkIn a decision likely to anger China, the US is partly lifting a 40-year ban on arms sales to former foe Vietnam to help boost defenses in the tense South China Sea. The historic easing of the ban in place since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 will only apply to maritime equipment, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-lifts-40-year-arms-ban-to-boost-vietnam-sea-defense-60661/

DefenceTalkChinese President Xi Jinping called for Beijing and Moscow to offer each other a “helping hand” in the face of external challenges, at talks with his counterpart Vladimir Putin in Tajikistan Thursday, state media reported. The two leaders met in the Central Asian nation’s capital Dushanbe ahead of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/china-offers-russia-helping-hand-in-xi-putin-talks-60566/

DefenceTalkFollowing a prolonged period of budgetary reductions, Europe’s larger defense environment appears to have reached its low threshold. But instead of a marked rebound in investment, the market as a whole will remain largely flat over the near term, according to the latest Europe Military Markets analysis by Forecast International. Though the eurozone economic recovery […]https://www.defencetalk.com/europes-defense-retrenchment-appears-over-but-what-comes-next-60573/

DefenceTalkRussia will respond to the United States’ “prompt global strike” programme designed to take out targets within an hour by upgrading its nuclear and space defence forces, its deputy prime minister said Wednesday. “Our response to the prompt global strike strategy is upgrading our strategic nuclear forces and resources — the strategic rocket forces and […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-to-boost-nuclear-space-defence-forces-against-us-60554/

DefenceTalkThe Russian troops amassed along the Ukrainian border have evolved to an exceptionally capable force, Defense Department spokesman Army Col. Steven Warren told Pentagon reporters today. While NATO estimates the number of Russian troops inside Ukraine number between 1,000 and 2,000, a significantly larger force is massed at the Russia-Ukraine border, Warren said. “We are […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-notes-exceptionally-capable-russian-force-60515/