Archive: September 27, 2024

European militaries rush to catch up on space traffic mapping

PARIS — The boom in space activity of the past few years has made Earth’s orbit more crowded and dynamic, and Western militaries need to step up space awareness to counter growing threats in the domain, defense officials and space company executives said.

Commercial use of space now dwarfs the military, with thousands of new satellites joining potential menaces such as Russia’s roving Luch Olymp inspector satellite. Defense firms including Safran and space-data specialists such as True Anomaly and Vyoma see an opportunity to help defense departments adapt to the ever-growing volume of extraterrestrial activity, they said at an industry summit in Paris last week.

The number of active satellites in orbit has more than tripled in just four years, according to European Space Agency data. Most of the new space activity is happening in low Earth orbit, where agile spacecraft zip around at 27,500 kilometers per hour, while much of the surveillance by Western militaries is built on systems adapted to decades of tracking relatively static geostationary orbits.

“Space is becoming more and more challenged, more and more competitive, and we have to prepare for problems in the future,” Gen. Philippe Adam, the head of French Space Command, said at the Space Defense & Security Summit on Sept. 17.

In response, France’s Safran is adding ground stations to track satellite radio emissions, German firm Vyoma expects to launch its first telescope into low Earth orbit next year for visual reconnaissance, while Colorado-based True Anomaly in April won a U.S. Space Force contract for a maneuvering satellite that can take a close look at potential adversaries in various orbits.

Governments spent $58.4 billion on space defense and security in 2023, with $40.2 billion contracted to industry, according to industry consultant Novaspace, which organized the summit. Spending included $4 billion for space-domain awareness.

Space is “more and more congested and contested,” said Maj. Gen. Brian W. Gibson, director for plans and policy at U.S. Space Command. “It’s important for all of us, like any other domain, to make sure we don’t lose sight of our military responsibilities for protection and defense.”

Earth has around 10,200 active satellites in orbit, from around 3,000 in September 2020, according to an ESA count, with companies including SpaceX and Amazon planning many more. That’s in addition to more than 40,000 pieces of space debris circling Earth big enough to blast apart your typical satellite.

U.S. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said last week space-domain awareness and counter-space capabilities are critical needs that require more resources in fiscal 2026, while the head of U.S. Space Command Gen. Stephen Whiting said Wednesday that current space tracking is insufficient for future conflict with countries fielding advanced space capabilities.

The U.S. is the biggest spender on space defense and security with $38.9 billion, followed by China and Russia, and France trails in fourth place with $1.3 billion, Novaspace says. Yet whereas defense dominated the first three decades of the Space Age, military payloads now make up a fraction of the total, according to the ESA data.

The European Union expects 50,000 more satellites to be launched in the next decade, mainly into low Earth orbit, or LEO, as cheaper rockets and the development of nanosatellites have made space accessible even to startup firms and universities. That only heightens the challenge of tracking space traffic and spotting bad actors, military leaders at the summit said.

The lack of a full picture of space and the absence of regulation create a “really, really high” probability of miscalculations that could potentially lead to crisis or even war, said Maj. Gen. Isaac Crespo Zaragoza, chief of staff of Spain’s Space Command. He said developing some degree of space awareness is a priority for the service.

“We have no map of space, it’s a drama for the military,” said Col. Ludovic Monnerat, head of space domain for the Swiss Armed Forces.

There’s so little available space-awareness data and so much demand that the market exceeds supply, according to Vyoma CEO Stefan Frey. His company will initially focus on tracking objects for military customers, before expanding beyond defense as its fleet grows to 10 or 12 satellites, Frey told Defense News.

The “new, very dynamic world” of agile satellites no longer allows for planning to take days, and the amount of unpredictable debris in orbit means the latency of observations needs to be reduced dramatically, Frey said. Vyoma will be able to spot most LEO objects every 45 minutes once its constellation is in place, according to the CEO, who said European militaries right now might be receiving observations every four to eight hours.

Space awareness is key to security and stability, and “clearly an area that needs to be invested in,” according to True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers. He expects a future where optical, radio and radar data from space and on the ground is fused into a “rapid, real-time picture of the environment so that operators can make good decisions.”

The challenge of low Earth orbit is the fast speed at which objects move, meaning reaction times of even two hours might be too slow, compared to maneuvers in geostationary orbit that might be planned days in advance, said Philippe de Mijolla, Safran vice-president of sales and marketing for satellite communications and space awareness.

