"Ronald Reagan wanted to do it long ago, but the technology just wasn't there," said Trump.

• A top lawmaker identified the five capabilities he believes the US military needs to innovate in.
• Those areas are missiles, missile defenses, drones, counter-drone systems, and secure comms, Rep. Smith said.
• Special operations forces lead the charge on experimenting with some of those, he added.

There are five critical technologies needed to fight future wars, a top lawmaker on military and defense matters said recently.

Those areas are missiles, missile defenses, drones, counter-drone systems, and secure communications, Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat and the ranking member of the US House Armed Services Committee, said at a recent symposium in Washington, DC. He said these are the areas where the US needs to innovate and develop game-changing capabilities.

Having the best weapons within those areas, he said, is key to winning future wars. The war in Ukraine is showing just how crucial these capabilities are.

Smith pointed out that the development of countermeasures demands a constant cycle of modifying these systems. That's been seen especially in the mass use of electronic warfare to jam drones; in response, both sides of the war have developed ways to evade frequency jamming.

Beyond drones and counter-drone tech, the importance of missiles and missile defense are increasingly hot topics among military leaders as US rivals and adversaries, from Russia and China to Iran and North Korea, invest in missiles.

The US has seen interceptor stocks strained by Iranian bombardments and lower-end threats like the Houthis in Yemen, who terrorized ships in and around the Red Sea. In a great-power conflict, such as a potential war with China in the Indo-Pacific region, air defenses could be more critical to shield naval bases, air bases, and other installations, as well as ships.

The US military is also developing and fielding certain offensive missile capabilities, like the Typhon Mid-Range Capability, which is a land-based launch option for Tomahawk cruise missiles, and hypersonic missile systems.

Likewise, another key development area has been secure communications and assured navigation. Vulnerabilities in these spaces can be costly in a high-end fight.

For the US military, special operations forces can be seen leading the way in innovative iteration. "They're going to iterating on a day-in and day-out basis, and we need to learn from that and expand it," Smith said at the National Defense Industrial Association US Special Operations Symposium.

US special operators testing out uncrewed systems in different environments against different threats, for example, are at the front lines of figuring out what could be needed for a future fight.

They are often among the first to get their hands on new technologies, and they work closely with the defense industry to develop new systems, leading to real-time adaptations and rapid evolutions.

As special operations leadership said at the recent symposium, operators are going to need cheaper, more expendable weapons, like drones, in a potential future fight.

While this doesn't mean that other systems — such as F-35 Joint Strike Fighters or Ford-class aircraft carriers — aren't needed, it does raise questions about where the US Department of Defense's priorities are.

"We are spending a ton of money at DoD right now that isn't in those five things," Smith said.

The Pentagon is reshuffling the Defense Department's budget. It is still a bit murky, with submarines being among the few clearly articulated priorities, but it's moving roughly $50 billion from legacy programs to new priorities, which do appear to include missile defense and drone-related technologies.

Big challenges for the department in fielding new capabilities can be contracting issues and slow acquisition processes.

Military officials and industry partners at the NDIA special operations symposium spoke about the challenges facing the US military's acquisition process, including requirement and funding hurdles that have hindered the adoption of new weapons and capabilities.

Some speakers highlighted the agile and flexible acquisition process used by US special operations forces as a model for how the Department of Defense can better implement new technologies, especially drones and other uncrewed systems. They said that having a process able to produce a variety of systems could be vital in a longer, protracted conflict.

Others noted that a future, high-speed, highly digitized war could be even more demanding with the rise of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. Questions were raised, too, about whether decision-making will occur at such a pace that humans can't keep up. The technological space is evolving fast.

• Ukraine's spy chief said Russia helped North Korea fix a severe accuracy flaw in its KN-23 missiles.
• Often compared to the Iskandar-M, it's a ballistic missile with a range of over 400 miles.
• Budanov cited the KN-23 as an example of how Pyongyang is gaining from its fight against Ukraine.

North Korean KN-23 missiles had an accuracy flaw removed by Russian technicians as they were deployed against Ukraine, said Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's intelligence agency.

Speaking to the South Korean media outlet Chosun Ilbo, Budanov cited the missile as an example of Pyongyang's combat tech receiving major improvements from the active fighting.

"Initially, its accuracy was severely flawed, with an error margin of 500 to 1,500 meters," he said in the interview, published on Monday. "But Russian missile experts made technical modifications, resolving the issue. The missile is now significantly more precise and a far greater threat."

The KN-23 is the missile's US designation, but North Korea has named it the Hwasong-11A. The solid-fueled ballistic missile is believed to have a range of about 430 miles and is often compared to Russia's Iskandar-M, with a typical payload of up to 1,100 pounds.

It's one of North Korea's newer weapons, debuting during a parade in 2018, with a range that would allow it to strike deep into South Korea. In July, Pyongyang said it tested an advanced version of the missile, the Hwasong-11Da-4.5, saying it can carry a 4.5-ton warhead.

The White House said in January 2024 that Russia had fired multiple North Korean short-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine, and it's widely believed that these were the KN-23 and KN-24.

Referencing the strikes, South Korea's ambassador to the United Nations said at the time that North Korea was using Ukraine as "a test site of its nuclear-capable missiles."

