POLITICO
The Pentagon is considering training the Ukrainian armed forces to operate the Patriot missile defense system at a military base in the United States, according to two Defense Department officials. Since Russia’s February invasion, the Ukrainian armed forces have completed training on a host of different NATO-provided weapons systems, including the U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, in eastern Europe, Germany and the United Kingdom. But until this point, none of the training has been done in the United States.
Military Times
“After 22 years spread out between the U.S. Army and Navy, I lost track of all the Christmases, Thanksgivings, New Years and birthdays I spent deployed. What I do remember is the feeling of being away from my wife and daughters for each of those events. I missed family moments. I settled for short phone calls from afar, pushing aside the moments of sadness so I could focus on work while keeping my sights set on being home for the next big occasion,” writes Jason Beardsley, senior coalitions advisor for Concerned Veterans for America and director of veterans initiatives for Stand Together.
SpaceNews
Northrop Grumman has completed ground-based tests to demonstrate critical technology required for a 2025 demonstration of space-based solar power. “As far as the technologies go, we’re very confident in our design and we’ve proven it out,” Tara Theret, Northrop Grumman’s Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR) program director, told SpaceNews. “Now, it’s just building, testing and integrating the rest of the hardware on a challenging timeline.”
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Reuters
Taiwan scrambled combat jets to warn away 39 Chinese aircraft that entered its southeastern air defense zone, the island's defense ministry said Dec. 22. Taiwan has complained of repeated missions by the Chinese air force over the last two years, often in southern areas of its air defense identification zone, or ADIZ. The latest incursion included 21 fighters and four H-6 bombers, as well as early warning, antisubmarine and aerial refueling aircraft, Taiwan's defense ministry said in a report detailing Chinese activities in its ADIZ over the last 24 hours.
Defense News
The U.S. Department of the Air Force considers 5G a promising avenue for communication—but far from the only one—on future battlefields, amid a Pentagon-wide push to keep forces connected across vast distances. While some consider the fifth generation of wireless technologies as extraordinary, Jay Bonci, the department’s chief technology officer, sees it as an additional means of connectivity, or another arrow in the quiver of military networking.
Breaking Defense
North Korea has supplied the Russian private military company Wagner Group with infantry rockets and missiles for use in Ukraine, the White House said today, with a spokesperson urging Pyongyang to stop it “immediately.” “Today we can confirm that North Korea has completed an initial arms delivery to Wagner, which paid for that equipment,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “We assess that the amount of material delivered to Wagner will not change battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, but we are certainly concerned that North Korea is planning to deliver more military equipment.”
Military.com
Service members stationed in Japan will have their government-provided cost-of-living allowance reinstated for the first time since October, the latest change coming amid rapid currency fluctuations that led to the halting of the payments. In October, the military services stopped issuing the tax-free cost-of-living allowance, known as COLA, that is designed to support the roughly 55,000 troops stationed in the country by making up the difference in costs between the U.S. and Japan. Following a dive in the Japanese yen earlier this year, the payments were suspended.
Breaking Defense
The war in Ukraine (and subsequent delivery of billions of dollars in air defense equipment, munitions, drones, guns, and other weaponry) prompted a major realization: The Pentagon and defense industry’s ability to rapidly mobilize to produce munitions at the pace that would be needed during a full-scale war has atrophied, Pentagon acquisition czar Bill LaPlante said repeatedly this year. To fix that, the Pentagon will need to push more money to ramp up munitions production, and then keep that spending steady, he said.
One More Thing
Sandboxx
When Hallmark and Netflix back up their annual dump truck of aggressively themed Christmas romance flicks, military-themed goodies occasionally dot the pile. Operation Christmas Drop (Netflix, 2020) features a meet-cute involving a real-life humanitarian outreach op in the Pacific; in USS Christmas (Hallmark, 2020) sparks fly on a Navy tiger cruise out of Norfolk, Virginia. These films are perfectly acceptable December fare, and, more importantly, a nod to the experiences of Americans in military communities. But if you’ve got to choose just one movie to watch this holiday season, save your time. The best of the breed is a movie families have been gathering around for decades, often oblivious to its deeper themes of war and sacrifice.
