Russo-Ukrainian War
fromwww.dw.com
9 minutes agoUkraine: 3 killed in Odesa, Kyiv targets Russian oil exports
Russian drone attacks on Odesa killed three and injured 15, targeting residential buildings and critical infrastructure.
"To accelerate current weapons development timelines, DARPA is considering an alternative development paradigm to increase the nation's magazine depth and breadth."
Ukrainian forces struck a major industrial site deep inside Russia's Udmurt region, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Saturday. The attack was confirmed by local officials. "One of the republics facilities was attacked by drones" launched by Ukraine, regional head Alexander Brechalov said in a Telegram post. The Ukrainian military said it used domestically produced Flamingo missiles to hit the plant, located about 1,400 kilometers (800 miles) from Ukraine.
Russia often mixes up how it attacks Ukraine with ballistic and cruise missiles - from firing decoys to tweaking trajectories midflight - and Kyiv says it's funneling that battlefield intel to US Patriot interceptor makers to inform upgrades for better performance. "They are trying to use different tactics and make some adjustments for their ballistic missiles," Yehor Cherniev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on national security, defense, and intelligence, said of the Russian strikes.
The Oreshnik, a medium-range (non-intercontinental) ballistic missile that flies at hypersonic speed and is designed for nuclear warfare scenarios, has been deployed again by Russia in its latest offensive against Ukraine. The missile reaches a suborbital altitude and can carry up to six warheads, either nuclear or conventional. Its high speed and the very short time frame for attack make it extremely difficult for air defense systems to intercept.
Swedish defense prime Saab is exploring the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System as a cheaper armament option for its JAS 39 Gripen fighters, firm executives told Business Insider this week. "The APKWS is in interest because other platforms are now integrating 70mm guided rockets. So we are, of course, eyeing that capability now," Jussi Halmetoja, operations advisor for Saab's air domain, said at the Singapore Airshow. Halmetoja said the company was looking at ways to integrate the weapons system, which uses a guided version of the Hydra 70mm rocket, onto its older Gripen C and latest Gripen E models.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
With the fight evolving quickly, arms companies in Ukraine and Europe say that they can't afford to start from scratch and completely redesign entire systems each time conditions shift. Instead, companies making aerial drones and ground robots told Business Insider that their focus is now on creating weapons that can be upgraded by simply changing parts or software rather than overhauling the whole system. Designs are modular, like Lego pieces, with parts being easily swapped out as new mission demands arise.
North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia are still causing problems for Ukrainian forces more than a year after they were first deployed in support of Moscow's war. The North Korean soldiers who were deployed to Russia's Kursk region to thwart a Ukrainian incursion were initially tasked with brutal infantry assaults that resulted in high casualties. Their role has since shifted to drone reconnaissance and artillery operations.
Two people have been killed and dozens injured in overnight Russian drone attacks across Ukraine, where strikes on energy infrastructure have caused power outages in freezing temperatures, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In a social media post on Sunday, Zelenskyy said the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions were targeted in an attack that included more than 200 drones.
There was a certain amount of awareness, there was kind of a frustration with the missions that we were being called on to carry out, the people flying the missions, they knew that we were kind of wasting drones. For militaries that have the luxury of time and maybe the luxury of money, I think moving into sort of something a little bit more sophisticated makes more sense.