California Senator Kamala Harris, Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden’s choice as vice-presidential running mate, is opposed to further increases in U.S. defence spending but wants a bigger Veterans Affairs budget, closer cooperation with allies on security matters, and more foreign aid. This is according to a review of her voting record in Congress, which urged the withdrawal of troops for Afghanistan and an overhaul of legislation to give Congress a greater voice in combat deployments.

Satellite imagery analyzed by 38 North, a website maintained by the Washington-based Stimson Centre think-tank, suggests recent flooding in North Korea may have compromised cooling systems at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre. Located north of the country’s capital, Yongbyon houses reactors as well as fuel re-processing and uranium enrichment facilities considered central to the regime’s nuclear weapons program.

Four influential members of Congress are reported to have been behind a U.S. freeze on major arms sales to Turkey for nearly two years as part of an effort to have its NATO ally drop plans to acquire a Russian air defence system. The blocked sales evidently include a follow-on contract for structural upgrades to F-16 fighters and export licenses for engines needed for a Turkish sale of attack helicopters to Pakistan.

An inaugural U.S. Space Force policy document outlines the interdependence of civil, military, intelligence, and commercial interests as the U.S. tries to return to the moon and push farther to Mars, as well as protecting its assets from orbital attack and supporting more private-sector ventures. “Preserving freedom of action in space is the essence of military space power and must be the first priority,” the document states.

SpaceX and the Lockheed Martin-Boeing partnership, United Launch Alliance, have been awarded five-year contracts by the U.S. Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office for more than heavy-lift launches. The contracts mark “a new epoch” of space activity which will wean the U.S. off Russian rocket motors engines used in the Atlas V launch vehicle.

Former Vice-President Joe Biden has chosen California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate in the race for the U.S. presidency. Of Jamaican-Indian heritage, the former prosecutor had criticized Biden during Democratic primaries and is only the fourth woman in U.S. history to be chosen as vice-presidential candidate.

The U.S. Department of Defense Department requested a 30-day court extension to resolve ongoing issues with its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract. The multibillion-dollar contract had been expected to be awarded 17 August after numerous delays, notably the need to address a legal protest by Amazon Web Services after the contract was initially awarded to Microsoft last fall. Already two years behind schedule, there evidently are still “areas of concern with respect to the revised proposals,” the DoD said 10 August. 

Transport Canada has certified EHang Holdings Ltd., of Guangzhou, China, to conduct flight tests of its EHang 216 autonomous aerial vehicle in Quebec, following special operating certificates issued by several other countries. “It conveys a positive signal from global regulators to establish a supportive and sustainable regulatory environment,” the company said in a statement.

A team of Canadian Army veterans has completed a 36-hour walk from Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, 175 kilometres or more than 220,000 steps up the Ottawa River Valley from the nation’s capital. The event, which featured hourly exercises wearing weighted vests, raised money for Wounded Warriors Canada.

Draft legislation designed to limit exports of large armed unmanned aerial vehicles has been introduced by a bipartisan group in the U.S. Senate. They are responding to a White House measure which would permit U.S. companies to circumvent part of a 1987 agreement controlling such sales. “If we allow Trump to start selling drones, we set a dangerous precedent,” says one of the Democrats behind the move.

Any ballistic missile fired at Russia would be automatically considered a nuclear attack warranting nuclear retaliation, according to an official military publication, Krasnaya Zvezda. An article by several members of the General Staff follows the Kremlin’s release of a deterrence policy that envisages just such a scenario.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to reimpose a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian aluminum is nothing more than back-stabbing. “I just have to say how disappointed I am with President Trump,” Ford said 7 August. “In times like this, who tries to go after your closest ally, your closest trading partner, your number one customer in the entire world? Who would do this? Well, President Trump did this.”

British Columbia-based OSI Maritime Systems contracted to supply a new Tactical Dived Navigation System for Canada’s four submarines. Other OSI systems are already aboard the boats as well as those operated by eight other countries.

The federal government is partnering with two major international companies to secure millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses for national distribution. Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand says the deal with Pfizer and Moderna will help to position Canada at the front of the line when a vaccine becomes available. Fifty-five potential COVID-19 drugs, including vaccine candidates, are currently being investigated in clinical trials authorized by Health Canada.

Last fall, leaders in the biosecurity field ranked the U.S. at the top of the Global Health Security Index, which graded 195 countries in terms of their preparedness to fight outbreaks. Canada ranked fifth behind the U.K., the Netherlands and Australia. President Donald Trump even held up the copy of that report during a White House briefing last February. So what happened when COVID-19 hit? The Journal Nature offers an explanation and looks ahead.

General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada has begun production of Armoured Combat Support Vehicles t its London plant. Replacing the Army’s M113 Tracked Light Armoured Vehicles and LAV II Bisons, the ACSVs will fulfill a variety of roles such as command posts, ambulances, troops and cargo transports, and mobile repair and recovery platforms.

