Tag: defense

Kim Jong Un’s 2024 Wish List: More Nuclear Bombs, Spy-Satellite Launches
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Kim Jong Un’s 2024 Wish List: More Nuclear Bombs, Spy-Satellite Launches

SEOUL—Throughout 2023, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for the expansion of his country’s weapons arsenal. This year, he plans more of the same. Pyongyang plans to carry out three more spy-satellite launches and accelerate nuclear-weapons production in 2024, Kim told top North Korean officials in recent year-end meetings. The 39-year-old dictator ruled out reunification with South Korea. And he echoed prior dissatisfactions with the U.S., urging his country to prepare for an armed conflict that could occur at any time. Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Russian Strike on Ukraine Sent Warhead Through Polish Airspace, Warsaw Says
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Russian Strike on Ukraine Sent Warhead Through Polish Airspace, Warsaw Says

KYIV, Ukraine—Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on cities across Ukraine, killing at least 30 people and allegedly sending a warhead through Polish airspace in one of the biggest barrages of the war.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched around 110 missiles on Friday morning. The majority were shot down, according to Ukrainian officials, but damage was nonetheless widespread. Schools, apartment buildings and a maternity hospital were all hit. Casualties were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Lviv—the six largest Ukrainian cities not under Russian occupation.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Small Drones Are Helping Israel Navigate the Urban Battlefield in Gaza
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Small Drones Are Helping Israel Navigate the Urban Battlefield in Gaza

Updated Dec. 29, 2023 12:05 am ETThe Israeli military has tried a variety of methods to explore Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza: robots, robot dogs and real dogs. But what it has quickly learned is that the cheapest and most effective option for exploring the underground labyrinths—which are a potential death trap for soldiers—is a small quadcopter drone. It isn’t just tunnels. In the dense urban battlefield of Gaza, the Israeli military has been flying these quadcopters—essentially small helicopters with four rotors—into buildings before sending in soldiers. The devices are also providing smaller units with aerial reconnaissance and being used as guided munitions.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Iran Adds to Pressure on U.S. With Nuclear Program Acceleration
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Iran Adds to Pressure on U.S. With Nuclear Program Acceleration

Updated Dec. 26, 2023 6:06 pm ETIran has tripled production of nearly weapons-grade uranium in a move likely to deepen its confrontation with the West as Tehran helps allied militias to attack Israel and U.S. forces in the region. Iran’s decision to triple its production rate of near-weapons-grade uranium marks the collapse of quiet diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran to ease tensions. It comes amid a proliferation of flashpoints between the U.S. and Iran, whose proxies have repeatedly traded fire with U.S. forces in the Middle East since the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7. U.S. and European navies are also shooting down drones launched by the Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 879...
Iran Adds to Pressure on U.S. With Nuclear Program Acceleration
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Iran Adds to Pressure on U.S. With Nuclear Program Acceleration

Dec. 26, 2023 10:07 am ETIran has tripled production of nearly weapons-grade uranium in a move likely to deepen its confrontation with the West as it helps Tehran-linked militias to attack Israel and U.S. forces in the region. Iran’s decision to triple its production rate of near-weapons-grade uranium marks the collapse of quiet diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran to ease tensions. It comes amid a proliferation of flashpoints between the U.S. and Iran, whose proxies have repeatedly traded fire with U.S. forces in the Middle East since the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7. U.S. and European navies are also shooting down drones launched by the Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cb...
How We Deterred Iran in the Gulf Last Time
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How We Deterred Iran in the Gulf Last Time

“We’re not in an armed conflict with the Houthis,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh recently stressed, and “part of why we are in the region is to bolster our deterrence.”Such words aren’t assuring for our Navy ships in the Red Sea, which have been fending off missiles and attack drones fired by the Iran-backed rebels for the past several months. Yes, the Navy’s boast in an Army-Navy Game day video that one of our destroyers is 22-0 against Houthi fire is impressive and a testament to the skill of our Navy crews. But if the scoreboard flips to 100-1, Americans will demand to know why Iran didn’t feel all that deterred by our naval deployments and why our sailors were injured or killed. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c...
Iran-Backed Forces Widen Their Attacks on Commercial Shipping
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Iran-Backed Forces Widen Their Attacks on Commercial Shipping

Updated Dec. 25, 2023 2:29 pm ETEscalating Iran-backed attacks against global commercial shipping in the Red Sea have heightened pressure on the Biden administration as officials scramble to protect trade while trying to avoid a direct confrontation with Tehran.The U.S. Navy said late Saturday that two more vessels had been attacked that day by Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen, bringing the number of commercial ships attacked near a crucial passageway between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East to 15.  The Pentagon said earlier in the day that a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean was struck by a drone launched directly from Iran, a claim Tehran denied.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
From Patriot Missiles to a Mother and Her Vintage Rifle: Inside Ukraine’s Air Defense
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From Patriot Missiles to a Mother and Her Vintage Rifle: Inside Ukraine’s Air Defense

Listen to article(2 minutes)KYIV, Ukraine—This winter, Ukraine’s defense against Russian missiles and drones ranges from sophisticated, multimillion-dollar U.S. Patriot systems to Svitlana Ruda, a mother of two with a 40-year-old assault rifle.Russia has started a widely anticipated bombardment of Ukrainian infrastructure, repeating a campaign last winter that led to mass blackouts and leveled apartment blocks.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The Houthi Assault on Global Shipping
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The Houthi Assault on Global Shipping

The press is reporting that the Biden Administration is contemplating the use of military force in response to continuing attacks on commercial shipping by the Houthi militia in Yemen. It’s about time. The Houthi missile attacks pose the most significant threat to global shipping in decades, and they will continue unless a global coalition unites to stop them.The USS Carney, a destroyer operating in the Red Sea, shot down no fewer than 14 attack drones launched from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen on Saturday. A British warship shot down a Houthi drone after it was dispatched to the region to protect commercial ships. This follows weeks of similar attacks that U.S. warships have felt obliged to intercept to protect themselves and other ships.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, I...