Defence Talk News

Pakistan on Tuesday cut off supplies to NATO and US forces in Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass as security forces launched a major operation against militants there, an official said.

The number of test launches for Russia's Bulava ICBM will be increased from three or four to at least five next year, a senior Navy official said on Tuesday.

The second of the Royal Navy's new powerful Type 45 Destroyers, HMS Dauntless, has returned to her home on the Clyde after completing her first set of sea trials with great success.

Maintenance personnel here will begin to work on an advanced weapons system that protects large cargo aircraft from attacks from shoulder-fired missiles in a Dec. 11 contract agreement between Air Force and Northrop Grumman officials.

Soldiers of the 1st Infantry Divisionâ??s 3rd Brigade Combat Team are working with Afghan citizens to install an international ring of communication that someday will span Afghanistan and connect to its neighboring countries.

Lockheed Martin has received contracts totaling $774 million from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command for hardware and services associated with the combat-proven Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile program.

Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebels killed almost 200 people in a campaign in northeast Congo, a UN agency said in a report released Monday.

Elbit Systems has announced that it was selected by the Israeli Defense Ministry to answer the battalion-level IDF tender, calling for a wide procurement of mini-UAVs for all IDF Ground Forces battalions, including training and logistics support.

Japan is likely to drop its attempts to buy state-of-the-art US F-22 Raptor stealth fighter planes since it expects the United States to stop producing them, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

China will seriously consider building an aircraft carrier to ensure the nation's maritime security and safeguard the sovereignty of its coastal waters, a defence official said Tuesday.

Israeli tanks massed at the Gaza border on Monday as warplanes continued pounding Hamas targets in the densely populated enclave where raids have killed more than 300 people in two days.

Thales Raytheon Systems has been awarded a $217 million U.S. Army firm-fixed-price contract to provide production modification kits and power amplifier modules as part of the Reliability Maintainability Improvement program for the AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder weapon locating radar.

The Navy signed a five-year, $14 billion Multi-Year Procurement (MYP) contract for eight Virginia-class submarines Dec. 22. The contract, the third, or Block III, for the Virginia-class, calls for one ship per year in fiscal years (FY) 2009 and 2010 and two per year in FY 2011, 2012, and 2013.

Russia has begun to fulfil a 250-million-dollar contract to deliver surface-to-air missiles to seven countries including Libya, Syria and Venezuela, the Vedomosti business daily reported Friday.

NetFires LLC, a joint venture between Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, completed the third guided test flight of the Non Line-of-Sight-Launch System's Precision Attack Missile.

Lockheed Martin rolled out the first weight-optimized conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant of the F-35 Lightning II fighter on Dec. 19.

A test-firing of a new Russian sea-based missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads ended in failure Tuesday when the weapon disintegrated after launch, the Interfax news agency reported.

Japan asked the United States in 1965 to be ready to attack China with nuclear weapons if the two Asian powers went to war, newly declassified documents said Monday.

DefenceTalk's interview with David Krieger on Nuclear proliferation and weapons control. The interview was conducted by Ahmed Ali Shah; senior member and supermoderator at DefenceTalk Forums, Ahmed holds a MSc. in Defence and Strategic Studies from Quaid-I-Azam uni, Islamabad, Pakistan. David Krieger is a founder of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and has served as President of the Foundation since 1982.

Israeli troops hit three Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday denting hopes that a truce with the territory's Hamas rulers might after all be renewed.