Archive: September 18, 2024

Estonia seeks battlefield decoys to sponge up Russian missiles

MILAN — Estonia has launched a competition to procure decoy equipment for luring enemy forces into attacks, the latest in a line of Tallinn’s defense investments animated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Estonian Center for Defense Investments, the procurement arm for the military, published tender documents in mid-September inviting bids for mock-up platforms by the end of the month. Tallinn expects to spend $10 million on the purchase.

Officials are looking for models of real weapon systems, ammunition as well as communication and radar equipment, complete with training for setting up and maintaining the decoys, according to the notice.

No further details given regarding the specific types of decoys Estonia is looking for or which branches of its military will utilize them.

Estonian officials have been among the most adamant European NATO members in saying that Russian aspirations to seize territory could extend well beyond Ukraine.

In a recent interview with the Spanish national newspaper El Pais, Col. Mati Tikerpuu, the commander of one of the two brigades of the Estonian Army, said Tallinn “would be able to resist an invasion for a couple of weeks” before alliance reinforcements arrived.

Since the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius, the Baltic states – Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia – have unveiled a series of plans to step up the protection of the region, given its proximity to Russian territory.

These have included the planned construction of a “drone wall” to defend against Moscow, in cooperation with Poland, Finland and Norway. Additionally, Estonia is in the process of building a fence along its 294 kilometers border with Russia that will be equipped with cameras and radars.

Ukraine has made use of a variety of fake military equipment since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

In February, pictures emerged on social media reportedly showing Ukrainian dummies of ground-based air defense systems, including highly realistic replicas of German-provided Iris-T air-defense equipment and the U.S.-made AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar.

Other European countries have purchased similar equipment this year, including Germany, which awarded a €50 million ($54.4 million) contract to Rheinmetall for the supply of Birdie aerial infrared decoys.

These are to be fitted on German military aircraft to protect against air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, by acting similar to flares that can emit heat and be deployed by pilots to confuse missiles about their target.

Airborne assault comes to Super Garuda Shield exercise in Indonesia

The U.S. Army and the National Indonesian Armed Forces, along with other allies and partners, coordinated a complex airborne assault mission into South Sumatra for the first time as part of Super Garuda Shield that wrapped up earlier this month.

A battalion out of the 11th Airborne Division based in Alaska conducted the airborne assault operation amid a variety of other operations taking place throughout Indonesia that were mostly centered in Java.

“We definitely expanded our reach. For me to go and command and control the airborne operation, that took me four hours of flying to get up to the operation,” Brig. Gen. Kevin Williams, the Army’s 25th Infantry Division’s commanding general for operations, told Defense News in a recent interview. “You’re talking about inter-theater operational reach, which was pretty amazing.”

In previous iterations of Super Garuda Shield, the participating forces would focus on one area at a time, Williams explained, such as Java or Sumatra, “but we’ve expanded that to test how we command and control this as a joint force and with a partner.”

Japanese and Indonesians participated in the airborne assault to test joint entry operations as well, according to Williams.

The exercise also expanded in overall participation this year, Williams said. In 2015, 200 Indonesian soldiers participated along with just 300 U.S. soldiers. Williams was one of them.

Garuda Shield now has over 2,500 U.S. participants from the joint force. Partner nation participation nearly doubled that.

“That is a huge increase in the complexity and scale of what we’re doing,” Williams said.

The multinational element has greatly expanded, with eight full participating nations not including the U.S. and Indonesia – Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, United Kingdom and New Zealand. Twelve other nations provided observers who also participated in a staff exercise.

Also new this year, with the Air Force bringing in assets like C-130 aircraft and the 25th ID bringing a Combat Aviation Brigade with two CH-47F Chinook cargo helicopters, the exercise had a fully combined Aviation Task Force that helped in critical operations like pushing the logistics tail in the archipelago.

A large emphasis was placed on forming a Combined Task Force Operations Center to build interoperable operational command and control, Williams noted.

And the 25th ID brought the Army’s new Integrated Tactical Network and more mission command nodes across the joint force, which helped set conditions to see a common operating picture.

The exercise allowed participants to test logistics capabilities, over-the-horizon communications infrastructure and the ability to tie together assets.

