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Category: Aviation

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Planning summer travels? The CBSA gives tips for a smooth trip into Canada

    Source: Government of Canada News (2)

    June 23, 2025
    Ottawa, Ontario

    The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reminds travellers to plan ahead when crossing the border this summer.

    Every day, the CBSA works hard to protect Canadians, support the economy and ensure the safe and efficient movement of people and goods across the border. In 2024, we welcomed over 93.4 million travellers, stopped over 34,400 kg of illegal drugs from entering our communities and kept more than 17,200 weapons and 930 firearms off our streets.

    The CBSA plans and prepares for long weekends and summer travel. We monitor traveller volumes and prioritize efficient processing of travellers at land ports of entry and at international airports, without compromising safety and security. If you encounter wait times at the border, it is likely because we are working behind the scenes to conduct examinations, seize drugs, firearms or stolen vehicles, or prevent high-risk individuals from entering Canada.

    Here are some travel tips to help you plan for your trip:

    • Have your travel documents  readily available to present to an officer. This will speed up processing times at the border.
    • Be prepared to declare. Declare everything you have with you upon entry into Canada. If you arrive by land, you are responsible for everything inside your vehicle.
      • Goods purchased abroad: If you are a resident of Canada, personal exemptions allow you to bring goods, including alcohol and tobacco up to a certain value, back to Canada without paying regular duty and taxes. Make sure you know the value of goods you are bringing back in Canadian dollars and have your receipts available for the officer.
      • Surtaxes on certain U.S. goods. If you’ve purchased goods in the U.S. and are bringing them into Canada, you may have to pay a 25% surtax in addition to regular duties and taxes. For residents of Canada, this surtax applies only to goods exceeding your personal exemptions limit. Consult the lists of products surtaxed: complete lists of goods subject to the surtax. Visit the CBSA website for more details on how these surtaxes apply at the border. 
    • Flying into Canada? Use Advance Declaration and make your customs declaration up to 72 hours in advance of your arrival into Canada at participating airports.
    • Driving into Canada? Check border wait times to plan your route.
      • Early mornings are the best time to cross the border to avoid wait times.
      • The Monday of holiday long weekends tend to be the busiest.
      • Consider an alternative port of entry with shorter wait times or less traffic.
      • Check the port of entry’s hours of operation on the official CBSA Directory of Offices and Services.
      • If you are using a GPS application (such as Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze) to direct you to a port of entry, consider checking different navigation options (such as fastest and shortest routes) to determine the preferred route of travel.
    • Entering Canada by boat? If you are planning to travel in or near Canadian waters, or enter Canada by boat, you should review Reporting requirements for private boat operators before making travel plans. All travellers entering Canada by boat must report to the CBSA without delay.
    • When travelling with children who are not your own or for whom you don’t have full legal custody, we recommend you have a consent letter from the parent or legal guardian authorizing you to travel with the child. We are always watching for missing children, and in the absence of the letter, officers may ask additional questions.
    • Bringing fireworks into Canada? Consult Importing, exporting and transporting fireworks to ensure that the ones you are bringing in are authorized.
    • If you are planning on camping in Canada, note that bringing in firewood from outside of Canada is not permitted as invasive insects and diseases may be present within the wood. Help protect our forests; buy local and burn local.
    • Know before you go: review the restricted and prohibited goods to avoid the possibility of penalties, including fines, seizure or prosecution. Make sure you have the information you need before attempting to bring items into Canada.
    • Leave behind: firearms, weapons, narcotics, and cannabis.

    We encourage you to read and follow all of our travel tips before arriving at the border.

    Not sure? Ask a CBSA officer. The best way to save time is to be open and honest with the border services officer. If you are not sure about what to declare, don’t hesitate to ask!

    For more information, visit the CBSA website or call us at 1-800-461-9999.

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Update on Public Safety Efforts Amidst Ongoing Conflict

    Source: US State of New York

    arlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul updated New Yorkers on ongoing public safety efforts amidst the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

    VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

    AUDIO: The Governor’s remarks are available in audio form here.

    A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:

    Before I take questions about our energy announcement today, I want to address the conflict in the Middle East, and I know it’s a great time of uncertainty and fear in so many communities across the State of New York. And just to reaffirm, as we monitor this by the second, there are no credible threats against New York at this time.

    Just a short time ago, I convened over 100 religious and community leaders on a call to be able to let them know all the steps we’ve taken since I first became aware of the situation and immediately convened my top security team: counterintelligence, State Police, all of our partners and Homeland Security to talk about what we can do.

    Now, we also put all of our State agencies on high alert: talking about the Thruway Authority, the DOT, the subway system downstate New York — the MTA, all of our trains, our airports, water systems, utilities, NYPA. So all these are actually vulnerabilities, but it’s not something that hasn’t been contemplated. We tabletop exercises. We drill. We have highly professional individuals who are stepping up to do what they’ve been trained to do, and that is to protect our homeland and to protect the people of the State of New York.

