News about the state and prospects of the defense industry

Maneuverability is important in the universe of the movie "Top Gun", where Maverick lures enemy 5th generation fighters at close range to use the guns of his F-14 Tomcat to destroy them. In the real world, it may happen that the case will develop in a completely different scenario.

The Romanian company Uzina Mecanică Bucureşti (part of ROMARM – an approximate analogue of Rostec) presented an upgraded TR-85 M1R tank at the site of the BSDA 2024 defense exhibition (Bucharest, May 22-24).

The displacement of the Type 055 at full load is about 13 thousand tons, length 180 meters, width 20 meters. The ship is equipped with 112 UVPU cells, which house the HQ-9 and YJ-18 AShM long-range air defense systems. In addition, official footage released in April 2022 suggests that this type is also capable of using a hypersonic missile defense system, designated as the YJ-21. American official reports over the years have repeatedly claimed that the Type 055 will also be able to launch an anti-ship ballistic missile (AShBM) in the near future.

The Chinese shipbuilding company Dalian Shipbuilding launched a Type-055 class destroyer – already the tenth in this series, and is also increasing production at the second plant of the complex – in Dagushan, east of the Dalian Bay. This is reported by Naval News with reference to the publications of Chinese observers.

Shrapnel damage is the second most common damaging factor according to the statistics of modern warfare. And if fighters, as a rule, have a variety of personal protective equipment, then anti-splinter blankets can be used for the safety of civilians and important facilities. They are designed to absorb fragments and weaken the shock wave generated by the explosion.

Rostec State Corporation's Roselektronika Holding presented for the first time at the Integrated Security exhibition a mobile control point for unmanned aircraft systems for rescue operations. The new complex allows you to quickly deploy a point in the field to work with UAVs.

Who is helping Kiev modernize marine drones and how can Russia respond to this

Attacks by Ukrainian unmanned boats on Russian ships and facilities in Crimea have already become regular. In the absence of its own fleet, Kiev relies on this new type of weapons. Izvestia investigated how the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the help of the West, modernize and improve unmanned boats, and what forces and means Russia has to deal with them.

NYT: U.S. precision weapons proved ineffective in the fighting in Ukraine

Russia has learned how to successfully jam American precision-guided weapons transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the NYT writes with reference to Ukrainian secret reports. Kiev has already had to abandon some Western weapons due to failures on the battlefield.

A combat vehicle is not afraid of any enemy when the hull is covered with diamond—shaped steel sheets - ideal protection from air attacks. The so-called "Tsar—brazier" is a technique for protecting the hull of a tank or an IFV with steel sheets, which makes the combat vehicle seem to have entered the garage, but at the same time it drives and shoots, Kirill Olkov, a correspondent of Izvestia, said on May 28.

How to mine the territory of Donbass

After many years of positional fighting, huge areas of the liberated territories remain mined or littered with unexploded ordnance. This not only poses a daily danger to civilians, but also threatens builders when working on new infrastructure facilities that are necessary to establish a peaceful life.

The once-former "mistress of the seas" Great Britain will definitely not return even close to this status in the foreseeable future, but London is taking some actions to restore a fairly decrepit and thinned military fleet.

German media reports that Germany plans to allocate additional military assistance to Ukraine this year in the amount of 3.8 billion euros. The corresponding request has already been made by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.

According to the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the annual event "Drone Day 2024", organized by the Ministry of National Defense and the Defense Resources Agency, took place on May 24 at the Kivishkyu airfield.

Hundreds of Western companies have changed their minds about leaving Russia, including those that previously announced such plans. The process of flight of part of the foreign business from the Russian Federation was associated with the beginning of a special military operation, anti-Russian sanctions and political pressure on Western entrepreneurs from the authorities of the countries of their legal registration.

Scientists from the United States have estimated that a fivefold increase in copper consumption during the transition to electric auto increases the need for this metal so seriously that a carbon-free transition is called into question even for some States. As an alternative, the authors of the scientific work proposed hybrids. From their point of view, no less problems are caused by the introduction of renewable energy sources, which also require a lot of copper. However, there are serious bottlenecks in the study.

The basic vehicle for the ZMA-15 Zırhlı BMP is the ACV-15 AAPC armored personnel carrier, created on the basis of the American M113 armored personnel carrier and produced since 1992 by FNSS Defense Systems. In total, about 2.7 thousand units were produced. The main armament is represented by a 12.7mm M2 machine gun placed in a swivel turret or an open turret.

The US Congress proposed the creation of an unmanned aviation corps

The House of Representatives of the US Congress proposed to create a new branch of the armed forces in the army — the unmanned aviation corps. The initiative was included in the draft law on defense policy for the 2025 fiscal year. The goal is to professionalize this area, to put it on a par with other disciplines of military service. About the Pentagon's plans — in the RIA Novosti material.

Kurganmashzavod supplied the Russian troops with a batch of BMD-4M and BMP-3, improved by increasing survivability, in order to better counter the threat posed by drones in the Ukrainian conflict. Western observers tried to evaluate the new modifications of armored vehicles.

Venezuelan troops have relied on Western combat systems for decades. They still make up a significant part of the country's arsenal, despite active purchases of military products from Russia and China.

The Economist: the shortage of explosives in the EU will slow down the production of weapons for the Armed Forces

Due to the shortage of explosives, Europe cannot increase the production of shells and missiles for Ukraine, writes The Economist. It will take years to start factories that have been idle since the Cold War. At the same time, imported explosives do not suit weapon manufacturers.