Forsvaret har ikke ressourcer til at træne nye soldater hjemme og deltage med styrker i Baltikum og Ukraine på samme tid. Sådan lyder det nu fra to fagforeninger i Forsvaret, efter at et bredt flertal i Folketinget mandag har sagt god for, at Danmark kan deltage med styrker i Ukraine, hvis det bliver en del af en eventuel våbenhvile.

Men det danske forsvar er for nedslidt og tyndslidt.

– Jeg frygter, at hvis man baserer sig på den lange bane, at det skal være 1. brigades enheder, så når vi ikke de mål, der er fastsat i forliget, siger Niels Tønning, der er formand for officerernes fagforening.

Danmark har svært ved at stille en brigade, som forsvarsalliancen Nato ønsker. Det er blevet udskudt flere gange, senest til 2032.

Danmark har 800 soldater indsat i Letland, hvor de træner og skal afskrække Rusland. Derfor er der ikke samtidig plads til at sende soldater til Ukraine, hvis det skulle blive aktuelt i en eventuel våbenhvile, lyder soldaternes egen vurdering. Läs artikel

NATO scrambled fighter jets from Evenes airbase on Monday after a pair of Russian aircraft came close to the ongoing Joint Viking 2025 exercise.

The two Tu-142 anti-submarine, maritime patrol planes came from the Russian Northern Fleet’s Kipelovo airbase in Vologda region and flew out over international airspace of the Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea in the morning of March 10.

Outside Troms region, the Russian aircraft were shadowed by a pair of Norwegian F-35 fighter jets, operating inside the Arctic Circle on identification mission of NATO. Such missions are known as quick reaction alert (QRA). Appearance of Russian planes is routine when there are multinational forces on exercise in the north, the Norwegian Armed Forces states.

Joint Viking 2025 involves nine NATO member states with more than 10,000 soldiers. […]

Simultaneously as the Russian surveillance planes were circling outside the multi-nation military exercise in northern Norway was a British KC-135 Rivet Joint on intelligence gathering mission close to the Kola Peninsula.  The plane flew north over Finland and patrolled back and forth over lake Inari, only a few tens of kilometers from the border with Russia.

Such electronic gathering missions isn’t a new occurrence. Both British and US. Rivet Joint planes have for years monitored Russia’s military fingerprints from the Kola Peninsula. However, flights over northern Finland and by that the ability to collect data from the west side of the militarised Russian region, is something made possible after Finland joined NATO.

NATO-member Norway has self-imposed restrictions for allied intelligence flights in the airspace near its border with Russia, putting a ban on both U.S. and British flights like the one that on Monday took place in over northern Finland. Läs  artikel

The Air Force has trained with U.S. strategic bomber aircraft in Finnish airspace since July 2024. The United States regularly conducts Bomber Task Force deployments during which the bombers perform training missions with European NATO Allies. B-52 bombers carried out air-to-ground drops now for the first time in Finland.

‒ Air-to-ground drops in Rovajärvi firing range demonstrate our capability to execute joint fire missions. The close bilateral cooperation between Finland and the United States increases Finland’s defence capability in concrete terms. Joint operations with U.S. strategic bomber aircraft reinforce NATO’s collective defence and deterrence in the North, says Brigadier General Aki Puustinen, Chief of Staff Air Force Command Finland.

The objective of air-to-ground drops in Rovajärvi range area was to train Air Force and Army joint fires. Finnish Army and U.S. Air Force Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC) directed the drops that were conducted in accordance with the standard operating procedures and Finnish safety regulations.

The Air Force’s Hornet fighters have participated in Bomber Task Force missions in Sweden and Estonia during 2025. Läs artikel

“The New World” set itself apart from the very beginning. “We shall be a city upon a hill – the eyes of all people are upon us,” said John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The year was 1630. In due course, the message was adopted by the new American state as “the shining city on a hill,” a beacon of hope, freedom, and moral integrity and a shining example for others to follow. This exceptionalism has been a distinguishing part of the American self-image up to our time (Wertheim 2017). Generally understood, exceptionalism means that an individual, a society, an institution, or a movement is unusual or extraordinary, different from others. America was different. Especially after World War II, when the USA emerged as the largest and strongest nation by far, it was obvious for everybody to see. The new international order was unthinkable without American leadership. The USA was the indispensable one. But American exceptionalism goes deeper than that. The USA is exceptional for what it is, not for the missions it undertakes. It is the constitution, the institutions, the values and the ideals that make up the essence of the exceptionalist mindset. This is what has set the country apart – in its own eyes. The fundamental narrative is philosophical, not political. It has survived the test of time, while the politics that spring from it have changed over the years (Restad). Läs artikel

The overall volume of arms transfers globally remained at roughly the same level as in 2015–19 and 2010–14 (but was 18 per cent higher than in 2005–2009), as increasing imports in Europe and the Americas were offset by decreases in other regions. The top 10 arms exporters in 2020–24 were the same as those in 2015–19 but Russia (accounting for 7.8 per cent of global arms exports) fell to third place behind France (9.6 per cent), while Italy (4.8 per cent) jumped from 10th to sixth place. 

