Tag: dn-dnr

  • Pentagon chief Austin announces $1 billion in long-term Ukraine aid

    Pentagon chief Austin announces $1 billion in long-term Ukraine aid

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    SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The U.S. is sending Ukraine another $1 billion in long-term security aid, nearly half of the budget left in the Pentagon’s account.

    This $988 million package will come from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, through which the U.S. buys new equipment for Ukraine rather than shipping kit directly from American stocks. As of last week, the U.S. had just over $2 billion left in the fund.

    The latest round will go toward rocket munitions, drones and equipment needed to repair weapons within Ukraine.

    “America and our friends have become the arsenal of Ukrainian democracy,” said U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

    Austin announced the package at the Reagan National Defense Forum, a national security talkfest in California he’s attended all four years in office. During his speech, he defended the Biden Pentagon’s legacy, which has in large part been defined by its support for Ukraine.

    After Russia’s 2022 invasion, Austin helped form a group of countries that coordinates assistance to Kyiv. America has since sent more than $62 billion in security aid, alongside $57 billion more from its partners.

    Such support is coming at increased cost for Russia. Austin said that its military has suffered 700,000 casualties, a number that is accelerating even as Moscow continues to make slight gains in Ukraine’s east.

    Multiple European political and defense officials — from Sweden to Lithuania — are with Austin at the forum making the case for continued aid to lawmakers and people who will staff the incoming Trump administration.

    Austin referenced the uncertainty around this transition in his remarks. The president-elect has urged an end to the war in Ukraine, though without committing to an outcome.

    “We can continue to stand up to the Kremlin, or we can let Putin have his way — and condemn our children and grandchildren to live in a world of chaos and conflict,” Austin said.

    “This administration has made its choice, and so has a bipartisan coalition in Congress,” he added. “The next administration must make its own choice.”

    Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.

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  • Defense tech firms establish AI-focused consortium

    Defense tech firms establish AI-focused consortium

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    Palantir and Anduril, two leading defense technology firms, announced today they’re creating an industry consortium to address what they see as hurtles impeding the Defense Department’s adoption of AI.

    “Our goal is to deliver the technological infrastructure, from the edge to the enterprise, that can enable our government and industry partners to transform America’s world-leading AI advancements into next-generation military and national security capabilities,” the companies said Friday in joint statement.

    Both firms are key players in the Pentagon’s AI and software ecosystem. Palantir builds platforms to analyze and distill data and Anduril develops a range of advanced hardware and software systems largely centered on autonomy and AI.

    The companies are teamed on the Army’s Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node program, an integrated, AI-defined targeting system set to begin fielding over the next two years.

    Palantir also provides the core software enabling the Army’s data platform that supports leaders across the force to provide overall visibility and support rapid decision-making — a contract it’s had since 2017. The Army uses it for unit readiness, managing combat power, logistics and installations and even recruiting.

    Anduril, meanwhile, is providing hardware and software for the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, which aims to field thousands of small, networked drones by next August.

    For this new partnership, the companies will build on existing product lines, including Palantir’s AI Platform, AIP, and Anduril’s Menace, a software-defined command and control system.

    The goal is to address two key problems they see as inhibiting the U.S. military’s adoption of AI: data readiness and the lack of a secure pipeline for scaling industry’s AI models.

    To get after the second problem, the team plans to use AIP to deliver a cloud-based data management capability that can deliver AI data at all classification levels. They also plan to combine Palantir’s Maven Smart System with Anduril’s Lattice software to provide “a seamless operational capability” for developing and fielding new AI tools across the defense enterprise.

    “This platform is already in place and in use by Anduril and Palantir for their own corporate purposes, and with government contracts that enables this work to begin immediately,” the companies said.

    The plan is ultimately to grow the partnership to include more firms.

    News of the consortium comes amid announcements of several other industry collaborations involving the two companies. Anduril said Thursday it would team with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to use AI algorithms to improve the military’s counter-drone capabilities.

    And Palantir announced today it is joining forces with Booz Allen Hamilton to advance defense innovation among U.S. allies. That partnership focuses on modernizing defense infrastructure and using data-centric tools to improve collaboration among partner nations.

    Maintaining tech competition

    Two U.S. senators this week, meanwhile, introduced legislation that calls for the Defense Department to implement guardrails to maintain competition for major technology development programs.

    The bill — championed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, and Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. — targets DOD’s AI and cloud computing programs, portfolios that it says are dominated by a handful of Silicon Valley companies.