    Also, I want to make sure we know we’re protecting all the bridges and tunnels, passenger lines and preparing for attacks on cyber infrastructure. These enormous facilities are run on technology. Cyber attacks can be crippling. We’ve had counties, hospitals under the State of New York that were attacked with ransomware threats. There’s no easy way out of those. So that’s why as the Governor, I’ve invested millions of dollars to give money to different counties so they can harden their assets and make sure that they can protect critical data that’s used to deliver services to New Yorkers.

    And also, there’s a lot of people feeling scared. They have family members in the Middle East. Religious groups, whether it’s the Jewish or Muslim communities, we have the largest groups in the State of New York of anywhere in the country, and we’re going to continue letting them know we’ll defend and fight against hate crimes. Our State Police Hate Crimes Task Force is on high alert, ready to assist anyone who needs help. So we’ll be increasing our patrols and already have at houses of worship as well.

    Lastly, I want to say this is an opportunity for New Yorkers to come together, put aside political differences and all the hatred that’s spewing online. Knowing that we have vulnerable assets. We are a vulnerable place. We are a place that has been attacked before. We are the financial capital of the world, the head of the cultural center for our country and indeed the world as well, and a place again that has withstood attacks in the past. So, as we remain on high alert, I want New Yorkers to remain on high alert, and get back to that tried and true phrase, “If you see something, say something.”

    There have been a number of attacks that have been thwarted because of vigilant individuals — our civilians who’ve stepped up and reported what they’ve seen, and we need them activated and engaged right now. But we will get through this time, and let us not forget the brave men and women of our [armed] services who are putting themselves in harm’s way every single day, and pray for them and a speedy de-escalation of this conflict and ultimately peace in the region.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: At June’s Nato summit, just keeping Donald Trump in the room will be seen as a victory

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham

    Gints Ivuskans/Shutterstock

    When Nato leaders meet for their annual summit in The Hague on Wednesday June 25, all eyes will be on Donald Trump. Not only is the 47th president of the United States less committed to the alliance than any of his predecessors in Nato’s 76-year history. But he has also just joined Israel’s war with Iran and seems to have given up his efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

    Leaders of Nato’s 32 member states should therefore have had a packed agenda. Although there are several meetings and a dinner planned for June 24, the actual summit – which has tended usually to stretch out over several days – has been reduced to a single session and a single agenda item. All of this has been done to accommodate the US president.

    A single session reduces the risk of Trump walking away from the summit early, as he did at the G7 leaders meeting in Kananaskis, Canada, on June 16.

    The single item remaining on the agenda is Nato members’ new commitment to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. This is meant to placate Trump who demanded such an increase even before his inauguration in January 2025.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Trump has frequently complained, and not without justification, that European members of the alliance invested too little in their defence and were over-reliant on the US. A draft summit declaration confirming the new spending target has now been approved after Spain secured an opt-out.

    Even accounting for Trump’s notorious unpredictability, this should ensure that Nato will survive the Hague summit intact. What is less clear is whether Nato’s members can rise to the unprecedented challenges that the alliance is facing.

    These challenges look different from each of the member states’ 32 capitals. But, for 31 of them, the continued survival of the alliance as an effective security provider is an existential question. Put simply, they need the US, while the US doesn’t necessarily need to be part of the alliance.

    The capability deficit that Canada and European member states have compared to the US was thrown into stark relief by Washington’s airstrikes against Iran over the weekend. This is not simply a question of increasing manpower and to equip troops to fight. European states also lack most of the so-called critical enablers, the military hardware and technology required to prevail in a potential war with Russia.

    This includes, among other things, intelligence capabilities, heavy-lift aircraft to quickly move troops and equipment and command and control structures that have traditionally been provided by US forces. These will take significant time and resources to replace.

    For now, Russia is tied down in Ukraine, which will buy time. And the 5%-commitment – even if not all member states will get there quickly or at all – is likely to go some way towards to mobilise the necessary resources for beefing up Europe’s defences. But time and resources are not limitless. And is not yet clear what the American commitment to Europe will be in the future and when and how it will be reduced.

    A new type of war

    Nor is it completely obvious what kind of war Europe should prepare for. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is both a very traditional war of attrition and a very modern technological showdown.

    A future confrontation with the Kremlin is initially likely to take the form of a “grey-zone” conflict, a state of affairs between war and peace in which acts of aggression happen but are difficult to attribute unambiguously and to respond to proportionately.

    This has arguably already started with Russian attacks on critical infrastructure. And as the example of Ukraine illustrates, grey-zone conflicts have the potential to escalate to conventional war.

    In February 2022, Russia saw an opportunity to pull Ukraine back into its zone of influence by brute force after and launched a full-scale invasion, hoping to capture Kyiv in a matter of a few days. This turned out to be a gross misjudgement on the Kremlin’s part. And three years on from that, if frequent Russian threats are to be believed, the possibility of a nuclear escalation can no longer be ruled out either.

    Key members of the alliance are unequivocal in their assessment of Russia as an existential threat to Europe. This much has been made clear in both the UK’s strategic defence review and the recent strategy paper for the German armed forces.

    Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, the former prime minister of The Netherlands, gives a press conference before the Nato summit.

