A bipartisan group in Congress says a possible reduction of the U.S. military presence in Africa, as the Pentagon focuses more on Russian and Chinese aggression would be incompatible with the administration’s National Security Strategy. In a letter to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, the group calls the idea “shortsighted.”

Eleven U.S. military personnel have been evacuated from al-Asad air base in Iraq for treatment of potentially severe injuries suffered in Iran’s 08 January missile attack. Senior officials had said immediately after the attack that there had been “no casualties” but it was confirmed 16 January that some had suffered severe concussion.

Having received only one response, from General Dynamics, the U.S. Army is backtracking on its Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles replacement project. Army acquisition chief Bruce Jette said 16 January that feedback on the concept of an optionally-manned replacement, coupled with the lack of broad industry response, requires a re-think of this “critical capability.” A Raytheon-Rheinmetall team was disqualified from the competition for having missed a deadline.

Patrik Mathews, who fled to the U.S. in August after being released from the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves due to the Winnipeg resident's alleged involvement in an extremist right-wing movement, was been arrested 16 in Delaware.

A move by President Donald Trump to block military assistance to Ukraine is said by the U.S. Government Accountability Office to have been illegal. It says in a new report that the White House Office of Management and Budget withheld for “a policy reason” the nearly $400 million allocated by Congress. The GAO says that decision, directed by Trump, breached legislation designed specifically to block any such action.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told Iran there would be a “decisive U.S. response” if the regime or its militias harm American troops or allies in the Middle East. “Attacks by them, or their proxies of any identity, that harm Americans, our allies, or our interests will be answered with a decisive U.S. response,” Pompeo says.

French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly expects to visit Washington “in the coming days” to discuss support for her country’s military in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa. The U.S. currently provides intelligence, logistical and drone support for the French but security has been deteriorating.

U.S.-Iraq joint military operations resumed 15 January despite a vote for expulsion by the country’s parliament after the government accused the U.S. of violating Iraqi sovereignty with air strikes. U.S. officials say the military wants to resume operations against the Islamic State to blunt any gains the militants had made in the intervening two weeks.

Former Defence Minister Peter MacKay confirmed 15 January that he is in the race to succeed Andrew Scheer as leader of the Conservative Party leadership. “I’m in,” he said on social media. “Stay tuned.” A Member of Parliament from Nova Scotia from 1997 to 2015, he had held several cabinet portfolios, including Foreign Affairs as well as National Defence. 

Despite the fact that it has been suspended from acquiring Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters, Turkey will keep making parts for other countries until at least the end of this year, according to Ellen Lord, Undersecretary for Acquisition and Sustainment in the U.S. Department of Defense. She says that while most of the work in Turkey will end by March, Lockheed Martin and its engine supplier, Pratt & Whitney, have longer-term contracts in place.

A federal appeals court has ruled that a legal challenge to the U.S. Air Force’s dismissal of two HIV-positive airmen can continue.  The tribunal which heard the case ruled unanimously that the USAF had failed to consider current treatments and risk factors in discharging the airmen in 2018. A circuit court judge had already ruled in favor of the plaitiffs.

The United States “is better at cyber than anyone else” or so says President Donald Trump. Asked during a televised interview about a possible cyberattack from Iran, he replied that if it did happen, “we’ll be able to hit very hard.” He characterized cyber as “a new form of war” which the U.S. has “very well under control.”

The Royal Canadian Air Force plans to spend approximately $800 million on new weapons, sensors and defensive systems for its remaining Boeing CF-18 fighters, according to RCAF Commander LGen Al Meinzinger. This is atop $3 billion for other life expension work as well as the purchase of 18 Hornets from the Royal Australian Air Force.

Ukraine is mounting a coordinated effort to facilitate its joining NATO and the European Union despite what its Dmygro Kuleba, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, sees as a “discouraging environment. He said during a visit to Washington last month that joining both alliances is vital as his country deals with Russia.

Seven companies are eagerly awaiting U.S. Air Force confirmation of the next phase of a $6.4 billion contract to provide “Red Air” aggressor training for the U.S. Air Force aggressor. A total of 22 USAF bases would participate in the program.

In a bid to increase its presence in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia, Finland is planning to acquire four multirole icebreaking corvettes. Rauma Marine Construction and Saab, the latter as combat systems provider and integrator, are the primary contractors on the €1-billion project which will see construction begin in 2022 and the ships in service by 2028.

