President Trump said Oct. 21 that meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be a waste and that he would reveal his new thinking on the Ukraine war within two days. “I don’t want to have a wasted meeting. I don’t want to have a waste of time til I’ll see what happens,” he said at the White House.
Ukraine and the U.S. are finalizing a deal for Kyiv to secure 25 Patriot air defense systems, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 20, a push that would boost the Ukrainian military’s ability to defend against Russian aerial attacks.
Shield AI’s new unmanned, vertical-takeoff-and-landing fighter jet concept is designed to be a drone wingman or a standalone aircraft, marking the latest autonomous aircraft announcement by defense companies in recent weeks.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., proposed legislation that would set a clear U.S. government policy to prioritize military and security collaboration with allies across NATO’s eastern flank. The seven-page bill, not yet published widely but shared with DefenseScoop on Oct. 20, was motivated by multiple recent incidents where Russian drones and military jets reportedly violated some of those bordering nations’ airspace.
The Pentagon’s hunt for cheaper, mass-produced munitions has led to a flurry of interest in new designs. Now, a top Lockheed Martin executive tells Breaking Defense that his company is exploring ways for existing systems to fill the need, whether by introducing new technologies or scaling back certain features.
The Swedish Armed Forces have finally gotten their hands on their first operational Saab Gripen E multirole fighter. The first of 60 of the new jets marks a significant step in the modernization of the Swedish Air Force, which is reconfiguring its posture to better face off the resurgent threat from Russia.
Defense Department personnel will now have to coordinate all interactions with Congress through the Pentagon’s central legislative affairs office, according to a memo obtained by Breaking Defense—a change in policy that could further curb the flow of information streaming from the department to Capitol Hill.
Shortly before his final flight over North Vietnam, Air Force Maj. Robert Lodge told his fellow Airmen that if his plane ever went down, he would rather die than risk being captured and possibly divulging information that would endanger American aircrews.
In the 1950s and 60s, few defense manufacturers were involved with vertical or short take-off and landing platforms. The Bell XV-3 tilt rotor and the Doak VZ-4, with its two tilting ducted fans, were two of the first. But it was the U.S. military’s ambitious tilt-wing assault transport, the LTV XC-142A, that promised helicopter-style vertical lift with turboprop speed.
