Military

PARIS — Denmark picked Norwegian ammunition maker Nammo to restart a shuttered ammo plant for production of small- and large-caliber ammunition, the country’s defense ministry said.
Nammo can begin producing ammunition for the Danish forces and others at the shuttered plant in northern Denmark as soon as the production facilities are set up, Denmark’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement on Friday. Final negotiations with Nammo are still pending, including a timetable on when actual ammunition production will start.
The deteriorating security situation, the war in Ukraine and an updated threat assessment by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service “emphasize the importance of ensuring future ammunition production in Denmark,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poelsen said. “This will make a difference to the security of supply for Denmark, the Nordic region and Europe.”
However, ammunition stocks are needed now, and Denmark plans to rapidly build ..

MILAN — Norway has received three new F-35A aircraft, marking the delivery of 49 fighters, with the remaining three planned to be shipped before summer, the Norwegian Defense Material Agency said.
The latest fighter jets landed in the Nordic country on Feb. 27 and will operate out of Ørland Air Station.
In the last three months alone, nine F-35s have been delivered to Norway, with the last three of the 52 on order expected to be received during the spring, the FMA, the country’s Armed Forces procurement arm, said in a statement.
“Given the complexity inherent in the development and production of fifth-generation fighter aircraft, I am very impressed by the delivery capability of the F-35 manufacturer,” Col. Tord Aslaksen, head of Norway’s fighter aircraft department in defense material air capabilities, said of manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
Issue experts have pondered the future of European F-35 fleets, given that the continent and Washington are at..

The Army is one step closer to producing millions of rounds each year of its newest caliber for the service’s newest rifle and light machine gun combination — the Next Generation Squad Weapon.
The service’s Joint Program Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition broke ground Feb. 5 on a 6.8 mm ammunition production facility at Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri, according to an Army release.
Current plans show the facility being completed by 2026 and fully operational by 2028, officials said.
These units are getting the Army’s newest rifle and machine gun combo
The move aims to give the service its own production line for the 6.8 mm cartridge, which is the caliber the Next Generation Squad Weapon is chambered for, both in its rifle and automatic rifle configuration.
The XM5 and XM250, respectively, are replacing their counterparts, the M4 carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, among the close combat forces. Both are chambered in the legacy..

The Air Force issued a stern warning to airmen last week to avoid working for private companies that maintain affiliation with foreign adversaries, according to a press release from the service.
Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of NATO Allied Air Command and U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, advised aircrew members to stay away from businesses supporting near-peer threats, especially the People’s Republic of China.
Hecker added that involvement in these companies could lead to harsh consequences.
“Once you fly on our team, even after you hang up your uniform, you have a responsibility to protect our tactics, techniques and procedures,” Hecker said.
U.S. troops, active and retired, are regulated by the U.S. State Department when it comes to providing defense services to a foreign military. Sharing classified information with a foreign government is illegal under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and federal law.
Punishment for violating these regula..

The Pentagon is weighing options to establish new flight corridors to test hypersonic weapons over the U.S. and Australia — and it’s eyeing the Trump administration’s urgent call for a homeland missile shield as a mechanism to speed up the approval process.
The Defense Department already leverages several over-sea test ranges to validate that the hypersonic vehicles it’s developing — which are designed to travel and maneuver at speeds above Mach 5 — can hit their targets. But as programs transition to later test phases, overland ranges are better suited to evaluate how a system performs under more stressing conditions, like a faulty navigation system or an enemy decoy, which an adversary may use to distract from a real target.
For the last few years, the Pentagon has been considering locations for overland sites, in part a response to a requirement in the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act that called for DOD officials to study options for at least two mor..

President Donald Trump’s administration is loosening restrictions on military airstrikes by giving commanders more autonomy to make lethal decisions, according to a U.S. defense official.
New rules allow high-ranking military officers to fire at targets without White House approval, as long as the targets previously received official terrorist designations, an official told Military Times.
The newly granted authority, the official said, is in part a response to the former administration’s substantial involvement in approving strikes, which military leaders felt was outsized and led to slow response times for eliminating time-sensitive targets like terrorists.
The Pentagon did not provide an official statement on the rule change. When reached by phone, the Defense Press Operations office directed Military Times to a post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the social platform X that said, “Correct,” in response to a CBS News article about the Trump administration’s easing..

President Donald Trump on Monday directed a “pause” to U.S. assistance to Ukraine after a disastrous Oval Office meeting as he seeks to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to engage in peace talks with Russia.
A White House official said Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal to end the more than three-year war sparked by Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, and wants Zelenskyy “committed” to that goal. The official added that the U.S. was “pausing and reviewing” its aid to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.
The moment comes some five years after Trump held up congressionally authorized assistance to Ukraine in 2019 as he sought to pressure Zelenskyy to launch investigations into Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate. The moment led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Trump berates Ukrainian president, says he’s ‘n..

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has paused offensive cyberoperations against Russia by U.S. Cyber Command, rolling back some efforts to contend with a key adversary even as national security experts call for the U.S. to expand those capabilities.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, on Monday confirmed the pause.
Hegseth’s decision does not affect cyberoperations conducted by other agencies, including the CIA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. But the Trump administration also has rolled back other efforts at the FBI and other agencies related to countering digital and cyber threats.
The Pentagon decision, which was first reported by The Record, comes as many national security and cybersecurity experts have urged greater investments in cyber defense and offense, particularly as China and Russia have sought to interfere with the nation’s economy, elections and security.
Republican lawmakers and national security..