Safran is expanding its network of ground-based radio antennas tracking geostationary objects to add data on low Earth orbits, the executive told Defense News. The company has been gathering experimental LEO data for nearly two months, and expects to start selling the data as part its WeTrack service early next year, he said.

Safran is growing the tracking network to 125 stations from 94, spread across France, the U.S., Thailand and Australia, though de Mijolla said he’ll happily ask his board to fund additional antennas if demand is there.

Militaries have to work with civilian and commercial operators to keep track of it all, according to Adam. “Their concern about security and safety is exactly the same as ours,” the general said. “Civilian or commercial integration is an essential part of our discussions right now.”

Civilian operators require better space-domain awareness to call out unacceptable behavior in orbit, from persistent jamming to a cyberattack or a close approach, said Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, head of government strategy and policy at commercial operator Viasat, which faced of a cyberattack by Russia in February 2022 just before the invasion of Ukraine.

Switzerland’s Monnerat said space needs rules of behavior, and those endangering functionality and safety of orbits should be named and shamed. Safran’s de Mijolla said the ability to attribute hostile actions in space will be an active deterrent that can hopefully prevent conflict there, “something we all want to avoid.”

Governments already rely on industry for space awareness and response, with the U.S. awarding contracts to True Anomaly and Rocket Lab USA in April for rendezvous and proximity operations. Safran provides its radio-frequency monitoring data to countries including France, the U.S. and Switzerland.

France last week turned to local nanosatellite builder U-Space as a partner for two satellites in low Earth orbit, one to provide detailed data on nearby objects and another able to target them. That follows a contract for France’s Hemeria to build the Yoda patroller satellite for geostationary orbit. “We need to be up there to see what’s happening,” Adam said.

Orbital threats include multiple rendezvous and proximity operations, not only by Russia’s Luch Olymp, but also others, said Philippe Rosius, head of the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre within the EU Agency for the Space Programme. And there’s a daily threat of natural or man-made debris in space that threatens satellites, he said.

China and Russia are able to deploy anti-satellite weapons, while India and others have the capacity, Rosius said. Russia’s test in 2021 using a missile to destroy one of its own satellites generated more than 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital junk that may remain in orbit for decades, according to U.S. Space Command.

Kinetic weapons are the most dangerous and risk creating an unsustainable space environment, which is why the U.S. and some its allies have committed to not testing them there, said Rogers at True Anomaly. “You can’t win so well that you screw up the domain for future generations.” Adam said France wants to avoid putting kinetic weapons in space that would risk creating debris.

The EU in March presented the bloc’s first-ever strategy to protect its space assets, highlighting a need for near-real time monitoring and better capability to identify and attribute threats, citing the “highly political” nature of attributing a menace to a third country and deciding on a response.

“This is really key, to understand these threats, before being able to mitigate them and to take actions to continue operating in space in a safe and secure manner,” Rosius said. “Threats against the space system and the space environment will not cease, and will increase in the coming years. So we need to be ready to continue protecting our critical infrastructure.”

Chinese COVID aid talks with Libyans called a plot to smuggle drones

ROME — Chinese officials have been accused of plotting to dodge UN sanctions and smuggle military grade drones to a Libyan warlord using COVID-19 assistance as cover.

Chinese state officials allegedly conspired to seal the planned $1 billion deal to send 42 drones to Libyan general Khalifa Haftar using corrupt UN officials as middlemen, a Canadian investigator has claimed.

“The Chinese government seems to have approved a strategy to aid Libya in the procurement and delivery of military equipment through designated and approved companies to obscure the direct involvement of government agencies,” the investigator stated.

The accusations are contained in court documents submitted in Montreal and related to conspiracy charges made in April against two Libyan nationals working in Canada at the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency.

The allegations have not been tested in court, with a preliminary hearing expected around March next year.

Using FBI intercepts, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police studied the men’s email histories and stumbled on alleged plots to sell Libyan oil to China and buy drones between 2018 and 2021.

“This scheme appears to be a deliberate attempt to circumvent UN sanctions that were in effect at the time,” states the report by an unnamed Canadian investigator, which was presented to obtain court orders to allow police access to the men’s phones.

