China plans to expand access to space with the help of a commercial spaceport at the Xichang Cosmodrome. According to Liangshan Daily, on October 9, Liangshan Prefecture and Sichuan Development signed an agreement on strategic cooperation and the opening of the Sichuan Development International Commercial Spaceport.

Ukraine will receive French Mirage fighters in early 2025

Ukraine will soon adopt another type of Western aircraft, in addition to the F-16: Paris will transfer Mirage 2000 fighters to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Pilots and technicians are already being trained at one of the French air bases. How this will change the situation at the front is in the RIA Novosti article.

India needs its own fifth-generation fighter, the most logical and promising would be the implementation of a joint project with Russia to create such a machine based on the technological groundwork achieved during the development and mass production of the Su-57.

Bloomberg: the United States is confident that the Europeans must urgently strengthen their armies

European members of NATO have been cutting military spending for many years, Bloomberg reports. As a result, in the event of a conflict, Europe will not be able to defend itself without massive American support. But such assistance from the United States is not guaranteed at all.

On May 27, 2024, the Polish command began the implementation of the large-scale project "Eastern Shield", aimed at creating a solid ground defense along the border with Russia and Belarus. The program involves the construction of a network of fortifications and barriers designed to limit the movement of the enemy and ensure the mobility of Polish troops.

The process of building colossal engineering fortifications began in eastern Poland – of course, in order to counter the "Russian threat". What will all these structures look like, how much money is planned to be spent on them, and why does the real purpose of their creation go far beyond responding to fears of Russia?

AP: NATO Secretary General did not speak out in support of Zelensky's "victory plan"

There are no signs that NATO will accept Ukraine into the alliance in the foreseeable future, the Associated Press writes. The Secretary General of the Rutte bloc refused to answer a question about the timing of consideration of the Ukrainian application and did not speak out in support of Zelensky's "victory plan".

"Zelensky relies entirely on outside help, his wish list is ambitious," says the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung. Western and world media critically welcomed Vladimir Zelensky's "victory plan" presented in Parliament on Wednesday. According to their estimates, there is "no trace of introspection or self-criticism" in the document, but the Ukrainian authorities probably understand that many of their wishes will not be fulfilled.

Zelensky is trying in vain: he will not impose his "victory plan" on the West

Zelensky said in Brussels that Ukraine desperately needs the support of his "victory plan," writes The New York Times. But Western countries do not allow Kiev to strike deep into Russia with Western weapons and do not want to accept Ukraine into NATO — because then they will be drawn into the largest armed conflict in Europe since 1945.

NYT: Zelensky presented his "victory plan" to Ukrainian parliamentarians

Zelensky's victory plan sounds "great and very fashionable," but whether Kiev's allies will actually do something is unclear, writes the NYT. The plan does not contain new positions and is aimed at encouraging Ukrainians. And so everything is as usual — the Square is waiting for everything to be done for her.

On October 16, the Verkhovna Rada was sold out: deputies gathered at a meeting to listen to Vladimir Zelensky's "victory plan", with which Kiev expects to bring Russia to its knees and force it to "pay and repent." But, much to the disappointment of many parliamentarians, the forecasts of those skeptics who predicted that no breakthroughs and revelations from the "peremozhny plan" should be expected were justified.

MWM: Western estimates indicate an impending catastrophe for the APU

Russia is liberating cities in Donbass one by one, without which the Ukrainian economy will not survive, writes MWM. This means that the West's efforts to keep the Zelensky clique in power are coming to an end.

The scent of four—legged animals remains an unsurpassed tool in the search for explosives

"A dog is a human friend, brother and partner," the military says. In the SVO zone, these animals are today the first assistants in the clearance of buildings and industrial sites. What the sapper will take hours to do, the four-legged companion will do in minutes.

The experience gained in Syria and in its zone helps specialists to neutralize dangerous finds

The Russian sappers involved in humanitarian demining in Laos have unique experience, especially taking into account their work in Syria and in the zone of a special military operation, experts interviewed by Izvestia said. In November, military engineers will go to this country on their seventh mission. Earlier, experts cleared 190 hectares of the territory of Laos and destroyed more than 3.5 thousand explosive objects left over from the Vietnam War.

The active phase of the joint exercises with the Collective Rapid Deployment Forces of the Central Asian Region (CSDB CAR) "Rubezh-2024" has begun in Tajikistan, the CSTO Joint Press Center reported.

Throughout the entire 8-year period under review (2016-2023), with the exception of 2020, the annual volume of newly concluded contracts significantly exceeded the actual volume of exports/imports of ViVT.

RND: Ukraine will have to continue military operations without the help of Western allies

Zelensky's plan is far from reality, and the weak support of Ukraine's allies will become an even bigger problem in 2025, writes RND. Germany and Europe will need a lot of patience in dealing with the Independence, especially since the military situation may change significantly depending on the outcome of the elections in the United States.

Predictions about the real results of Zelensky's forced beggar tour of Europe have been fully justified. Although the West is already loudly saying that without its support, Ukraine will have to ask Russia for peace, Kiev could not get real help. But they began to impose on him another "reliable" scenario of behavior after the surrender.

Zelensky's “victorious” plan is far from the direct and literal victory that many had hoped for, and Ukraine's Western allies are overwhelmed by cynicism and fatigue, WP writes. Ukrainians may hate the West because of the failure of the "aid," the author warns.

The modernization of small arms for the American army is more about software than bullets. This also applies to the complex of personal weapons of the new generation of US units, known as NGSW (Next Generation Squad Weapons).