During his interview with Chosun Ilbo, Budanov said collaboration between Russia and North Korea was "reaching the highest levels," warning of a heightened threat to Pyongyang's enemies in Asia.

"North Korea is using this war to gain combat experience and modernize its military technology," he told the outlet. "This will have lasting consequences for the security landscape in the Asia-Pacific region."

North Korea's lessons from the war

The West and Seoul have been especially concerned by what they estimate is a deployment of 12,000 North Korean special forces in Kursk.

Western intelligence says about 4,000 of those soldiers have since been wounded or killed. However, Pyongyang's direct involvement has ignited fears that its surviving troops will pick up invaluable combat experience and knowledge of modern war.

Vadym Skibitskyi, the deputy chief of Ukraine's intelligence agency, told Chosun Ilbo that the North Korean troops are learning quickly.

"Their combat effectiveness has improved dramatically, not only with conventional weapons like tanks but also with advanced systems such as drones," Skibitskyi told the outlet.

Pyongyang's soldiers were initially reported to often charge headlong at Ukrainian positions in high-casualty assaults, indicating a force that's primed to aggressively follow orders in the face of death.

In the early days of North Korean troop encounters, Ukrainian sources also said that Pyongyang's troops didn't appear to know that drones could kill them.

But there are some clues that they're adapting.

In January, Ukraine's special forces released what it said were excerpts of a North Korean soldier's diary, one of which described a tactic of sending a soldier into the open to bait drones that could then be gunned down by comrades.

In exchange for his troops and weapons, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is believed to be receiving technical assistance from Russia for his space and arms programs, as well as cash, raw materials, and food.

Their collaboration underscores a budding relationship between Pyongyang and Moscow, as both seek to lean on each other to help weather international sanctions imposed on their economies.

• Russia is experiencing repeated struggles with its new intercontinental ballistic missile.
• Russia used to use Ukrainian expertise to work on that type of missile.
• But Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2014 and its 2022 invasion isolated it from that expertise.

Russia's intercontinental ballistic missile program is in trouble, facing persistent struggles with its new Sarmat missile. And it doesn't help that the country has cut off expertise it once depended on by waging war on its neighbor.

"Historically, a lot of the ICBM manufacturing plants and personnel were based in Ukraine," Timothy Wright, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Business Insider.

Ukrainian expertise

Ukraine became independent when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but its defense industry continued to be intertwined with Russia's. Ukraine has expertise in nuclear and missile technology, as well as manufacturing knowledge.

Russia had been decreasing its reliance but hadn't yet severed critical ties when it attacked Ukraine in 2014, leaving it with gaps that could affect development projects.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has developed capable solid-fueled ICBMs. But with Sarmat, it decided to use a liquid-fueled system.

The problem with that "is that the Russians haven't done this in about 30-plus years," Wright said. "They haven't got any recent experience doing this sort of stuff with land-based ICBMs."

Fabian Hoffmann, a missile expert at the Oslo Nuclear Project, told BI that it was "a bit of a question of 'Have they retained the expertise?' because all the people who built their previous missile have retired or are dead."

"Some of them are in Ukraine, which had a big part in the Russian ICBM program," he said. "So that's a major issue."

Wright described Russia's choice to use liquid-fuel technology as "a really weird choice that they made" because it was "something the Ukrainians previously did for them." He said that was "one of the reasons why they're having lots of problems."

The Sarmat is designed to replace the Soviet-era R-36, which NATO calls the SS-18 "Satan." Its earliest version first entered service in the 1970s and has been modified since.

The company that designed and maintained it, Pivdenmash, known as Yuzhmash in Russia, was in what is now modern-day Ukraine. (Russia appeared to target the Pivdenmash plant in an attack with a new missile type in November.)

Ukraine cut ties

Russia wanted to develop more of this kind of expertise and capability itself. "After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia found itself in a position where essentially it was having to rely on external countries to maintain its existing forces and also then contribute to the development of other ones," Wright said.

But doing so was a challenge that took time. "So they continued working with Ukrainians up until 2014," he said.

In March 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea region, claiming it as part of Russia despite international outcry, and ignited conflict in Ukraine's east that continued until Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In response to Russia's actions in Crimea, "the Ukrainians pretty much terminated all contracts around the maintenance of ICBMs at that point — so that's where the big cutoff happens," Wright said.

The collapse in cooperation between Ukraine and Russia "accelerated" Russia's efforts to replace the R-36 so it wouldn't rely on Ukraine as much, Maxim Starchak, an expert on Russian nuclear policy and weaponry, wrote in a 2023 analysis.

"All cooperation with Ukrainian contractors ceased," and the responsibility for maintaining the R-36s went to Russia's Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau, Starchak said, adding: "But this was a stopgap solution. Launches ceased, with missiles and warheads simply undergoing annual checks."

Ukraine banned military cooperation with Russia and stopped supplying Russia with any military components in June 2014. That left Russia without much of the expertise it wanted for Sarmat.

Neither of the two strategic-missile developers in Russia — the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau nor the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology — have recent experience developing a liquid-fueled ICBM, Wright said.