    “Right now, all of our eggs are in one giant Silicon Valley basket. That doesn’t only stifle innovation, but it’s more expensive and it seriously increases our security risks,” Warren said in a statement. “Our new bill will make sure that as the Department of Defense keeps expanding its use of AI and cloud computing tools, it’s making good deals that will keep our information secure and our government resilient.”

    Specific provisions in the bill include a requirement that DOD conduct an open competition for any AI or data integration programs with annual contracts worth at least $50 million.

    It would also direct the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office to ensure that any government data used to build or operate the military AI tools be secured and protected — particularly if it’s being stored alongside vendor data.

    Land warfare reporter Jen Judson contributed to this story.

    Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.

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  • BAE wins $2.5B deal to supply more CV90 vehicles to Denmark, Sweden

    BAE wins $2.5B deal to supply more CV90 vehicles to Denmark, Sweden

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    BAE Systems has won a new $2.5 billion contract to build more CV90 combat vehicles for Denmark and Sweden, the company announced Friday.

    Denmark has ordered 115 new CV9035 MkIIICs, and Sweden is acquiring 50 new vehicles.

    The deal also includes financing more vehicles bound for Ukraine. Sweden has already sent 50 CV90s to the country as it continues to stave off Russian forces. The two countries together, a year ago, announced plans to send more CV90s to Ukraine.

    The Netherlands has also contributed funds to send CV90s to Ukraine with the first of its Dutch-built combat vehicles planned to reach the country in 2026.

    Denmark’s order more than triples its current CV90 inventory of 40 vehicles, bringing the total to 155.

    “The infantry fighting vehicle is an essential component of the heavy brigade we are currently building. The 115 new vehicles will significantly enhance Denmark’s contribution to collective security and international operations,” Maj. Gen. Peter Boysen, chief of the Royal Danish Army, said in the statement.

    The CV90 variant on order is built using the same standard as the latest CV90 upgrades for the Netherlands, BAE noted in the statement, which comes with a new turret, providing “a leap forward in design and functionality.”

    BAE has built a total of 1,900 vehicles with 17 variants for 10 European countries, eight of which are NATO members.

    Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

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  • Pentagon green-lights counter-drone strategy amid ‘urgent’ threat

    Pentagon green-lights counter-drone strategy amid ‘urgent’ threat

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    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed off on a classified strategy Monday for countering drone threats in an effort to unify the military’s approach to protecting its facilities and personnel from weaponized unmanned aerial systems.

    “Unmanned systems pose both an urgent and enduring threat to U.S. personnel, facilities, and assets overseas,” the Pentagon said in a statement Thursday announcing the strategy. “By producing a singular Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems, the Secretary and the Department are orienting around a common understanding of the challenge and a shared approach to addressing it.”

    One-way aerial drone attacks have spiked in recent years, and the Pentagon has grown increasingly concerned by the threats they pose to the U.S. and its allies. For more than a year, Iran-backed Houthi rebel groups have been using small unmanned aerial systems, or UAS, to target ships in the Red Sea, and killer drones have featured heavily in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    DOD officials have said the department is taking a layered approach to defending against enemy drones, meaning the U.S. will pursue a range of capabilities to disable these systems, from electronic warfare to kinetic weapons. The military services have a number of ongoing programs to develop and field this technology.

    Austin’s strategy is aligned with these and other high-level DOD efforts, including those led by the Joint Counter-Small UAS office, which was established in 2019 to coordinate counter-UAS development, tactics and training across the military services.

    The strategy also closely follows the second phase of Replicator, which is focused on rapidly fielding off-the-shelf counter-drone technology. Austin, who announced Replicator 2 in September, said the Pentagon plans to request funding in fiscal 2026 and set a two-year timeline for delivering “meaningfully improved” counter-UAS systems.

    An unclassified fact sheet released Thursday sheds some light on the department’s strategy, laying out five lines of effort it plans to pursue. These include: improving its ability to detect, track and characterize counter-drone threats; launching focused campaigns to counter “threat networks”; making counter-drone defense a core piece of its doctrine, training and policy; quickly fielding counter-UAS technology and prioritizing funding for these capabilities; and placing a greater emphasis on countering unmanned systems in its force development and design efforts.

    The strategy emphasizes the need for partnerships with Congress, defense and commercial industries and allies. It also pledges to create clear metrics to track its progress, though it’s unclear if those details will be publicly released.

    “This strategy marks a critical next step in the Department of Defense’s efforts to counter unmanned systems, but much work lies ahead,” the fact sheet states. “Although the rapidly evolving nature of the threats posed by adversary use of unmanned systems means that the department will need to continually reassess our efforts, this strategy sets a foundation for action to meet this challenge.”

    Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.

    Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.

