The brand new Rapid Dragon is a highly potent weapon system that can launch a swarm of cruise missiles from a standard military transport plane. The United States, with NATO members, will for the first time exercise this strike capability inside the Arctic Circle over the Norwegian Sea, sometime from November 9 to 11.

The exercise area west of Andøya and Tromsø in Northern Norway is about 150 kilometers long and 100 kilometers wide.

From this part of the Norwegian Sea, the distance to the homeports for Russia’s nuclear submarines on the Kola Peninsula is some 650 kilometers. In February, just days before Moscow’s onslaught on Ukraine, a Northern Fleet frigate tested a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile near Norway’s Bear Island in the Barents Sea as part of a larger strategic nuclear missile drill.  […]

An advantage of the new weapon system is that the United States could rapidly provide massive strike capability to any NATO member by using the existing fleet of transport planes. Such planes, like the Hercules, can operate from landing runways as short as 900 meters.

There are several tens of such runways in northern Scandinavia, airports that can deploy the planes in case military air bases with longer runways are attacked by an adversary. […]

Andøya air base is by the Norwegian Government earmarked for receiving allied forces in case of crisis or war. The air base is on the coast to the exercise area and is today home to the country’s fleet of P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft, to be phased out as six new P-8 Poseidon will be deployed to Evenes air base. […]

The Norwegian Armed Forces have over the last years boosted training with other NATO forces inside the Arctic Circle, including joint fighter jets training with American bombers, warship navigation at sea, and army forces exercises together with the two neighboring coming members of NATO; Sweden and Finland. Läs artikel

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, currently on a visit to Vilnius, does not think that nuclear weapons could be stationed on Finnish soil following the country’s accession to NATO.
“What comes to nuclear armament, we haven’t discussed it in Finland [yet]. We will surely have discussions on all issues after we finally become members. But my own opinion is that it sounds not at all familiar to me to think that we could have nuclear armament [in Finland],” he said during a news conference in Vilnius on Friday. Läs artikel

The Pentagon will pay for the Czech Republic to upgrade 45 Soviet-era T-72 tanks for use in Ukraine, as part of the Biden administration’s latest $400 million package of military aid for the country, the department announced Friday.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands will fund the refurbishment of another 45 Czech T-72 tanks for a total of 90 that are set to begin arriving in Ukraine by the end of the year, said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh. Läs artikel

The U.S has ”no right” to interfere in Chinese cooperation with Germany, China’s foreign ministry said Thursday, after Washington cautioned against Beijing getting a controlling stake in Hamburg’s port terminal.

U.S. interference is symptomatic of its practice of coercive diplomacy, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing in Beijing.

”Pragmatic cooperation between China and Germany is a matter for the two sovereign countries, the United States should not attack it without reason and has no right to meddle and interfere,” Zhao said Thursday, a day before German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was due in Beijing for a one day visit where he is expected to meet President Xi Jinping. Läs artikel

Berlin must change the way it deals with China as the country lurches back toward a more openly ”Marxist-Leninist” political trajectory, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote in an op-ed on Thursday.

In his article for POLITICO and the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Scholz defended his trip to China on Thursday but stressed that German companies would need to take steps to reduce ”risky dependencies” in industrial supply chains, particularly in terms of ”cutting-edge technologies.” Scholz noted that President Xi Jinping was deliberately pursuing a political strategy of making international companies reliant on China. Läs artikel

USA och Storbritannien kan ha bevismaterial som förklarar flygkraschen i Kongo 1961 då FN:s generalsekreterare Dag Hammarskjöld dödades. Det framgår av en ny FN-rapport och Hammarskjölds efterträdare António Guterres begär att utredningen fortsätter.

Det är en ny, tredje, rapport från FN:s särskilde utredare av kraschen, den tidigare tanzaniske chefsdomaren Mohamed Chande Othman som läggs fram.

Dag Hammarskjölds plan kraschade för 61 år sedan vid midnatt till den 18 september 1961. Alla 16 ombord, varav nio svenskar, omkom. Planet var på väg att landa i Ndola i Nordrhodesia (nuvarande Zambia). Där skulle Hammarskjöld möta ledaren för utbrytarrepubliken Katanga, Moise Tshombe, för att få till stånd en vapenvila i Kongo.

De första nordrhodesiska haveriutredarna, lade skulden på FN-planets svenska besättning från flygbolaget Transair. Men varför planet kraschade strax före landning har aldrig klarlagts helt och hållet. Nya vittnesuppgifter om att planet attackerats av ett mindre plan framkom under 2000-talet. De ledde fram till att FN utsåg Othman till ”eminent person” för att utreda de nya rönen. Läs artikel

Hur går beslutet vidare?

Civilplikten ska återinföras ”i någon form”, säger Sveriges minister för civilt försvar Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M) till Ekot.

En återinförd civilplikt skulle innebära att svenska medborgare i stället för att göra värnplikt inom det militära kan utbildas till samhällsviktiga verksamheter, som sjukvård och räddningstjänst, vid höjd beredskap eller krig.

Utöver att återinföra civilplikten vill Carl-Oskar Bohlin också se en utökning av antalet krigsplacerade, alltså antalet svenskar med en skyldighet att tjänstgöra under höjd beredskap. Läs artikel

The launch on November 3 was expected as the submarine recently sailed out from the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk for the final state tests.

Notice to Air Missions (NOTAMs) activated in the White Sea for the dates 3 to 5 November indicated a ballistic missile launch was coming.

The Defense Ministry informs that the missile was launched from the submerged position and the target on Kamchatka was hit. It is expected that the new submarine will be commissioned to the Pacific Fleet by the end of the year. Läs artikel