After the federal government information watchdog testified to finding evidence of internal activity to thwart access to information searches related to the failed case against VAdm Mark Norman, the Public Prosecutions office had contacted the RCMP in March 2019. The RCMP determined it was in a conflict of interest due to its investigation of Norman and it had planned to refer the case to the OPP. However, “due to an administrative error and changes in senior staff at the time, it appears we never made that referral,” said RCMP spokesman Daniel Brien in response to recent questions from the Ottawa Citizen.

DND has confirmed that it will supply a Lockheed Martin CC-130 Hercules for continued support of UN peacekeeping efforts in Africa for another year. The RCAF transports have operated out of Uganda since 2017, fulfilling a commitment by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a peacekeeping summit that year.

Hoping to address concerns about growing Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic and Antarctic, President Donald Trump wants the U.S. government to outline how it could “at least three heavy polar-class” vessels and smaller support ships, potentially nuclear-powered. A senior U.S. Coast Guard official has agreed that the U.S. lacks “the ability to project the presence we need” in the polar regions simultaneously.

Boeing has received a $265 million U.S. Army contract for nine more MH-47G Chinook transport helicopters for Special Operations Aviation Command. It increases the total under contract to 24 of an expected 69.

BAE Systems has completed a $1.9 billion purchase of Collins Aerospace’s military GPS business from Raytheon Technologies Corp. The acquisition follows a merger of United Technologies Corp. and Raytheon approved by the U.S. government in March subject divestment UTC’s military GPS and large space-based optical systems businesses, as well as Raytheon’s military airborne radios business.

The RCN marked a most significant milestone in its shipbuilding programme with a July 31st delivery of the first new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) built by Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax.  

U.S. Navy plans to test a range of weapons off the West Coast is encountering resistance in Washington state. Gov Jay Inslee’s administration is concerned about the effect on the resident Orca population and other marine life despite a federal study which concluded that the impact would be “negligible.”

Shortly after Secretary of Defense Mark Esper confirmed plans for a lengthy and costly withdrawal of 11,900 U.S. personnel from Germany, President Donald Trump seems to have put another option on the table by suggesting that the troops could remain if Germany increases its NATO budget.

President Donald Trump says he did not discuss with Vladimir Putin allegations that Russia had offered Taliban extremists bounties for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. His rationale during an interview was that the intelligence behind the claim was suspect and that he believes Putin does not want to “get involved” in the region.

Canadian involvement in the war against ISIS has entered a new phase which requires fewer troops compared with up to 850 at one point. About half the contingent was recalled in March when COVID-19 began its global spread, the expectation being that most would eventually be redeployed. However, Army BGen Michael Wright, head of Joint Task Force IMPACT, says allied commanders have determined the Iraqi military is now largely able to fight ISIS unaided.

U.S. Army plans for a future long-range assault rotorcraft evidently are being pushed toward a prototype contract award in 2022. A draft proposal is expected by the end of this year, setting up for a Request for Proposals in 2021. Bell and Lockheed Martin Sikorsky are the potential suppliers.

Singapore-based ST-Engineering and Israel Aerospace Industries hope that a new joint venture, Proteus Advanced Systems, will fulfill a growing demand for guided naval munitions. Declining to divulge details, STE says it has been collaborating with IAI on guided munitions for a number of years.

The Royal Canadian Navy hopes that aggressive maintenance will ensure that its four 1980s-vintage Victoria-class submarines remain operational for one and possibly two more decades. This is according to a newly-released briefing note prepared for the government’s 2017 policy paper – Strong, Secure, Engaged. The former Royal Navy diesel-electric boats, decommissioned in 1994 after brief service, were purchased after the British government opted for an all-nuclear fleet.

Canada’s participation in this year’s Exercise Rim of the Pacific, the world’s largest war-game held biennially off Hawaii, has been reduced to a bare minimum. The original commitment was to have been a submarine, various ships and aircraft, but COVID-19 means it is reduced to two frigates and one CH-148 Cyclone helicopter, scheduled to deploy from the West Coast 31 July.

The U.S. State Department has eased restrictions on exports of military-grade unmanned aerial systems. The decision removes restriction which prevented foreign sales of larger UAS such as the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper and the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk.

Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions ech has received a contract worth up to $400 million to develop an AI-enabled drone wingman dubbed Skyborg. The contract include neither quantity nor delivery deadlines.

The impending retirement of Army Gen Jonathan Vance as Chief of the Defence Staff, which he announced 23 July, is prompting speculation that the Liberal government would like to appoint a female successor. However, there evidently is a shortage of potential candidates with one of the two most experienced women set to retire herself and the other a relative unknown outside the Department of National Defence.

The U.S. Department of Defense is partnering with Chicago-based NanoGraf Technologies to develop what the military hopes will be lighter and more powerful batteries for the sundry gear carried by modern soldiers. The company has been given a $1.6-million research grant to develop silicon anode lithium-ion portable batteries to replace the graphite anode units currently used by the military.