Ukraine also made other ICBM components, such as guidance systems and security protocols to prevent the unauthorized detonation of a nuclear device.

Russian military experts had predicted that Ukraine pulling its cooperation with Russia would completely collapse Ukraine's defense industry. And while it did suffer, that industry is now thriving, with homegrown defense companies and major Western manufacturers all working in the country in response to Russia's invasion.

Russia still has many missiles that are hitting Ukraine and pose a big threat to Europe, and it has recently ramped up its missile production. But Russia's aggressive actions in Ukraine appear to have continued to harm its missile program. Roscosmos, a Russian space agency that also makes missiles, said last year that canceled international contracts had cost it almost $2.1 billion.

Many countries have put sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion, and the sustained military effort is also hammering Russia's economy. Hoffmann described Russia as having "really restricted monetary means" to fix its missile problems.

Sarmat's problems

Russia's RS-28 Sarmat ICBM seemed to have suffered a catastrophic failure during a September test, appearing to have blown up. Satellite pictures showed a massive crater around the launchpad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a spaceport in northwestern Russia.

That apparent failure followed what missile experts said were multiple other problems. The powerful missile's ejection tests and its flight testing have both been repeatedly delayed, and it previously had at least two canceled flight tests and at least one other flight test failure, according to the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.

Russia has poured a lot of money and propaganda into the Sarmat missiles. President Vladimir Putin in 2018 bragged that "missile defense systems are useless against them, absolutely pointless" and that "no other country has developed anything like this."

But it doesn't work right. With the setbacks facing the Sarmat and no other replacement, the R-36 keeps having its life extended. Wright said the missile was "already really, really past its service life." And sooner or later, things are going to fall apart.

Hoffmann said Sarmat's struggle "obviously is proof of the fact that whatever expertise there is in Russia right now, it's not enough to complete this program in a satisfactory way."

• Russia is struggling to get its new intercontinental ballistic missile working properly.
• Moscow has put a lot of money and propaganda behind the ICBM.
• Failures leave Russia reliant on older missiles that won't last forever, experts warn.

Russia has the world's largest nuclear arsenal, but it's having trouble getting its newest intercontinental ballistic missile to work. The debacle leaves it dependent on capable but inferior missiles at a time when other major powers are modernizing their nuclear forces.

Russia's new RS-28 Sarmat ICBM appeared to suffer a catastrophic failure during testing in September, with satellite imagery showing a big crater around the launchpad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

That apparent failure followed what missile experts have described as a host of other issues. Ejection tests and its flight testing were repeatedly delayed, according to the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, and it had at least two canceled flight tests and at least one other flight test failure.

The Sarmat is meant to replace the Soviet-era R-36, which first entered service in 1988. NATO calls the long-range missile, which has been modified over the years, the SS-18 "Satan." Without the new Sarmat, Russia has to rely on older missiles, extending their lives, but that can't go on indefinitely.

Stuck with inferior missiles

Delays to the Sarmat, or even its cancellation, would mean Russia has to keep using older systems as nations like China field new DF-41 ICBMs and the US pushes forward with upgrades for its ICBM force as part of the Sentinel program.

The R-36 is "already really, really past its service life," said Timothy Wright, a missile technology expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, yet the Russians keep having to extend it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the turn of the century they were going to be out of service by 2007, but here they are, still in operation nearly two decades later.

"There's only so much they can do," Wright said. "Parts will start failing at some point." He said the R-36s "will eventually start failing because their parts just will need replacement, and they don't make the parts anymore." If Moscow tried to launch 40 R-36s, he said, "you might not get all 40 out the ground, frankly."

Fabian Hoffmann, a missile expert at the Oslo Nuclear Project, said the R-36 has been "sitting there for a really long time."

Russia was required to reduce the size of its arsenal of missiles under the New START treaty with the US. Hoffman said that Russia could use old parts from those missiles to keep its usable ones running. But the supply is not infinite, he said. "Who knows how much these missiles can still take, how many years?"

There's the possibility Russia would "have to start cannibalizing existing missiles, taking them out of service or retiring them or taking them off what they call combat duty alert, which is where the missile is literally ready to go," Wright said.

Russia has other ICBMs, but the R-36 carries the largest and most strategically significant payload. The Sarmat, as its replacement, will likewise carry a substantial payload.

Big missiles with lots of warheads

The purpose of the Sarmat was "to constitute a big bulk of their warheads in the future," Wright said. The ICBM is a large, long-range weapon able to carry a heavy MIRV payload, meaning multiple independent re-entry vehicles.

The Sarmat has an estimated maximum range of 18,000 miles. It has a ten-ton payload and can carry 10 large warheads or 16 smaller ones, per a Missile Threat fact sheet from the Center of Strategic and International Studies. The R-36 it is meant to replace has a shorter range but similar payload, able to carry 10 multiple independent re-entry vehicles.

Other Russian ICBMs are "much smaller," Wright said. They can't carry the same heavy MIRV payload. Russia's RS-24 Yars ICBM, for example, can only carry three MIRV warheads.

As of May 2023, Russia had 1,674 warheads deployed, with a total stockpile of 4,489, per the CSIS. Many of these are deployed on other missiles and elements of the Russian nuclear triad, which provide it with deterrence, but Russia wants the big missile with the tremendous destructive capacity.

