For review:
1. US CENTCOM X:
27 Feb- Between 2150 & 2255 (local), US aircraft and a Coalition warship shot down 5 x Iranian-backed Houthi one-way attack (OWA) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in the Red Sea.
2. Israel and Hamas continue Hostage-Prisoner negotiations as Ramadan gets closer (10 Mar).
3. Ukraine Considers Inviting Russia to Peace Summit in Switzerland .
4. France Considers Sending Troops to Ukraine? US, Italy, UK, and Germany say no. Spain, Czech Republic, and Poland also against the idea.
5. Ukraine Ambassador (Vasyl Myroshnychenko) visits Australia. Makes appeal for Australia's unused MRH-90 Taipan Helicopters and aging M1 Tanks.
6. Australia to dispose MRH-90 Taipan Helicopter fleet by removing and selling valuable parts- then burying remaining airframes. Controversy ensures at this disposal plan due to conflicts with other option of donating the helicopters to Ukraine for wartime CASEVAC missions.
7. Digging deeper into the above story. Article from Asia-Defence Reporter (Kym Bergmann) that accuses the Australia Army and Government of not wanting to provide the MRH-90 Taipan fleet to Ukraine- " to stop anyone else (Ukraine) from using them. In their minds (Government of Australia & Army), the fate of Ukraine is far less important than covering up for their own incompetence and mismanagement (of not properly employing the Taipan fleet)."
8. Australian Navy to more than double surface fleet- from 11 to 26 warships.
Future surface fleet will feature 9 x Tier 1 destroyers and frigates, 11 x Tier 2 frigates, and 6 x optionally manned vessels.
9. Singapore’ Air Force to buy 8 x F-35A Fighters- adding to the 12 F-35Bs already on order. Singapore will become the 4th Nation to have both F-35 A & B variants- joining US, Japan, & Italy.
10. US Army new Force Structure released.
Snapshot:
Reductions in Brigade Combat Team Engineer Battalions, Cavalry Squadrons, and Heavy Weapons Companies.
Additions in Multi-Domain Task Forces (2); Indirect Fore Protection Capability Battalions, and Counter-UAS Batteries.
Read Defense News Article (Jen Judson) for full rundown.
Or read the Whitepaper:
https://api.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/2024/02/27/091989c9/army-white-paper-army-force-structure-transformation.pdf