    Yet, this is not a view unanimously shared. Trump’s pro-Putin leanings date back to their now infamous meeting in Helsinki when he sided with the Russian president against his own intelligence services.

    In Europe, long-term Putin supporters Victor OrbanOrbán and Robert Fico, the prime ministers of EU and Nato members Hungary and Slovakia, have just announced that they will not support additional EU sanctions against Russia.

    Hungary and Slovakia are hardly defence heavyweights, but they wield outsized institutional power. Their ability to veto decisions can disrupt nascent European efforts both within the EU and Nato to rise to dual challenge of an increasingly existential threat to Europe from Russia and American retrenchment from its 80-year commitment to securing Europe against just that threat.

    What will, and more importantly what will not, happen at the Nato summit in The Hague will probably be looked back on as another chapter in the remaking of the international order and the European security architecture. A Nato agreement on increased defence spending should be enough to give the organisation another lease of life. But the implicit inability to agree on what is the main threat the alliance needs to defend itself against is likely to put a short expiration date on that.



    Read more:
    US joins Israel in attack on Iran and ushers in a new era of impunity

    Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU’s Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.

    – ref. At June’s Nato summit, just keeping Donald Trump in the room will be seen as a victory – https://theconversation.com/at-junes-nato-summit-just-keeping-donald-trump-in-the-room-will-be-seen-as-a-victory-259585

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Business leaders welcome the government’s modern Industrial Strategy

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Business leaders welcome the government’s modern Industrial Strategy

    Business leaders have welcomed the government’s modern Industrial Strategy – a 10-year plan to promote growth.

    Business leaders from across the UK have welcomed the government’s modern Industrial Strategy. The Strategy is a 10-year plan to promote business investment and growth and make it quicker, easier and cheaper to do business in the UK.

    The plan focuses on 8 sectors where the UK is already strong and there’s potential for faster growth: Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy Industries, Creative Industries, Defence, Digital and Technologies, Financial Services, Life Sciences, and Professional and Business Services.

    Joint statement from business groups: 

    “The Industrial Strategy launched today marks a significant step forward and a valuable opportunity for the business community to rally behind a new vision for the UK—boosting confidence, sentiment, and enthusiasm for investment. 

    “From start-ups and small businesses to large corporates, businesses need a more attractive, stable environment that enables faster, easier, and more certain investment decisions.  

    “We welcome the Government’s engagement with businesses across the UK. Much of what we’ve shared has been heard and reflected in this strategy. While there’s more to do, we are ready to support the next steps. 

    “We encourage businesses nationwide to get behind this strategy and champion the UK as the best place to live, work, invest, and do business.” 

    Statement on behalf of: 

    • Shevaun Haviland, Director General, British Chambers of Commerce 

    • Rain Newton-Smith, Director General, Confederation of British Industry 

    • Aaron Asadi, Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise Nation 

    • Tina McKenzie, Policy and Advocacy Chair, Federation of Small Businesses 

    • Stephen Phipson, Chief Executive Officer, Make UK 

    • Michelle Ovens, Founder, Small Business Britain 

    • Dom Hallas, Executive Director, Startup Coalition 

    Advanced Manufacturing 

    Dr Hayaatun Sillem CBE, Chief Executive, Royal Academy of Engineering:

    “We are delighted to see the announcement of new skills packages for tech, engineering and defence, recognising that the Industrial Strategy’s objectives simply cannot be delivered without a significant boost to investment in our engineering and tech talent base. These packages provide a much-needed opportunity for government to take a holistic view of the rapidly changing skills landscape, and to work with partners across industry and professional bodies to make sure the UK tackles its longstanding skills and diversity deficits in these crucial areas. Today is International Women in Engineering Day – a reminder that we still have much to do to deliver equitable participation in these high-value jobs, and better outcomes for people from all parts of the UK. 

    “The Royal Academy of Engineering looks forward to supporting government in taking forward these recommendations, including through our new Skills Centre. We also welcome the publication of the Technology Adoption Review and hope that this will result in meaningful action to increase the capacity of the UK’s industrial base and public sector to deploy existing technologies at the scale and pace demanded in today’s tech-driven world.” 

    John Harrison, General Counsel and Head of Public Affairs, Airbus:

    “Airbus welcomes the UK’s modern Industrial Strategy. Having worked closely with the Government to help shape this plan, we are delighted to see it deliver a long-term vision, built on a genuine partnership with industry.  

    “The firm long-term commitment to the full innovation lifecycle, from R&D in the Aerospace Technology Institute to a focus on commercialisation and supply chain resilience, provides the confidence and stability needed to fuel innovation and anchor high-value manufacturing in the UK for decades to come. The significant new investment in skills is also critical, creating a strong pipeline of engineering and digital talent, which will be the foundation for developing the sustainable technologies of the future, from hydrogen-powered aircraft to next-generation space systems. We stand ready to help turn this ambitious strategy into a reality for British industry.” 

    Clean Energy  

    Dhara Vyas, CEO, Energy UK:

    “Energy UK welcomes the Government’s new Industrial Strategy and Clean Energy Industries sector plan, which rightly recognise the pivotal role energy will play across the whole economy, powering growth through digitalisation and electrification, boosting regional prosperity and delivering economic security and resilience.   