Russia was understood to have 46 R-36s in April 2016. Wright said that "if they then took that missile out of service, then they have a bit of a gap."

"And for Russia, it's important to ensure they have warhead parity with the Americans," he said. "Whatever number the Americans have, the Russians want it as well."

Russia appears to be keeping its warheads limited in accordance with the New START treaty. But if that changes, and it may as Russia has suspended its involvement with the treaty, Russia may want to deploy more warheads. Without the Sarmat, Russia will need to find other places for its warheads.

The Sarmat's problems

Hoffman said the most recent Sarmat test was "catastrophic." He said that "it's not even like the missile failed to hit its target and you can say, 'Oh, the guidance system didn't really work.' No, the whole thing blew up."

That means it was either a freak accident, or "there's something fundamentally wrong with the propulsion system, which is of course catastrophic," he said. "And so if I was Russia, I think at this point I would be concerned about that."

Some experts have warned that Russia's struggles could make it desperate, making problems more likely.

Wright said he can't see Russia deciding to cancel the Sarmat program. He said Putin "has invested a lot of propaganda into the system. When he unveiled it in 2018, it was all these fantastic reasons why it's so good."

Putin bragged in 2018 that "missile defense systems are useless against them, absolutely pointless" and that "no other country has developed anything like this."

The Russians have also dumped a lot of money into this project, making cancellation unpalatable.

Hoffman agreed, saying Russia had little choice given the state of its older missiles. It wants Sarmat for propaganda reasons, and "it's also just desperation in terms of: 'What else would there be?'"

But big delays in getting Sarmat operational would likely cause problems for Russia, with nothing in line to replace the Sarmat.

"Sarmat's designed to fulfill a very specific purpose, which is to essentially have lots of warheads on top of it," Wright said, and there is no direct replacement in Russia's arsenal or in the works.

• China could destroy or neutralize US and allied airpower in a war with fewer shots than the other way around, a new report argues.
• China has prioritized hardening and expanding its airfields in the region at a faster rate than the US and its allies.
• The report's authors argue the US needs to prioritize defense, hardening airbases, and evolving its force.

In a war, China could suppress or destroy critical American airpower in the Indo-Pacific region with far fewer shots than it would take the US and its allies to do the same to Beijing's air forces, a new research report argues.

The report's authors note that China has been working faster than the US to harden its airbases and diversify its combat aircraft in the region, creating an imbalance in China's favor. American airfields are vulnerable to attack in a conflict, such as a fight over Taiwan.

A new Hudson Institute analysis from researchers Thomas Shugart and Timothy Walton highlights the serious threat facing US installations in the Pacific and echoes Department of Defense concerns about growing China's arsenal of missiles and those of US lawmakers about inadequate defenses.

In the report, Shugart and Walton write that China "has made major investments to defend, expand, and fortify" its airfields and more than doubled its hardened aircraft shelters and unhardened individual aircraft shelters over the past decade. China has also added to its taxiways and ramp areas. All of these efforts effectively give the Chinese military more places to protect and launch combat aircraft in a potential fight.

US efforts have been modest by comparison. And its military airfield capacity, including that of allies in the region, is roughly one-third of China's; without South Korea, that drops to one-quarter, and without the Philippines, it falls to just 15 percent.

The Air Force has been looking at dispersion and atypical runways as part of its Agile Combat Employment efforts, but there is still a notable shortfall that could be exploited.

This imbalance means it would take China far fewer missiles or airstrikes to neutralize US and allied airfields than it would the other way around, Shugart and Walton write. A preemptive strike, surprise being important in Chinese military doctrine, could catch the US and its allies off guard and give China an edge in air operations.

"Strategically, this destabilizing asymmetry risks incentivizing the PRC to exercise a first-mover advantage," the report says. "China could initiate a conflict if it sees an opportunity to nullify adversary airpower on the ramp."

Shugart wrote in 2017 that this is a real possibility, "particularly if China perceives that its attempts at deterrence of a major US intervention — say in a cross-strait Taiwan crisis or in a brewing dispute over the Senkaku Islands — have failed."

China has not been shy about its investments in being able to pull off such a strike, either. Beijing has invested heavily in its rocket force, with the Pentagon's annual report on Chinese military power documenting staggering growth in the number of stockpiled missiles and launchers, including the weapons it would need to hit US installations in the region. Satellite images have also documented mock American military assets, such as aircraft carriers, widely seen as missile targets.

For the conflicts and airpower operations in the Middle East, the US military enjoyed the ability to deploy to forward airfields uncontested, but the threat environment is different in the Pacific. A war with China would be very different.

But despite the significant concerns both within the Pentagon and Washington about vulnerabilities in US airbases, "the US military has devoted relatively little attention to countering these threats compared to its focus on developing modern aircraft," Shugart and Walton write. Older and newer aircraft differ in the air but are equally vulnerable on the ground.

The Ukraine war and ongoing fights in the Middle East have demonstrated that airfields are high-priority targets.