Garuda Shield included a joint strike exercise in Java where the U.S. Army brought in its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, the Marine Corps brought its attack aviation, and partner nations flew F-16 fighter jets and incorporated other missile systems to evaluate the ability to use any sensor or shooter across air, sea, and ground platforms to take out a series of targets, Williams described.

The Marine Corps, along with Indonesia, Japan and Singapore, conducted an amphibious assault using three different platforms including an assault craft from Singapore and the amphibious transport dock Green Bay.

“We were able to demonstrate our ability to combine doing an amphibious assault on a beachhead with reconnaissance, utilize long-range fires to set those conditions and then also conduct another air assault operation using the [Marine Corps V-22] Osprey [tiltrotor aircraft] to get the forces on the ground with the partners and then exfil[trate],” Williams said.

Williams said prior to the culminating event, the Army would conduct a combined arms live fire operation in a “pretty complex scenario using ground maneuver with the partners.”

Garuda Shield is just one example of many exercises within the Army’s Operation Pathways series in the Indo-Pacific that has seen significant expansion in recent years as the service focuses on building its relationships with nations in the theater while also ensuring the ability for countries to rapidly come together to conduct complex operations seamlessly in a potential conflict.

“It goes back to building this readiness and interoperability, this realistic training and really these repetitions that we’ve done during Super Garuda Shield and across all our Operation Pathways [exercises],” Williams said, “It really just provides capable, ready land forces that allow us to be positioned throughout the Indo-Pacific. It does bolster our allies and partners with that trust and it really just ensures we and Indonesia are prepared for any contingency or conflict or disaster that comes along.”

Talk of US Iraq withdrawal is disconnected from ISIS threat

The bulk of U.S. forces will depart Iraq over the next two years, leaving only a residual force in the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan to provide security to Iraqi Kurds and sustain U.S. forces in Syria, according to Iraqi officials cited in a Sept. 12 report in the Washington Post.

That follows, and at least partially contradicts, previous reporting from Reuters, and Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder could not provide clarity Thursday when asked.

A premature U.S. departure from Iraq that ignores the advice of military leaders and conditions on the ground risks repeating the mistakes of past withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan and catalyzing an ISIS resurgence.

Under the U.S.-Iraqi Higher Military Commission, the United States and Iraq have agreed to discuss a transition to a “new phase of the bilateral security relationship,” though it remains unclear what that relationship would look like and how the U.S. force presence in Iraq would be impacted.

While the details of the future U.S. military posture in Iraq remain murky, the consequences of a premature withdrawal are clear.

General Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, warned Congress in March that a withdrawal of the U.S.-led coalition “would all but guarantee ISIS’ return if it occurred before Iraqi Security Forces were ready to stand on their own.”

Similar warnings were issued in 2011 before a U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq that catalyzed a series of events that led to the establishment of the ISIS caliphate and forced American forces to return in 2014.

Kurilla, in his testimony, also reiterated that the U.S. force presence in Syria would be significantly impacted without a military presence in Iraq. In July, CENTCOM announced that ISIS was attempting to reconstitute and was on track to double its number of attacks in Iraq and Syria.

While the ISIS caliphate is defeated, ISIS the terrorist organization is not. Two recent raids by U.S. forces demonstrate the persistent threat of ISIS and the continued operational role of U.S. forces in the country.

On Aug. 29, U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted a partnered raid in western Iraq to disrupt and degrade ISIS’ ability to plan and conduct attacks “throughout the region and beyond,” according to a Central Command statement.

Fourteen ISIS fighters were killed, including ISIS senior leaders overseeing operations in in the region, and seven U.S. service members were injured.

Just days later, on Sept. 1, U.S. forces partnered with Syrian Democratic Forces to capture an ISIS leader who was helping ISIS fighters escape detention in Syria.

Meanwhile, Iranian proxies have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria over 170 times since October, placing pressure on the Iraqi government to secure a U.S. withdrawal while putting American troops in further danger and detracting from their intended defeat-ISIS mission. A leading grand strategic goal of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to evict U.S. military forces from Iraq and Syria.

Some officials within the Iraqi government have pushed for the departure of the U.S.-led coalition, but the Iraqi Foreign Ministry delayed a formal announcement in August.

