Hulls of the new £31billion Trident submarines will be built with steel provided by a FRENCH firm.

BAe Systems, building the subs in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, opted for a French supplier after signing a contract with the UK government.

The deal, which The Mirror reports will be worth tens of millions, came after a plan between two British firms to make a joint bid for the work flopped.

The Defence Secretary announced work on the new nuclear deterrent will begin today as the first pictures of £31billion Trident submarines were unveiled.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense has released new details about its plans for future unmanned aircraft that would fly in supporting roles, aiding piloted fighters in the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, or JASDF. Specifically, JASDF is hoping to add two distinct craft to its fleet: unmanned wingmen that would fly in formation with and receive commands from a pilot in a conventional fighter, and a high-flying ballistic-missile defense (BMD) aircraft that would use sensor arrays to track missile threats.

The BMD aircraft is slated to enter service around 2030, while the the first iteration of the unmanned wingman—which will fly ahead of fighters as a sensor carrier—is to be developed in the next 15 to 20 years. A second version of the unmanned wingman that will fire munitions and act as a missile sponge, directing incoming threats toward itself and away from the manned fighter, will be developed with the same airframe and engine as the sensor carrier if all goes according to plan. The development of these Combat Support Unmanned Aircraft is outlined in a report from the Japanese Defense Ministry's purchasing office, the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA), which was provided to Aviation Week.

Unmanned wingman aircraft could combine autonomous actions with commands from a fighter pilot to fire missiles, search for targets, and lure away incoming missile attacks.

Given the difficulty of programming an autonomous system with the aerial maneuvers necessary for successful air-to-air engagements, most countries have focused on air-to-surface platforms for unmanned aircraft. Japan, however, seems to be more optimistic and hopes the unmanned craft can fly alongside its advanced stealth fighter aircraft, the F-3, which is currently under development with a planned production date in 2027. Japan's F-3s could be updated to control the unmanned wingmen, which would automatically execute maneuvers with the manned fighter and take commands from the flight leader, such as attacking designated targets or searching specific areas. The drones would then autonomously decide the best way to execute the pilot's orders.

Though programming the unmanned wingmen will require very advanced AI systems, there is one big advantage to having an unmanned aircraft in a dogfighting role: It could pull maneuvers that a human pilot could never withstand with reflexes that a human pilot could never dream of. The drones could also intercept incoming missile threats and neutralize them through maneuvering, electromagnetic countermeasures, or as a last result, impacting the missile. Sacrificing the drone to protect the pilot would only be a last resort considering the unmanned wingmen would be much more expensive than a missile.

The unmanned wingmen would be particularly useful for the F-3, which is currently designed to be a fighter with high endurance and heavy armaments at the expense of maneuverability. One possible configuration is a single unmanned wingman acting as a sensor hub while another in the formation carries weapons, according to Aviation Week. Another possibility is to have the manned fighter hang back as the information hub while multiple armed autonomous wingmen fly ahead to pursue targets.

The ballistic-missile detector aircraft would likely be a high-altitude aircraft capable of sustained flight. There was no mention of the BMD carrying weapons, but it would instead use infrared sensors and other detecting systems to locate and track ballistic missile threats.

When you're a country spanning 11 time zones with interests from Crimea to the Arctic, you need highly mobile ground forces capable of deploying across Eurasia at a moment's notice. Russian Ground Forces maintain four airborne divisions that, while smaller than the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne, are more mobile and arguably pack more firepower.

Russian airborne forces are heavily mechanized, the idea being they can parachute dozens of miles away from their actual objective—and away from enemy anti-air defenses—and advance on the ground with fast-moving vehicles. In this video, two of Russia's airborne assault vehicles, the BMD-2 and BTR-RD, practice swimming operations and engaging targets with auto-cannons and missiles.

The BMD-2 serves as the backbone of the Russian airborne forces. It's a tracked vehicle weighing less than 13 tons. It has a crew of three and can carry four paratroopers. It can travel at speeds of up to 43 miles per hour on roads, and is fully amphibious, traveling at 6.3 miles in water. The BMD-2 is an enthusiastic swimmer, as the video shows.