In order to counter the threat China poses, the Hudson report argues the US should invest further in active defenses for its air operations, harden its airfields to maintain resilience, and accelerate its efforts to field aircraft and unmanned systems that can operate from short or damaged runways or don't require runaways altogether, efforts fitting with ACE operations.

"Executing an effective campaign to enhance the resilience of US airfield operations will require informed decisions to prioritize projects — and sustained funding," Shugart and Walton write. "What is clear, however, is that US airfields do face the threat of attack, and the current DoD approach of largely ignoring this fact invites PRC aggression and risks losing a war." 

• The US shot down a ballistic missile for the first time from Guam in a major test this week.
• The event comes as the Pentagon increasingly looks to protect key military infrastructure on Guam.
• Guam would almost certainly be a target in a war with China, which has missiles that can reach the island.

The US military shot down a ballistic missile for the first time from Guam this week, marking a significant step toward strengthening defenses on the Pacific island well within reach of China's long-range weapons.

The US Missile Defense Agency said on Tuesday that during the FEM-02 test, it "successfully conducted a live intercept of a ballistic missile target."

The test involved launching a top interceptor munition, the RIM-161 Standard Missile-3 Block IIA, jointly developed by RTX and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, from the Aegis Guam System, an advanced air-defense battery. The SM-3, which costs nearly $30 million, then struck an air-dropped medium-range ballistic missile target off the coast from Guam's Andersen Air Force Base.

The Aegis Guam System, made by defense contractor Lockheed Martin, consists of an integrated AN/TPY-6 and vertical launch system based on the Mark 41 shipborne missile system. American warships, such as destroyers and cruisers, use these vertical launch systems to fire missiles and defend against incoming threats, as they have been doing for over a year in Middle East conflicts.

Lockheed said in a statement that the test gives the Department of Defense a better understanding of the Aegis Guam System's ability to counter missiles. It said the AGS could help "with pacing the Indo-Pacific threats." The Pentagon routinely characterizes China as its "pacing challenge."

Rear Adm. Greg Huffman, the commander of Joint Task Force-Micronesia, a senior command established earlier this year, hailed the missile test as "a critical milestone in the defense of Guam and the region."

The admiral said that "it confirmed our ability to detect, track, and engage a target missile in flight, increasing our readiness to defend against evolving adversary threats."

The newest test, the MDA said, is a step toward the future Guam Defense System; the agency explained that "the future is focused on defending Guam and protecting forces from any potential regional missile threats." As part of the US Pacific Deterrence Initiative, the US is planning to dramatically bolster Guam's defenses over the coming years.

Defending US forces from Chinese missiles

The intercept test comes as the Pentagon seeks ways to better protect important military infrastructure on Guam from China's expanding arsenal of ballistic missiles. DoD has repeatedly highlighted the Chinese missile threat in its annual China military power reports, yet there are concerns about readiness to confront the threat.

Some US lawmakers warned earlier this year that the US is unprepared for a potential Chinese missile strike on bases in the Indo-Pacific, highlighting the need for additional active and passive defenses.

The military installations on Guam routinely host American bombers and warships on rotational visits, as well as communications and surveillance operations, making the small island and its defense essential to US national security interests in the region. Chinese military planners also know the island's value.

China's People's Liberation Army Rocket Force boasts thousands of missiles, including the DF-26, a solid-fueled intermediate-range ballistic missile. The DF-26 is nicknamed the "Guam Express" because it can reach US forces on the island, some 2,500 miles from Beijing. It also has an anti-ship role, leading it to it sometimes being described as a "carrier killer." The Chinese military is also developing the DF-27 hypersonic missile expected to also be able to range Guam.

Chinese ballistic missiles have not been tested in combat, but conflict experts say that the US could face a threat unlike anything it's seen before in a conflict with Beijing. This potential scenario has underscored a need for more robust air defenses, and this effort is underway in Guam, which would be a key target.

"Within the context of homeland defense, a top priority for the Department of Defense, Guam is also a strategic location for sustaining and maintaining United States military presence, deterring adversaries, responding to crises, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region," the MDA said in a statement. There's long been a recognition that Guam needs more defenses. This test moves that forward.

• Russia launched more than 6,000 drones and missiles this fall, per The Wall Street Journal.
• Ukraine has used a combination of air defense systems and electronic warfare to counter the attacks.
• To overcome these tactics, Russia is increasing its use of decoy drones against Ukraine.

Russia fired four times as many drones and missiles at Ukraine in the past three months compared to the same time a year ago, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

Using data from the Ukrainian Air Force Command, the report said that Russia launched more than 6,000 drones and missiles in the war during September, October, and November.

Ukraine has used a combination of air defense missile systems and electronic warfare technology to counter Russia's attacks.

However, Russia has used a variety of tactics to overcome Ukrainian air defenses, including hitting Ukraine with a variety of drones and missiles at the same time.

It has also been using unarmed, fake drones in swarm attacks, Kyiv's military intelligence agency, also known as the HUR, wrote in a statement shared to the Telegram messaging app in November.

These drones are smaller and cheaper than the Iranian-made Shahed-136 one-way attack drone that is often used by Russia against Ukraine.

Named "Parody" by the Ukrainians, the decoy drones apparently mimic the radar signature of a Shahed to mislead Kyiv's air defenses.