On Sept. 12, though, the Iraqi Defense Minister said that Iraq and the United States had reached an agreement to withdraw the majority of U.S. and coalition troops in two unspecified stages beginning this year and concluding in 2026 as part of a transition to a “sustainable security partnership.”

But a withdrawal of U.S. forces from non-Kurdish parts of Iraq could make Americans in Baghdad more vulnerable and cause concern among many Sunnis, creating fertile ground for ISIS radicalization, recruitment and resurgence.

A more complete American withdrawal that also included the departure of U.S. forces from Kurdistan would likely be a disaster, exacerbating Sunni concerns and making it much more difficult logistically for the Pentagon to support U.S. troops in Syria.

The warnings of military leaders and recent operations demonstrate the danger of an ISIS resurgence and the continued importance of U.S. forces in preventing such an outcome. But they are also a reminder that American service members continue to put themselves in harm’s way in Iraq and Syria waging a war that some Americans seem to have forgotten.

If the United States intends to keep U.S. troops in harm’s way to protect vital interests, Washington must ensure that our fellow citizens in uniform have the means to defend themselves and the permission to strike back with overwhelming force when they are attacked.

The United States must also ensure that its forces are operating with reliable partners and under a coherent strategy rather than conducting sporadic raids and airstrikes while its forces are subjected to regular attacks by Iranian terror proxies, including some militias that are part of the Iraqi security architecture.

The future U.S. military posture in Iraq remains uncertain. But if past is prologue, we can be confident that a U.S. military withdrawal that ignores conditions on the ground will not end well.

Cameron McMillan is a research analyst at FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power, where Bradley Bowman is the senior director.

New Navy contracts boost battle command, electronic warfare potential

The Navy in August awarded a $587.4 million contract to L3Harris Technologies to develop the Next Generation Jammer Low Band system for select aircraft, according to a Navy release.

The jammer system will be “increasing the lethality” of 4th and 5th generation platforms and strike weapons, according to Rear Adm. John Lemmon, program executive officer for tactical aircraft programs.

The low band system under development is part of a larger system that will first augment and then replace the existing ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System on the EA-18G Growler, which is a specialized version of the F/A-18F Super Hornet with electromagnetic warfare equipment.

The added low band upgrade to the Grower will allow the aircraft to defeat more adversary systems. It is scheduled to reach early operational capability in 2029, according to a release.

In addition to the jamming system contract, the Navy also awarded a $16 million bid to Fuse Integration to equip the company’s Fuse CORE 4.0 virtualized network system on the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye.

The Northrop Grumman-built Hawkeye is a battle management command and control platform, used to orchestrate multi-platform information sharing.

The $16 million upgrade will improve reliability and maintainability by replacing “bulky and obsolete routers,” the release said.

It will also add the ability to host applications the current system can’t handle, according to Shawn Thompson, the assistant program manager of systems engineering for the E-2D program.

“CORE 4.0 enables an additional layer of cyber-security for the platform by hosting new firewall applications as part of the Beyond Line-of-Sight upgrade program for the E-2D,” Thompson said.

Last year the United States approved a $1.4 billion sale to Japan of the E-2D Hawkeye, with its radars, navigation and display systems included, Defense News reported.

The Pentagon modified that contract to $1.5 billion this year. Japan has requested nine aircraft under the contract.

Norway’s Kongsberg to open new Virginia missile production plant

Norway’s Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace is opening up a new missile production facility in Virginia as global demand continues to rise amid major conflicts playing out in Ukraine and the Middle East, the company said Tuesday.

Kongsberg announced earlier this year that it plans to expand production for missiles in Norway and open a new missile factory in Australia.

The James City County, Virginia, location will “provide additional production capacity, sustainment and in-country tech refresh capabilities for Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) and Joint Strike Missiles (JSM),” the company release states.

NSM is an anti-ship missile and JSM is an air-launched missile used on the U.S. Air Force’s F-35A fighter jet for complex missions like anti-surface warfare and land attack.

Kongsberg already has a U.S. production facility in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

“The new missile production facilities in the US, Australia and Norway address the strong and long-term demand for our unique technology and the critical need to strengthen collective defence capabilities,” Geir Håøy, Kongsberg’s CEO, said. “Kongsberg has a proud history in the U.S. and we are delighted to continue to invest in the country to support American interests while creating jobs locally,” he added.