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  • Safran plans significant US expansion of defense and space business

    Safran plans significant US expansion of defense and space business

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    French technology company Safran is significantly expanding its defense and space business in the United States, including investments in manufacturing across several states.

    Newly branded Safran Defense & Space Inc. will focus on bringing its high-tech solutions in satellite propulsion and communication, geospatial artificial intelligence and GPS-denied navigation to the U.S. in a more robust way, Joe Bogosian, Safran president and CEO, told Defense News in a recent interview.

    Safran is also well known for its best-selling commercial jet engine it developed in a joint venture with General Electric.

    While the company’s technology has been integrated into many U.S.-based weapon systems, such as the commander’s site on the Army’s new M10 Booker armored fighting vehicle, Bogosian said, the U.S. expansion will enable even better collaboration with the U.S. military and defense industry and foster continued innovation with American engineers and developers.

    “I think it meshes well with kind of a new thinking in the U.S.,” Bogosian said.

    “What is the best available technology or the asymmetric warfare to give our guys an unfair advantage? If that unfair advantage comes with a technology that’s five years ahead of its time compared to anything else in the U.S. and just happens to come from France, we can bring it from France,” he said, “and we can put it here and put further design, further engineering and manufacturing, all in the U.S. and you start to morph that technology into a U.S. variety.”

    The company will soon open its new headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Colocated at the headquarters will be the company’s new geospatial artificial intelligence business grown from a recently purchased French AI company with the ability to crunch a massive amount of data very quickly.

    The newly acquired technology surprised everyone in the room during a demonstration for Special Operations Command in Florida meant to show how the technology can rapidly count cars and boats in an area. It suddenly flagged the presence of a Russian MiG fighter jet, according to Bogosian. The system was not mistaken; it turned out there was a MiG on display outside of an aviation museum in Miami.

    Expansions to current Safran facilities include its electro-optics and infrared systems facility in Bedford, New Hampshire, and the Safran Federal Systems facility for Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing in Rochester, New York.

    The company is also setting up its newest facility for small satellite propulsion in Denver, Colorado. Once established, Bogosian sees the potential for expansion beyond producing plasma propulsion systems for satellites to include other capabilities, such as Safran’s Hemispherical Resonator Gyroscope, which has been tested by the U.S. military.

    “We feel the demand for HRG is going to double, and so clearly, it just opens the door for another capability to be brought into the U.S.,” he said.

    Additional investment will be made in testing and telemetry operations in Norcross, Georgia.

    Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

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  • Anduril, OpenAI partner to boost counter-drone tech for bases, troops

    Anduril, OpenAI partner to boost counter-drone tech for bases, troops

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    Defense technology firm Anduril Industries announced this week it will partner with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to use the company’s artificial intelligence models to improve the U.S. military’s ability to protect its bases and personnel from drone attacks.

    “Anduril and OpenAI will explore how leading edge AI models can be leveraged to rapidly synthesize time-sensitive data, reduce the burden on human operators and improve situational awareness,” Anduril said in a statement Wednesday. “These models, which will be trained on Anduril’s industry-leading library of data on CUAS threats and operations, will help protect U.S. and allied military personnel and ensure mission success.”

    The companies did not disclose whether there is funding attached to the agreement, which continues a recent trend of large AI firms partnering with the defense industry. In November, Anthropic and Palantir announced they would work with Amazon Web Services to sell Anthropic’s AI models to defense and intelligence agencies.

    The partnership comes amid growing concerns about weaponized drones, which have been used against U.S. and allied forces in the Middle East and Ukraine.

    In June, the Defense Intelligence Agency reported that a slew of attacks by Iran-backed groups on shipping vessels in the Red Sea affected 65 countries and 29 major energy and shipping firms.

    The Pentagon is working to push cutting-edge counter-drone technology to the military services through the second phase of its Replicator program, created to bypass the sluggish acquisition processes that keep the Defense Department from adopting and scaling technology.

    Anduril is on contract to provide hardware and software for the first iteration of Replicator, which is on track to field thousands of small drones by next summer. The firm also announced a $250 million contract to deliver 500 of its Roadrunner counter drone systems to an unnamed Defense Department customer.

    And earlier this week, the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office awarded Anduril a $100 million contract to increase production of its Lattice Mesh networking capability. The Defense Department is already using the data distribution platform at a small scale, but the three-year CDAO contract will make it available to all services and combatant commands.

    Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.

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  • Anduril, OpenAI partner to boost counter-drone tech for bases, troops

    Anduril, OpenAI partner to boost counter-drone tech for bases, troops

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    Defense technology firm Anduril Industries announced this week it will partner with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to use the company’s artificial intelligence models to improve the U.S. military’s ability to protect its bases and personnel from drone attacks.