    “Stable, affordable energy prices will help ensure that the UK remains a competitive place to do business, and in an increasingly uncertain global operating environment, clean power will deliver energy security. Focussing on priority technologies where the UK has global expertise will deliver a strong competitive advantage for our businesses and economy.   

    “We know the investment necessary to decarbonise the economy will mostly be funded by the private sector. Clarity on Government policy, removal of the barriers to investment and targeted support are all essential to meet this ambition.”     

    Sue Ferns, Senior Deputy General Secretary, Prospect Union:  

    “Boosting clean energy is not only an important mission in its own right, it is central to the success of every other sector. It is welcome to see the government doubling down on this mission, focusing investment on key technologies like renewables and nuclear energy, and recognising the key role that trade unions play as partners in this strategy.  

    “Securing the investment is important, but perhaps the biggest challenge in this area is around the workforce. The energy workforce is undergoing an unprecedented transition, which creates opportunities for many but also serious challenges that need to be addressed.  

    “Delivering on this strategy in a way which creates prosperity and supports jobs will require the government’s forthcoming energy workforce plan to be as ambitious as possible and fully backed by all parts of government.”  

    Martin Pibworth, Chief Executive Designate, SSE plc:

    “The government’s industrial strategy is a welcome signal of long-term thinking and ambition – doubling down on homegrown energy is the right thing for security, resilience and affordability, making the most of the UK’s competitive geographical and technical advantages in renewables in particular. It’s exactly the kind of commitment that gives industry the confidence to deliver at pace and scale, and with important decisions on energy policy expected in the weeks ahead, we hope to see a continued focus on unlocking investment that drives growth. As the UK’s clean energy champion, SSE is investing £17.5bn over five years to 2027 – building the infrastructure, creating high-quality jobs, supporting the supply chain and driving the innovation needed to deliver a net zero economy.” 

    Creative Industries 

    Caroline Norbury, Chief Executive, Creative UK: 

    “The Sector Plan signals that the creative industries are central to the UK’s growth story. From freelancers to scale-ups, this is a step towards the joined-up support our sector needs – and Creative UK stands ready to work with government and industry partners to turn ambition into action.  

    “As we move into delivery mode, it’s essential that all parts of the sector – from cultural organisations to creative tech firms – are empowered to grow, invest and contribute fully to the UK’s economic future.” 

    Dana Strong, Sky Group CEO:  

    “We warmly welcome the Government’s support for the UK’s creative industries in today’s Industrial Strategy. The media and entertainment sector is a cultural powerhouse and a key driver of growth, with the potential to add £10 billion to the economy and create 40,000 jobs by 2033. Seizing this opportunity is vital to maintaining the UK’s global leadership in creativity.” 

    Alison Lomax, Managing Director, YouTube UK & Ireland:  

    “We welcome the Creative Industries Sector Plan’s commitment to a robust framework for creatives across the UK. It’s particularly encouraging to see the government acknowledge the digital creator economy’s vital role in driving growth for our creative industries. By embracing new distribution models that boost our cultural exports, this vision will solidify the UK’s position as a global cultural superpower.” 

    Defence 

    David Lockwood OBE, CEO, Babcock International:

    “We welcome the release of the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy today, setting out the strategic direction for critical sectors including advanced manufacturing, space and nuclear. The Government’s intent to back British businesses and invest in sovereign industries will lay the foundations for economic growth and unleash the potential of the growth sectors to drive prosperity across the UK. We look forward to the publication of the Defence Sector Plan, and working with the Government to bolster the British defence industrial base and safeguard our national and economic security.” 

    Charles Woodburn, Chief Executive, BAE Systems: 

    “The UK’s modern Industrial Strategy rightly recognises the importance of investing in skills and developing a workforce for the future. The UK’s defence sector is a powerhouse of skilled employment and training. Across the supply chain, it’s critical that we continue to invest in our people, just as much as we invest in technology, to ensure we can deliver the capabilities our armed forces need to stay ahead in an era of increasing instability. 

    “That’s why, this year alone, BAE Systems is recruiting more than 2,400 new apprentices and graduates across the UK and we recognise the importance of government, industry and academia working together to develop the talent needed to support this critical high growth sector.” 

    Paul Livingston CBE, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin UK & NATO: 

    “Lockheed Martin welcomes publication of the UK government’s Modern Industrial Strategy and especially its identification of defence, space, and digital technologies as core areas for driving economic growth and expanding mutually beneficial international partnerships with the United States, NATO and their allies. With 28 facilities spanning the length and breadth of the country we’re committed to combining the best skills, expertise and technologies from the UK and the United States to boost capacity, sustain jobs and deliver economic benefits in both countries.” 

    Digital and Tech 

    Antony Walker, Deputy CEO, techUK: 

    “Today, the government has outlined welcome measures to boost confidence for the UK tech sector and the wider economy. 

    “techUK has long called for the Industrial Strategy to focus on strengthening the conditions for growth of the UK tech sector and accelerating the adoption of new technologies across the economy and public services. 