Analysts believe the record drone strikes may be designed to damage Ukraine's air defenses ahead of a major attack on the country's energy infrastructure.

"The Ukrainians are going to have a difficult winter," George Barros, team lead for Russia and geospatial intelligence at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) told Sky News.

"They're very resilient and they've found ways to mitigate the effect of Russian attacks, but at the same time the Russians have also learnt — they've managed to find more effective and creative ways of penetrating Ukraine's air defense."

On Sunday, the Ukrainian air force said it shot down 28 out of 74 drones launched by Russia in a night attack targeting Ukraine. A further 46 drones were "lost," the air force said.

Russia has also been stepping up its use of missiles. Late last month, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced more details of the'Oreshnik' hypersonic missile, days after it was first used to strike a munitions factory in Ukraine's Dnipro region.

He said the destructive elements of the missile reach over 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and that it had been used as a response to Ukraine's Western allies allowing their long-range missiles to be used against Russia.

• The US Navy is converting Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers into hypersonic missile shooters.
• The expensive Zumwalt class has struggled to find a suitable mission and weapons.
• The upgrade is part of the US' effort to keep pace with adversaries in fielding hypersonic weapons.

The US Navy's Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers are hailed as a revolution in naval warfare due to their next-generation design and advanced technology.

But nearly two decades after the first-in-class USS Zumwalt began construction, the world's most advanced surface combatants are still not ready for combat, victims of development problems, cost overruns, and ineffective systems.

Now, the sea service is retrofitting the Zumwalt-class destroyers to launch future hypersonic missiles in a bid to make the costly warships more useful by allowing them to strike targets from afar with greater precision.

The Zumwalt has been docked at a shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, since August 2023 to integrate the new and untested weapon system.

The ship is expected to be undocked this week as it prepares for tests and a return to the fleet, according to a shipyard spokeswoman, though the Navy said it wants to begin testing the ship's new hypersonic weapon system in 2027 or 2028.

• The US Navy has developed a new way of reloading warships with missiles while at sea.
• It will be "critical" to any future conflict in the Pacific, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said.
• The solution could be useful, but it's untested in real war conditions, one analyst said.

The US Navy has developed a new way of reloading its destroyers, cruisers, and other sizable warships with missiles at sea, as it contends with the growing naval threat from China.

The Wall Street Journal gained exclusive access to a recent test off the coast of California, where US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro described the new capability as "critical to any future conflict in the Pacific."

The technology is based on repurposed 1990s prototype equipment and uses a hydraulically propelled system that transports missile canisters from a supply ship via a zipline to place them into a launch cell, it reported.

TRAM was tested on land in July and then at sea for the first time in October, off the coast of San Diego, where Del Toro touted it as a "powerful deterrent" to US rivals.

"Without the ability to rearm at sea, our service combatants must return to port, sometimes thousands of miles away," Del Toro said at the time.

This could put them out of action for weeks at a time.

Del Toro said the US Navy expected to start deploying TRAM within the next two to three years.

In a speech at Columbia University in December 2022, Del Toro said delivering the "game-changing" capability to rearm US warships at sea was one of his top priorities.

China has grown increasingly assertive in the Pacific in recent months, crossing into the airspace and waters around Taiwan, a key US partner, and carrying out maritime gray-zone operations in the South China Sea against the Philippines, an ally the US is treaty-bound to defend.

To date, the US has only been able to reload its warships' cruise missile launchers from solid ground, or in sheltered harbors.

In September, the USS Dewey reloaded at an allied naval base in Darwin, Australia.

But "if conflict were to erupt, or if something were to happen, being able to go to various different locations around the Indo-Pacific, it makes it much faster for us to reload," Nicholas Maruca, the commanding officer of the USS Dewey, told the Journal.

However, the technology alone might not be enough.

Nick Childs, a senior naval analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, noted in a recent military blog that the system has only been trialed in "fairly benign" sea conditions and that the Navy needs to distribute enough equipment, replenishment ships, and missiles around the fleet, and also modify warships to receive them.

"However they are accomplished," he said of reloading solutions, they "will be no silver bullet for navies."

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has provided more details on the "Oreshnik" missile.
• The hypersonic ballistic missile was first used by Russia in Ukraine in November.
• Putin said the missile's destructive elements hit temperatures of more than 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shared more details on Russia's "Oreshnik" missile during a state visit to Kazakhstan.

Russia first used the Oreshnik missile in Ukraine last week, striking a munitions factory in Dnipro.

Putin said at the time that his forces had tested "a non-nuclear hypersonic ballistic missile," named the Oreshnik, in response to Ukraine's use of US and UK-supplied long-range weapons.

Speaking to the media in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Putin detailed some more of the Oreshnik's characteristics.

Putin called the missile a "high-precision and high-power weapon" and said that it was "not equipped with a nuclear explosive device, thus they do not cause environmental contamination."

He added that the destructive elements inside the missile's warheads hit temperatures of over 4,000 degrees Celsius (more than 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit).

"The damage is substantial," he continued. "Everything at the centre is reduced to ash, breaking down into its elemental components, and objects located at a depth of three or four, possibly even more, floors below are affected."