The alleged recipient of the drones was Gen. Haftar, the Russian-backed strongman running eastern Libya who unsuccessfully tried to conquer western Libya in 2020.

The aim of the deal was “‘using war to end war quickly’ without attracting the attention of the international community,” the Canadian officer and author of the report writes, adding that “the fight against the Coronavirus” could be used as a cover for shipments.

Libyan Mahmud Mohamed Elsuwaye Sayeh, who is still at large, is accused of involvement in the drone deal, while Fathi Ben Ahmed Mhaouek, who was arrested, is accused of involvement in the oil deal.

“My client will plead not guilty – he denies all wrongdoing,” said Mhaouek’s lawyer in Canada, Andrew Barbacki.

The court documents also accuse a U.S. citizen, who has not been charged, of involvement.

The investigators found a May 2020 message from Sayeh to an official at the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs, setting up meaning with the Chinese ambassador in Egypt.

Sayeh “requests” a meeting between the ambassador and a Libyan military official close to Haftar, Major General Aoun Al-Ferjani.

In messages, the drones are “clearly described with weaponry, attack and lethal strike capabilities.”

The officer writes that investigators are unsure if the deal went through or if talks failed.

It is unclear whether the alleged deal is linked to the July seizure of Chinese drones at an Italian port. The shipment was headed to Benghazi, a Libyan port controlled by Haftar.

Packed on a container ship, the drones were disguised as wind turbines components.

New US Air Force PT uniforms delayed, again, until November

After years of setbacks, the U.S. Air Force will finally release its new physical training uniforms this November, the service confirmed.

The uniforms were initially slated to arrive in 2022, but the COVID-19 pandemic presented a slew of problems, including supply chain issues, that delayed the schedule. Fabric shortages and fabric color-match problems also contributed to delays.

After the pandemic subsided, the service planned to address the PT uniform release once again. However, the U.S. Space Force was stood up and attention was redirected toward issuing Space Force PT uniforms.

Now that the Space Force has begun rolling out its PT uniforms, the Air Force said it will fulfill its promise to deliver new PT uniforms.

New Air Force PT uniforms roll out after 2-year delay

Uniforms are expected to arrive at select CONUS Army and Air Force Exchange Service stores beginning in November, according to an Air Force spokesperson, with some optional uniform items currently in development, such as the long-sleeve shirt and sweatshirt, set to be released later.

In April, the Air Force said the new uniforms had started rolling out at basic military training that month, while the Army and Air Force Exchange Service said the uniforms would reach exchange shelves in July. However, the July deadline was missed.

“The fielding of a new uniform required time for mandatory government sources to find, and collaborate with, domestic fabric manufacturers to meet the technical requirements of the PT uniform materials,” an Air Force spokesperson said. “That process took longer than expected.”

The collection includes a jacket, two shorts — a running short with a spandex liner and a pair of standard gym shorts — pants, long- and short-sleeve T-shirts with moisture-wicking material and two sweatshirt options that include a hoodie and a crewneck.

The new uniforms were rolled out only to fit-testers and those in basic military training, said Don Lee, acquisition program manager for the Combat Ready Airman program, at last week’s Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

Fit-testers were utilized to assist with the tailoring process, Lee said, making sure the uniform’s materials fit the body while still allowing movement. Basic military training use focused on the uniform’s durability, testing the clothing’s ability to go through multiple wash and dry cycles.

In July, the Air Force began providing the short-sleeve shirt, running shorts, all-purpose shorts and track suit to airmen in basic training, according to a service spokesperson.

Air Force PT uniform delayed as Space Force launches own workout gear

The revamped uniforms mark the first time in two decades the Air Force has updated its physical training uniforms.

The uniform, which airmen will be required to wear beginning in 2026, is similar to the current iteration but now comes in sizes for both men and women.

Courtney Mabeus-Brown contributed to this report.

Space Command leader calls for better domain awareness tools by 2027

To protect against threats from Russia and China, U.S. Space Command needs more advanced tools to track what’s happening in space as well as satellites that can move freely in the domain by 2027, according to its commander, Gen. Stephen Whiting.

Those capabilities will be crucial to military operations, Whiting said, as both Russia and China have tested and built weapons that could threaten U.S. space operations in the near future. He pointed specifically to Russia’s development of a nuclear space weapon and China’s recent launch mishaps that have created a cloud of debris in low Earth orbit.