The vehicle is also heavily armed. The BMD-2 has a 30-millimeter automatic cannon that spits out armor-piercing and highly explosive incendiary shells at a rate of 300 rounds per minute. It carries two PKT machine guns for engaging enemy infantry and soft-skinned vehicles.

The second vehicle in this video is the BTR-RD "Robot" airborne vehicle. The main BTR-D is an armored personnel carrier capable of carrying up to 10 fully equipped paratroopers. The BTR-RD, however, is a dedicated tank-killer mounting one 9M113 Konkurs laser-guided anti-tank guided missile. The Konkurs has a range of 4,000 meters and a tandem-charge warhead, which can defeat the reactive armor of vehicles such as the M2 Bradley.

Neither of these vehicles is particularly well armored. The BMD-2's armor doesn't exceed a paltry 17 millimeters even to the front, and the BTR-RD barely has any armor at all. But in airborne operations, speed and firepower—especially anti-tank firepower—take priority over protection.

Malaysian authorities have arrested at least 10 people in the eastern state of Sabah suspected of leaking information about regional security operations to Abu Sayyaf militants and other criminals based in the nearby southern Philippines, Malaysia’s police chief said Friday.

The suspects who were arrested Thursday night are believed to have passed on classified information to the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and other armed groups that have carried out multiple kidnappings of Malaysian and Indonesian sailors in local seas in recent months, Malaysian media quoted Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar as saying.

The suspects were caught through a joint operation that was still underway on Friday by Sabah police and personnel from a regional military base, the Eastern Sabah Security Command (ESSCOM), according to Khalid.

“Those arrested were civilians, residents of Sabah and individuals from the southern Philippines,” he said.

Troops from around the world are to descend on a North Wales abandoned nuclear power station in one of the biggest military training exercises of its kind.

Warplanes and surface to air missiles will be used as part of the training mission, which will see reservists from the Honourable Artillery Company protect Trawsfynydd power station and Llanbedr airfield from multinational units including the US Marines, Japanese, and Malaysian troops.

TEHRAN, Iran — Prominent Iranian Brig. Gen. Mohsen Rafiqdoost went into unprecedented detail in a Sept. 26 interview about his time as minister of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“Although at the beginning of the revolution and during the early days of the war, the East and the West were coordinated [against Iran], we still built the defense capabilities of the IRGC with ‘Eastern weapons.’ My first time buying weapons, I bought 2,000 Kalashnikovs and 500 RPG-7s. Later, I would get weapons from Syria and Libya and eventually I connected with North Korea.”

“After North Korea, I also connected with Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and the Eastern bloc, in that order. … Of course, we would buy ammunition for Western-manufactured cannons from Switzerland. … We needed surface-to-air missiles, which were more tactical, and therefore we went and negotiated and brought them to Tehran. In exchange, we gave them a Hague system. That is all. The goods we received from Libya, for free, were worth more than $800 million.”

“At a certain point we connected ourselves to Communist China, and when that happened, we were connected to the source. We halted our relations with other [weapons] suppliers almost completely. China sold weapons to us directly and did it in high volume. Gradually, it started selling us strategic weapons such as coast-to-sea missiles and other types of strategic missiles as well. Gradually, and because of our connection to China, the Russians started to sell us weapons too.”

After the end of the Cold War, the IRGC bought hundreds of tanks and armored personnel carriers from Russia. It also purchased Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot ground support aircraft and other items such as speed boats, cruise and ballistic missiles — from China and North Korea — increasingly steering its defense organization toward that of Eastern countries.

However, while the weapons system of the IRGC is based on the Eastern model, the IRGC has adopted the US model pursued by the General Staff of the Armed Forces since before the revolution as far as defense strategy and deployment are concerned.

The Iraqi deployment during the Iran-Iraq War was completely Eastern: The front line had limited combat capabilities while the main military power was behind. In Iran, on the other hand, the deployment was Western: The massive volume of human resources and equipment at the IRGC’s disposal was deployed on the front lines. Therefore, the IRGC could successfully break Iraq’s relatively weak defense lines and then hand over the conquered territories to the army. Due to the counterattacks initiated by Saddam’s powerful army, Iran's — which suffered from a shortage of motivated and organized forces as well as inadequate supplies of equipment and spare parts — would quickly lose ground. As a result, the perception was that the IRGC was better at fighting the war than the army. The reality, however, was different.

