The ministry listed 49 ongoing modernization and acquisition projects across the military. Here are some that stood out:

Land Forces

M60 tank: Two separate modernization projects are ongoing. The first will replace the existing fire control system with the new Volkan-M, as well as provide additional armor protection and protected crew seats to M60T tanks. The contract was signed in January 2023. The second bolsters the firepower, survivability and mobility of M60A3 tanks. Prototype development studies are continuing.

Leopard 2 A4 tank: The platform variant is undergoing modernization work through a contract signed in 2022 between the government’s defense program management agency SSB and local defense contractor BMC Otomotiv. Aselsan, another Turkish business, is providing the fire control systems; remote controlled weapon stations; command, control, communication and information systems; laser warning systems; driver vision systems; active protection systems; and close-range surveillance systems. BMC will integrate these systems into the tank and overhaul the chassis.

T-155 Firtina self-propelled howitzer: The next generation of the T-155 is under construction by BMC Otomotiv. The original contract covers the delivery of 130 units. As of the end of 2023, the company had delivered eight. BMC is also developing an engine for the weapon. Inspection and acceptance activities of the prototype engine concluded Feb. 24, 2023.

ACV-15 vehicle: Aselsan is modernizing the combat vehicle by providing the 25mm Nefer turret, among other systems. The Defence Ministry’s 2nd Main Maintenance Factory Directorate is conducting the repair and overhaul of the engine and the transmission of the vehicles.

Naval Forces

Milden submarine project: The Naval Forces’ design office is working on the country’s first indigenous submarine program. Construction is to take place at Gölcük Shipyard Command. A test block is to undergo construction this year, and efforts to build the first submarine are scheduled to start in 2025.

Reis-class submarine program: Hizirreis, the second submarine of the Reis project, which includes the production of six submarines, began May 25, 2023. Gölcük Naval Shipyard is carrying out the work.

Preveze-class submarine: After integration and testing activities ended on the TCG Preveze submarine, which acted as a testbed for the early delivery of the systems, the Gölcük Naval Shipyard started midlife upgrades for the TCG Sakarya in July 2022. That platform is the first submarine to receive the modernization features, and work is ongoing. The plan is to modernize all Preveze-class subs during maintenance and overhaul periods until 2027.

Barbaros-class frigate: Turkey is working on a midlife modernization project focused on the sensors, weapons and combat management systems of Barbaros-class frigates. The first ship to receive upgrades, the TCG Barbaros, is currently performing acceptance tests.

Air Forces

F-16 fighter jet: There are two separate projects for the Turkish Air Forces. The first one is the procurement of new F-16 Block 70 aircraft and the application of Viper modernization to the existing F-16 Block 40/50 airframes in service. The second is meant to extend the structural service life of F-16C/D Block 40/50 aircraft currently in service to 2050, and to strengthen them structurally. This project will take place in facilities run by the 1st Air Maintenance Factory Directorate.

Akinci and Anka-S drones: There are ongoing efforts to buy various types of Akinci and Anka-S drones. For both of these projects, Turkey considers the extension of their range via satellite as critical.

Hürjet aircraft: The primary goal of this project is to design and produce a single-engine, tandem-seat jet trainer with performance features that will play a critical role in training pilots for modern fighter aircraft. The prototype made its maiden flight in April 2023.

Hürkuş-B aircraft: This program for a new-generation basic jet trainer is meant to meet Air Force Command’s need for additional training aircraft. Ultimately, this is to improve the quality of combat readiness training and the effectiveness of flight personnel training. The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery in 2025.

The sale of Russian weapons to other countries fell by 53% between the five-year periods of 2014-18 and 2019-23, according to the latest report by the think tank, dated March 11.

While Moscow exported major arms to 31 countries in 2019, this number plummeted to only 12 last year, with Western sanctions against the Kremlin representing one of the key reasons some governments are interested to buy elsewhere.

The report noted that the three largest receivers of Russian-made weapons between 2019-23 were India, China, and Egypt. However, the amount of equipment that those governments acquired underwent a steep decrease.

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“Between the two periods, Russian arms exports to India decreased by 34%, while exports to China decreased by 39% and to Egypt by 54%. Algeria and Vietnam, which were Russia’s third- and fourth-largest recipients in 2014-28, saw their exports drop by 83% and 91%,” respectively, SIPRI analysts wrote.

The newest figure, combined with the overall low number of pending Russian arms deliveries, suggest that the country’s exports in the defense sector are likely to remain low, as the draw of made-in-Russia military equipment is waning, according to the analysts.

One trend relates to the continents of Asia and Oceania. The regions, which accounted for 68% of overall Russian weapons exports in 2018-2023, are now seeing the rise or the United States as their largest arms supplier.

Several Asian countries have hinted in the last year at their intention to decrease their arms dependency on Russia, rather looking to diversify their supplier channels or build up their domestic industries.

Another important shift in arms transfers between the two time periods analyzed was the move of France ahead of Russia in the ranking of arms-exporting nations. Paris is now the world’s second-largest weapons exporter, recording a 47% increase in sales.

With European nations scrambling for weapons to fill their own stocks or to support Ukraine, the continent logged a significant increase in arms imports, which were 94% higher in the past five-year window than in 2014-18. Purchases from the United States accounted for 55% of the uptick.

Weapons high on countries’ wish lists currently are both combat aircraft and helicopters, with 800 on order globally, as well as air defense systems and a greater interest in long-range missiles.

“In the past two years, we have seen a much greater demand for air defense systems in Europe, spurred on by Russia’s missile campaign against Ukraine,” Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher at SIPRI’s arms transfer program said.

The Feb. 14 presidential election saw Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto garner nearly 60% of the votes, as of March 5. Since assuming the post in 2019, Prabowo has pushed for large-scale military modernization and increases in defense spending, despite the COVID-19 pandemic hitting Indonesia’s economy and partially reversing poverty-reduction measures, according to the World Bank.

Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said Indonesia has consistently built up its defense since the term of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, first elected in 2004. And given Prabowo’s background, he will likely support continued military modernization efforts, Koh added.

“In some ways, one may argue that he might be more enthusiastic about it,” he said.

But given the country’s fiscal state and the scale of modernization the military requires, Prabowo might only be able to complete programs already in the works rather than start new ones, Koh added.

Prabowo was a lieutenant general and commander of the special forces known as Kopassus that were blamed for human rights abuses, including the torture of 22 activists who had opposed Suharto, the authoritarian leader whose 1998 downfall amid massive protests restored democracy in Indonesia.

Human rights groups have claimed that Prabowo was also involved in a series of human rights violations in Timor-Leste in the 1980s and 1990s, when Indonesia occupied the now-independent nation. Prabowo has denied those allegations. The alleged human rights abuses led to Prabowo being forced out of the military, and he was dishonorably discharged in 1998.

Orders and hiccups

Indonesia has pivoted toward naval and air modernization efforts. In 2021, it signed a deal with Airbus realted to A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft, anti-submarine and transport helicopters, and A400M transport planes. The helicopters are already in service, and the Defense Ministry finalized orders for two A400M aircraft in January. The A330 acquisition remains under discussion, company officials told Defense News.

In 2022, the government ordered 42 Dassault Rafale fighter jets for $8.1 billion, and it most recently completed orders for the last 18 jets in January 2024.

In August 2023, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with Boeing to acquire 24 F-15EX jets, and it also placed orders for Sikorsky S-70M Black Hawk helicopters.

The Defense Ministry also signed a contract to buy a $100 million submarine rescue vessel from the United Kingdom, and it’s reportedly in talks for two more Scorpene submarines from France’s Naval Group.

While President Joko Widodo last year approved approximately 139.3 trillion rupiahs (U.S. $8.9 billion) in defense spending for 2024 — a 20% increase from the prior budget — the government still needs more to meet its military modernization goals.

And the country appears to be falling behind. Under its Minimum Essential Force policy, the government is to complete a list of military upgrades and asset procurements the end of the presidential term, which is October 2024.

As of September 2023, the Air Force had met 51% of its goals, the Army 60% and the Navy 76%, according to Evan Laksmana, Southeast Asia military expert with the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.

The problem, Koh said, is that while Indonesia did list specific assets and capabilities under its policy, it had not provided enough specifications for planners to further the country’s goals.

Furthermore, Indonesia’s pivot to naval and air modernization might cause an uproar in the Army, which has traditionally received the lion’s share of the budget pie. The Army has been clamoring for artillery and land systems amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Koh said.

“The Air Force will have a tougher time these days and in the future when it comes to competing with funding with the Army,” he explained.

For example, Indonesia reportedly scrapped a deal to buy 12 used Dassault Mirage 2000-5 jets from Qatar to replace its retiring F-5 fleet. Public backlash pushed the government to abandon the plan days ahead of the Feb. 14 presidential election.

Indonesia is also behind on payments for a joint program with South Korea. The countries agreed to co-fund the KF-21 Boramae fighter jet program.