“We must heed the clear signals from our strategic competitors,” Whiting said Wednesday in a speech at the Defence Space Conference in London. “When someone tells you what they are preparing to do, believe them. We must prepare accordingly to safeguard our collective interests in space.”

The Space Force, which is responsible for developing and buying capabilities to meet Space Command requirements, has a number of efforts underway to help operators better characterize and track objects in orbit — whether it’s a debris field or an adversary satellite or weapon. The service today relies on the more than 50-year-old Space Defense Operations Center for this mission but plans to replace that capability by the end of next year.

On the maneuverability side, the service is crafting a strategy for how it will build and buy the capabilities needed to support more dynamic space operations. That could mean partnering with commercial companies to refuel a spacecraft or provide a propulsion boost that allows it to travel into non-standard orbits to track an enemy satellite. Space Systems Command, the Space Force’s primary acquisition hub, is planning a refueling demonstration in 2026.

Whiting said current space tracking systems are “insufficient” for future conflicts with countries who have advanced military space capabilities. And while industry has demonstrated some promising capabilities for dynamic space operations, he said the military needs such systems as soon as possible.

“We need these systems delivered on accelerated timelines, at scale,” he said. “Now is the time for all of us to work together across our nations and organizations to identify solutions that deliver national capability by 2027.”

Lithuania to deliver thousands of FPV drones to its army, Ukraine

MILAN — The Lithuanian government will supply thousands of locally-made, first-person-view drones to the Ukrainian and Lithuanian armed forces as part of a major investment in a low-cost capability that is reshaping modern combat.

The Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense has announced a $1 million contract with Vilnius-based drone company Granta Autonomy, founded in 2015, for its new GA-10-FPV-AI quadcopter platform.

“The new unmanned aerial vehicles form part of a larger €8 million defense procurement initiative involving several additional Lithuanian drone manufacturers,” the Lithuanian authorities said in a press release.

Overall, 2,300 drones will be delivered to the Lithuanian military and 5,000 units will be donated to Ukraine, pooled together from selected Lithuanian companies, with the first deliveries expected to arrive in the war-torn country by the end of this month.

This marks the first time that the Granta Autonomy GA-10FPV-AI platforms will be delivered to both armies, a company representative told Defense News, with almost 1,000 drones included in the contract.

The drones feature a quadcopter frame with vertical take-off and landing capabilities and the ability to carry a maximum payload of 3 kilograms, per company information.

In August, the Lithuanian defense ministry had announced that combat drones manufactured by five Lithuanian firms had passed the tests put together by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to simulate a front-line environment and would be chosen to be sent to troops.

According to the local news network LRT, an initial batch of drone had previously failed such a test.

The GA-10-FPV-AI is advertised as being able to operate autonomously in GPS-denied environments, customizable for different video transmission frequencies and camera types.

Ukrainian FPVs have grown in importance in recent months on the battlefield, hailing successes of striking Russian attack helicopters as well as armored vehicles.

Experts have predicted that the future use of FPVs in combat is expected to involve them operating in swarms or groups to overwhelm adversary defenses on the cheap.

Lithuania has paid attention to these developments, having announced over the summer that its armed forces are undergoing a specialized course at training instructors to operate FPVs as well as plans to equip all military branches with these drones.

White House announces billions in new Ukraine aid, new F-16 training

The White House Thursday announced one of its most extensive rounds of security aid for Ukraine to date, including billions of dollars in aid, another air defense system and expanded training for F-16 fighter jets, which started arriving in the country only late this summer.

The package will empty out the administration’s chest of remaining aid to Kyiv, in part out of necessity.

The $5.5 billion left in authority to ship American stocks to Ukraine was otherwise set to expire with the fiscal year at the end of the month. And Donald Trump, who may yet win the presidency in November, has said his goal is to end the war, without committing to an outcome.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting the White House Thursday after addressing the United Nations this week. U.S. President Joe Biden pledged he would host an October “leader-level” summit of countries that gather each month to coordinate aid for Kyiv.

By approving the leftover $5.5 billion, the Biden administration will be able to continue its support, which Congress didn’t extend in a short-term funding bill passed this week. But the authority will only apply to equipment sent in previous rounds of aid and locks Ukraine into its current weapons diet.

To wit, the White House also said it would be sending the Joint Standoff Weapon, an air-to-ground missile.