    “In an era of rapid technological change, the government must now work in true partnership with business to bolster investment and digital adoption across the whole of the UK economy and secure the country’s competitive advantage in key markets, including semiconductors and AI. techUK, and our members, stand ready to support this government to do so.” 

    Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, BT Group: 

     “Long-term plans which have positive impact pay.  

    “BT has invested over £24bn in the UK so far this decade and will invest a further £20bn before it’s done, to upgrade the country’s digital infrastructure.  

    “That’s why we welcome the Government’s Industrial Strategy for the decade ahead. 

    “And it’s great to see it give telecoms prominence: at the centre of a high-growth sector as well as a lever for growth in the wider economy.  

    “We look forward to working more with Government on steps they can take to unlock further growth, and make sure the UK’s record-breaking fibre success story is followed fast by an acceleration in 5G too.” 

    Emily Turner, UK CEO, HSBC Innovation Banking:

    “I welcome today’s Industrial Strategy, which sets out positive steps to back the UK’s growth driving sectors, particularly Digital and Technologies. This ten-year strategy will help position the UK as an open and attractive destination for talent and investment, at a time when global competition is particularly acute.  ”We look forward to working closely with our clients and the government to ensure the effective implementation of the sector plans to help realise the full ambition of the UK’s industrial strategy, while ensuring that it remains flexible to keep pace with technological developments.” 

    Darren Hardman, CEO, Microsoft UK:

    “This is a really progressive plan from the Government. Cutting red tape, reducing energy costs, accelerating the delivery of new projects and ensuring the UK has a highly skilled workforce to take advantage of the AI economy. These are all critical factors in encouraging investment from businesses here in the UK and around the world.” 

    Vishal Marria, Founder and CEO, Quantexa:  

    “This Industrial Strategy is a key moment for the UK’s growth economy. By addressing structural headwinds like energy costs and grid access, the government is unlocking the potential of British industry. As a UK-founded data and AI company, we welcome the vision to make Britain the best place to build, scale, and invest. Lowering business electricity costs, accelerating clean energy, and prioritising digital skills are vital for sectors like technology, financial services, defence, and advanced manufacturing – all of which will rely on AI and trusted data to compete and lead. This strategy is the bold signal of confidence UK industry has been waiting for.” 

    Financial Services 

    Hannah Gurga, Director General, ABI:  

    “Today’s Industrial Strategy delivers a clear long-term growth vision, commitment to genuine partnership with business and the regulatory certainty firms need to thrive. We’re pleased that financial services has been recognised as a key growth sector and look forward to working with government on the detailed sector plan. 

    “The expansion of the British Business Bank’s capacity and its new £6.6 billion growth-capital commitment will unlock vital funding to support smaller UK businesses and drive growth.” 

    Miles Celic OBE, Chief Executive Officer, TheCityUK:  

    “The ambitions of today’s Industrial Strategy are laudable, highlighting the priorities for national growth.  Financial and related professional services are crucial to its success, from unlocking private capital for innovative businesses to increasing investible opportunities across the regions and nations. 

    “We believe that supporting growth across whole country is particularly important and we are pleased to see the establishment of the Strategic Investment Opportunities Unit within the Office for Investment. This is the first critical step in the proposal we’ve been pushing to attract investors and capital. 

    “Transforming both the planning and public procurement processes, making it easier for businesses to bring in global talent whilst addressing the skills shortfall here in the UK, and strengthening global market partnerships are vital for future proofing the economy and are steps where our industry has long called for action. 

    “The detailed delivery plans for each of the eight sectors of the Industrial Strategy will be critical to realising its ambition. We look forward to seeing these. The vital issue now is delivery. We are committed to working closely with government and the regulators on the successful execution of these ambitions.” 

    James Alexander, CEO, UKSIF: 

    “We welcome the overarching ambition of the Industrial Strategy, which feels like a generational shift in thinking. This rightly recognises that government and investors need to work in partnership through a shared vision so we can make the UK the ‘sustainable finance capital of the world’.” 

    Life Sciences 

    Richard Torbett, Chief Executive, ABPI: 

    “This strategy sets out a clear vision for how to grow the UK economy and is rightly focused on many of the key inputs the country needs to get right to create the conditions for success. The task now must be to move quickly from planning to delivery, rapidly boosting UK attractiveness for investment and returning the country to international competitiveness.   “For UK life sciences, a successful strategy means ensuring the UK is not only a cutting-edge place to research and develop the medicine of the future, but also a country which seeks to embrace and use the life-changing innovations we are developing. This will be the key litmus test for success in the upcoming life science sector plan and the NHS 10-year plan, where we hope to see more detail.” 

    Steve Bates OBE, CEO, UK BioIndustry Association (BIA): 

     “The Industrial Strategy has prioritised the life sciences sector because it will disproportionately drive economic growth over the next decade and help deliver an NHS fit for the future. 

