URGENT – Former Pentagon chief Mark Esper is in Taiwan

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MALI – Yesterday evening around 07:00pm Moscow time, a few hours after the Wagner private jet crash, a "Ministry for Emergency Situations" Il-76 (reg. RA-76841) took off from Zhukovsky Airport to Damascus, Syria (2h stopover), until the flight continued & just arrived in Bamako.

🔗 Fabian

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The Taiwan Cabinet has approved a total defense budget for 2024 of NT$606.8 billion ($19.1 billion), which is 2.5% of the country's GDP.

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Norway will be the third country to donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. This is
reported by the channel TV2.

Earlier, Denmark and the Netherlands promised to transfer aircraft to Ukraine.

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BREAKING – BELARUS – The Wagner PMC camp near Osipovichi is being dismantled.
Developing story...

🔗 Full Story – Link

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Norway will donate IRIS-T A2A missiles to Ukraine for use in the IRIS-T SLS TEL's that Germany has donated.

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The U.S. has approved a US$500 million F-16 support package for Taiwan. The deal includes search and tracking systems to help protect the aircraft.

🔗 TaiwanPlus

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The United States believes that the military equipment supplied to Kyiv is sufficient for a counteroffensive, such volumes of assistance are hardly worth waiting for in 2024, writes the American newspaper Wall Street Journal.

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BREAKING – The Pentagon plans to start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets in the United States in September - NYT with reference to an unnamed American official.

According to the newspaper, the US has changed its approach and decided to join the training of pilots.

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UPDATE – The U.S. in October at a military base in Arizona will begin to train Ukrainian pilots to pilot the F-16, before that they will take an English course, the Pentagon reports.

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BREAKING – US Air Force F-35s & F-16s have arrived in Finland to integrate with Arctic and Baltic Allies in exercise Astral Knight 23.

The aim of the exercise is to enable Allied Forces to operate from a greater number of locations.

🔗 Forces News

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NEW – US approves small-scale production of AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel A4 air defense radars

The radar is capable of simultaneously detecting and tracking cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, artillery and mortar shells.

Initially, 19 radars will be produced and will undergo initial operational testing and evaluation in 2025.

By 2027, the US Army plans to purchase 240 radars.

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JAPAN – From August 21st to 25th, the Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer Maya conducted a Japan-U.S. joint exercise with the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan from the east of Okinawa to the south of the Kanto region, amid highest tensions with China.

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SOUTH KOREA – S. Korean & U.S. Navy special commandos held joint drills at an American military base south of Seoul on Friday to beef up their combat readiness amid highest tensions with China and North Korea.

The exercise took place at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 65 kilometers south of the capital, as part of field drills during the allies' ongoing annual exercise, called the Ulchi Freedom Shield — Yonhap 📰

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JAPAN – From August 20 to 25, one Russian Navy Vishnya-class intelligence gathering ship sailed southward through the waters including the contiguous zone from off Sanriku to off the Boso Peninsula, then left the contiguous zone south of Inubozaki and proceeded southwest. Confirmed. The Ministry of Defense and the Self-Defense Forces will continue to conduct warning surveillance and information gathering.

🔗 Japan Ministry of Defense

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