Putin also reiterated that the Oreshnik could be as powerful as a nuclear strike if multiple were fired at once.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) said on Friday that the Oreshnik was likely a variant of the Rubezh RS-26 ballistic missile — a solid-fueled, road-mobile ballistic missile.

The ministry said that the missile's payload observed in the strike on Dnipro was "six groups of six warheads," which it said travel at hypersonic speeds before impact.

The missile's potential range is particularly important and has already attracted a great deal of expert commentary.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Missile Defense Project lists the Rubezh RS-26 as having a range of up to 5,800 km (around 3,600 miles), meaning it could strike targets across Europe and the UK.

Former Australian Army Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan said Russia's use of a missile with such a potential range was a clear message to the West, writing on X: "Putin isn't only messaging Washington D.C. here."

"This is a message to Europe, not only about their support for Ukraine, but also about Russia's capacity and willingness to influence policy related to defence and security well beyond Ukraine," he said.

• Israel is expected to soon deploy its top missile-defense system, Arrow 3, to Germany.
• Arrow's chief engineer told BI that the system had already proved its worth in combat.
• The transfer, planned for next year, comes amid growing concerns in Europe over Russian missiles.

Germany is expected to receive a top Israeli missile-defense system that helped protect the Middle Eastern country from two massive Iranian attacks earlier this year.

Israel is set to deploy the Arrow 3, a highly advanced system designed to intercept ballistic missiles outside the Earth's atmosphere, on German soil in 2025 as part of a $3.5 billion deal announced last fall in what officials said was the country's largest-ever defense export.

The transfer comes as Europe and NATO allies like Germany face a rising Russian missile threat to its eastern flank. Just last week, Moscow used a new intermediate-range ballistic missile to strike Ukraine.

Arrow 3 made its combat debut just a year ago in the early days of Israel's ongoing war with Hamas. But the system's chief engineer told Business Insider that it had proved its worth against two massive Iranian missile barrages in April and October of this year.

"Arrow 3 is the right answer for Germany, and, also, it'll be a part of an even greater system to German allies in Europe," Boaz Levy, the CEO of the state-run Israel Aerospace Industries, said in a recent interview.

The Arrow systems are a product of IAI and the US manufacturer Boeing. They were developed because Israel needed a way to defend itself from longer-range ballistic missiles. Together, they make up the upper echelon of the country's air-defense network.

Arrow 2, which was first deployed in 2000, can intercept targets in the upper atmosphere. It was followed in 2017 by Arrow 3, which can eliminate targets in space and up to 1,500 miles away — well beyond the ranges of the US's Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems. Both systems use a two-stage solid-fueled interceptor to engage incoming ballistic missiles.

Israel confirmed the first operational use of Arrow 3 in November of last year after it was used to take down a missile fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen. But the system saw its most serious tests against two massive Iranian attacks this year.

In mid-April, Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones — including some 120 ballistic missiles — at Israel, which, along with partner forces like the US and the UK, shot down nearly all the munitions.

Six months later, in early October, Iran fired a much larger salvo of ballistic missiles — about 200 — at Israel. Most of the projectiles were intercepted, including by American warships.

Earlier this month, the Israeli defense ministry said Arrow "proved effective" in both Iranian attacks. Levy declined to provide specific figures on its performance. But he said the system performed as intended, adding that "the results that we received over those attacks are really phenomenal."

"We believe that the system proved its capability during these two attacks," he said.

Arrow's demonstrated capability in the Middle East conflicts will make it a valuable asset to Germany as Europe grows increasingly concerned with the Russian missile threat. Moscow's war against Ukraine and its widespread employment of ballistic missiles has prompted NATO countries to seek ways to bolster their air defenses.

Unease over Russian missile capabilities was underscored last week after Moscow launched an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine. A Pentagon spokesperson described the weapon as a "new type of lethal capability" deployed on the battlefield and called it a "concern" to the US.

When Arrow 3 eventually arrives in Germany, it will complement NATO's existing network of systems capable of ballistic-missile defense, including the American-made MIM-104 Patriot battery that has been a workhorse in Ukraine.

In a statement earlier this month, Israel's defense ministry said it has started coordinating joint preparations with Berlin for the initial deployment of Arrow 3 next year. It did not provide a specific date.

Levy said the deployment to Germany was just a starting point, but it comes at a crucial time as missile attacks become more common in conflicts.

"We should expect to have missile attacks in future wars, and that's why a country that wants to defend its assets needs to have such a sophisticated system," Levy said. "Arrow was designed for that."

"I believe that more customers will come," he added.

• Ukraine said on Monday that it found Western-made parts inside North Korean ballistic missiles.
• Russia has used the KN-23 and KN-24 missiles in attacks that have killed Ukrainian civilians.
• It marks the latest discovery of American and European technology inside weaponry used by Russia.

The Ukrainian military said on Monday that it found Western-made parts inside North Korean ballistic missiles, marking the latest discovery for Kyiv as it continues to find technology from Europe and the US inside weapons used by the Russian military.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency said that it found Western-made parts inside North Korea's KN-23 and KN-24 short-range ballistic missiles. These solid-fueled munitions are similar in certain respects to the Russian Iskander missile and can carry payloads in excess of 1,000 pounds.