When asked for an update, Sangshin Park, a regional manager for KF-21 manufacturer Korea Aerospace Industries, told Defense News: “We also don’t know what’s going to happen, and we’re still waiting.”

Edna Tarigan and Achmad Ibrahim with The Associated Press contributed to this story.

NEW DELHI — India has successfully conducted its first test flight of a domestically developed missile that can carry multiple warheads, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday.

The missile is equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, Modi said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

India has been developing medium- and long-range missile systems since the 1990s amid strategic competition with China.

In 2021, India successfully tested Agni-V, a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,107 miles) that is believed to be capable of targeting nearly all of China. Agni missiles are long-range surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.

India is also able to strike anywhere in neighboring Pakistan, its archrival with which it has fought three wars since they gained independence from British colonialists in 1947.

French Space Command has determined the move is deliberate, and intelligence shows the enemy spacecraft is equipped with a robotic arm that would allow it to de-orbit the friendly asset. The French-led blue team moves a “patroller” satellite into a protective position – a capability France is working on, but now lacks – to block any hostile action by the U.S.-led red team.

While fictional, the scenario played out March 7 during Europe’s largest space wargames is credible and based on real capabilities, said Colonel Mathieu Bernabé, who is leading the exercise. During the event called AsterX 2024, some 190 participants from France and 15 partner countries are training for everything from jammed space communications to hostile satellites maneuvering to take out friendly orbiters.

“This type of exercise is absolutely essential for our operators, but also our processes, training for what we call operational readiness, so we’re ready to fight a real war,” General Philippe Adam, the commander of France’s space command, said during a presentation of the exercise in Toulouse in south-west France. “It’s as realistic as an exercise scenario can be, obviously – inspired by a lot of things you’ve probably recognized.”

Adam said “unfriendly behavior” by Russian satellites, with uncoordinated and unannounced approaches, happens “all the time,” in all orbits.

Space is becoming more dangerous, and militarization is on the rise, Adam said. Earth orbits have become busier, with increased competition between commercial players and states, while satellites are becoming a lot more capable and maneuverable.

Space-based systems have become an integral part of military operations, from communication to ballistic-missile detection, navigation, planning and targeting. Meanwhile, the value of the space economy rose 8% to $546 billion in 2022, according to the non-profit Space Foundation.

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French President Emmanuel Macron created a military space command in 2019, with the goal of boosting the country’s awareness of the security situation in space, and to better protect its satellites. France had 91 satellites in orbit in February 2023, the most of any European Union country, according to data published by Statista.

AsterX is “absolutely essential” for ramping up French Space Command, which doesn’t have operational status yet, though it’s performing operations, Adam said. The command is expected to pass an initial stage of operational qualification when it moves into new headquarters in Toulouse next year, and targets full operational capability by 2030.

France is organizing the AsterX wargames for the fourth year, pitting the French-led blue team against the fictional country of Mercure, an adversary trying to destabilize the nation of Arnland. What’s new this year is that the red team, with “significant” space resources, is played by U.S. Space Force personnel, the first time a foreign nation plays the role of adversary.

The exercise simulates more than 4,000 objects in orbit, spinning around in simulated space already days before the exercise, and with the blue and red teams not fully aware of the spatial capacities of their adversary. The knowledge gaps create an intellectual challenge, and the red team being played by the U.S. results in a non-deterministic scenario, Bernabé said.

“AsterX is a laboratory in which you’re confronted with situations, where you experiment with solutions, and get feedback,” Bernabé said. “The challenge is to train how to manage a space situation, but backed up by an inter-army and multi-domain environment, which also means cyber or informational, so this scenario provides for conditions that enable us to play the full spectrum.”

Americans playing the red team provides an additional element of surprise to the exercise, according to Bernabé.

The exercise runs through to March 15 and will include 14 different types of threats and 23 events, within the scenario of a gradually worsening crisis, headed towards high-intensity warfare. Adam said a crisis situation is a useful exercise, as there’s “a lot of ambiguity” to be resolved, while a high-intensity scenario is in some ways simpler because “anything goes.”

Worst-case scenario

A worst-case scenario for orbital conflict would be generalized war with a completely uninhibited enemy attacking satellites “quite indiscriminately,” according to Adam.

“Then we’re going to be losing satellites all over the place, we’re going to lose resources, we’re going to create debris, and then it’s a bit of a snowball effect,” Adam said. Failure to quickly stop such an adversary would create “a problem that will last for decades. Once you’ve created debris everywhere, some orbits become completely inoperable.

”So yes, a generalized conflict in space would be very, very bad news.”

Through the exercise, France also seek to develop a common culture of space operations with its allies and partners, under realistic threat conditions. In addition to the U.S., countries participating in AsterX include the U.K., Japan and South Korea, as well as a number of EU partners.

“We understand each other better after this exercise, in the nature of the responses we can provide, since we’ve experimented with things together,” Bernabé said.

Interoperability challenges between countries’ space forces are “extremely numerous,” including distinct vocabulary for the same things and different procedures and policies, according to Adam.French Space Command targets about 500 personnel in 2025, from around 350 now, according to Adam. He said partners such as Japan, Germany and Italy are creating commands similar in size, between 300 and 600 personnel, adding that human resources are “a tremendous problem” for everyone.

Those goals compare to around 13,900 staff for the U.S. Space Force at the end of December. France doesn’t have the ambition of creating anything similar, which would require “being rich like an American,” the general said.

In addition to the new Toulouse headquarters, the main priority for France is to get patroller satellites into orbit, according to Adam. He said the country also needs to strengthen the terrestrial part of its space capabilities, and needs more space-surveillance sensors.

He said the country’s Yoda agile satellite demonstrator, which has been held up by a lack of launch slots, may become operational “in the next few months,” with operational space-patrol capacity following within one to two years.

“These are not very big satellites, they’re not very complicated satellites,” Adam said. “What’s most complicated is knowing how to use them.”And that’s what France is preparing for with AsterX.

The three-word statement was highlighted in bold letters at the opening of NATO’s March 4 briefing, on the occasion of the Polish-leg of the alliance’s largest military exercise since 1988.

But even amid the resolute and calm tone of officials in the room, there was a palpable sense of apprehension among reporters.

A core theme of the speeches presented by NATO representatives revolved around transparency, specifically in showcasing what the Steadfast Defender exercise — and its subsidiary drill Dragon, led by Poland — would involve. Yet many were wary of answering questions related to Russia or lessons learned from the war in Ukraine.

On several occasions, officials were pressed about whether they had concerns over revealing their plans to Russia through events such as these, or even the possibility the Kremlin could intercept operational details.

“Of course we are concerned, everyone is concerned,” Brig. Gen. Gunnar Bruegner, assistant chief of staff at NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, told Defense News. “[We need] to make sure we are safeguarding the critical information, but it does not relieve us from the requirement of making these exercises happen.”

“It is quite a balance you need to keep; you cannot showcase everything,” he said.

During a March 4 news conference, Maj. Gen. Randolph Staudenraus, director of strategy and policy at NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, told reporters that while the alliance does protect its communications, “we are also really trying to be transparent.”

The fine line between accountability and information security is one that some NATO members have recently grappled with. A notable example is the leak of a German discussion about potentially providing Ukraine iwth Taurus missiles. Russia intercepted audio from the web conference between German Air Force officials.

Through this, Moscow was able to get its hands on information regarding the potential supply of cruise missiles to Ukraine as well as operational scenarios of how the war could play out.

Russian officials said last month that the country views Steadfast Defender as a threat.

When it comes to that training event, Bruegner said, details provided to the media during briefings are meant to illustrate the bigger picture, but only in broad terms.

“The plans themselves and the details in there will not be made available to everyone. What you’re seeing here are slides NATO has unclassified,” he explained.

He also noted that an objective of the exercises is to showcase the integration of capabilities, and not necessarily what NATO would do in a contested setting.

“We for sure would not fly banners on the amphibious devices in a contested exercise, which would have involved having an opponent on the other side of the eastern benches of the river and would’ve looked different [than what we saw in the Dragon drill],” Bruegner said.

Army Gen. Michael Kurilla told lawmakers on March 7 that he would “love” to have the Navy deploy more directed-energy arms capable of downing drones. Having supplemental directed energy on hand, he added, would also mean expending fewer U.S. missiles, which can cost millions of dollars a pop. Iranian drones being funneled to extremist groups can cost thousands of dollars each.

“The bigger concern is if you start talking about swarms. We need to continue to invest in things like high-power microwave to be able to counter a drone swarm that is coming at you,” Kurilla said during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington. “Nothing is 100%. At some point the law of statistics will come up. You have to have a layered defense.”

High-energy lasers and microwave weapons are capable of zapping overhead threats in ways dissimilar to traditional munitions and at a fraction of the cost. Lasers can fire at the speed of light and punch holes through material, while microwaves can fry electronics at a distance, rendering tech obsolete. Both are considered a critical element of layered defense, or having multiple countermeasures ready to thwart different threats in different situations.