The unilateral suspension of deliveries of Western-manufactured weapons to Iran’s army has left the regular navy, ground forces and the air force with worn-out, inefficient and old weapons and facilities. The IRGC, however, has had the option of buying weapons from the Eastern bloc countries and thus has continuously upgraded its defense systems with the latest missile systems, armor, personnel equipment, marine capabilities and signal systems. Therefore, although the combat organization of the IRGC is much smaller compared to that of the army, the combat power of the IRGC has in practice advanced much further.

Russia’s next-generation submarines will be smaller and stealthier than Moscow’s current fleet, but officials from the Rubin design bureau contend that the Kremlin should invest in specialized designs rather than multi-role boats.

Russian designers believe that the concept of a modular submarine design is possible, however a multi-role boat would be an expensive jack-of-all-trades but a master of none.

The Russian philosophy stands in stark contrast to the U.S. Navy’s doctrine of building multi-role submarines such as the Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine, which was designed to perform almost every mission with the exception of strategic nuclear deterrence.

“The modular principle is reasonable, but the way I see it, it is largely applicable to specific technical means and equipment, some devices, radio electronics and power production. Each submarine has its own task. Creating a ship capable of coping with a hundred tasks while in reality it will be performing just one function will be costly and ineffective.”

The Russians are currently working on a next-generation attack submarine under the project name Husky. The new attack submarine is reportedly being developed in two variants — one version would be an “interceptor” similar in concept to the Alfa-class or Sierra-class submarines while the other would be a guided-missile submarine designed to replace the Oscar II class.

But in addition to recapitalizing its nuclear submarine fleet, the Russians have to design a successor to the Kilo class — which is still an excellent boat despite its age. The Russians’ first attempt to replace the Kilo with the Lada-class submarine proved to be a dead end — Moscow simply failed to design a practical Air Independent Propulsion system, or AIP.

The Russians are currently working a design called the Kalina to succeed the Kilos.

It is possible that Moscow could equip the Kalinas with an AIP, however the Russians might also simply adopt extended capacity battery packs for its new boats.

The Army will no longer buy future versions of the Apache helicopter, according to FlightGlobal. Instead, it will pour funding into developing the armed version of the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, the mission to make a new helo that will fly in 2030.

The latest version of the Apache, the -E Model Guardian, features an uprated engine, tactical datalinks for sharing information with other friendly forces, an improved transmission, and the ability to control unmanned aerial vehicles from the cockpit. The Army is buying a handful of AH-64Es, but the majority of the helicopters will be older Apaches upgraded to the Guardian standard.

Meanwhile, Apache maker Boeing is pressing ahead with plans for an -F model, with or without the Army. Many of the Apache's overseas sales didn't occur for a decade or more after the helicopter entered U.S. service. If the same happens with the armed FVL aircraft, it might not attract foreign buyers until 2040 or later. Meanwhile, an -F model Apache could act as bridge—a very lucrative bridge indeed as the Apache continues to gain fame as a proven combat platform.

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/09 October) – President Rodrigo Duterte is set to meet with Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chair Nur Misuari next week to “begin the talks.”

Misuari has a pending warrant for his arrest along with 59 others on charges of rebellion and violation of Republic Act 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and other Crimes against Humanity following the September 2013 stand-off in Zamboanga City between his followers and government troops that left 104 persons dead, 192 injured and 110,000 of its 807,000 population displaced.

Misuari signed the Tripoli Agreement in 1976 but the agreement, the MNLF said, was unilaterally implemented by the Philippine Government. He signed a Final Peace Agreement with the government on September 2, 1996. Exactly a week later, he was elected Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and served the post until he was arrested off Sabah, Malaysia in late November 2001 for alleged illegal entry. He was fetched from his Malaysian detention in early January 2002 by then Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Dureza, and was detained for seven years.

“Iyong Islam naman was already thriving here in Mindanao. As a matter of fact, Islam was 100 percent dito sa Mindanao because Mindanao was really part—you go to the archives of Malaysia and itong sa Indonesia, there’s a part there about the Philippines and how the missionaries came here,” he said.

During the National Biennial Summit on Women and Community Policing at the Apo View Hotel Davao last September 30, the president said ordered the police and the military not to arrest Misuari.