A further $2.4 billion in long-term aid will follow through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a second tool to provide Ukraine with longer-term security aid. That package will include aerial drones, munitions, industrial support and air defense, the White House said.

This last category has long been a prize for Ukraine, whose cities have been under attack from Russian bombs throughout the war. The package of aid will also include a refurbished Patriot battery, America’s most advanced air defense system and one Zelenskyy has sought in higher numbers.

The White House also said it was telling the Pentagon to expand its training for Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets. The Ukrainian air force has started using these fourth-generation fighters since receiving its first batch over the summer — a gradual approach U.S. defense officials call “crawl, walk, run.”

Ukrainian officials have argued the West’s pipeline for training — split between America and Europe — is too narrow and should include more pilots. That said, Ukraine lost one of the jets already in a late-August incident still under investigation. Zelenskyy sacked the head of Ukraine’s air force soon after.

NATO military head Bauer talks Baltics, Ukraine and club bouncers

NORFOLK, Virginia — Rob Bauer was in a joking mood.

The admiral chairs NATO’s Military Committee, which makes him the alliance’s top military official. This week he was in Norfolk for a change of command.

Wearing his white dress uniform with an ornate saber, he spoke to the incoming and outgoing generals, addressing them by their first names: “Dear Pierre” and “Dear Phillippe.”

Several times, the crowd laughed at his small bits of sarcasm.

It was a rare moment of levity for an alliance under strain. NATO has by some measures excelled in the last two years, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. More members spend the required 2% of GDP on defense than ever, and it’s added two impressive new states: Sweden and Finland.

Still, Ukraine is steadily losing ground to Russia, which now threatens to take the vital city of Pokrovsk in the east. And the debate over how far Kyiv can fire Western weapons into Russia has become a divisive, monthslong saga.

Hence the tone, which Bauer kept up while speaking with Defense News later. He sketched on a sheet of copy paper to illustrate different arguments. At one point, while lampooning the West’s sluggish production of weapons, he swore.

The admiral discussed the security of front-line states in NATO, bringing new members into the alliance and how hard it’s been to ditch old ideas about how the West defends itself.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I wanted to ask about the security of the Baltics. Where do you see changes occurring after the Washington summit in that region? And do you see Putin making plans for any sort of operation in the eastern flank?

Well, if he’s wise, he shouldn’t. But that’s basically what our deterrence is about: to make sure he understands that it’s not a good decision. We are vigilant all across those domains to make sure they know that we are ready.

There’s a lot of rhetoric over the last two and a half years on what the Russians could do. In general, we see no real increase in the attempts of the Russians to escalate with us. If you look at Baltic security, the fact that Sweden and Finland have joined NATO is very important for our ability to be in a much better position in the Baltic than before. We now see the first signs of NATO forces that, maybe not permanently, are working and training and exercising in Finland.

The Nordic nations are working more closely together now that basically, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland are all part of that region. They have made agreements on the use of each other’s airspace, and that’s great news. It means that our ability to operate faster and much more effectively in each other’s space, whether it’s airspace or land mass or water, is helping.

It is not only the Washington summit, but it is the joining of Finland and Sweden. It’s the regional plans. It is the fact that we have been working on this for a much longer time that we now see practical examples coming forward where nations start to work together and benefit from that membership.

You mentioned the two newest members of NATO. Do you have any sense right now of what the rotational force presence will look like there?

It’s very early to say that. The nations have come forward with their intent, and they are working on the details now. It’s not something that NATO has organized. It is something that the nations have agreed upon.

Actually the same happened in the past when we build those battle groups in the southeast. You had battle groups in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, the Americans talked to the French and to Romania. Then at some point, the French came in, and the Dutch joined and the Belgians and forces from Luxembourg. Now it’s an established thing where they are able to beef up to a brigade. That was a bilateral or trilateral discussion, and then those forces were handed over to NATO under command of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

And that’s how you expect it to go?

What we will see first is a number of discussions amongst the participating nations. I don’t know whether it will only be Sweden and Finland. It might be other nations as well that are being asked to join. Once that is clear, then they will set up command and control with NATO, where it comes under the Supreme Allied Commander Europe. That’s my expectation. But of course, as always in NATO, nations are sovereign states. So therefore, if Finland would like to do it differently that’s possible.