    “Anduril and OpenAI will explore how leading edge AI models can be leveraged to rapidly synthesize time-sensitive data, reduce the burden on human operators and improve situational awareness,” Anduril said in a statement Wednesday. “These models, which will be trained on Anduril’s industry-leading library of data on CUAS threats and operations, will help protect U.S. and allied military personnel and ensure mission success.”

    The companies did not disclose whether there is funding attached to the agreement, which continues a recent trend of large AI firms partnering with the defense industry. In November, Anthropic and Palantir announced they would work with Amazon Web Services to sell Anthropic’s AI models to defense and intelligence agencies.

    The partnership comes amid growing concerns about weaponized drones, which have been used against U.S. and allied forces in the Middle East and Ukraine.

    In June, the Defense Intelligence Agency reported that a slew of attacks by Iran-backed groups on shipping vessels in the Red Sea affected 65 countries and 29 major energy and shipping firms.

    The Pentagon is working to push cutting-edge counter-drone technology to the military services through the second phase of its Replicator program, created to bypass the sluggish acquisition processes that keep the Defense Department from adopting and scaling technology.

    Anduril is on contract to provide hardware and software for the first iteration of Replicator, which is on track to field thousands of small drones by next summer. The firm also announced a $250 million contract to deliver 500 of its Roadrunner counter drone systems to an unnamed Defense Department customer.

    And earlier this week, the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Office awarded Anduril a $100 million contract to increase production of its Lattice Mesh networking capability. The Defense Department is already using the data distribution platform at a small scale, but the three-year CDAO contract will make it available to all services and combatant commands.

    Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.

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  • Record share of Americans support higher defense spending

    Record share of Americans support higher defense spending

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    A record share of Americans support higher defense spending, according to the annual Reagan National Defense Survey released Thursday.

    Just under 80% of respondents said they would prefer a larger military budget, with 49% saying they are strongly in favor of one. The 79% share is two points higher than last year’s survey, as a super majority often expresses support on the question. It also outpaces some of America’s other foreign policy priorities, such as aid (43%) and “promoting freedom abroad” (61%).

    Still, spending more on domestic goals such as Social Security (89%), health care (84%) and infrastructure (89%) were all more popular — a growing tradeoff as America’s entitlement programs threaten to squeeze the defense budget by the end of the decade.

    The Ronald Reagan Institute has surveyed U.S. public opinion on national security for the last six years, and the latest poll was conducted two days after the November presidential election. Rather than focus on voters specifically, the survey included a representative sample of around 2,500 Americans.

    National security is often one of the least prioritized issues among voters during an election, but the last year has been an exception. Both major candidates presented vastly different ideas of America’s proper place in the world, and many voters were dissatisfied with the Biden administration’s policy around Israel, which for the last year has fought separate wars in Gaza and, more recently, Lebanon.

    Overall, public trust in the military ticked up after a multiyear fall, though it’s still nearly 20 points below the 70% high recorded in 2018.

    A majority of respondents supported continuing U.S. security aid to Ukraine (55%) and Israel (54%), and a plurality (41%) said the U.S. military should be “large enough to win separate wars against China and Russia at the same time,” a larger force than envisioned today.

    “We certainly saw that reflected in President [Donald] Trump’s rhetoric in this campaign, channeling ‘peace through strength’ as a core driving ideology. What we see in the survey is that message is is resonating with the American people,” said Rachel Hoff, the Reagan Institute’s policy director.

    That said, Trump hasn’t defined what “peace” or “strength” means to him. Defense spending rose during his first term in office, but the president-elect’s opinions on defense spending don’t fit neatly into any wing of the Republican party’s foreign policy community — leaving different groups to jostle for influence.

    Those factions are mainly split into three camps. Traditional defense hawks advocate for greater military spending and an increased American military presence around the world. Prioritizers and restrainers, on the other hand, would prefer to pick and choose what crises to put first or do less altogether.

    Of the three, those calling for America to shift resources away from Europe and toward Asia have the least public support. Indeed, 88% of the Republicans responding to the survey said that defense spending should rise.

    “The prioritizers are not reflective of what Republican voters prefer for their foreign policy,” said Thomas Kenna, also of the Reagan Institute. “Republicans want us to have a military big enough to handle both China and Russia at the same time.”

    The full survey results are available at the Ronald Reagan Institute’s website.

    Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.

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  • Army eyes autonomous missile launcher and 1,000-kilometer strikes

    Army eyes autonomous missile launcher and 1,000-kilometer strikes

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    Update: This article has been revised to include the scheduled start of increment 5 for the Precision Strike Missile.