    “SMEs are the lifeblood of this innovative industry and a strength of the UK ecosystem, securing £3.7 billion investment last year, much of it from overseas. We are on the verge of creating a new generation of globally-impactful companies, so it is a smart move by Government to establish a dedicated support service to help 10–20 high-potential UK life science companies scale, attract investment, and remain headquartered in the UK. 

    “The £4 billion British Business Bank Industrial Strategy Growth Capital initiative will bring new agility to support fledgling companies and cutting-edge technologies as part of the pro-innovation Industrial Strategy. We look forward to working closely with the Bank as they establish this programme for our sector. 

    “These, alongside improved health data resources for innovators, faster clinical trials, more streamlined and joined-up medicines regulation and access pathways, and investments in medicines manufacturing, mean this Industrial Strategy and the upcoming Life Sciences Sector Plan deliver across the breadth of BIA’s priorities on behalf of our members. These plans are just the beginning, however, as we will now get down to the serious work of delivering these commitments in partnership with the Government.” 

    Professor Andrew Morris CBE FRSE PMedSci, President, Academy of Medical Sciences:   

    “Today’s Industrial Strategy represents a significant step forward for UK life sciences – placing the sector at the heart of our economic future and recognising health and wealth are inseparable. This bold vision acknowledges what the Academy of Medical Sciences has long argued: that our world-leading research institutions, the NHS and our exceptional scientific talent can drive national and regional renewal in ways no other sector can match.  

    “We are particularly encouraged by the Government’s ambitious goal to make the UK the leading life sciences economy in Europe by 2030, and the third most important globally by 2035. This scale of ambition, combined with over £2bn of committed funding, demonstrates the recognition that life sciences uniquely delivers both economic prosperity and improved health outcomes for all.   

    “The strategy’s focus on pillars for the life sciences – supporting world-class R&D, making the UK an outstanding place to start and grow life sciences businesses, and driving health innovation through NHS reform – provides the framework needed to unlock the sector’s full potential. We welcome the commitment to continue investing in discovery research alongside applied sciences, ensuring we maintain curiosity-driven research that underpins future breakthroughs.  

    “Alignment with the forthcoming NHS 10-Year Health Plan offers unprecedented opportunity to ensure that cutting-edge innovations deliver rapid benefits for patients whilst driving economic growth. We look forward to the detailed life sciences sector plan that will translate these ambitions into action, and will continue working with Government to deliver this vision where scientific excellence drives both patient benefit and national prosperity as the UK achieves its full potential as a global leader in life sciences.”   

    Professional and Business Services 

    Malcolm Gomersall, CEO, Grant Thornton UK:   

    “The publication of the Industrial Strategy is a welcome step forward in setting out a clear, long-term path for growth in the sectors that are powering our economy.   

    “The strategy and the Professional and Business Services plan reflect our own investment priorities for the future, such as increased tech and AI adoption, fostering a highly skilled workforce in areas such as cyber security, digital and net zero transition and growing our specialist capabilities which support the expansion of our clients into international markets. I welcome the clear intention that the wider sector deliver this strategy in partnership with the Government through the Professional and Business Services Council. 

    “As an employer of over 5,500 people in one UK’s fastest growing and most resilient sectors, ourown journey and track record over recent years has been remarkable. To achieve our ambitious growth plans, we know that we need to continue investing in the future, which means ensuring our people have the right skills and tools for a new era of business.” 

    Jon Holt, Group Chief Executive and UK Senior Partner, KPMG: 

    “The UK is the second-largest exporter of professional and business services, making our industry central to this country’s economic strength. We are at the forefront of the AI revolution, we are major employers of diverse talent and we support businesses of all sizes across the country. As a global success story it’s only right that we’re recognised as a high growth sector.  

    “This industrial strategy makes bold choices and sets clear priorities. Its impact will come from a genuine partnership between Government and business, working together on wins to really unlock the growth, profitability and investment that will shape the UK’s future.” 

    Rachel Taylor, Government and Health Industries Leader, PwC: 

    “An industrial strategy without business is just a wish list. The UK Government’s new strategy sets a welcome direction – and business stands ready to turn ambition into action. 

    “Skills are the new growth currency. The Strategy sets out a bold plan to close the UK’s skills gap, and this will make important steps in addressing business leaders’ concerns that we are losing top talent to other countries. We must work together – government, business and our world-class education institutions – to build the workforce of the future and keep that talent here. 

    “Business is ready to lean in. With the right framework, we can unlock investment, drive innovation and deliver the growth and opportunity this strategy sets out to achieve.”

    Updates to this page

    Published 23 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Russia will develop armed forces as a guarantee of sovereign and independent development – Russian President V. Putin

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    Moscow, June 23 (Xinhua) — Russia will continue to develop its armed forces to ensure sovereignty and independent development, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday during a meeting with graduates of military universities.

    “The current international situation is changing dynamically. We see how the situation in the Middle East has sharply worsened. Non-regional powers are also being drawn into the conflict. All this is bringing the world to a very dangerous point,” V. Putin stated.

    According to him, Russia cannot help but be concerned by the fact that a number of Western politicians continue to hatch plans to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. Therefore, increasing the combat capabilities of all types of armed forces and branches of the armed forces remains an urgent task.