The talk in Washington right now in regard to Ukraine is the use of long-range fires. I know that you’ve said there’s a legal basis for this. It would be helpful if you could respond to the two things that U.S. leaders are saying now as arguments against it. One of them is that Russia has moved many of its airfields beyond the 300-kilometer (180 mile) threshold. The other one is that Ukraine has its own sophisticated drone capabilities.

I’m not going to comment on the arguments that the nations use. That’s for them. I mean, you have to ask [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen.] CQ brown in the U.S.…

We do.

… and ask them why they use those arguments.

It is militarily wise and smart to actually attack your attacker in his back garden, so that that you become safer. That’s what you do, as [the Ukrainians] have had in the last couple of weeks — some serious successes in terms of missile depots and fuel depots and things like that. It will hamper [Russia’s] ability to continue their fight, and that’s great.

Secondly, it is legally possible. It is supported by law because it’s part of self defense, and self-defense doesn’t stop at your border. There’s no military reason to deviate from what I said. There’s a political reason.

I was fascinated by what you said in your speech outside about the old frameworks, about industrial based cooperation. Could expand on what the new framework would look like and whether that would involve more state control?

Not necessarily. I think we’ve over-focused on efficiency for all sorts of understandable reasons, because the governments wanted to spend as little money as possible, and the industry wanted to spend to earn as much as possible, and stocks are stupid.

That’s what we did for 30 years, because everything was planable. Are we going to Afghanistan? In the North Atlantic Council, we talked about this for a month. Then we talked about how many troops and what they are going to do. If you knew then that you needed in a certain place a battalion, then you would say, ‘Okay, this is the Netherlands, and then comes France.’ We bought extra helmets and we bought extra boots. And we started the training just in time. It was all controllable.

It’s not that we will say to the Russians, ‘Whoah we’re not ready. This is not fair. We told you last week, we’re not ready. We can fight you on the first of July.’ They’ll say, ‘I’m gonna attack you now.’

The change is that we want more, readier soldiers so if the enemy attacks, we are ready. It’s not only the soldiers that we need but also the tanks and the armored vehicles and the ammunition and everything.

Therefore we now see a surge in the the things we want to buy in the defense industry. We have basically destroyed that industry together. First in the early 90s, that was the peace dividend. We say, ‘You have to produce,’ and then they say, ‘Yeah, right, but do you remember when we had all these factories, and now they’re gone because you didn’t buy anything?’

I want the industry to become part of the values discussion, not just the value discussion. They need to understand that they have a strategic interest in strong defense, because for 80 years, all these private companies have been able to earn a lot of money on a very stable, safe and secure environment, which was our continent. The CEOs in Ukraine are laying awake because their factory might be gone tomorrow morning because of a missile attack. That’s not in the thinking of the CEOs in the Netherlands or in the U.S. They should understand that they need to be part of the solution.

Second, because we have a economy which is not an autocracy, we need to convince investors that it’s a good idea to invest in the defense industry.

I am telling all these people deterrence is the best investment. What is deterrence? The seven-foot bouncer that is in front of the nightclub will probably stop you if you wanted to go in without paying, right?

I’m 6′1″, 160 pounds, so probably.

Especially if he has a black belt in karate, and he maybe even has a weapon on him. If the bouncer is 4′2″, you will push him aside and you will go in. Now that is deterrence. It is about making sure that our opponents, whether it’s the Russians or terrorist organizations, know that if they attack us, it’s actually a big mistake.

All these things we are talking about are not to start a war. I’m not a warmongering idiot, what I sometimes read in social media. It is actually to prevent war, and I think that is a good investment for our society, if we can continue to prevent war, as we have been able to do for the last 75 years.

And the world is becoming a more dangerous place because what we see is the rebalancing of power between the U.S. and China.

Pentagon makes early pick for hypersonic interceptor developer

The Missile Defense Agency has chosen Northrop Grumman to design an interceptor capable of defeating hypersonic weapons in the glide phase of flight, the agency announced Wednesday.

MDA director Lt. Gen. Heath Collins revealed earlier this summer that the agency would soon choose between Raytheon and Northrop who were competing to design the Glide Phase Interceptor, or GPI.

Lockheed Martin was one of three original companies picked to work on design concepts for GPI in November 2021 but by June 2022, MDA had chosen to proceed with only Northrop and Raytheon.