The Defense Department has for decades pitched money into directed-energy weapons, an average $1 billion annually in the past three years, according to the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog.

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At least 31 directed-energy initiatives are underway across the department, with some more mature than others. Among them are Lockheed Martin’s High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS, installed aboard the Navy destroyer Preble in 2022, and Epirus’ Leonidas, delivered to the Army in 2023 in furtherance of its Indirect Fire Protection Capability.

Bringing such systems to fruition — let alone mass production — has proven tricky. Aside from their technological complexity, laser- and microwave-based weaponry demand precious components and materials such as germanium and gallium.

Kurilla on Wednesday said the Army “sent us some directed-energy mobile short-range air defense” that are being experimented with. He provided no details about initial results. The service dispatched four Stryker-mounted 50-kilowatt laser prototypes in February, Breaking Defense reported.

Militants across the Greater Middle East have in recent months conducted more than 175 attacks on U.S. and allied forces. A drone strike in Jordan, at the Tower 22 installation near al-Tanf garrison, killed three troops in January. A Houthi missile attack on a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden this month killed three crew members, as well, and forced an evacuation of the vessel.

“This is not the same central region as last year,” Kurilla said. “Iran’s expansive network of proxies is equipped with advanced, sophisticated weaponry, and threatens some of the most vital terrain in the world with global and U.S. implications.”

“No U.S. boots will be on the ground,” Biden said. “A temporary pier will enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day. And Israel must also do its part. Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure that humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the cross fire.

“To the leadership of Israel I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.”

Senior administration officials told reporters earlier Thursday the mission would route humanitarian aid through Cyprus to the temporary port in Gaza. The White House is also pushing Israel and Egypt to allow more aid through the land crossings at Rafah and Kerem Shalom.

The announcement, which drew bipartisan applause from lawmakers gathered, came amid calls from Biden for Congress to pass his long-stalled foreign aid bill to arm Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

The Senate passed the $95 billion foreign aid plan by a 70-29 vote in February. It includes $14 billion in Israel military aid, $48 billion in security assistance for Ukraine and $4 billion to arm Taiwan.

Israel receives an annual $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid, but the White House has said the Defense Department lacks the replenishment funds needed to continue arming Ukraine from U.S. stockpiles.

There’s also $2.4 billion in the bill for U.S. Central Command to respond to the uptick in attacks on American forces since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023; as well as $542 million for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in response to its fiscal 2024 unfunded priorities list.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has so far refused to put the bill on the floor amid growing resistance to additional Ukraine aid from Republican lawmakers as well as opposition from former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary race.

“Now assistance to Ukraine is being blocked by those who want to walk away from our world leadership,” said Biden, invoking former Republican President Ronald Reagan. “Now my predecessor tells Putin ‘do whatever the hell you want.”

The reference to Trump’s remarks at a campaign rally last month in which the former president voiced frustration with some NATO allies underspending on defense drew “boos” from Republicans in the crowd.

“Send me the bipartisan National Security Bill. History is watching,” Biden said, staring down Republican members of Congress who have opposed the measure. “If the United States walks away now, it will put Ukraine at risk, Europe at risk, the free world at risk, emboldening others who wish to do us harm.”

Biden also promised a strong response to other national security threats, including strikes to degrade Houthi capabilities in the Red Sea. “As commander in chief, I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and military personnel.”

Despite limited details about the plan for a humanitarian port, the idea drew immediate praise from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., and fellow panel member Angus King, I-Maine, who last week urged the administration to deploy a Navy hospital ship to the region.

“The civilian suffering in Gaza must be alleviated, and a maritime aid route will enable large quantities of food, shelter, and medical supplies to be delivered to those who need it most,” the pair said in a statement. “This temporary port, along with the ongoing airdrop campaign, will help ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

The Public Accounts Committee’s review, released March 8, comes two days after the government opted not to allocate extra funding for the military in its 2024 budget.

The deficit for the 10-year equipment plan, which the ministry published late last year and begins in 2023, will amount to £16.9 billion (U.S. $21.5 billion), the committee found. However, that could grow by a further £12 billion if the individual armed services each took the same approach to stating their equipment requirement costs, the committee noted.

The committee reviews the 10-year defense equipment plan annually as part of its role in overseeing how the government spends taxpayers’ money. The committee has consistently cast doubt on the affordability of the ministry’s equipment plans, but the latest report is especially critical.

The 10-year plan, based on financial data from March 31, 2023, saw the ministry allocate an equipment budget of £288.6 billion over the following decade to 2033 — a £46.3 billion rise on the figures presented from 2022.

“However, forecast costs have increased by £65.7 to £305.5 billion, resulting in a £16.9 billion deficit between the MoD’s capability requirements and the available budget,” the committee reported.

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That deficit could grow to £29 billion were the separate armed services to be consistent in the method they use to price their equipment requirements, the committee noted. For example, the inquiry found the Royal Navy includes the costs of all capabilities the government expects the service to deliver, whereas the Army only includes those capabilities it can afford.

Committee figures show this can have a significant impact on forecast costs. For instance, the Royal Navy’s decision to change its previous policy of only including costs it can afford, to predicted costs for capabilities the ministry expects it to deliver, resulted in a deficit of £15.3 billion in the latest plan, compared with a surplus of £700 million in the 2023 equipment plan.

The primary problem

The main cause of the cost increases reported by the committee is the ministry’s decision to fully fund Britain’s defense nuclear enterprise, according to the report.

The ministry has agreed to a minimum 10-year budget with the Treasury at a price tag of £109.8 billion for nuclear activities over the period.

The principal cost for the nuclear program is the construction of four Dreadnought-class nuclear missile submarines made by BAE Systems. They are to enter service in the coming decade. However, a new warhead program and other nuclear-related initiatives together dwarf spending on individual conventional weapons procurement.

Maintaining the nuclear deterrent is one of the ministry’s top defense priorities. If addition funds are needed for the nuclear program, accounts for conventional equipment will be further squeezed, the report noted.

Costs at the Defence Nuclear Organisation, which is responsible for the U.K.’s nuclear deterrent — have increased by £38.2 billion since the government released last year’s plan, the committee said.

‘Unpleasant, short-term decisions’

Inflation and the foreign exchange rate have also taken their toll on Britain’s budget. The ministry estimates inflation will add almost £11 billion to its costs over the 10-year period.

Despite the ailing condition of the Defence Ministry’s finances, the report said, the department has put off making major decisions about canceling programs it cannot afford.

“Instead, it has optimistically assumed that the plan would be affordable if the government fulfilled its long-term aspiration to spend 2.5% of GDP [gross domestic product] on defense each year, despite there being no guarantee on whether this will happen,” the report noted.

Everything that does not fall under the nuclear budget will experience severe pressure, said Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director general at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.

“The government is going to have to make some unpleasant, short-term decisions between different conventional equipment capabilities at a time when the Ukraine war is shining the spotlight on neglected capabilities in which our armed forces clearly need to invest more,” he said.

“After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many European countries are increasing their defense budgets rapidly, including Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the exposed eastern countries and quite a number of others as well. The U.K. government seems to have decided, given the wider fiscal squeeze and the priority being given to tax cuts, that there will be no more money for defense in this budget.” he added.

Indeed, the Defence Ministry is becoming “increasingly reliant” on allies to protect British interests, the committee said, “which carries the risk that such support might not always be available.”

Last year, the ministry told the National Audit Office, the government’s financial watchdog, that it was not planning to cancel programs in the short term, as that would limit the choices available to decision-makers at the next governmentwide spending review‚ which is likely this year.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has been under pressure to increase funds to rebuild Britain’s depleted military amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. He has reiterated the Conservative government’s ambition to increase overall defense spending from the current level of 2.1% of GDP to 2.5% during his March 6 budget speech‚ but has not provided a concrete timeline, only saying it would happen when economic conditions allow it so.

The Labour Party has pledged to reform defense, but not unveiled specific spending commitments.

A general election is expected by the end of the year, with the Labour Party currently ahead in the polls.

The move by Fincantieri reflects the state-controlled yard’s push to beef up its defense business, which currently accounts for 40% of overall revenue; the remainder comes from offshore and cruise ship work.

For more than a decade Leonardo has searched on and off for a buyer or partner for its torpedo unit known as WASS. The company’s primary focus is aircraft, helicopters and high-tech electronics.

A spokesperson for Fincantieri declined to comment for this story.

WASS, which stands for Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei, traces its origins to Englishman John Whitehead, who developed the world’s first effective self-propelled torpedo in 1875 in Fiume — then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and now in Croatia.

In 1995, WASS became part of the Italian group Finmeccanica, which has since been renamed Leonardo.

Fincantieri CEO Pierroberto Folgiero told Defense News in December he was keen on ramping up his firm’s undersea defense business, a sector the company predicts will be worth €94 billion between 2024 and 2030.