    In connection with the increased role of unmanned aerial vehicles in modern conflicts, a new branch of the armed forces is being formed in Russia — troops of unmanned systems, V. Putin reported. A set of organizational measures for the formation of the Moscow and Leningrad military districts is being completed. Marine brigades will be deployed in divisions, as a result of which their striking power and combat capabilities will qualitatively increase.

    “We will pay special attention to our nuclear triad. Thus, modern Yars systems will be delivered to the Strategic Missile Forces, and the aviation component of the strategic nuclear forces will be replenished with modernized Tu-160M missile carriers this year,” the Russian president noted.

    “Serial production of the latest medium-range missile system, Oreshnik, which has proven itself very well in combat conditions, is underway,” the Russian leader added. –0–

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: The Quiet Professionals: Building the mission, one base at a time

    Source: US State of Wyoming

    Wyoming Air National Guard

    By Airman 1st Class Michael Swingen

    The Quiet Power Behind the Mission

    CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Every day, people flip on a light switch, run hot water, and turn up the air conditioning without giving it a second thought. Phones charge. Toilets flush. Stormwater drains away. Every day, people drive on smooth, paved roads and work in buildings that stay upright with silent beams and pillars.

    Although often invisible in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, even the smallest part of the built environment is a testament to the civil engineers who make the world a hospitable place. Although they work in plain sight, they are quiet professionals who do not seek recognition or praise.

    They just want the lights to come on.

    The Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron recently returned from a weeklong trip to the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site, where they received hands-on training in their respective trades and crafts. The trip also included 15 Airmen from the 90th Civil Engineering Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base.

    Specialists in heavy construction operation, structural, water and fuel systems maintenance, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, or HVAC/R, electrical power production, electrical systems, and engineer assistants all do their part in the world of civil engineering.

    And while working in the Wyoming Air National Guard, they do their part in a unique context, too.

    “We build bases,” said U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Christian Lowe, who helps lead the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron. “You take a patch of dirt somewhere in the world and the Air Force says, ‘Dibs,’ and it’s flattened. Then there’s tents, air traffic control towers, and a runway. All these things are built up. It’s tangible, it’s palpable, it’s touchable. And for the right-minded person, it’s hugely gratifying.”

    In the Air National Guard, civil engineering is divided into two specialized units with distinct but overlapping missions. One unit is the Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer, also known as RED HORSE. They are a highly mobile, rapidly deployable response force that builds bases in combat zones. The other specialized unit is Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force, or Prime BEEF, which focuses on maintaining bases and their utility systems, whether at home or abroad.

    The Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron is a Prime BEEF squadron.

    Surveyors, Specialists and the Science of Repair

    During the weeklong training exercise, U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Vinny Wagoner, an engineer assistant, peered through a surveying instrument while measuring the 3,500-foot-long airstrip at the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site.

    Resting at a cross-section of theory and application, an engineer assistant uses a lot of math, maps and rulers.

    “The thing I enjoy about the job is you get a lot of updated toys, like state-of-the-art surveying equipment,” Wagoner said. “You have to keep up with the times.”

    An engineer assistant resembles a superhero with a day job, like Clark Kent, with two distinct wardrobes. Indoors, Wagoner sports business casual while plotting an airstrip from scratch on the geospatial software program GeoExPT. Outdoors, he dons a hard hat while making onsite inspections, muddying his steel-toe boots in a construction zone.

    They also help if an airstrip gets bombed.

    The system the U.S. Air Force uses to repair a cratered airstrip is called Rapid Airfield Damage Recovery, or RADR.

    After an attack, damage assessment teams glass the airstrip with binoculars, collecting information. Drones sweep overhead. Towers detect. Together, they identify debris, unexploded ordnance, craters and camouflets, and spall damage from an attack. The information is fed into GeoExPT, which creates a real-time map of the pockmarked airstrip.

    Members of Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or EOD, are the first personnel on the airstrip, combing it for munitions that failed to detonate on impact. They neutralize them through a variety of means. For example, they carry out blow-and-go operations, placing premade charges near the munitions and detonating them. They conduct standoff munitions disruptions, employing small arms from a distance. Sometimes they unwire unexploded munitions.

    Once bulldozers broom off all the shells and debris, the craters must be filled. Each step in the process has a dedicated crew that performs their tasks with assembly-line execution.

    Muscle Memory, Machines and Motivation

    First, the engineer assistant measures the lip of the crater’s edge, homing in on the entire patch of airstrip that has bulged, even to the slightest degree. For safety and functionality purposes, it is imperative the runway remain level.

    Another crew attaches a wheel saw to a compact track loader, or CTL, to cut out the cratered patch of airstrip. The wheel saw looks like a giant steel pizza cutter that is 45 or 60 inches in diameter, respectively. The six-person crew divides into two sub-crews, each with two CTL operators and a spotter. Two CTLs face each other on parallel sides of a crater, cutting through concrete at approximately one foot per minute. The whirl of the wheel saw is shrill.

    The next step removes the crater and the surrounding upheaval. An excavator with an impactor pounds the cut-out block of concrete, pulverizing it. An excavator with a bucket scoops out the rubble, leaving behind a precise square hole in the ground. It is two feet deep.