At least 35 states sent weapons to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and substantial further deliveries are in the pipeline. Ukraine received 8.8 per cent of global arms imports in 2020–24. Most of the major arms supplied to Ukraine came from the USA (45 per cent), followed by Germany (12 per cent) and Poland (11 per cent). Ukraine was the only European state among the top 10 importers in 2020–24, although many other European states significantly increased their arms imports in the period. Läs artikel

Ekonomen Mark Carney var favorittippad inför att partimedlemmarna skulle avlägga sina röster, och han fick ett stöd på motsvarande 86 procent av rösterna. Den snart 60-årige Carney beskrivs som en politisk novis, men har tidigare lett både Kanadas och Storbritanniens centralbanker.

För Carney väntar utmaningen att försvara Kanada från Donald Trumps upprepade attacker, där den amerikanske presidenten bland annat sagt sig vilja förvandla sin självständiga granne i norr till USA:s 51:a delstat.

– Donald Trump, som vi vet, har satt omotiverade tullar på det vi bygger, på det vi säljer och på hur vi försörjer oss. Han attackerar kanadensiska familjer, arbetare och företag, säger Carney i sitt första tal som partiledare.

– Vi kan inte låta honom lyckas och vi kommer inte att göra det, fortsätter den tillträdande premiärministern. Läs artikel

De europeiska Natoländerna har mer än dubblat sina vapenimporter under de senaste fem åren.

Det är USA som dominerar på marknaden: mer än 60 procent av vapnen har köpts från USA. Det här visar en rapport från Sipri, Stockholms internationella fredsforskningsinstitut.

Ukraina var, som väntat, världens största importör av vapen under perioden 2020–2024. USA står för 43 procent av hela världens vapenexport. År 2015–2019 var samma siffra 35 procent. […]

De största europeiska köparna av amerikanska vapen är Storbritannien, Nederländerna och Norge. […]

Mathew George konstaterar också att europeiska Natoländer fortfarande väntar på mer än 500 stridsflyg och andra vapen från USA.

”USA är främsta valet av leverantör för avancerad kapacitet för långdistansvapen som stridsflygplan”, säger han. Läs artikel

[…] Den transatlantiska länken vilar på havets botten med kapade livlinor. Natos trovärdighet är slagen i spillror. Att USA skulle skicka en enda soldat till Sverige i enlighet med DCA-avtalet får ses som ett önsketänkande. […]

I slutet av februari, två veckor efter att Trump offentliggjorde sitt telefonsamtal med Putin och knuffade iväg Europa mot en säkerhetspolitisk avgrund, publicerade Försvarsmakten sitt budgetunderlag för 2026. I den kan man läsa att ”den militärstrategiska kontexten” ändrats i och med Natointrädet och att militärens uppgift blir ”att försvara Sverige och allierade stater mot ett väpnat angrepp med utgångspunkt i det kollektiva försvaret inom Nato.”

Det är så ÖB med all rätt uppfattat medskicket från regering och riksdag. Om det inte gäller längre och det inte finns några allierade stater att lita till i ett sönderfallande Nato där USA går sin egen väg rasar försvarsplaneringen samman. Någon plan B existerar inte. I så fall måste försvaret få nya instruktioner av regeringen. Kristerssons goda förberedelser kanske inte var så heltäckande när allt kommer omkring. […]

Den svenska integreringen i Nato rullar på som det var tänkt. Det ingen kan svara på är vad Natos portalparagraf om kollektiv säkerhet är värd i ett skarpt läge, om kriget kommer. Läs artikel

U.S. President Donald Trump raised doubts about the U.S.’s defense commitments to NATO member states and Japan amid escalating tensions in Europe and Asia.

He made the relevant statements during a press conference at the White House.
Trump criticized the U.S.-Japan alliance, specifically the terms of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan.

“We have an interesting deal with Japan, that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us…. who makes these deals?” he said, adding that Japan “makes a lot of money,” referring to the trade deficit with Japan.

The security agreement, last revised in 1960, also allows the U.S. to establish and use military bases on Japanese soil. As a result of the treaty, the United States received a kind of outpost in deterring the communist bloc during the Cold War, and continues to be vital for countering threats from China and North Korea. Läs artikel