“We will be an integrator, deciding whether to make or buy systems,” Folgiero said at the time, adding that Fincantieri would also harness oil and gas technology for subsea defense needs.

As part of its ambitions, Fincantieri is a partner at a new subsea center in La Spezia, Italy, bringing together industry, the Italian Navy and academia to work on programs.

Fincantieri also signed a deal with Leonardo last year to work on drones to protect undersea cables and pipelines. And in December, Fincantieri purchased Italian firm Remazel, which manages subsea operations for the oil and gas sector.

The firm also signed a memorandum of understanding to work with W-Sense, an Italian startup using Norwegian technology to develop underwater communications based on acoustic and optical signals.

It also struck a deal to work with C.A.B.I. Cattaneo, an Italian supplier of underwater vehicles to Italy’s naval special forces. Last year, the Navy ordered a third U212 NFS submarine from Fincantieri.

On Thursday, Fincantieri released its results for 2023, which showed orders last year reached €6.6 billion, up from €5.3 billion the year before, while revenues rose 2.8% to €7.65 billion and are expected to reach €8 billion this year.

The firm reported a €53 million loss, against a €324 million loss in 2022.

According to Defense News’ Top 100 list, Fincantieri is the 48th largest company in the world based on defense-related revenue.

In the coming fiscal year, the government has allotted 796.3 million Brunei dollars (U.S. $594 million) for defense. This represents a 31.6% jump over last year’s allocation of 605.2 million Brunei dollars.

This rise in military spending heavily surpasses the 5.5% increase in overall government outlays during the fiscal 2024/2025 time period.

When the budget was discussed at the Legislative Council on March 2, the secondary defense minister, Halbi bin Mohammad Yussof, warned Brunei faces a complex and unpredictable security landscape. (The country’s sultan serves as the primary defense minister.)

“The Ministry of Defence and Royal Brunei Armed Forces are actively working to improve intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance, where a new system will be used in the near future,” Halbi said, without providing specifics. “Attention is also focused on the ability to monitor and detect underwater threats to ensure an effective response in maintaining the territorial integrity of Brunei.”

The International Trade Administration, which is part of the U.S. Commerce Department, notes opportunities for American defense contractors in Brunei, having updated this information Feb. 22.

“Brunei has stated its intent to acquire new defense equipment, including surface/maritime surveillance radar, airspace surveillance platforms, maritime patrol aircraft, fixed-wing transport aircraft, medium-range air defense systems, and related assets,” the organization’s website reads. “Military services may also be interested in non-lethal equipment, which may be procured through vendors registered with the Ministry of Defense.”

Brunei considers tensions in the South China Sea, where it and several other nations dispute territorial ownership, as a major security challenge. It also identified other threats in its 2021 defense whitepaper, including regional and global instability; terrorism, extremism and transnational crime; cyber and technological threats; natural disasters; and “the influence of major power dynamics in the region.”

“Tensions over overlapping claims, [and over] illegal fishing, and the security of sea lines of communication (SLOC) from those who seek to exploit internationally recognised laws, all have placed continued and growing demands on Brunei Darussalam’s security forces to secure and police its sovereign maritime borders and territory,” the document noted, using the formal name of the country.

Brunei has already filled some maritime surveillance gaps. It received Insitu-made Integrator drones in 2022 and subsequently set up its first drone unit, No. 39 Squadron.

Furthermore, the Navy received two refurbished Fearless-class patrol vessels in 2023. Singapore donated these secondhand, 500-ton vessels.

Another important purchase in December 2022 was four Airbus C295MW tactical transport aircraft. The first two aircraft were commissioned Feb. 14, with the manufacturer Airbus saying they would “strengthen the country’s air capabilities, and can be deployed on a wide range of missions, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, medical evacuations, noncombatant evacuations as well as search and rescue operations.”

In addition to new equipment, Brunei’s military plans to carefully husband its current assets.

“The replacement, upgrading and service life extension programs for capability systems and infrastructure will be done in stages based on the level of priority, before moving on to new acquisitions in the future,” Halbi said.

A scenario of nations jumping on lunar mining to refill their dried-up, terrestrial stocks has the potential for gray zone conflict, the kind of amorphous contest that transcends traditional notions of two warring parties shooting at each other, Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey said at the Space Comm Expo trade show here.

For now, there is no commercial proposition for what Godfrey likened to a science fiction version of the U.S. Gold Rush of the nineteenth century.

“The cost of getting to the moon, creating a lunar base, extracting the minerals and getting them back to earth probably far outweighs mining precious minerals on the Earth,” he told Defense News in an interview.

It’s also still unclear exactly what types of rare-earth metals, critical in producing high-tech components, exist under the lunar surface. On Earth, China is a critical supplier of such ingredients. European and NATO nations are eager to diversify their supply chain as they view Beijing as an unreliable partner politically.

Godfrey characterized developments toward lunar mining as purely commercial, but, by raising the matter, made clear it has started to pop up on the radars of armed forces, with very practical questions emerging.

“Do you ring-fence your particular area on the moon if you strike gold, so to speak?” Godfrey asked.

Whether moon mining will become feasible one day depends on key technologies and ensured access to space for all, he said, adding that proliferating space debris could make the journey impossible for everyone at some point.

Reducing the cost of space launches and advancing the field of on-orbit manufacturing also are stepping stones to the vision of moon mining, Godfrey added.

The presidents of Poland and Lithuania made a surprise appearance here on the last day of a waterway crossing at the Vistula River, which took place as part of the Polish-led Dragon exercise. Both countries’ soldiers were involved in the training.

“Today, I am talking about collective defense. We are ready, and rest assured that Lithuania can count on us if there was such a need, [that] Polish troops would stand shoulder to shoulder with Lithuanian forces to defend every inch of territory against an enemy attack,” Polish President Andrzej Duda told his Lithuanian counterpart during a news conference. “And that means not only Polish territory but also Lithuanian and the territory of the other Baltic states, if necessary.”

Duda’s reassurances were made amid a broader debate that erupted in Lithuania in recent days, following a cryptic statement made by Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonyte. In an interview with a local television program, the prime minister said she had knowledge of existing legal restrictions in Poland that “do not provide for the obligation” to deploy troops abroad even during a war, which would also apply if Lithuania came under attack.

She did not clarify which specific legal acts or limitations this was in reference to.

According to the state-run media organization LRT, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda called Šimonyte’s words a “misunderstanding.”

“Lithuania and Poland share the same understanding of security threats, and we will continue to work together to strengthen the security of our countries and the entire NATO eastern flank,” Nauseda told reporters during the March 5 news conference here.

During the Vilnius Security Forum held Feb. 23, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army Europe, reminded attendees that NATO’s Article 5 says an attack on a member state is considered an attack on the alliance, but that each allied country should also be ready to defend itself.

Several European nations are concerned that Russia’s ambitions will spread beyond Ukraine, upon which Moscow launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Among the organizations that took part in the Polish leg of the exercise was NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, whose lead is being assumed by the U.K. this year.

In an interview with Defense News, Brig. Gen. Guy Foden, commander of the force, said very high readiness entails that troops are “ready to deploy within [a matter] of days, but depending on where you’re going it can take shorter or longer periods of time.”

The framework agreements with the five companies – Alice & Bob, C12, Pasqal, Quandela and Quobly – are worth up to €500 million (US$545 million), the Armed Forces Ministry said in an emailed statement on March 6.

President Emmanuel Macron announced a national quantum strategy three years ago to equip the country with the computing resources required to guarantee France’s sovereignty in the field. Quantum computing exploits the laws of quantum physics with the goal of solving complex problems faster than with classical computers, a target known as quantum advantage.

“Quantum technology is of major importance to the Armed Forces, with potential applications in cryptography or in communications,” the ministry said in the statement. “The revolution underway will allow us to perceive our environment with unprecedented precession, discover new materials, explore new ways of transmitting information, navigate there where the GPS network is inaccessible.”

The program to develop quantum-computer prototypes will be coordinated by the Defense Digital Agency, known by its French acronym AND, and part of the procurement agency.

Google, IBM and others have built the first wave of quantum computers, but challenges around stability and scalability means commercial applications still face hurdles. In quantum computing, information is stored in quantum bits, or qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously, potentially enabling the technology to outperform a traditional system based on binary bits.

France two years ago announced a hybrid quantum computing network to connect traditional systems and quantum computers, making them available to research institutions, startups and industry partners.

The five French startups “all have what it takes to meet this challenge, but tit’s too early to say which of them will succeed in overcoming the various engineering, manufacturing and industrialization hurdles,” the ministry said. “That why this partnership takes the form of a three-stage competition: proof of concept, maturation and then industrialization.”

Four years in to the program, the three most successful projects will be retained to develop the best logic qubits capable of going to scale, according to the ministry. At the eight-year mark, the competition will be limited to two technologies, which will continue to be developed from prototype computers, with a goal of 128 logic qubits, to commercial systems, with a goal of 2,048 qubits, and usable by their first customers.

