The D Brief: Aid for Ukraine’s grid; Anduril’s new missiles; US chips still reach Russia; SpaceX’s spacewalk; And a bit more.
Outgoing President Joe Biden is on the verge of authorizing long-range weapons in Russia, multiple outlets (including Axios, the Telegraph, and the Guardian) have reported over the past week. A formal announcement could follow a planned meeting between the presidents of the U.S. and Ukraine when world leaders fly to New York City for the annual United Nations General Assembly later this month.
State Secretary Antony Blinken is in Kyiv today on a visit alongside his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Lammy. While there, Blinken announced another $290 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Ukraine. He also announced $325 million in new funding to help repair Ukraine’s energy and electric grid.
“We’re again seeing Putin dust off his winter playbook, targeting Ukrainian energy and electricity systems to weaponize the cold against the Ukrainian people,” Blinken said Wednesday in Kyiv.
“The UK commitment is not just for this winter,” Lammy told reporters while standing beside Blinken. “We’re talking about a hundred-year partnership because we stand with Ukraine for the long haul,” he said.
Blinken and Lammy also met with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy on Wednesday. According to Blinken, the three discussed “the situation on the battlefield, Ukraine’s objectives, and what it needs to succeed going forward,” he told reporters afterward. That included “long-range fires, but a number of other things as well,” he said, and vowed “to take that discussion back to Washington to brief the President on what I heard.”
“It is important that Ukrainian arguments are heard. This includes the long-range weapons,” said Zelenskyy, writing Wednesday after his meeting with Blinken and Lammy. He said he also emphasized “the supply of combat brigades on the front lines, and the overall strategy for achieving a just peace” in his talks Wednesday.
Related reading: "Democrats, Republicans want Biden to ease Ukraine weapons restrictions," Reuters reported Tuesday.
Welcome to this Thursday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 490 BCE, the Battle of Marathon is believed to have taken place.
Anduril’s new missile. Palmer Luckey’s California-based defense firm says it’s built a new cruise missile that costs 30 percent less than comparable weapons, a move intended to address the Pentagon’s relatively recent realization that it cannot rearm fast enough for a sustained conflict, Defense One’s Audrey Decker reports.
It’s a new line of air-breathing missiles the firm calls “Barracuda,” and company officials say it will come in three versions, ranging in payload and size: Barracuda-100, Barracuda-250, and Barracuda-500. All three variants are “flying now,” said Anduril’s Diem Salmon. The Barracuda 500 variant is one of the contenders in a Defense Innovation Unit and Air Force program to develop a one-way UAV that can be produced en masse and relatively cheaply.
“These are systems that can be assembled with tools, literally that you probably have in your garage—screwdrivers, pliers, things of that sort,” said Chris Brose, Anduril’s chief strategy officer.
By the way: Anduril recently announced its plans to build a large factory called “Arsenal” to scale up its production of weapons and drones, like the Air Force’s collaborative combat aircraft, which is a program Anduril is participating in. Read more, here.
Related reading:
- “The big loophole allowing Russia to access US chips? China,” Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reported after a Senate panel convened Tuesday;
- “Chinese Cargo Cranes at U.S. Ports Pose Espionage Risk, Probe Finds,” the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday from a joint investigation by the House Homeland Security Committee and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party;
- “Xi may meet Zelenskiy, Ukrainian delegate says, as Beijing defence forum opens,” Reuters reported Thursday from the Chinese capital;
- And “Dozens arrested at [Australian] defence expo as police clash with demonstrators,” Reuters reported Wednesday from Melbourne.
Senators are considering the promotions of two top officers this morning: Air Force Lt. Gen. Steven Nordhaus to lead the National Guard Bureau; and Navy Vice Adm. Alvin Holsey to lead U.S. Southern Command. Their nomination hearing began at 9:30 a.m. ET before the Armed Services Committee. Livestream here.
Also in Washington, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth is speaking at an event hosted by the Stimson Center. With the end of the fiscal year less than three weeks away, she’s expected to discuss “lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, the state of critical relations with NATO allies and other global partners, and new efforts to demonstrate the strength of the Army’s strategic presence in the Indo-Pacific,” according to Stimson. Details and livestream here.
SecDef Austin just nominated four Army generals for promotion, including Lt. Gen. Xavier Brunson, who currently leads the I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, to command U.S. Forces Korea; Maj. Gen. Richard Angle, who worked in the Army's Office of the Chief of Staff, to lead Special Operations Command Europe; Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, the commander of Fort Knox and the Army's Recruiting Command, who Austin has nominated for a third star; and Maj. Gen. Allan Pepin, who would move from Northern Command to lead U.S. Army North, at Joint Base San Antonio.
Related reading:
- “The Army has graduated 25,000 soldiers through pre-basic prep course,” Army Times reported Tuesday;
- “F/A-18 Super Hornet Appears With Unprecedented Heavy Air-To-Air Missile Load,” The War Zone reported Wednesday off a series of photos posted to Instagram;
- The “Pentagon wants quantum sensors that work for better GPS,” Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reported Wednesday;
- “How a sailor shortage is crippling ship maintenance at sea,” Navy Times reported Wednesday;
- And U.S. Naval Academy instructor Marissa Lemar asks, “Could a Canadian experiment help US Navy recruiting?” in a commentary published Wednesday in Defense One.
Lastly today: SpaceX just made history after four private astronauts used its Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft and specially-designed suits to conduct a spacewalk while orbiting more than 400 miles above the planet. At its highest point during orbit, the crew traveled 870 miles above the Earth, which also set a new record for astronauts not headed to the Moon.
One of SpaceX’s goals was to verify its suits’ mobility, which was performed in an especially careful fashion, as you can see from video (here and here) streamed on SpaceX’s social media accounts. The astronauts tested “their ability to move in all directions, hold a single position for 10-15 seconds, and hold position while the other arm is simulating tool use,” SpaceX said. They also tested use of the Dragon’s horizontal and vertical bars jutting out from the hatch, as well as use of a foot restraint while orbiting.
The crew are also testing Starlink’s laser-based communications systems while in space, “providing valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond,” SpaceX notes on its website for the mission.
Polaris Dawn’s commander is billionaire Jared Isaacman, who co-founded the world’s largest private air force, Draken International, whose stated goal is to train pilots for the U.S. military.
The mission is one of three planned as part of Elon Musk’s ambition to one day send people to Mars. “Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require millions of spacesuits,” SpaceX says of its Polaris Dawn mission. “The development of this suit and the execution of the spacewalk will be important steps toward a scalable design for spacesuits on future long-duration missions as life becomes multiplanetary,” the company said.
But these kinds of missions have an additional purpose, too, the New York Times reports: They “could open up other possibilities once impossible to imagine, like technicians repairing private satellites in orbit.”