    The Army’s next step in expanding the distance and survivability of its land-based rockets could see a missile delivered from an autonomous launcher to strike targets farther than 1,000 kilometers away.

    On Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Winston Brooks, commander of the Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Brig. Gen. Rory Crooks, director of the Cross Functional Team-Long Range Precision Fires, discussed future work on “Increment 5″ of the Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM.

    If successful, the project would give even low-level tactical units the ability to conduct what are known as “strategic deep fires,” which range beyond 500 kilometers, according to Army data.

    RELATED

    Defense News reported that in November the Army conducted its first two PrSM salvo tests at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The testing involved firing the two missiles in rapid succession.

    Testers used the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, launcher.

    In his remarks Tuesday, Crooks cautioned that while there is much potential for developing the fires platform with the autonomous launcher, there isn’t yet a timeline for fully developing and fielding that technology.

    But the missile is slated to enter its science and technology phase in October 2025.

    Currently, the missile is limited by its platform. The M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, or MLRS pod, is 13 feet long.

    Crooks noted that because the autonomous platform doesn’t need a cab for a human driver, there could be a chance to put a longer missile on the frame at some point.

    The PrSM program seeks to replace legacy systems such as the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, the same weapon used by Ukrainian forces for the first time in October 2023 to strike Russian targets.

    The U.S. missiles used by Ukrainians had shorter maximum distances than those used by the U.S. Army, limiting them to less than 300 kilometers, Military Times previously reported. The same system has been used more recently for deeper strikes into Russian territory.

    The Increment 1 versions of the PrSM are being fielded now by Lockheed Martin. Those missiles have a range of at least 500 kilometers, according to the company.

    Increment 2 is a land-based, anti-ship seeker; Increment 3 will add lethal payload options; and the Increment 4 project is seeking to push existing ranges beyond 1,000 kilometers.

    Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.

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  • Italy’s small defense firms ride high amid military spending boon

    Italy’s small defense firms ride high amid military spending boon

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    ROME — Italy’s small, family-owned defense companies are more profitable and are growing faster than the country’s massive state-run firms or the foreign players in the Italian market, a new report has revealed.

    Family-run firms have long been the backbone of Italian capitalism, pushing the country to become the eighth biggest manufacturing power in the world, and the report by Italy’s Mediobanca shows they are outperforming in the defense sector.

    While accounting for a relatively small chunk of Italy’s defense industry – €6.3 billion ($6.6 billion), or 15.6 percent of sector revenue – medium-sized family firms boasted an Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) margin last year of 12.2 percent, almost double the national average of 6.2 percent, the report said.

    Top of the table for EBIT margin, which is a measure of profitability, was small cyber firm DEAS – Difesa e Analisi Sistemi, with a margin of 54 percent.

    Boasting a margin of 44.5 percent, second place was taken by GEM Elettronica, a family-controlled company which has operated in the naval electronics sector since 1977 and became the exception that proves the rule when it was taken over by defense giant Leonardo in September.

    “Italian family-owned medium-sized enterprises outperformed all the other categories, on the back of their leaner and more flexible operating structures,” the authors of the report claimed.

    Family firms also outperformed state firms and foreign-owned firms when it came to growth, notching up 29.2 percent growth in 2023.

    “They have bigger margins of growth and by forming part of the supply chain for the bigger firms they allow those firms to have greater flexibility,” said Carlo Festucci, the general secretary of Italian defense industry association AIAD.

    “The big firms meanwhile help them secure financing from banks,” he added.

    Small firms apart, the Mediobanca report revealed a series of other illuminating stats about the Italian defense industry, including how 36 of the top 100 firms in Italy are foreign owned and make up 25.1 percent of turnover in the sector, while the big, state-owned firms like Leonardo and shipyard Fincantieri contribute 59.3 percent of turnover.

    Italy’s top 100 firms are dual use, in that they handle both civil and defense contracts, with only 49 percent of their total €40.7 billion turnover specifically derived from defense contracts – approximately €20 billion.

    That figure was up 6.6 percent on 2022 the report noted.

    Of the 181,000 employed by the firms, 54,000 are exclusively involved in defense work, it added.

    Leonardo generates 75 percent of its turnover from defense while for Fincantieri the figure is 27 percent.

    Licenses issued for arms imports by Italy in 2023 totaled €1.25 billion, 40.5 percent of which came from the United States, while licenses for exports reached €6 billion, with France the chief destination on €465.4 million followed by Ukraine on €417 million then the United States on €390 million.

    Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

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