The company noted the decision to open the new U.S. facility “was heavily influenced by the possibility that the Department of Defense could award a multiyear procurement contract to Kongsberg.”

The Pentagon has pursued a number of new multiyear procurement contracts not usually awarded to missile programs. Earlier this year, the Army awarded a multiyear contract to Lockheed Martin for the Patriot Advanced Capability Increment 3 Missile Segment Enhancement missile and plans to soon award a similar contract for the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) missile.

“The US Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force are important customers for Kongsberg’s Naval Strike Missile and Joint Strike Missile,” Eirik Lie, Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace president, said. “Their demand signals gave us the predictability we needed to make this investment in the United States.”

The new missile factory, focused on assembly, upgrades and repairs for NSM and JSM, will include hiring more than 180 people. The company will invest more than $100 million into Virginia in the next few years “in terms of property, plant and equipment,” Heather Armentrout, president of Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace, Inc., the company’s U.S. subsidiary, said.

Kongsberg isn’t the only Nordic country expanding missile production in the U.S. Saab announced earlier this year that it would be growing its footprint stateside with a new facility that will manufacture ground combat weapons and missile systems.

The new site is part of a global manufacturing push from the Swedish company to quadruple its global capacity to produce its ground combat weapons. The new facility will support production of programs like the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb.

Air Force meets recruitment goals, eyes 20% increase in 2025

The Air Force said Monday it will meet its recruitment goals in fiscal 2024, one year after all components of the service missed the mark for the first time in decades.

And the Air Force is setting an even more ambitious recruitment goal in 2025.

Air Force Recruiting Service commander Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein told reporters in a roundtable that the service will hit its goal of 27,100 non-prior service enlisted recruits this year. And next year, he said, the active-duty Air Force wants to recruit 32,500 new airmen — a 20% increase.

“The Department of the Air Force is still hiring,” Amrhein said this week at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air Space Cyber conference just outside Washington.

Amrhein acknowledged the 2025 goal will be challenging, particularly as the Air Force faces competition for talented young people from the private sector. But he expressed confidence that the service will be able to meet its 2025 goal, in part by adding 377 more personnel to its recruiting ranks.

Before that expansion began, the Air Force had 1,390 recruiters, he said. Some of the 377 airmen the recruiting service is adding will focus on special warfare recruiting, while others will fill support roles, he said.

The first 80 of those new recruiters have already finished training and are hitting the field, Amrhein added, and 20 more are coming in November and December.

At this time last year, the Air Force had about 8,800 new recruits waiting to ship out to basic training, Amrhein said. That number has now grown to 11,000, and is a sign that the Air Force’s recruitment is healthier and more likely to reach its higher goal in 2025, he added.

Many of the new recruiters will be stationed throughout the southern United States, he said, but a few will be assigned to locations in Europe and the Pacific. Additionally, some will be part of a new concept called agile recruiting cells.

Those cells will be made up of two or three recruiters and assigned to squadron headquarters, he said, where they can follow leads or be temporarily surged to areas that need more recruiters.

Amrhein noted that a series of changes to recruiting processes — including reinstating the enlisted college loan repayment program, an accelerated naturalization program, greater use of medical waivers and more lenient policies on tattoos and marijuana — helped the service hit its goal this year.

But the changes do not mean the Air Force has lowered its standards or brought in less-qualified recruits, he said.

The Air Force in January also cut the time non-citizens must hold a green card — from 10 years to two — before they can join, Amrhein said. That change, in conjunction with an accelerated naturalization program at basic military training, has broadened the pool of highly qualified people, he said.

“We’ve had 1,400 folks get accelerated naturalization” at basic training, Amrhein added.

And in 2025, the Air Force wants to further expand opportunities for airmen who are on their way to becoming U.S. citizens, he said. The Air Force is considering allowing recruits who are green card holders to be conditionally selected for jobs that are typically only open to U.S. citizens. Those recruits would then be able to enter their job once they become naturalized, Amrhein said.

The military has also loosened its requirement on how long new recruits have to be off medication for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and reduced the medical reviews that happen for recruits who had childhood asthma, he said.

Amrhein said the Air Force this year started working with the Civil Air Patrol to buttress its recruiting network and encourage more young people to join.

