Americas
Ecuador’s foreign minister said the country did not plan to send Soviet-era weapons to Ukraine after the president’s vow to do so sparked a spat with Moscow over banana and flower exports. “Ecuador will not send any war material to a country that is involved in an international armed conflict,” Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld told a congressional committee. President Daniel Noboa announced last month that Quito had agreed to exchange Russian military equipment that had become “scrap metal” for new US weapons worth around $200 million.
Lockheed Martin will increase its annual production of HIMARS rocket launching systems by over 60 percent to 96 by the end of this year. Multiple conflicts across the world, including a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, are driving the platform’s demand. It produced 60 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in 2023, a hike of 25 percent over the previous year.
Middle East & Africa
The Ghana Air Force hosted an event to promote the A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to the defense minister and other senior officials and officers on February 19. The demonstration was put on by Embraer, the Super Tucano’s designer, and Sierra Nevada Corp (SNC), which produces the aircraft for US Foreign Military Sales customers, at Air Force Base Accra and was live-streamed by the air force via YouTube.
Europe
The Czech Republic could deliver up to 800,000 artillery shells to Ukraine from abroad if partner nations secure financing, President Petr Pavel said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Delivery could start in a “matter of weeks” and include 500,000 155mm and 300,000 120mm rounds.
Italy will add its own, domestically manufactured components to German Leopard tanks it is buying, possibly including the gun barrel, a senior official at Italian firm Leonardo has told Defense News. Italy has inked to buy the tanks to fill a capability gap as the Ukraine conflict raises the profile of land war, and aims to assemble the Leopards at a Leonardo assembly line in La Spezia, Italy.
Asia-Pacific
China this week unveiled the export version of the signature attack helicopter by the People’s Liberation Army at the Singapore Airshow here. Though China has participated in the biennial airshow in previous years, this marks the first time Chinese state-owned companies displayed a military aircraft in an airshow outside the country. China unveiled the Z-10ME at Airshow China 2021; some analysts have since compared it to Boeing’s AH-64 Apache.