North Korea sent dozens of these missiles, as well as military personnel to help operate the launchers, to Russia, which has been firing them at Ukraine for nearly a year. KN-23 and KN-24 strikes have killed multiple civilians in recent months.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency, also known as the HUR, said these weapon systems contain parts made by companies in China, Japan, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Kyiv also said it found a voltage converter made in February 2023 — a year after the full-scale invasion — by British manufacturer XP Power inside a missile.

The company has not yet responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

The HUR called for tighter controls, writing a statement that "in order to obtain technologies for their weapons programs, the aggressor state Russia and its allies — the DPRK and Iran — use joint schemes to circumvent international sanctions, which requires an appropriate response, in particular — the strengthening of export control mechanisms."

Ukraine uploaded what it said was evidence of the Western-made parts to a government portal, which lists the names of several companies and identifies the technology found in the missiles. Kyiv said that it had previously found Western technology in the North Korean missiles.

The Monday statement marks Ukraine's latest announcement on the finding of Western-made parts inside weapons used by Russia in this war. Kyiv has discovered technology of American and European origin in Moscow's missiles and drones, as well as Iranian-made drones.

The continued discovery of Western components in systems made by sanctioned countries highlights the challenge of creating airtight controls.

Beyond missiles, Pyongyang has also provided Moscow with artillery pieces, shells, and troops in support of its invasion. Over 11,000 North Korean forces have been moved into Russia's western Kursk region, where the Kremlin is trying to push out Ukrainian forces who control territory there following a surprise invasion in early August.

NATO said the introduction of North Korean troops into the war marked a "significant escalation" in the grinding conflict. The development has triggered several major policy shifts from the West, including in the US and UK, which finally authorized Ukraine's use of powerful, longer-range missiles to strike military targets in Russia.

Over the past week, Ukraine has used its US-provided ATACMS ballistic missiles and British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles to carry out cross-border strikes for the first time.

• Ukraine has long been restricted from using Western missiles to strike inside Russia.
• The US relaxed some of the rules over the weekend following North Korea's involvement in the war.
• Kyiv has since used both ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles to hit targets on Russian soil.

Ukraine is finally using its powerful, longer-range Western missiles to strike targets inside Russia after waiting over a year for permission.

On Wednesday, Ukraine fired British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles at targets inside Russia for the first time, according to several media outlets and local footage. The UK defense ministry and Kyiv did not immediately comment on the reported developments.

Ukraine fired a volley of at least 10 Storm Shadow missiles into Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Ukrainian and Western officials.

The Storm Shadow strikes come a day after Ukraine first fired US-made tactical ballistic missiles, known as ATACMS, at a military facility in Russia's western Bryansk region. Kyiv acknowledged the strike but did not say what weapons were used.

Ukraine had long been prohibited from using these Western missiles to strike inside Russia, but President Joe Biden authorized the use of ATACMS over the weekend in a major policy shift, and the UK seemed to follow suit with Storm Shadow. Both missiles have now been used in strikes on Russian soil.

The removal of the restrictions on weapons usage follows the introduction of North Korean troops in the war — a development that NATO has called a "significant escalation" — and comes at a critical moment in the grinding conflict, which just passed the 1,000-day mark.

What are these missiles?

ATACMS, or Army Tactical Missile Systems, are short-range missiles made by US defense contractor Lockheed Martin. They can be fired from Ukraine's M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System, which are mobile ground-based launchers.

ATACMS can hit targets up to 190 miles away and, depending on the variant, carry unitary warheads or cluster munitions, which disperse little bomblets mid-flight over a large area.

The longest-range ATACMS variant has a farther reach than much of Ukraine's arsenal, including the British air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missile, which can strike targets around 155 miles away. It's unclear how many ATACMS and Storm Shadows Kyiv has available in its arsenal.

The Storm Shadow is made by the European multinational corporation MBDA. The missile has low-observable features, can carry a nearly 1,000-pound warhead, and fly at low altitudes to avoid detection. Like Britain, France has also provided Ukraine with its version of the weapon, known as SCALP-EG.

Ukraine debuted its ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles last year but has been limited to using them against targets in territory that Russia illegally occupies in the eastern and southern regions, including the Crimean peninsula.

Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have repeatedly lobbied for all restrictions to be dropped, and analysts have said the limitations have hamstrung Kyiv's ability to effectively defend itself. The US opposed the move, fearing it could escalate the conflict.

In the face of these restrictions, Ukraine has relied on domestically produced attack drones and missiles to carry out long-range strikes on sensitive military targets in Russia. This campaign has escalated in recent months.

However, the recent involvement of North Korea in the war appears to have moved the needle for the White House. Thousands of North Korean troops have been sent to Russia's Kursk region to help Moscow expel Ukrainian forces, who continue to hold a small chunk of territory there following a surprise invasion in early August.

Biden's policy shift comes just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The incoming commander-in-chief is skeptical of US support for Ukraine and could decide to reverse the order.

The Kremlin has warned the West against allowing Ukraine to use its missiles to strike Russian territory. On Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin approved an update to the country's nuclear doctrine in a move that seemed to directly respond to the ATACMS policy reversal.