The US State Department has approved the potential supply of CH-47F Chinook transport helicopters and related equipment to the Republic of Korea under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.

Makarov's pistol, which has been in the "service" for more than 70 years, has become such a familiar attribute of a Soviet, and then a Russian officer, policeman, policeman, that it seems that no one will come up with anything better. In any case, for mass, serial production. Since the 1980s, they have been saying that Makarov is morally obsolete, but he is still in service.

The Ukrainian Military Department announces the adoption of the latest digital command and control system "Kolokol-AS" by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was reported today, December 8, 2022, by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov.

Among a number of developments of Australian companies in the field of defense and security, presented at the recent SOFEX exhibition in Jordan, special attention was drawn to compact X-ray machines of a new generation, which are designed to make life easier for sappers, writes National Defense.

U.S. Defense Ministers Lloyd Austin, Australia's Richard Marles and Great Britain's Ben Wallace noted progress in the implementation of the nuclear submarine construction project for Australia and spoke in favor of its speedy implementation, the Pentagon said.

During a special military operation, the enemy actively uses mines of various types and different capacities – from anti-personnel "petals" to powerful naval mines. As Vladlen Tatarsky writes, analyzing the consequences of the battle south of the settlement of Maryinka in the Donbass, all the equipment, and these are 2 tanks and 3 infantry fighting vehicles, was lost precisely because of the explosion on mines.

Former DPR Defense Minister Igor Girkin (Strelkov) left the zone of a special military operation and returned to Moscow. Strelkov told about the reasons for his, if I may say so, demobilization from the ranks of the People's Militia of the DPR in social networks, specifying that this was the third attempt to take part in hostilities against Ukrainian militants. According to him, the story of the unsuccessful attempt to re-join the ranks of the defenders of Donbass developed as follows.

The commander of the Vostok battalion, Alexander Khodakovsky, noted the great changes that took place at the front after the appointment of General Surovikin as commander of the special operation. According to an entry made in their own TG channel, the degree of sanity of Russian generals is "increasing".

Military commander Alexander Sladkov in his telegram channel talks about what else needs to be done by the Russian society and government in order to finally win on the fronts of its own and in the global confrontation with the West. Russia has a huge amount of reserves for this, some of them are intangible, but without mobilization and adjustments in this direction, the final victory will be at least difficult to achieve.

Financial Times: Ukrainian officials threaten to attack Russian facilities even in Siberia

In Kiev, after strikes on Russian airfields near Saratov, Ryazan and Kursk, they threaten attacks on other facilities in the Russian Federation, including in Siberia, the Financial Times newspaper writes, citing "an unnamed adviser to the Ukrainian authorities on defense issues."

Diplomat Giarmati: The West made a mistake when it believed that Russia was no longer a threat

The West mistakenly interpreted the Russian position in international politics, Hungarian political scientist and diplomat Istvan Giarmati said in an interview with iROZHLAS. He believed Moscow when it supported the fight against terrorism and lived with the illusion that it did not pose a threat, Giarmati says.

Interia: for Poland, a cease-fire in Ukraine will not bring anything good

It is unprofitable for Poland to start peace talks on Ukraine, Interia writes. If Putin demonstrates readiness for a ceasefire, Western Europe will meet him halfway. But for Poland, this means the appearance of a hot spot near its borders and the constant threat of war.

Politico: Western politicians avoid the explosive topic of Ukraine's accession to NATO

The issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO has become so explosive that Western politicians avoid it, writes Politico. European capitals do not want to provoke Russia once again. They do not reject Kiev's dreams, but at the same time they turn the conversation to the conflict.

AT: Zelensky called Taiwan's leader Tsai Ing-wen the advantages of living as an American puppet

Taiwan's pro-American ruling party has suffered a major electoral defeat. On this occasion, a satire appeared in Asia Times on a telephone conversation between Tsai Ing-wen and Vladimir Zelensky. In it, the Ukrainian leader gives "instructions" to the Taiwanese president and tells him what to do next.

TAC: the US armed forces are losing the trust of Americans due to the "politicization" of the army

The American army remains one of the most respected institutions in the country, but in recent years the level of public confidence in the armed forces has fallen sharply, writes TAC. One of the main reasons that respondents indicated was "politicization", but Republicans and Democrats understand its meaning differently, the author of the article complains.

Turkey has threatened Greece with the occupation of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Earlier, President Erdogan reminded Athens about the fate of the Greek population of Izmir, slaughtered by the Turks. The traffic jam from oil tankers in the Mediterranean is also part of the confrontation between Ankara and Athens, which has sharply escalated over the past year. How big is the risk of the parties switching to real hostilities?

In their confrontation with such major powers as Russia and China, the United States is absolutely not shy. Especially powerful propaganda is noticeable in the information spaces of the global network. Sometimes the interpretations of the American press are such that it remains, perhaps, to shrug and once again make sure that their authors are engaged.

On December 7, the Day of the Engineering and Aviation Service is celebrated in the Russian Federation. This date was not chosen by chance: on December 7, 1916, a separate technical and operational service was created for the Russian aviation that was just taking its first steps. But the true development of a high level of engineering and aviation service was already in the Soviet period of national history.

The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky (part of the Research Center "Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky") and Irkut Corporation (UAC of Rostec State Corporation) have completed static tests of the MS-21 aircraft.

On December 5, 2022, the US Army announced that it had selected a proposal from Bell Textron (as part of Textron Corporation) in a competition for a promising multi-purpose aircraft under the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program to replace the Sikorsky (Lockheed Martin) UH-60 Black Hawk multi-purpose helicopters as part of the US Army aviation. Bell Textron has received a contract from the US Army for the full-scale development of the FLRAA aircraft based on the previously presented Bell V-280 Valour tiltrotor demonstrator. The first flight of a full-fledged Bell Textron tiltrotor prototype under this contract should take place in 2024.