Paris-based Alice & Bob was founded in 2020 and has raised more than €30 million, working on a universal quantum computer with error correction. C12, founded in the same year and also based in the French capital, is using carbon nanotubes to build its quantum processor, after securing €10 million in seed funding in 2021.

Pasqal, founded in 2019, has raised more than €140 million to date and is developing a quantum computer using neutral atoms ordered in arrays. Quandela raised more than €50 million in November, and is using photonics as its technology of choice, which the company says is relatively easy to scale and operates largely at room temperature. Quobly is developing error-tolerant quantum-computing processors which it says can be built using existing semiconductor fabs, and the Grenoble-based company in July closed its first funding round of €19 million.

The new budget is nearly 1.7 trillion yuan (U.S. $236.1 billion) and continues a rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic. The budget had grown 6.6% in 2020, its lowest rate of increase for almost three decades.

“The percentage rise is the same as last year, and [it’s] the third year in a row where we’ve see an increase of 7% or more,” Meia Nouwens, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, told Defense News.

China’s military expenditure is about four times that of Japan and around 12 times larger than that of Taiwan. Beijing considers the latter island nation a rogue province and has threatened to take it back by force.

“China makes a point to note that the defense budget as a percentage of GDP [gross domestic product] is lower than that of the U.S. or NATO. Of course, the official Chinese defense budget doesn’t include all areas linked to defense,” Nouwens said.

Indeed, China’s true defense spending likely falls higher than what is officially announced. For example, its space program, which is managed by the military; defense mobilization funds; provincial military base operating costs; military pensions and benefits; dual-use research and development efforts; and paramilitary organizations like the People’s Armed Police and the Coast Guard are not incorporated into the defense budget.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank estimated that in 2022, China’s actual defense budget was 27% higher than what the country reported.

The government also said it is targeting economic growth of about 5% in the coming year, with the defense increase clearly above this level. This represents President Xi Jinping’s continued prioritization “Chinese Communist Party security goals, including pursuing control of Taiwan while belt-tightening elsewhere,” said Andrew Erickson, a professor of strategy at the U.S. Naval War College.

However, defense spending growth is lower than the government’s overall expenditure increase of 8.6%. On the other hand, it is higher than other sectors such as public security, where spending went up 1.4%.

“The lead-up to the National People’s Congress was filled with numerous articles that mentioned Chinese officials or commentators who hinted that the increase would be reasonable and low,” Nouwens said. “It’s interesting to think about the purpose behind that messaging — whether it was intended for a domestic audience or a foreign one or both.”

“China’s economic context has not necessarily improved, and the government may have wanted to send signals that they’re not overspending on defense at the cost of other budgets. The education budget, for example, only received a 5% increase this year,” she added, noting that there was, however, a larger uptick in the science and technology budget.

The People’s Liberation Army is not enjoying the double-digit percentage increases from a decade ago, but Chinese defense spending has multiplied by a factor of 2.3 since 2013.

In delivering budget documentation to political dignitaries, Premier Li Qiang urged the government to “thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s thoughts on strengthening the military, implement the military strategic guidelines for the new era, adhere to the party’s absolute leadership over the people’s military ... and fight hard to achieve the 100-year goal of the founding of the army.”

The PLA’s centennial occurs in 2027, and by then Xi aims to have built “a modern military.”

The same report from Li use the phrase “peaceful reunification” in reference to Taiwan. China executed more than 1,700 sorties in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone last year, compared to nearly 800 in 2021.

Li also outlined enhanced war readiness through an expansion of reserve forces, plus a pledge to improve defense-industrial capacity and coordination. Political loyalty was emphasized, too, following an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that has swept up two defense ministers and multiple generals in recent months.

While the war between Ukraine and Russia has emphasized the crucial role drones can play — and the threat they can pose to troops — Gen. Piotr Blazeusz remains unconvinced of their value during waterway crossings.

“Traditionally, you would not use drones just for a water crossing. You might use them for reconnaissance purposes to collect intelligence ahead of time, but while you are doing the actual crossing you would not really need them in the air,” the deputy chief of the General Staff told Defense News in an interview on the sidelines of the Polish-led Dragon drill held here. “You’d want them ahead, at the front, making sure there are no roadblocks, or identifying enemy positions or threats for the vehicles disembarking.”

During the March 4-5 drill, organized as part of NATO’s larger-scale Steadfast Defender exercise, drones were nowhere to be seen. A single unmanned aerial system — AeroVironment’s Puma drone — was visible during the static display portion but was reportedly not involved in the training. It had previously flown during the recently concluded NATO Brilliant Jump exercise.

In the last two years, the 2,200-kilometer-long (1,367-mile-long) Dnipro River — which flows through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine — has served as a critical part of the front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces as well as a major target for both sides.

In November, both Ukrainian and Russian officials confirmed that Ukrainian units were able to cross it and had established footholds on the east bank of the river.

Drone and aerial reconnaissance units were reportedly involved in the crossing operation, in part having provided cover for soldiers traversing and detecting Russian movements.

“Combat drones are probably of little use in a river crossing,” said Samuel Bendett, an adviser on Russian military capabilities at the Center for Naval Analyses. “What’s more important is to have ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] ones flying for constant overwatch, as well as a menagerie of counter-drone and electronic warfare systems to protect personnel and equipment.”

“You would, however, need combat drones — especially tactical [first-person view drones] — if you identify an enemy position not far from the crossing trying to disrupt it with mortar, artillery and [anti-tank guided missiles], or if you locate an enemy drone unit that is using either ISR or combat drones against your attempt to cross the river,” Bendett added.

Blazeusz said one reason drones were not used as part of the Dragon demonstration at the Vistula River had to do with the smaller distance forces needed to cross.

“The Vistula crossing is only 320 meters, so it’s not that big. But if it was a longer distance, potentially you may want them, but we do have other means of communicating beyond just drones,” he explained.

In contrast, some parts of the Dnipro River in Ukraine can be nearly 1.6 kilometers long.

Some observers present at the exercise shared concerns that not everyone in the West adapts tactics fast enough to match the requirements of modern warfare, ushered in by the Russia-Ukraine war.

While countries must keep a close eye on happenings there, Blazeusz cautioned that militaries should not try to simply duplicate strategies.

“Never in history was the next war an exact copy of the previous one, so we have to be really careful about identifying lessons learnt in Ukraine and then applying them, because yes, there’s clear indications of what we need to be doing, but we shouldn’t be looking to just replicate what they’re doing over there,” he said. “We have our own set of considerations [as a country] to think about.”

Indra plans to lead consolidation of the Spanish defense industry, Chairman Marc Murtra told analysts during a March 6 presentation in Madrid. He cited the U.K.’s BAE Systems, France’s Thales and Italy’s Leonardo as examples of national defense champions that consolidated their home markets.

European countries have boosted defense spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to strengthen their militaries after decades of cost cutting. Purchases of defense equipment by NATO’s European members will rise 7% to 8% a year through 2030, with total procurement of as much as €950 billion (US$1 trillion) over the period, Indra forecasts.

“Europe is entering a new major defense investment cycle after more than 30 years, characterized by a significant shift in focus towards technology, a greater share of defense systems and the expansion of multi-domain capabilities,” Murtra said.

Indra seeks to transform its businesses from national to international, and become “the Spanish multinational of reference” in defense and aerospace, the chairman said. The company wants to become the Spanish coordinator in European land, air and cyberspace programs, and the main defense-system integrator in its home market.

The company has announced a number of cross-border deals in its defense business this year, including a radar joint venture with the Emirati defense-technology company Edge Group, and agreements with Thales and Lockheed Martin to jointly work on defense systems.

The EU has been pushing for consolidation and joint projects in the defense industry, with fragmentation and duplication between national markets estimated to waste billions of euros. The EU’s executive branch on Tuesday proposed a €1.5 billion plan to boost defense production and promote joint military projects among member states.

Indra is already involved in multinational European projects including the Future Combat Air System, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the A400M freighter.

“Some of our NATO allies within Europe, such as the U.K., Italy and France, have already made significant strides in consolidating defense and aerospace sectors,” Murtra said. “This process is crucial to achieve strategic autonomy in Spain, and to guarantee its influence at the global scale. With our strong positioning and capabilities, we aspire to lead the Spanish national ecosystem in less than 10 years.”

Spain’s defense budget is expected to outpace Europe, rising 11% to 12% a year to reach a target of 2% of GDP by 2030, Indra projects.

The company expects its defense sales to grow 42% organically over the next three years to €1.1 billion, excluding the contribution from acquisitions. Defense currently accounts for about a fifth of the company’s revenue.

Indra projects overall sales of €6 billion in 2026, including €700 million added through mergers and acquisitions. The company plans tol allocate more than 75% of its acquisition spending to defense and aerospace, with a focus on Spain, Western Europe, the Middle East and North America.