The assassination of Iranian Gen Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad 03 January was authorized by President Donald Trump seven months ago, say current and former U.S. administration officials. The order evidently was executable if Iranian aggression resulted in the death of an American but Trump and others in his cabinet have since said the killing was prompted by concerns about what they said were imminent attacks on U.S. embassies.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr wants Apple to unlock two of its iPhones which were owned by a Saudi air force officer who was shot by police after he had killed three persons at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida last month. Insisting 13 January that it is “very important” to know about the shooter’s communications, Barr says Apple has not given investigators “substantive assistance”, a claim the company denies.

An Iranian Judiciary official said 14 January that “extensive investigations” into last week’s missile shoot-down of a Ukrainian jetliner has resulted in an undisclosed number of arrests. All 176 persons aboard the Boeing 737-800, including 57 Canadian citizens, died in the crash minutes after Flight PS752 had taken off from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport en route to Kiyv, Ukraine.

An emergency Ontario-wide alert that woke thousands to warnings of an unspecified “incident” at the Pickering nuclear station near Toronto 12 January was erroneously sent out during a training exercise. Solicitor General Sylvia Jones says there was no danger to the public or the environment.

More than a dozen Saudi servicemen training at U.S. military installations evidently are to be be expelled after a review of shootings at a U.S. Naval Air Station in Florida last month. Although not accused of aiding the 21-year-old Saudi Air Force officer who killed three Americans, some are said to have connections to extremist movements while others are accused of possessing child pornography.

Unmanned surface vessels can be used for a range of dangerous cross-ocean missions, their design and relatively small size can limit operations in rough seas. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is trying to address the issue by creating “sea trains” of four or more physically- or data-linked vessels which could exploit wave interference between each other.

Iranian state television has reported that its military "unintentionally" shot down the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 minutes after it took off from Tehran International Airport 07 January on a flight to Kyiv, Ukraine. All 176 persons aboard,  including 57 Canadian passengers, were killed. The report that "human error" resulted in a missile strike came at approximately 10 p.m. EST on 10 January -- early in the morning in Tehran.

Before this week’s loss of a Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800 in Iranian airspace, said to be due to an Iranian missile, experts at the U.S. Rand Corp. think-tank were speculating that the “severe revenge” promised in response to the killing earlier of Gen Qasem Soleimani could come in unconventional ways. “Iran will calibrate meaningful redress with its desire to not provoke a hot war,” they write. “That means the United States should be prepared for the eventuality that Iran's response may not be what we expect.”

Hoping to give its attack helicopter crews greater standoff attack range, the U.S. Army is trying out Israeli Rafael Spike non-line-of-sight missiles as an interim weapon.

Indonesia deployed four F-16 fighters to the South China Sea in a show of force 07 January after formally protesting what it said was a Chinese violation of its exclusive economic zone. Their standoff began in mid-December when a Chinese coast guard vessel accompanied fishing boats off Indonesia's northern Natuna islands.

There evidently were no U.S. or Iraqi casualties when Iranian missiles hit joint-operation bases in Iraq 07 January. Meanwhile, U.S. officials are floating the notion that Iran intentionally targeted areas not populated by Americans.

The U.S. Defense Contract Management Agency says there has been a “marked improvement” in Lockheed Martin’s deliveries of F-35 fighters in 2019, mostly on time and occasionally early. The review comes as the company seeks approval for full-rate production by the end of 2020. An official says the DCMA, which has inspectors at Lockheed Martin’s main production facilities, is “encouraged” by the development.

More than 30 persons died and hundreds have been injured in a stampede as Iranians flocked to the burial of Gen Qassem Soleimani, killed in Iraw by a U.S. drone strike along with several other senior officials. The interment in his hometown of Kerman was postponed.

The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany met in Brussels 07 January for urgent talks on their governments’ response to Iran’s decision to scrap uranium enrichment limits agreed to in 2015. The U.S. walked away from the agreement in 2018. 

British-registered vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea between Oman and Iran, are to have Royal Navy escorts as tension in the region escalates. A Duke-class Type 23 frigate and a Daring-class Type 45 destroyer are reported to have been deployed.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has ruled out on cultural sites in Iran if Washington’s conflict with Tehran escalates further. In stark contrast to a threat by President Donald Trump to destroy “significant” cultural targets, Esper acknowledged 06 January that hitting sites with no military value would be a war crime, “We will follow the laws of armed conflict,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.

In what’s being described as a slip of the tongue, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said 05 January that “we are turning Israel into a nuclear power.” He immediately corrected himself to say “energy power”, but Israel, long believed to have nuclear weapons, has neither confirmed nor denied the possibility.

Militaries worldwide currently depend mainly on bottled water or purification tablets to keep ground troops hydrated but the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is soliciting development of technologies which would extract water directly from the atmosphere.