Italy to buy 25 extra F-35 fighter jets under new budget

ROME — Italy is to purchase 25 extra F-35 jets as well as new Eurofighters as its defense procurement spending rises 16.8% this year to €9.3 billion, or $10.3 billion, a new budget document revealed on Tuesday.

Rome will also invest half a billion euros in 2024 on development of the Global Combat Air Programme sixth-generation fighter, the document stated.

The budget document, which gave the first breakdown of Italy’s 2024 defense spending as well as forecasts for 2025 and 2026, confirmed reports of a top-up F-35 order this year to add to the country’s previously planned purchase of 90 jets.

Italy will now spend €7 billion to acquire an extra 25 aircraft, including 15 F-35As and ten F-35Bs to take Italy’s F-35 fleet to 115 aircraft, the document stated.

The estimated outlay includes logistic support to 2035.

A defense source told Defense News that the 15 new F-35As would be operated by the Italian Air Force while the ten F-35Bs would be split between the Air Force and the Italian Navy.

The existing 90-plane order envisaged 60 F-35As and 15 F-35Bs for the Air Force and 15 F-35Bs for the Navy. Currently the Air Force and the Navy are due to fly their F-35Bs from the decks of the Italian Navy carrier Cavour.

The budget also freed up €50 million to adapt Italy’s new Landing Helicopter Dock, the Trieste, to host F-35Bs.

In 2009, Italy originally planned to order 131 F-35s, only to trim its order to 90 aircraft. The document stated that 131 was still Italy’s operational requirement, but added, “the increase (to 115 aircraft) will improve Italy’s geopolitical position.”

It added that Italy’s workshare on the program had totaled €4.7 billion by December 2023, with another €1.6 billion in revenue from Italy’s Final Assembly and Check Out line in northern Italy, which is being used by Italy and other European F-35 buyers.

The budget document also reported that €506 million is being invested in 2024 on the GCAP fighter program which teams Italy with the U.K. and Japan. The spending marks an increase from the €271 million invested in 2023.

After reports earlier this year that the U.K.’s new Labour government could pull out of the GCAP program, U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer gave reassurances during a visit to Rome on Monday.

“We agreed the vital importance of our collaborative defense programs, including GCAP,” Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a joint statement. “We welcome the continued progress we are making,” they added.

The document also reported that €690 million had been added to ongoing funding of the Eurofighter program to launch the purchase of 24 fourth-tranche jets to replace 26 first-tranche aircraft which will be phased out by 2029.

The 2024 budget includes a total of €20.85 billion in defense ministry spending, up from the €19.56 billion spent in 2023, which was in turn an increase on the €18 billion spent in 2022.

The part of the budget devoted to procurement stands at €7.5 billion, a 23% jump on last year’s €6.1 billion, which was in turn a 12.5% jump from the €5.42 billion spent in 2022.

For a true picture of Italian procurement spending the annual top-up for domestic procurement provided by the Italian industry ministry must be added, which amounts to €1.8 billion in 2024, down from last year’s €1.87 billion.

Nevertheless, the overall procurement total this year, combining defense ministry and industry ministry spending, is up by 16.8% to €9.31 billion from last year’s €7.97 billion, part of a consistent upwards trend in total procurement spending which has risen from €5.45 billion in 2020.

Of the total procurement spend, €488.5 million is set aside for new programs, the document stated.

Purchasing is due to start this year of 15 new M-346 trainer jets, built by Italian firm Leonardo, which will be used by the Italian Air Force’s acrobatic team, the document stated.

The Air Force announced last week it will switch to the M-346 after using the agiing M-339 for decades. The Frecce Tricolori had previously planned to introduce Leonardo’s M-345 jet – a more basic version of the M-346.

A source knowledgeable of the deal told Defense News the M-346 would allow the team to develop new maneuvers, carry out inflight refueling in order to get to overseas displays faster while keeping pilots combat-ready.

The first M-346s will enter service with the team next year, the source added.

In its section on possible future purchases which are yet to be funded, the document cited a €560 million program to acquire new maritime patrol aircraft, to be operated jointly by the Navy and Air Force.

Domain awareness, counterspace systems top Space Force budget needs

Air Force and Space Force leaders this week continued their call for more resources to fund key space capabilities, naming domain awareness and counterspace systems as their top priorities in fiscal 2026.