The company said it will concentrate M&A activity in its defense business on bolstering capabilities in the land domain, developing home markets in Western Europe and strengthening its business in sensors, avionics and counter unmanned aerial systems, or C-UAS.

Indra is simplifying its defense-product portfolio, moving more than 100 customized products into six technology categories, including radar, electronic defense, as well as command, control, computing and intelligence, or C3I.

Space division

The company is also setting up a new space division that will serve the defense and air-traffic management segments, with a goal of €1 billion in revenue by 2030. Indra wants to become a tier-one European player participating in the continent’s main space programs, Murtra said.

“Space is a segment that is becoming more and more relevant in Europe to guarantee its strategic autonomy and sovereignty over communications,” Murtra said “Satellite communications are becoming mission critical for governments in both both defense and non-defense applications.”

Indra will seek one or more shareholders for its information-technology business Minsait, though Murat said he plans to keep a “significant stake” in the unit, because of synergies with the defense and aerospace businesses.

These hinge on four related variables:

Who wins the White House? Former President Donald Trump regards increased defense spending as one of his signature achievements. If reelected, he might look to reprise that record. He and President Joe Biden also could take very different approaches to Ukraine financial assistance via supplemental budgets.

Who controls Congress? If one party controls all three branches of government, it will have an easier time enacting its fiscal plans. Given the number of Democratic seats at stake this November, Senate control is likely to shift to Republicans in 2025-2026. The race for control of the House is a toss-up. A divided Congress is a recipe for continued dysfunction over the budget process.

Will there be fiscal constraints? The Fiscal Responsibility Act set caps on all discretionary spending in FY24 and FY25. The law could sequester the FY24 budget to 99% of FY23 enacted levels unless Congress acts by April 30. This would leave the DOD about 4.2% below the FY24 budget request. For FY25 and beyond, Congress could limit federal spending to cope with historic budget deficits and national debt.

What about supplemental budgets? In October, the White House requested $105.1 billion in supplemental funds — which are not constrained by the Fiscal Responsibility Act — to support Ukraine, Israel, U.S. submarine programs and other efforts. House Republicans are divided over Ukraine funding. Whether Congress uses supplementals to aid Ukraine and to skirt caps are critical variables.

There are some outliers who advocate spending outside these scenarios. For example, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., has called for defense spending equal to 5% of gross domestic product. On the other hand, Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Mark Pocan, D-Wis., in February 2023 called for the FY24 defense budget to be $100 billion below the FY22 budget. But neither of these extremes has enough support.

Doug Berenson is a partner in the aerospace and defense practice at the consultancy Oliver Wyman.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — India plans to spend about $3 billion on space-related contract awards over the next few years to reduce its dependence on foreign satellites and bolster its counter-space capabilities, according to the head of the military.

Gen. Anil Chauhan’s call to close the gap between India’s own capabilities and other nations that are developing countermeasures in space comes amid tension with China. The neighbors have clashed over a shared border area in the eastern Ladakh region, with both sides in 2020 suffering casualties. In August 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the unresolved border issue and try to deescalate the situation.

Speaking at the DEFSAT conference, held Feb. 7-9 in New Delhi, Chauhan called for greater investment in India’s military space sector and noted the military has already signed five contracts with the private sector, with four more being drawn up. In addition, the government plans to spend 250 billion Indian rupees — or about $3 billion — on contract awards over the next few years, he added.

“It’s the right time for the private industry to utilize this opportunity,” Chauhan said. “Our leadership has envisioned big targets for the nation, from space augmentation to space exploration.”

Sino-Indian space race

During his speech, Chauhan outlined several areas of focus for India’s space sector. First, he called for an indigenous constellation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites equipped with optical and hyperspectral sensors.

Next, he said, the military cannot remain dependent on foreign constellations for positioning, navigation and timing requirements.

“We should also be investing in launch on-demand capabilities in the near future. As the national requirements of ISR, PNT and communication grow, this will resultantly increase the number of Indian satellites orbiting the space, [thus requiring the need for] securing these particular assets, which will require space situational awareness.”

To fill these gaps, the general recommended high-speed satellite communications, a satellite-based internet of things and robust, ground-based infrastructure.

“Lastly, when we are developing all this, I think we need to look at counter-space capabilities, which nations are developing, as a means of deterrence. And maybe this would be required in [the] future to safeguard our assets. In order to ensure that these capabilities are rightfully utilized, doctrinal and connected concepts need to be developed,” he added.

Indeed, there is an inequality in China’s space-based assets compared to those of India. According to the “Military Balance” report released in February by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, China operates 245 military satellites, compared to India’s 26. China also has a reusable spacecraft and counter-space technology, the London-based think tank found.

China is certainly interested in dominating the space domain in terms of control and denying access to adversaries, according to Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst focused on space and Chinese military modernization at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

“They’re also developing the counter-space capabilities to threaten U.S. and allied satellites and developing sophisticated launch capabilities that are moving much more toward reusable launch vehicles, heavy-lift and encouraging the growth of commercial space,” he told Defense News. “So in every sense of the word, I think the Chinese are determined to overtake the U.S. in space.”

India is a major ally of the United States, whose own Defense Department warned last year of China’s rise in space capabilities. Its report last year asserted more than 290 systems made up China’s ISR satellite fleet.

“The PLA [People’s Liberation Army] owns and operates about half of the world’s ISR systems, most of which could support monitoring, tracking, and targeting of U.S. and allied forces worldwide, especially throughout the Indo-Pacific region. These satellites also allow the PLA to monitor potential regional flashpoints, including the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, Indian Ocean, and the SCS [South China Sea],” the report noted.

For example, China has dozens of Yaogan-class satellites in orbit, with 54 dedicated to ISR and another 46 providing electronic or signals intelligence, per IISS data, gathered as late as November.

On Dec. 15, China launched the large Yaogan-41 optical satellite into geostationary orbit. There are also about five Huoyan-1 early warning satellites, and China is testing a quantum-enabled communications satellite that could lead to virtually unbreakable communications.

Beijing’s progress in space, including the creation of its Strategic Support Force in 2015, which is responsible for nearly all PLA space operations, shows “forward thinking,” said David Stupples, an expert in space-based systems and professor at City, University of London.

“China [has] a very agile military, and they follow the latest trends very quickly,” he said, comparing the nation to the U.S. and NATO, which have historically focused more on kinetic capabilities. “Warfare has changed a lot over the last four to five years: Whereas it was 90% kinetic and 10% electronic warfare, it’s now probably 50% to 60% electronic warfare and 40% kinetic.”

China also has its own facsimile of GPS. Known as BeiDou, this constellation has 45 satellites, with the final system launched in June 2020 to provide positioning accuracy at up to 5 meters (16 feet).

China is also developing counter-space capabilities through direct-ascent technology, co-orbital systems, electronic warfare, cyberattacks and directed-energy weapons. These can deny access to and operations in the space domain.

“What you’re seeing is that while the Chinese are developing [these] sort of direct-ascent, kinetic-kill anti-satellite [technology], the favored capability for them will be soft-kill systems that are either co-orbital or ground-based because they can deliver reversible, scalable effects, and they also don’t create clouds of space debris,” Davis said.

Asked whether China has interfered with foreign satellites, Davis said he hasn’t heard of “actual attacks so far, but what they’re demonstrating — perfecting — is the technological means to do these sort of attacks in a crisis leading up to war, to exploit the gray zone attack using, for example, a dual-role commercial satellite that has an anti-satellite capability.” (Gray zone military activities fall below the level of traditional armed conflict.)

China reportedly has multiple ground-based lasers that can disrupt, degrade or damage satellites, with the Pentagon describing the technology as a “current limited capability.”

“They do have lasers powerful enough at the moment probably to destroy a satellite in low Earth orbit,” Stupples concurred. “But they’re also developing satellite-killer satellites, which will go alongside another satellite and then aim a laser at the solar panels or antennas.”

China demonstrated its counter-space work with an anti-satellite test against a defunct weather satellite in 2007. It has continued to launch multiple anti-satellite missiles, like the SC-19 used in 2007, proving Beijing can target systems both in low-Earth and geosynchronous orbits. And in 2018, Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, then-director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, warned China was working on the ability to jam satellites from the ground.

Stupples said while the anti-satellite threat is “very serious,” any attack would lead to fratricide due to the likelihood of American retaliation. “What China has then said is: ‘OK, you can do all of that, but we will flood space with our signals intelligence satellites and our reconnaissance satellites, etc., and therefore we’ll make it very difficult to do that.’”

Other notable Chinese capabilities include three tests of a reusable spaceplane and the fielding of transportable, quick-response, solid-fueled space launch vehicles. These could help the PLA rapidly reconstitute its low-Earth orbit capabilities by launching replacement satellites.

