|
On Tuesday, August 22, it was reported that Iran’s Defense Ministry unveiled a drone on resembling America’s armed MQ-9 Reaper, claiming that the aircraft is capable of staying airborne for 24 hours and has the range to reach the country’s archenemy Israel. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency published a photograph of the drone, called the Mohajer-10, on display at a conference marking Defense Industry Day with what appeared to be smoke-machine fog underneath it. “Mohajer” means “immigrant” in Farsi and has been a drone line manufactured by the Islamic Republic since 1985.
On Wednesday, August 23, it was reported that Lithuania will deliver the previously pledged NASAMS launchers to Ukraine in September, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said during his visit to Kyiv. "Today in Kyiv I told my dear friend President (Volodymyr Zelensky) that Lithuania will keep supporting Ukraine until victory," Nausėda wrote on the platform X (formerly known as Twitter). "Lithuania will deliver NASAMS launchers to Ukraine next month." On June 28, Nausėda announced that Lithuania has acquired two NASAMS launchers and will soon transfer them to Ukraine. The Lithuanian Defense Ministry said early in August that the launchers would be delivered "soon."
Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Army has approved the Sentinel A4 radar program, critical to the service’s future air defense capability, to move into low-rate initial production, the program executive officer for missiles and space said. Now that the Lockheed Martin-developed Sentinel A4 is approved, with a total of 19 systems scheduled for delivery by fiscal 2025, the Army is preparing for an initial operational test and evaluation during the same time frame, Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano told Defense News in an Aug. 22 interview.
On Thursday, August 24, North Korea said that its second attempt to launch a spy satellite failed again but vowed to make another attempt in October, demonstrating willingness to endure flops to acquire a key military asset coveted by leader Kim Jong Un. The failed launch prompted neighboring Japan to issue a brief "J-alert" ordering some residents to evacuate to safe places as the North Korean rocket flew over its southernmost islands of Okinawa to the Pacific Ocean.
Click here to read all of this week's headlines.
| 