The Space Force and the rest of the military services recently submitted their fiscal 2026 funding plans to Pentagon leadership, and the Defense Department will soon begin deliberations on how to spend the more than $800 billion Congress allocates for national security each year.

Speaking with reporters Tuesday at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said that while it’s too early in the budget process to know how the service’s priorities will match up against other DOD demands, awareness of the space environment and the means to protect and fight back against adversary threats are critical needs for the Space Force.

“We have to understand what’s going on in the domain to effectively employ counterspace capabilities,” he said.

Established in 2019, the Space Force is the newest military service, and its $30 billion budget is the smallest in the department. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said the demand for space capabilities is outpacing its limited resources and has advocated for the Space Force’s budget to double or triple in the coming years.

“The Space Force is beginning a transformation that must be executed quickly and at scale,” Kendall said during a Monday speech at the conference. “That takes resources.”

In the near-term, more funding for the service could come through a congressional budget increase, though based on the FY25 funding levels proposed by appropriators in both chambers, a move in the opposite direction appears more likely.

The House Appropriations Committee’s policy bill would, if passed, cut about $900 million from the Space Force’s request. Senate funding legislation would slash around $1 billion.

The Pentagon could also draw space funding from the Air Force or the other services’ budgets, making trade-offs to fund key missions.

Saltzman said he’s not sure how the money will materialize.

“A new mission requires new resources and new funding, so I don’t have a good answer for what those sources are,” he said. “But you know, we’ve got $800 billion-plus, and we’re going to have to make the decisions about where we need to invest to make sure we can do all the missions effectively.”

The Space Force has been working for the past several years to determine the right mix of satellites and other systems that will be needed to adapt to new threats in orbit. Led by the Space Warfighting Analysis Center, the service has conducted mission-by-mission reviews that, when stitched together, lay out a vision for its ideal force structure over the next 10 to 15 years.

Counterspace capabilities are a key part of that vision, as is space domain awareness, missile warning and tracking and space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The Space Force views the capabilities it provides as enablers for the other military services, providing key support for maritime, land and air missions. However, in some cases, the other branches are developing their own space capabilities.

The Army in January rolled out a plan to up its investment in space capabilities that support ground operations. Dubbed the Army Space Vision, it emphasizes the need for systems that can interdict, or disrupt, enemy ISR capabilities.

Asked by reporters whether the Space Force is concerned about potential competition from the Army for personnel or funding, Saltzman said he takes a nuanced view of the issue.

“I’m still not of the mindset that this is a zero-sum game and everything has to come out of somebody else’s budget,” he said. “The Department of Defense budget ebbs and flows, and you have to understand where you are in that process.”

It’s not a surprise that the other services want to invest in space systems, Saltzman said, but it’s up to the department to determine whether it makes sense to spread space funding across several branches or focus it within the Space Force’s budget.

“We just have to find the smart way to do it,” he said. “If there’s something that they can do that we won’t do, great. If there’s something we can do that they don’t need to do anymore, great. We can share resources.”

Hezbollah pagers explode across Lebanon, injuring thousands

BEIRUT — Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously across Lebanon and in parts of Syria on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, including members of the militant group Hezbollah and a girl, and wounding the Iranian ambassador, government and Hezbollah officials said.

Officials pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack that wounded more than 2,700 people at a time of rising tensions across the Lebanon border. The Israeli military declined to comment.

A Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that the new brand of handheld pagers used by the group first heated up, then exploded, killing at least two of its members and wounding others.

Lebanon’s health minister, Firas Abiad, said at least eight people were killed and 2,750 wounded — 200 of them critically.

Iranian state-run IRNA news agency said that the country’s ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, was superficially wounded by an exploding pager and was being treated at a hospital.

Photos and videos from Beirut’s southern suburbs circulating on social media and in local media showed people lying on the pavement with wounds on their hands or near their pants pockets.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying that they could be used by Israel to track their movements and to carry out targeted strikes.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry called on all hospitals to be on alert to take in emergency patients and for people who own pagers to get away from them. It also asked health workers to avoid using wireless devices.

AP photographers at area hospitals said the emergency rooms were overloaded with patients, many of them with injuries to their limbs, some in serious condition.

