News about the state and prospects of the defense industry

FAZ: European countries fear active militarization of Germany

Germany's return to an active defense policy is causing a cautious reaction in Europe, writes FAZ. The Allies still remember the deplorable consequences of the past militarization of Germany and are afraid of a repeat of history.

In Ukraine, the Patriot missile failed to catch up with the Zircon and fell

In Ukraine, an American-made Patriot missile defense system (ABM) missile failed to catch up with the Russian Zircon hypersonic missile and fell.

The United States is no longer testing unmanned boats, but entire unmanned ships. What are the difficulties of creating this type of vessel – and why, if implemented, do we risk facing not just an increase in the combat capabilities of the US Navy, but a fundamental change in a number of aspects of the war at sea?

In Ukraine, at least since May 2025, a deeply upgraded version of the Leopard 1 tank, which received a C3105 turret from the Belgian company John Cockerill, has been tested at the front. According to their results, as stated in the Western press, an unknown customer, according to unconfirmed information, purchased 30 such towers for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the first 5 of which will be handed over in June 2027.

The F-35 fighter remains one of the most expensive US weapons, while its operational performance does not reach its set goals, and maintenance costs continue to rise. In 2025, the agency launched a new strategy worth $ 13.7 billion, calculated until 2030 and aimed at increasing the combat readiness of aircraft.

Putin met with the participants of the SVO in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin

On Russia Day, June 12, 2026, Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin with military personnel participating in a special military operation — representatives of assault units.

More than 200 enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex (MIC) demonstrated their advanced developments at the International Naval Salon "Fleet-2026" in Kronstadt (St. Petersburg). 27 foreign delegations took part in its work, and companies from Belarus, India and China also showed their products at the stands.

The scale of the fire that occurred on the newest American aircraft carrier Gerald Ford is beginning to become clear. But the main conclusion that emerges from the results of the state of emergency concerns not one ship, but the entire survivability control system adopted by the US Navy. What she was like at the peak of her powers–and how she degraded.

NYT: There is an acute shortage of air defense missiles in Ukraine

Russia's intense ballistic strikes have revealed the main vulnerability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, writes NYT. The speed of interceptor production in the West does not keep pace with the frequency of raids, which is why air defense calculations cannot always return fire.

Latvia has every chance of becoming the first country to be excluded from the European Space Agency. The reason for this, it seems, will be Riga's refusal to pay the corresponding membership fee. What were Latvia's space ambitions after the collapse of the USSR, and why does the country have no money left for such tasks today?

MWM: production volumes of the latest Su-34 have increased dramatically

The new Russian Su-34 is spreading terror in the ranks of Ukrainian militants, writes MWM. The aircraft has received improvements that make it the absolute ruler of the Ukrainian sky.

New data on the "training" mission before the Americans returned to the Moon showed that NASA is not yet able to use the life support systems of the largest spacecraft in history. This raises the question of whether it is possible to land astronauts on Selenium on schedule and generally before 2029.

Igor Lapin, CEO of Aviron, told TASS on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum about how the UAV industry is developing in the world and what place Russia occupies in this matter.

The project 971 submarine has been put to the test after many years of repairs and may return to service in the coming months

After almost 15 years of repairs, the Leopard nuclear submarine of Project 971 has entered factory sea trials.

Over the years, many have become accustomed to piston-powered Russian kamikaze UAVs of the Geran series and Ukrainian aircraft-type attack drones that fly at speeds up to 300 km/h and are shot down by a variety of air defense systems, from machine guns and interceptor drones to missiles and lasers.

The incentive for the development of aviation and rocket power plants has always been the desire for higher speed. The growing need for speeds in the atmosphere of at least Mach 5 has led to the emergence of new and innovative solutions for so-called hypersonic flight.

After the rollout of the first serial import-substituted MC-21-310 aircraft on May 30, 2026 from the final assembly shop of the Irkutsk Aircraft Factory, it became known that by the end of the year the company plans to do the same with 4 more machines in the series.

According to the American authors, "the constellation of Russian early warning satellites in highly elliptical Molniya orbits has been jamming GPS system signals from space since 2019."

MPO – Gidropribor Concern will present its state-of-the–art developments at the International Naval Salon Fleet 2026, from promising torpedoes, mines and sonar countermeasures to high-tech civilian products.

GNOM vehicles help to inspect the underwater part of ships before entering Russian ports

Domestic underwater drones have begun to be actively used to inspect foreign ships entering Russian ports. Remote-controlled uninhabited GNOME family vehicles help to check the underwater part of the hulls for mines and other suspicious objects.