An F-35B Jet takes off from the UK carrier HMS Prince of Wales. Photo: UK Ministry of Defence The Royal Navy is coming Down Under – and it’s bringing some European friends as part of Operation Highmast. Highmast is a UK-led NATO carrier strike group that will spend eight months at sea and will come…
The Royal Danish Navy frigate Triton passes an iceberg around Greenland in 2023. Photo: NATO NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte says Europe’s defence industry is playing catch-up to Russia in a dangerous new age of global competition. His concerns were spelt out during a recent visit to Slovakia to meet with President Peter Pellegrini, talk to…
A Norwegian Leopard tank takes part in a gunnery training competition in Latvia last year. Photo: NATO NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is a man on a mission – get Europe to spend more on defence. A great deal more. And he believes the new hawkish US government is giving him the ammunition he needs to…
The HMS Somerset (right) watches two Russian naval vessels sail past the British Isles on December 27, 2024. A Russian force was encountered in the North Sea and watched as it passed through the Dover Strait into the English Channel. Photo: UK MoD. A UK-led detection system is tracking Russia’s shadow oil tanker fleet in…
Two Challenger 2 anti-tank battle tanks fire tracer rounds at dusk. Photo: UK Ministry of Defence 2024 MORE than 2500 UK troops will spearhead a major NATO exercise in eastern Europe in the next two months even as Donald Trump is inaugurated as the next US President. The UK will deploy over 2600 troops and…
A Finnish patrol vessel. The coast guard has seized an oil tanker and is interviewing the crew. Photo: Finnish Border Guard NATO is to boost its military presence in the Baltic Sea to protect undersea cables after Finland seized a ship suspected of damaging cables linking Finland and Estonia on December 25. A NATO statement…
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (right) with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda in Brussels. Lithuania is to spend up to 3.5 percent of its GDP on defence and also agreed to build an artillery shell manufacturing factory. Photo: NATO EUROPE needs to spend a lot more than 2 per cent of its GDP on defence, NATO…
Ukrainian crews training on Leopard 2 tanks in Zagan, Poland. Photo: NATO EUROPE needs to adopt a wartime mindset — again, NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte says. He was speaking at a conference organised by the Carnegie Europe think-tank in Brussels, home to NATO last week (Thursday local time). “The security situation does not look good. It’s…
Underseas cables linking North America and Europe are part of a network of subsea cables. Photo © US Navy / Joshua Knolla NATO military and civilian experts have met in Brussels today to ramp up co-operation in responding to attacks on undersea cables. A NATO statement says the experts were joined by industry representatives, including…
A Polish Air Force Sokol helicopter lands in a field in southern Poland during 2023 military exercises. Photo: NATO THE US is giving Poland an extra $4 billion in military loans to modernise its military as the European country eyes greater ties with the Indon-Pacific region. The deal raises the total of American loans and…