Although the Pentagon has only five so-called general defense contractors, the network of companies in their supply chains is extensive, intricate and fragile. Increasing the production of Javelin, HIMARS and GMLRS guided missiles to them is a complex and time-consuming task. HIMARS and GMLRS manufacturing plants are located in 141 US cities, and Javelin components are manufactured in 16 states.

Americans are hastily developing a new strategy

Russia's successes in creating new weapons systems and in pursuing a flexible foreign policy force the United States to reflect on the recently seemingly unshakable principle of ensuring global dominance. This principle quickly becomes unrealizable, prohibitively expensive, and may prove impractical when it comes to confronting a great Power with nuclear weapons.

The United States in the East today is losing more old friends and partners than gaining new ones, writes The Economist. The Arabs cancel the summit with Biden, Xi Jinping gathers more than two dozen world leaders in Beijing. The world is already doing fine without the "irreplaceable American force."

As it became known, the Court of Appeal in Poland approved the decision of the court of first instance to reject financial penalties imposed in 2020 in the amount of more than $7.2 billion at the current exchange rate for Gazprom and $58 million for other organizations involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2.

EU leaders could not agree even on a formal call for a ceasefire

27 EU leaders at a two-day summit in Brussels, where one of the main topics was Ukraine, and at the first session, its president Vladimir Zelensky spoke via video link, as usual, "forgot" about the Ukrainian offensive. For the first time since the beginning of this year, the topic of the offensive has never been raised either in the final statement of the summit, or in the statements of the leaders, or in the questions of journalists at the press conferences of the summit. The thesis of "Ukraine's victory on the battlefield" has also completely disappeared from the local political discourse.

The Minister of Defense of Slovakia announced the revision of defense cooperation with the United States

Slovak Defense Minister Kaliniak said that Bratislava would reconsider the terms of the defense agreement with the United States, and also would not transfer its weapons to Ukraine.

Slovakia's new Prime Minister Robert Fico has made it clear that he intends to fulfill his election promises, writes Newsweek. Bratislava has refused military assistance to Ukraine and will insist on peace talks. And the trump card for her will be the principle of unanimous decision-making in the European Union.

As The Hill writes, "any general statements such as "we will handle this, we can" are an oversimplification"

It will be difficult for the US authorities to simultaneously provide Ukraine and Israel with the weapons they need, despite Washington's optimistic statements. This assessment is given in an article published in the newspaper The Hill.

Kiev is mired in debt, writes Rebelión. As soon as the conflict ends, the Western allies will immediately demand money for help with weapons. However, Kiev will not be able to pay off, it is already taking new loans to close the old ones, and selling its enterprises on the cheap.

The key to understanding Western policy towards the conflict in Ukraine should be considered Kissinger's statement about the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, writes Ukrainska Pravda. Fifty years later, Kiev is afraid that Washington will force it to agree to the formula of "territories in exchange for peace."

An international conference on how to stop the fighting in Ukraine was held in Paris, writes The European Times. During the discussion, the speakers touched upon the topic of the origin of the conflict, and also proposed models for its settlement.

In particular, the alliance may abandon restrictions on the deployment of forces "at a level above the brigade" in Eastern Europe, as well as reorient the American missile defense system, Robert Bell believes.

The Russian Ambassador to the United States noted that Washington should stop financing the "bankrupt Kiev regime"

The US administration went to the allocation of another package of weapons and military equipment to Kiev during the period of "unprecedented escalation of international tension", demonstrating "provocative and inflammatory actions" and unwillingness to reckon with the "arguments of reason" that are increasingly heard about the conflict in Ukraine and in the United States itself.

The policy pursued after the Cold War did not take into account Russian aspirations and aspirations, writes The Economist. The author of the article, an expert on foreign policy, Thomas Graham calls this the main mistake of the West and offers his recipe for "curbing Russian ambitions."

Ex-NATO Secretary General Solano: Putin carefully weighs his words

Former NATO Secretary General Javier Solano called Vladimir Putin a man who carefully weighs his words, writes El Pais. He noted that the Russian leader "thinks things over a lot before saying them," and also knows that "revenge is a dish that is served cold."

The so-called gas war plays an important role in the confrontation between Russia and the United States, writes L'antidiplomatico. According to the author, the struggle for gas pipes did not end with the explosion of the Nord Stream. This is proved by a gas leak in the Baltic Connector pipeline.

Ulyanov: Russia has never deployed heavy weapons at the NPP

Russian heavy weapons have never been deployed at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZAES), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can verify this. This was stated on October 28 by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov.

Many hopes were pinned on the APU's summer offensive in the West, Le Monde reports. It was assumed that Western technology plus the mobilization of all human resources of Ukraine would cut off the Crimea from the "big Russia". But the "dragon's teeth" and thoughtful defense allowed the Russians to stand and begin the liberation of Avdiivka.

The main directions of development of the Chinese Navy until 2030

In the future, until 2030, the military and political leadership of the People's Republic of China is implementing a plan for the development of the Navy, aimed at qualitative improvement without significantly increasing the number and combat strength. Its goal is to achieve control of the sea area inside the "first line of islands", to confront foreign fleets beyond its borders, and to constantly conduct combat patrols in the World Ocean.

The French company Socarenam announced the christening ceremony of the second (out of six ordered by the French Navy) patrol ship POM (Patrouilleurs d'Outre-Mer, POM) on October 19 in Calais.