China’s commercial constellations also benefit the government, Stupples noted. For instance, Beijing is working on its Guo Wang constellation that could include 13,000 satellites for widespread internet coverage — a concept similar to the Starlink network created by American firm SpaceX. The state-owned company SatNet is to operate this massive constellation.

Juliana Suess, an analyst with the British think tank Royal United Services Institute, wrote in an article that “there are many reasons why China would build a satellite-enabled internet constellation in LEO,” not least of which is to expand its influence overseas.

“The existing strides that China has made in terms of soft power, specifically on the continent of Africa and with regard to internet infrastructure, suggest a relatively fast and easy plug-in into Guo Wang,” she noted.

Playing catchup

In comparison, India’s space efforts, historically headlined by the Indian Space Research Organisation, appear rather modest. But the country has achieved notable feats, including the July 14 launch of the Chandrayaan-3 mission into orbit, which then successfully landed on the moon.

M. Matheswaran, a retired Indian Air Force air marshal, told Defense News the major drivers for India’s focus on space are the 1999 Kargil War, fought against Pakistan over disputed territory, and China’s 2007 anti-satellite test. The Indian government eventually created its tri-service Defence Space Agency in 2019.

“Now the government has brought out a new space policy opening up the space segment to the private sector,” said Matheswaran, who leads The Peninsula Foundation, an India-based think tank. “India is on the right track now to meeting both its civilian and military requirements, but the pace is not going to be comparable to China’s.”

“There are startups that are doing well, and ISRO [Indian Space Research Organisation] is supporting them as well. That needs to be accelerated, which can only be achieved by adequate government and funding support,” he added. “I suppose India will close the gap, but catching up with where China is today is going to take a long time.”

Stupples agreed India is “a long way behind,” citing a lack of research and funding for military space initiatives. “India has the capability of launching satellites,” he said, “but it doesn’t have the impetus to develop this further. Its thinking is more like America’s — you know, kinetic.”

Last year, the Indian government released a space policy to encourage developments in the domestic space sector through private participation. And in February 2024, the government approved a more liberal foreign direct investment policy to attract investors to the industry.

ISRO also announced plans for 30 space launches by March 2025; that’s compared to an average of about three annually in recent years, Matheswaran said.

Meanwhile, China plans to execute about 100 space launch missions this year, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Among India’s private sector, Tata Advanced Systems has emerged as a key player, with local media reporting it can build up to 24 LEO satellites annually. And the startup GalaxEye Space plans to launch its Drishti satellite this year equipped with synthetic aperture radar and multiple sensors to perform multispectral imaging.

The Indian military is also eyeing December for the launch of its GSAT-7R communications satellite for the Navy, reportedly followed by a 2026 deployment of the GSAT-7B that will provide the Army with its first dedicated communications satellite.

India is increasing its navigation capabilities with the so-called NavIC system; that constellation is to grow from seven satellites to 11 within the next five years. A decade later, the government hopes to have 26 satellites in operation to give India a GPS equivalent.

But among India’s production efforts are destructive aims. In 2019, the country test-fired an anti-satellite weapon that destroyed a low-Earth orbit satellite and resulted in additional space debris. Modi said the test was “not against anyone.”

However, Matheswaran said the experiment was meant “to send a message to the rest of the world, particularly to China, because they did it in 2007.″ He said the move exhibited India’s “capability to protect our assets in space, [showing] we have the ability to interfere with your assets in space as well.”

He agreed with Chauhan that India is overly reliant on foreign sources for surveillance data. “When it comes to security-related issues, India cannot depend on that alone for our entire capability. There’s no substitute for creating your complete independence in that capability from other countries, and therefore this is an urgent requirement.”

In January, India and France signed a memorandum of understanding covering satellite launches and space exploration initiatives. The collaboration is expected to lead to a joint constellation of surveillance satellites focused on the Indian Ocean within four years.

They key here is collaboration rather than dependence, Matheswaran said.

“Down the line, it should result in joint training, joint research and development and joint work, including industrial partnerships,” he said. “That’s the way to go.”

Gen. Eric Smith, the Marine commandant, hadn’t been performing the Corps’ top job since he was hospitalized from a cardiac arrest on Oct. 29, 2023. But he repeatedly had signaled he intended to get back to work once he had recovered.

Three weeks after his hospitalization, Smith appeared in a brief video to reassure Marines, “I’ll bounce back from this.”

In January, he underwent a successful open-heart surgery to repair the congenital heart abnormality that the Corps said caused the cardiac arrest, and he reiterated he planned to return to full duty status once he could.

Marine general taking steps to return to full duty as commandant

In recent weeks, Smith has made visits to the Pentagon and listened in on meetings in preparation for his return to the job, the Associated Press reported.

“General Smith and his family appreciate the full support of Congress, the leadership at the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, the Joint Force, and all who extended them their well wishes during his recovery,” the Marine Corps said in a news release Tuesday announcing Smith’s return to full duty status.

This will be the first time since July 2023 that the Marine Corps’ top two positions have been filled by leaders on full duty status.

When Gen. David Berger retired as commandant that month, the Senate hadn’t confirmed Smith as his successor thanks to a hold on nominations by Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who refused to confirm senior military nominees through the usual unanimous consent process, in protest of a Pentagon policy facilitating troops’ travel for abortions.

Smith, then the assistant commandant, took over the role of commandant in an acting capacity. The Senate confirmed him as commandant by individual vote in September 2023.

Without a Senate-confirmed assistant commandant, Smith still was doing the equivalent of two jobs at once, he told reporters two days before his cardiac arrest.

Smith’s hospitalization briefly left Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, the most senior general in Marine Corps headquarters, in charge of the service. Days later, the Senate rushed to confirm Gen. Christopher Mahoney as the assistant commandant, who would perform the duties of commandant.

Tuberville, who insisted the blame for the military’s leadership gaps lay with Senate Democrats and Pentagon leaders, relented on his hold on hundreds of military nominations in December 2023.

Since his confirmation, Mahoney had been in a situation similar to the one Smith previously faced: performing the top two jobs in the Marine Corps at once.

Logos Technologies announced a $19.4 million deal for its Serenity hostile fire detectors late last month. The five-year arrangement also accounts for maintenance and operation costs across U.S. Africa Command.

Serenity combines electro-optical and acoustic sensors to pinpoint the origin of weapons fire and explosions as far as 6 miles away. It can be paired with a wide-area motion imagery, or WAMI, device to document swaths of land over extended periods of time.

“Serenity can cue the WAMI system to a particular area of interest — say, the location of an enemy mortar team — and then the WAMI system can track their movement across the battlefield, as well as ‘go back in time’ and discover their initial staging area,” Doug Rombough, vice president of business development at Logos, said in a statement.

Serenity systems are already used by U.S. troops, Rombough added, and a quickly deployable version for international forces is under consideration. The Army Research Laboratory is also looking into a smaller version of Serenity that can be mounted on a gyrocopter, according to the company.

Counterterrorism missions across the African continent involve multiple countries and their forces. The region has been plagued by violent organizations affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. In addition, coups in Mali in 2020, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023 have complicated U.S. Defense Department operations and assistance programs there.

Elbit Systems of America is itself a part of Israeli business Elbit Systems, the 21st largest defense contractor in the world when ranked by defense-related revenue. Elbit Systems earned nearly $5 billion in defense revenue in 2022 and about $4.8 billion in 2021, according to Defense News Top 100 analysis.

The European Commission on Tuesday presented its European Defence Industry Program aimed at bolstering a sector that has struggled to ramp up production in the face Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

“The war is at our borders,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said during a news conference in Brussels on Tuesday. “Russia’s war of aggression has brought a great sense of urgency to step up our industrial defense capacities.”

With each of the EU’s 27 member states in charge of its defense budget, economic nationalism has often pushed countries such as France and Germany to buy local rather than European. The resulting fragmentation has a price: A European Parliament report in 2019 found the costs of duplication in security and defense policy among the bloc are at least €22 billion a year.

“In the last two years, we have faced the situation of a defense industry without sufficient production capacity to meet the sharp increase of demand,” the European Commission’s executive vice president, Margrethe Vestager, said at the news conference. “We have been vividly confronted with a well-known structural fragmentation along national borders that limits economies of scale, and creates mistrust, while preventing genuine competition between industrial players. This entails major inefficiencies, and insufficient value for taxpayer’s money.”

Funding for the European Defence Industry Program, or EDIP, runs from 2025 to 2027 and serves a bridge until the bloc negotiates a new long-term budget, said Thierry Breton, the EU commissioner for the internal market.

The commission suggested profits generated by frozen Russian assets could be used to fund support for Ukraine within the framework of EDIP, subject to a decision by the European Council. EU leaders meet in the council, which, together with the European Parliament, adopts European legislation.

The program would extend a regulation to incentivize joint procurement by member states in the EU’s defense industry, offering aid from the common budget to partially reimburse joint purchases. The commission also proposed continued financial support to boost Europe’s defense-industrial capacity.

