Suspected Iranian Weapons Seized by U.S. Navy May Go to Ukraine
WSJ skrev:The U.S. military is considering sending Ukraine thousands of seized weapons and more than a million rounds of ammunition once bound for Iran-backed fighters in Yemen, an unprecedented step that would help Kyiv battle Russian forces, U.S. and European officials said.
U.S. officials said they are looking at sending Ukraine more than 5,000 assault rifles, 1.6 million rounds of small arms ammunition, a small number of antitank missiles, and more than 7,000 proximity fuses seized in recent months off the Yemen coast from smugglers suspected of working for Iran.
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“The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions and depleting allied stockpiles,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday, on the eve of the meetings. “The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production. This puts our defense industries under strain.”
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Typically, the weapons are seized and destroyed by the U.S. and its allies enforcing a United Nations arms embargo on Yemen. But U.S. officials said the global effort to supply Ukraine with weapons triggered a discussion about sending the confiscated military supplies to Kyiv.
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Sending the weapons bound for Iran-backed forces in Yemen to the Kyiv government would allow America to turn the tables on Iran, which has provided Russia with hundreds of so-called suicide drones used to target civilians in Ukraine, U.S. officials said.
USA överväger att skicka ännu fler beslagtagna iranska vapenleveranser från Jemen till Ukraina.
Austin: Italy and France will provide Ukraine with SAMP/T air defense system
Ukrinform skrev:"We heard today about significant new air defense donations. That includes Italy and France who jointly announced that they will provide Ukraine with SAMP/T air defense system," U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
Nu är det äntligen officiellt att Ukraina får Mamba från Italien och Frankrike!
11 countries to give tanks to Ukraine, as Kyiv is ‘contemplating’ spring offensive: US
Breaking Defense skrev:Eleven countries have signed on to send tanks to Ukraine as military equipment donations ramp up in anticipation of a potential spring offensive, according to US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
Speaking in Brussels today after 54 defense ministry delegations met at the latest sitting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Milley also noted that 22 countries have pledged infantry fighting vehicles, while 16 nations have committed to send Kyiv “artillery and munitions.” A total of nine countries are supporting the supply of air defense systems.
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He did not list the 11 tank suppliers specifically, but did refer to the growing number of countries partnering on the international Leopard main battle tank coalition involving Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
Många länder bidrar till Ukrainas försvar, alltifrån Marocko till Pakistan.
Exclusive: Ex-Russian military bomber engineer seeks asylum at U.S. border, offers military secrets
Yahoo News skrev:A Russian military bomber engineer drove up to the U.S. Southwest border in late December, asking for asylum and offering to reveal some of Russia’s most closely guarded military secrets, according to an unclassified Customs and Border Protection report obtained by Yahoo News.
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Russian military expert Michael Kofman said he had no independent knowledge of this Russian engineer but spoke generally about the kind of information someone in his position could provide.
“An individual working at a defense industrial facility such as Tuplov could have access to a range of information on defense industrial production, specifications related to the Tu-160 bomber and its more recently developed modernized variant, various production processes, dependencies and where their limitations lie,” said Kofman, director of the Russia studies program at the Center for Naval Analyses.
Som om USA inte redan visste tillräckligt om ryska vapensystem...
Western intelligence shows Russians amassing aircraft on Ukraine border
Financial Times skrev:Western intelligence shows Russia is amassing aircraft close to the border with Ukraine, an indication that Moscow is preparing to throw its jets and helicopters into the war to support a stuttering land offensive.
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But intelligence assessments indicate that Russia’s air force is “actually quite preserved”, a senior Nato diplomat said.
“More than 80 per cent probably is safe and available . . . So we are expecting that they’re preparing to launch an air campaign and they’ve been trying to [disable] Ukrainian air defences with attacks,” the diplomat said.
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While no decisions were expected on Tuesday, the issue of supplying fighter jets was to be discussed, two people briefed on the preparations said. President Joe Biden has said the US will not send F-16s but American officials concede they are likely to provide Ukraine with more sophisticated air power as the war drags on — or at least give a green light to the transfer of F-16s from other powers.
Kan detta vara eskaleringen som Martin Kragh nyss varnade för? Förhoppningsvis kommer Mamba i tid - liksom västerländskt stridsflyg!
Antalet visuellt bekräftade ryska förluster uppgår nu till 9 255 enheter, varav 1 733 stridsvagnar, 77 helikoptrar och 72 flygplan.