Americas
Sentrycs has received a multi-million-dollar award to integrate its counter-unmanned aerial system technologies for an undisclosed Latin American defense customer. Under the effort, the Tel Aviv-based company will provide fixed, portable, and vehicle-mounted versions of its anti-drone kits to address the user’s multi-layer defense requirements against evolving autonomous airborne threats. Part of the countermeasure devices will be used for low-footprint protection across military bases, mobile operations, special forces missions, and VIP security.
In another production qualification trial, the US Army’s Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) has completed a flight test at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Two of the Lockheed Martin-developed weapons were launched in a long-range flight from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to neutralize targets, which included a mock SCUD missile, radar, and rotary wing platforms. This test follows the system’s double salvo performance in November and the first soldier-led limited user test conducted in December last year.
Middle East & Africa
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed on Tuesday that troops remain at five positions in southern Lebanon past a pullout deadline, vowing action against any truce violation by militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli military “will remain in a buffer zone in Lebanon with five control positions, and will continue to act forcefully and uncompromisingly against any Hezbollah violation,” said Katz in a statement shortly after an extended deadline expired for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon under the November 27 truce deal. Israel had announced hours before the pullout deadline that it would keep troops in “five strategic points” near the border.
Europe
The Latvian Ministry of Defense has begun testing the Patria 6×6 armored personnel carrier on public roads ahead of its delivery to the armed forces. The evaluation is part of Riga’s objective to procure up to 200 of the system through 2029 in a deal signed with Finnish developer Patria in 2021. Vehicles being used in the trials had received temporary license plates to “enable full-fledged quality control test drives” outside military proving grounds. Latvia noted that benchmarks that the demonstrations use are based on the government’s special regulatory enactments applied to certify manufacturing before distribution to warfighters.
Asia-Pacific
The Philippine Coast Guard condemned “dangerous” maneuvers by a Chinese Navy helicopter Tuesday as it flew within three meters (10 feet) of a surveillance flight carrying a group of journalists over the contested Scarborough Shoal. An AFP photographer on the flight described seeing the helicopter tail the plane before drawing near the left wing, close enough to see personnel aboard filming them. The helicopter had been “as close as three meters” to the fisheries bureau aircraft, the coast guard said in a statement. The plane had been flying about 213 meters (698 feet) above the water on a mission to observe Chinese vessels in the area.