In a meeting on August 13, 2016 in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, the GPH and MILF implementing peace panels agreed to increase from 15 to 21 the BTC membership. At least 10 seats have been allocated for the GPH from seven and 11 for the MILF from eight.

But Duterte has repeatedly said he will not talk to the Abu Sayyaf.

“No way that I will talk to them, sila rin ayaw din talaga nila (they don’t want to talk, either). Ang akin lang sana, kung hindi tayo pwede mag-usap sabi ko sa Moro (For me, if we cannot talk, I told the Moro), at least we minimize the slaughter. Kung maari lang (If only it’s possible),” Duterte said.

Duterte reiterated that he wants to put an end to the decades-long armed conflicts between the Moros and the government troops that he said stemmed from the historical injustices caused by the American and Spanish colonizers.

America has the most powerful weapon on Earth at its disposal. Why not use it on Mother Nature? Why not nuke a hurricane?

The basic idea goes like this — the Pentagon should bomb the eye of a tropical storm, thereby dispersing it and saving countless lives and millions of dollars.

The initial idea involved weakening the storms and changing their trajectory — not necessarily destroying them. He theorized America could achieve this by detonating nukes in the air just outside the eye of the storm.

“It seems such a burst would, for at least 15 minutes, greatly influence the horizontals circulation of a hurricane … if a burst were made on one side of a storm or two bursts on opposite sides of a storm, considerable asymmetry in circulation could result,”

the eye of a hurricane is about 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the storm. “It appears that a megaton explosion in the eye would engulf and entrain a large quantity of this hot ‘eye’ air and carry it out of the storm into the stratosphere.”

Thus heated, the nuked air at the center of the hurricane would rush upwards, pulling the hot air at the center of the storm with it. Then the colder air from the side walls of the hurricane would rush in to fill this gap and slow — or possibly even stop the hurricane.

How did Reed propose to deliver the nukes to the storm? “Delivery should present no particular problem,” Reed wrote. “An air drop is obviously possible.”

“A more suitable delivery would be from a submarine,” he explained. “It would penetrate a storm eye underwater a least a day in advance and record as many weather data and trends as possible before launching missile-borne devices.”

a 20-megaton device would be enough to affect the hurricane. If all this science sounds a little suspect, you’re not alone. Reed first presented this idea in 1956 and wanted it included in the International Geophysical Year — a year of scientific collaboration between 67 countries around the world.

A first hand report from the veteran run website Grunt Stuff, who says they have already verified the claims with multiple witnesses, tells the story of an Army Ranger who got a confirmed terrorist kill with nothing but his MRE spoon at the Haditha Dam in Iraq, according to an Instagram post from MilitaryBadassery.

They came up to a building they were ordered to clear, and inside 3-5 bad guys lay waiting for the stack to come through the door. As the Rangers entered the room they managed to kill all but one of the fighters. In the smoke and chaos of battle one of the rangers realized a bad guy was still alive and was attempting to pull the pin on a grenade, the report said.
The combat incident took place at the Haditha Dam in Iraq. From Grunt Stuff:

"The story goes something like this. A small group of rangers were ordered to clear a building. As the group of rangers approached this particular building, they were unaware that roughly four hostile combatants wait inside. The rangers stack the door, reach to breach. As they breach and enter the building, they are met with an exchange of gunfire. Without hesitation, they return fire, killing all but one enemy combatant. Although one fighter was alive, it took a few moments for the rangers to realize the hostile was attempting to pull the pin on a live, handheld grenade.

Being only feet away, our ranger buddy’s instincts and training took over. He rushed the enemy, immediately engaging in hand to hand combat. As they wrestle, this ranger can’t seem to get to his knife due to all of his gear being in the way.  Again, without hesitation, he reaches for the first solid object he could get his hands on; an MRE spoon!

After grabbing the spoon, he began stabbing the enemy in the neck until he was dead.

“USS Mason detected two inbound missiles over a 60-minute period while in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen. Both missiles impacted the water before reaching the ship,” Reuters quoted Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis as saying.

Duff told Reuters that there were “no injuries to our sailors and no damage to the ship.” He reportedly said the failed attack originated in an area controlled by Houthi rebels, who are being targeted in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition. The Saudis have been supporting the government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who was ousted in a Houthi rebellion in November 2014.