The plan called for a new legal framework for joint European armament programs that includes favorable access to funding, simplified rules and potential waivers of value-added tax. Under the proposed plan, Ukraine would be able to participate in common procurement efforts.

The commission is inviting member states to spend at least 50% of their defense procurement budgets in the EU by 2030, and 60% by 2035. The union’s executive arm is also asking countries to collaboratively buy at least 40% of defense equipment by 2030.

From February 2022 to June 2023, EU states spent more than €100 billion on defense acquisitions, according to Vestager, who said almost 80% was spent outside the EU, with the U.S. alone accounting for more than 60%. She said spending that sort of money outside the bloc is no longer sustainable.

She added that while the EDIP budget “is not a lot of money” when it comes to defense, the funds can work as an incentive to bring together member states.

“The real funding for a stronger defense comes from member states, and that funding will increase over the years to come,” Vestager said. “What we can do here is to enable that funding to be spent in a better way, that we get more value for money, and that more, relatively speaking, is being spent in Europe.”

Another proposal is for a fund to fix supply chain bottlenecks in the EU’s defense industry, focused particularly on helping small and medium-sized companies with debt and equity financing. The commission plans to ask the governance bodies of the European Investment Bank to this year review lending policies, which currently limit defense investments to dual-purpose activities.

The commission proposed the creation of a defense-industrial readiness board that would be a forum for EU member states, and for the commission itself to define EU-level priorities to coordinate and smooth out countries’ procurement plans.

EDIP also includes measures to allow priority purchasing of civilian and military equipment in case the European Council declares a supply or security crisis, according to Breton. The council shot down a similar measure included in last year’s commission plan to boost EU ammunition production, and Breton said he hopes “this time it will pass.”

Breton added that the commission has developed plans to finance industrial sites that are ready to ramp up arms production if necessary, with EU funding to share the risk with industry.

The European ammunition industry increased production capacity by 50% since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to Borrell.

Breton said the EU is currently providing a little more than 80,000 artillery shells a month to Ukraine.

Borrell added that in addition to EU donations, Ukraine has purchased more than 350,000 shells from the European defense industry through direct contracts.

What matters now is that the EU defense-industrial base grows rapidly so Russian President Vladimir Putin understands “we are extremely serious,” Breton said.

He added that European defense production will not only match that of Russia — “we will do it much better.”

Gen. Wayne Eyre, Canada’s chief of the Defence Staff, and Bill Matthews, the deputy minister of National Defence, said in a statement issued March 4 that they hope to minimize the impact of the cuts which will take place over the next three years.

The plan is to redirect defense spending to increasing military capabilities and improving recruitment, the two noted in a message to military and department staff.

The Liberal Party government tabled in the House of Commons on Feb. 28 its spending estimates for the next several years. Those show reductions in defense spending of $810 million in 2024-2025, $851 million in 2025-2026 and $907 million in 2026-2027.

It is currently projected that Canada will spend $30 billion on defense in 2024-2025.

The cutbacks will come from infrastructure and travel budgets as well as funding used for private sector contractors. In addition, there could be money pulled back from future programs, but officials provided no details.

“We will achieve savings from activities that have a history of underspending their approved funding, and from initiatives to be delivered in future years,” Eyre and Matthews noted in their message.

Priority equipment programs and key capabilities, however, will retain their funding or could see more money in their budgets. In its Feb. 27 report titled, “Procurement of Capabilities,” the Department of National Defence noted that projects to modernize systems for NORAD will be accelerated. No specific timelines were provided in the document, but those projects include a new radar system to provide situational awareness in the Arctic for the joint U.S.-Canada alliance.

The cutbacks come at a time when Canada is facing increased pressure, particularly from the United States, to spend more on defense. In an interview aired Feb. 25 on CBC TV, David Cohen, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, acknowledged the significant funds the country has already spent on new military purchases and on Ukraine aid.

“By the same token, I have been quite clear — and the United States has been quite clear — that NATO and the world is watching what Canada is doing with respect to its commitment,” he said.

Canada is the seventh-largest spender in NATO when it comes to actual dollars. But in terms of the commitment by NATO nations to spend 2% of their GDP on defense, Canada has yet to reach that figure, currently standing at 1.3%.

To reach the alliance target Canada would have to add up to $18 billion Canadian annually to its defense budget.

In the last year Canada has announced $30 billion Canadian in new equipment purchases, including the acquisition of the Lockheed Martin F-35 and the Boeing P8-8A Poseidon. Canada is also buying a fleet of General Atomics MQ-9B Reapers as well as trucks.

In February, Canada announced it was spending $316 million Canadian for new air-defense and counter-drone systems as well as anti-tank missiles for its troops in Latvia as part of shoring up its NATO commitments.

The joint venture will be able to access a pipeline of orders for almost 300 sophisticated radar systems in non-NATO and non-European Union countries, the companies said in a statement on Monday. They didn’t disclose financial details.

Indra this year already concluded separate agreements with Thales and Lockheed Martin to jointly work on defense systems, as the Spanish company seeks to bolster its Defence & Security division, one of its fastest-growing businesses.

“This agreement between the two companies can create one of the world’s leading players in the field of radar technology and is a step forward in Indra’s international expansion strategy,” Indra Chairman Marc Mutra said in the statement.

The joint venture will get “prime rights” for current and future non-NATO and non-EU orders awarded to Indra, the companies said. Indra and Edge didn’t immediately reply to emailed queries regarding the deal’s financials and agreements around technology sharing.

Indra last week agreed a defense collaboration with France’s Thales, with the companies seeing joint opportunities in radar systems, cybersecurity, communication systems and simulation. Both are already partners in the Future Combat Air System project, a German-French-Spanish collaboration aimed at fielding a next-generation fighter aircraft accompanied by drones. In January, Indra and Lockheed Martin agreed to explore cooperation in areas including radars and electronic-defense systems.

For the United Arab Emirates’ Edge Group, the venture with Indra follows on the heels of last month’s joint venture with Italy’s Fincantiere to supply naval vessels to non-NATO customers, with a potential pipeline of €30 billion.

Edge in February also signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkish Aerospace to provide its payloads and sensors for integration with the latter’s products, and announced the purchase of a majority stake in Estonia-based military-robot maker Milrem Robotics, a deal that had faced an EU security review.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the UAE in December, meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss expanding economic ties between the countries, in one of his rare foreign trips since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The UAE is Russia’s biggest trade partner in the Middle East, according to the Emirati leader.

The commander of the Turkish Naval Forces, Adm. Ercüment Tatlıoğlu, visited the Istanbul Shipyard Command and the Naval Forces Design Project Office on Feb. 28, the service announced, where he received a briefing on the design process and plans for the TF-2000 program. The design office, which is based on the same premises as the shipyard, began design efforts in July 2017.

The TF-2000′s principal mission is to detect and destroy guided missiles. According to the navy, the ship will be able to detect ballistic missiles, too. It’s unclear how many vessels the service plans to buy, how much money is set aside for the program and how long construction will take.

This vessel’s latest iteration shows changes from previous ones. For example, the original displacement was 7,000 tons. And in previous versions, the calculated speed was 28-plus knots (32+ mph). The second iteration shared in 2021 had the ship at 166 meters (545 feet) long and 21.5 meters (70.5 feet) wide, with a displacement of 8,500 tons.

In the latest design, the ship is 149 meters long and 21.3 meters wide. It has a draft of 5.75 meters. The displacement is 8,300 tons.

Its main machinery is in the so-called CODOG — or combined diesel or gas —configuration, which is expected to help the vessel reach 26 knots (30 mph) or more.

The ship will feature one 127mm main gun, two 25mm remote controlled weapon station and one 35mm Gökdeniz close-in weapon system.

It’s also to receive two Midlas vertical launch systems. The first one, with 32 cells, is located between the bridge and the main gun. The other, armed with 64 missiles, is located at midships between the funnels and the main mast. The principal weapons for the VLS will be the Siper and Hisar air defense missiles. The navy had previously said the TF-2000 would be fitted with Gezgin cruise missiles launched from vertical launch systems.

The ship also features a Levent point defense missile system.

The newest version of the TF-2000 comes with structural changes, too. According to the new design, Turkey has abandoned the approach for two, separate funnels; there is now one large funnel structure.

Turkey shortened the length of the ship when it eliminated the flexible mission space. This leftover area between the funnels and the hangar were supposed to be a reconfigurable space to carry up to 10 standard ISO containers at 20 feet each; or four 12-meter-long rigid inflatable boats; or various unmanned underwater and surface vessels. There was also space for 16 Atmaca anti-ship missiles, but the newest design does not show dedicated launchers onboard.

The ship is to feature 130-150 crew members, and with accommodations for 200. The vessel’s range is estimated to be 5,000 nautical miles at 18 knots. The ship is also to have a minimum 45-day operational capability without replenishments, and perform missions for 180 days without the support from its base.