The state-run National News Agency said hospitals in southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs — all areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence — had called on people to donate blood of all types.

The news agency reported that in Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas “the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology, and dozens of injuries were reported.”

The Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said the explosions were the result of “a security operation that targeted the devices.”

“The enemy (Israel) stands behind this security incident,” the official said, without elaborating. He added that the new pagers that Hezbollah members were carrying had lithium batteries that apparently exploded.

Lithium batteries, when overheated, can smoke, melt and even catch on fire. Rechargeable lithium batteries are used in consumer products ranging from cellphones and laptops to electric cars. Lithium battery fires can burn up to 1,100 F degrees Fahrenheit.

The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hezbollah ally Hamas in Gaza.

The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border. On Tuesday, Israel said that halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal.

Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby-trapped cellphones and it’s widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran’s nuclear program in 2010.

Abby Sewell and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, and Josef Federman, in Jerusalem, contributed to this report.

Austria flaunts air power, considers purchasing new trainer jets

GRAZ, Austria — Austria is trying to decide on a successor for its recently retired fleet of jet trainers. A leading contender showed off its aerobatic skills at the Airpower show at the Zeltweg air base this month, reinvigorating speculation on whether Vienna will turn to Czechia or Italy for a purchase.

Austria decided in recent years to withdraw its fleet of Saab 105 OE jet trainers — a variant purpose-built for the country by the Swedish manufacturer — after five decades in service. A plan for a replacement was not initially announced.

But in the past year, the tune has changed, with the country’s military leadership suggesting that plans were being prepared to find a successor after all. Last month, Austrian defense minister Klaudia Tanner said she had received an “interesting” proposal from her Italian counterparts for the joint procurement of the Leonardo M-346 advanced jet trainer.

Sweden and Finland have dropped neutrality. Austria still fetes it.

Under Tanner, the country’s defense forces have gone on a spending spree, procuring new helicopters, aircraft, land vehicles and air defense systems.

This latest possible purchase would fit into the recent trend of Austria buying expensive new military equipment in cooperation with other countries.

Vienna has taken a similar route in getting a successor for its C-130 Hercules large, fixed-wing transport aircraft in the form of the Brazilian C-390, bought together with the Netherlands. Similarly, 18 Leonardo AW169 helicopters are being procured jointly with Italy to replace the ancient Alouette III, which has been in service since 1967.

The M-346 played a prominent role at this year’s Airpower show, where the Italian Air Force presented the jet’s aerobatic abilities to an audience of up to 250,000 people, including representatives from Austria’s military.

Austrian pilots are already familiar with the aircraft type. Since the retirement of the Saab 105, the country’s pilots have been training on the Leonardo jet at the International Flight Training School in Sardinia, Italy.

Other training has taken place on the Eurofighter, a costly endeavor and likely driving force behind the decision to buy new dedicated trainers. In early September, the Vermont Air National Guard temporarily moved four F-35 fighters to Zeltweg to train with their Austrian counterparts through the State Partnership Program.

While the M-346 appears to be the frontrunner, officials have yet to announce a decision. Its main competitor seems to be the Czech-origin Aero L-39NG. The jet appeared in the static display at the previous Airpower show in 2022, where Filip Kulštrunk, a company vice president, pitched directly to Austrian decision-makers.

“In the case of Austria, the Czech Ministry of Defense fully supports the project and offers full government-to-government sale,” he said.

There was also talk of involving Austrian companies directly in the manufacturing process, forging longer-term industrial cooperation between the countries. Kulštrunk further relayed that Czechia was open to joint pilot training, “therefore sharing logistics and operational costs.”

Austria’s armed forces, particularly its air force, have long been plagued by insufficient funding. Cost considerations have been a driving factor behind the recently favored model of joint procurements under Defense Minister Tanner.

Similarly, budgetary constraints are also exerting pressure on its fleet of 15 Eurofighter Typhoon jets. In 2017, the country announced it would phase out older versions by 2020, though those plans appear to have been dropped indefinitely. Intermittently, there were media reports that the country might be unable to afford flying all 15 jets at once.

Last year, the government announced a €1.6 billion ($1.77 billion) upgrade package, which includes procuring new jet trainers and upgrading the Eurofighter fleet.