MDA made the decision in favor of Northrop together with the Japanese government, which is signed on to co-develop the capability.

The company’s win comes after it recently lost another big MDA competition to develop the Next-Generation Interceptor that will replace interceptors that make up the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System. That system is designed to defend the continental U.S. from intercontinental ballistic missile threats from North Korea and Iran. Lockheed Martin was chosen earlier this year in another early downselect.

The decision to move to just a single vendor prior to reaching preliminary design review is out of the ordinary, but Collins told Defense News last month that MDA, like the rest of the Defense Department, had “to make really tough prioritization and resource-informed decisions. … We were no exception, so we had to take a look at how we balance and make decisions on the capability we bring.”

MDA will “have to assess the risk of that design, any corrective actions … or mitigation activities we want to take,” Collins said, discussing next steps after MDA chooses a single vendor. “And then we would re-baseline the program based on that with an updated, independent cost estimate.”

Northrop Grumman said in a statement that during the next phase of GPI development, it will continue to refine its preliminary design intended to fire from the U.S. Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense destroyers and Aegis Ashore using the standard Vertical Launch System.

The company will move quickly by using digital engineering. It plans to demonstrate system performance in hypersonic environments before the preliminary design review and complete flight experiments early, according to the statement.

“Today’s decision represents a turning point for hypersonic glide phase defense,” Collins, the MDA director, said in the statement.

While the U.S. has some capability to track and counter hypersonic threats regionally in the terminal phase, the ability to defeat hypersonic missile threats during the glide phase of flight is difficult because of the nature of a hypersonic missile’s ability to maneuver in unpredictable ways at high speeds.

But while GPI is a necessary capability, fielding is not planned until the 2035 timeframe. Tom Karako, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted that “something else is going to be needed in the meantime — a future terminal interceptor of some kind.”

Congress wants MDA to move more quickly. Lawmakers mandated in the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act that the agency reach full operational capability by the end of 2032 and provide no fewer than 12 GPIs for tests by the end of 2029.

China test-fires intercontinental ballistic missile into Pacific Ocean

TAIPEI, Taiwan — China test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, stirring security concerns in the region already tense over Beijing’s territorial claims and rivalry with the U.S.

The ICBM carried a dummy warhead and fell into a designated area of the sea, the Defense Ministry said in a statement posted to social media.

The launch by the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force was part of routine annual training, complied with international law and was not directed against any country or target, according to the statement.

It is unclear how often China conducts tests over such a distance. In 1980, China launched an ICBM into the South Pacific.

A map published in Chinese newspapers at the time showed the target area as roughly a circle in the center of a ring formed by the Solomon Islands, Nauru, the Gilbert Islands, Tuvalu, western Samoa, Fiji and the New Hebrides.

The U.S. and nongovernmental organizations have said China has been building up its missile silos, but it’s unclear how many missiles and nuclear warheads it has added to its arsenal.

The People’s Liberation Army, which functions as the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, runs China’s space program, which has established an orbital station and has ambitions to set up a moon base and land a spacecraft on Mars.

Rocketry has long been part of China’s development into a major global power, spurring nationalism and growth that has made China the world’s second-largest economy.

The U.S. remains China’s main global rival, although Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and others have territorial disputes with Beijing that occasionally threaten to develop into military clashes.

China maintains a “no first use” of nuclear weapons policy, even as its desire for regional predominance grows.

Tests of China’s intercontinental ballistic missiles into international waters are rare. Experts and a historical survey of China’s program by the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative suggest the last occurred in May 1980. That test saw China launch its DF-5 missile into the South Pacific.

China typically launches missiles toward its western deserts from its east coast, said James Acton, the co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The fact that China launched a test that splashed down in international waters was unusual but mirrors testing that the United States does for its own ballistic missile fleet.

“When they haven’t done something for 44 years and then they do it, that’s significant,” Acton told The Associated Press. “It’s China’s way of telling us, ‘Like you, we’re not ashamed we have nuclear weapons and we’re going to behave like a great nuclear power.’”

The launch came amid the ongoing United Nations General Assembly in New York. China is one of five veto-holding permanent members of the U.N.’s Security Council and has sought to gain influence over its key departments involving human rights and that align with its authoritarian system.

A series of corruption arrests this year ensnared several leading officers in the Rocket Force, alongside the detentions of two previous defense ministers amid allegations of misconduct.

A test launch now could both provide assurances to China’s population amid an economic downtown and a signal to the world that the party remains firmly in control and is determined to rise to global prominence.

“We’re entering a new age. We’re entering an age where the U.S. and China are engulfed in what feels like an arms race,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in the U.S.

“The Chinese government always prioritized diplomatic issues over operational readiness. It’s just a different China. It’s a China that does not feel constrained,” he said.

“There’s a renewed emphasis on assuring themselves these systems work and demonstrating to others they work,” Lewis added.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high over Taiwan, and with the Philippines, where the U.S. Army has deployed its new mid-range missile system, known as Typhon, to Northern Luzon. On Wednesday, two Filipino officials said the U.S. and the Philippines have agreed to keep the system there indefinitely to deter China.

“I don’t know what’s the plan, but if I were to be followed, if I were given the choice, I would like to have the Typhon here in the Philippines forever because we need it for our defense,” said Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., the head of the Philippines’ military.

Defense officials in Japan and Taiwan declined to comment directly on the Chinese announcement. Both, along with South Korea, maintain robust defenses against Chinese moves, including early warning systems and air raid shelters.

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

US missile system will remain in Philippines despite China’s alarm

MANILA, Philippines — American and Filipino security officials have agreed to keep a U.S. mid-range missile system in the northern Philippines indefinitely to boost deterrence despite China’s expressions of alarm, two Philippine officials said Wednesday.

The U.S. Army transported the Typhon missile system, a land-based weapon that can fire the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, to the northern Philippines as part of combat exercises in April with Philippine troops and to test its deployability aboard a U.S. Air Force aircraft.

Tomahawk missiles can travel over 1,000 miles, which places China within their target range. Officials are considering keeping the missile system in the northern Philippines up to April next year, when U.S. and Philippine forces are scheduled to hold their annual Balikatan — Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder” — large-scale combat exercises, he said.

Austin pledges $500M in security aid to Philippines amid uncertainty

The two officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive U.S. missile deployment publicly. There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials.

Chinese diplomats have repeatedly conveyed their alarm to the Philippine government, warning that the deployment of the missile system could destabilize the region.

A Philippine army spokesperson said earlier that the system was scheduled to be removed from the country by the end of this month. Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. refused to confirm or deny the extension.

But Teodoro rejected China’s demands as interference in the Philippines’ internal affairs, speaking to reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of an Asian defense industry exhibition in Manila.

“China is saying that they are alarmed but that is interference into our internal affairs. They are using reverse psychology in order to deter us from building up our defensive capabilities,” Teodoro said.

“Before they start talking, why don’t they lead by example? Destroy their nuclear arsenal, remove all their ballistic missile capabilities, get out of the West Philippines Sea and get out of Mischief Reef,” Teodoro said. “I mean, don’t throw stones when you live in a glass house.”

Teodoro used the Philippine name for the disputed South China Sea and for a contested reef off the western Philippines that Chinese forces seized in 1995 and is now one of seven missile-protected island bases China maintains in the disputed waters.

Philippine military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said he has asked U.S. military officials to keep the missile system in the Philippines, but declined to say what was their response.

“If I were given the choice, I would like to have the Typhon here in the Philippines forever because we need it for our defense,” Brawner told reporters.

Last month, Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi expressed China’s “very dramatic” concern over the U.S. mid-range missile deployment to the Philippines during their recent talks in Laos on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings with Asian and Western countries.

Manalo said Wang warned the presence of the U.S. missile system could be “destabilizing,” but he said that he disagreed. “They’re not destabilizing” and the missile system was only in the Philippines temporarily, Manalo said he told Wang.

Although the missile system was transported to the Philippines for joint combat exercises in April, it was not fired during the joint drills by the longtime treaty allies, according to Philippine and U.S. military officials.

China has strongly opposed increased U.S. military deployments to the region, including to the Philippines, saying they could endanger regional stability and peace.

The U.S. and the Philippines have repeatedly condemned China’s increasingly assertive actions to fortify its territorial claims in the South China Sea, where hostilities have flared since last year with repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine coast guard forces and accompanying vessels.

Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims in the busy waterway, a key global and security route which is also believed to be sitting atop vast undersea deposits of gas and oil.

Associated Press journalist Aaron Favila contributed to this report.