    The slash-and-splash technique is a method used to backfill the excavated area. A 3,000-pound sack of flowable-fill material is suspended over the square hole on the fork of an excavator. A spotter slashes the bag, pouring out the material until it reaches 10 inches to the top. The remaining inches are capped with rapid-setting concrete or asphalt poured from a volumetric mixer. Finally, the new patch of airstrip is rolled and raked smooth.

    After an attack, one team can repair up to 18 craters in less than seven hours.

    “Muscle memory gets built into all these pieces of equipment,” Lowe said. “That’s why we have our guys practice going out there, finding a crater, and getting it back to where we are launching planes off that runway again.”

    In addition to ensuring operational readiness after an attack, the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron put their skills to work in a variety of other contexts and scenarios during their weeklong training exercise.

    All week long, the Dirt Boys reared in their heavy machinery, kicking up dust all around them. Before the dust settled, the black silhouette of the bulldozer resembled an apex predator on the savannah. U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Nicholas Cardillo and U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Levi Phillips, specialists in heavy construction operation, often wore mirrored sunglasses that reflected the glare of day as they worked late into the afternoon.

    Building Futures and Flying Home

    Before enlisting, Phillips worked construction in the private sector before realizing he wanted to do it in a more challenging context. Navedo came from a military family and knew he wanted to serve but wasn’t sure how. They both landed in the 90th Civil Engineering Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base and haven’t looked back.

    “Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to get behind a piece of equipment or drive a truck,” Phillips said. “For my job, we grade roads. Then we drive on it two weeks later, and you’re like, ‘Oh, I did that.’ I just think it’s cool.”

    Cardillo agreed. “It’s fun,” he said. “You always have something different going on. And then you get to see the work you’ve put in. You get to see it pay off. There’s so many things we drive by right now that we had a hand in building. That part of it is really cool.”

    Neither of them had operated a crane until North Carolina. They took turns in the cab with the joystick, feeling the flow of the boom as it swung across the sky. The test weight they used was a 900-pound drum. Cardillo dropped anchor and hooked the drum.

    “It seemed easy at first when you were dropping the claw,” Cardillo said. “But when you put weight on it and you start moving back and forth, it really starts swinging. It took me some time to get used to that and figure out how to catch the load swing.”

    Once he began to operate the joystick with just the tips of his fingers, the movements became smoother.

    “That crane really put something in me,” Phillips said. “With the crane, you boom out, stick up, pick the boom up, and lower your winch all at the same time. There’s always something going on. It’s just very cool.”

    Thanks to their training in the military, Cardillo and Phillips are certified in dozers, excavators, jackhammers, rollers, loaders, graders, sweepers, water truck, dump truck, asphalt, concrete and more. Phillips wants to get certified in crane operation now. All this training is provided by the U.S. Air Force.

    The training in civil engineering is always cutting-edge. Back home, the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron partners with Laramie County Community College, sending shops to get trained with staff and instructors at the school.

    “All our training is in line with the industry standard in the private sector,” Lowe said. “If you’re going through an electrician’s course, for example, you’re training to the National Electrical Code. You’re getting exposed to everything you would see on the civilian side and getting qualified for it.”

    U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Luis Navedo did his research before signing on to be a specialist in HVAC/R.

    “I have my universal license through my Air Force training, and that’s for life,” he said. “Once I get out after four years, I can buy and sell refrigerant anywhere.”

    Also, Navedo is proud to be a specialist in HVAC/R for the military.

    “Think of a base like Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada,” he said. “It’s like 115 degrees there every day. Let’s say there’s no HVAC, all the servers would melt. Then the mission is impacted, and everyone starts losing their head. Cooling and heating is essential.”

    During the weeklong training exercise, instructors at the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site marveled at the work ethic on display by the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron.

    “They were phenomenal,” U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Tyler Nadeau, an electrical cadre, said. “They were proactive. They asked questions.”

    Other equipment the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron trained on during the week included the Mobile Aircraft Arresting System, the Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit, the BEAR Distribution System and the Expeditionary Airfield Lighting System.

    “On Monday, they had no clue about a new piece of equipment,” Nadeau said. “On Friday, they could teach it.”

    Soon it was time to go back home.

    The 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron packed up and headed to the airstrip, waiting for a lift.

    After a while, a shimmering trace appeared in the sky, magnifying into a C-130 Hercules in its final descent. It thundered down at around 100 knots, roaring by the cheering 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron. The buzzing propellers still whirled ferociously as the aircraft turned around and taxied back to the passengers before coming to a full stop.

    The rear cargo door lowered, settling into the baked airstrip. A loadmaster in a flight suit approached the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron. An officer broke from the group and met him at the edge of the airstrip, shaking hands.

    With cargo bags hoisted over their shoulders, the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron filed onto the rear ramp of the C-130 Hercules, locating their seats. They buckled in and grabbed a fistful of red netting. The loadmasters worked in a whirl of straps, winches and staticky headset communication. Soon the rear cargo door raised again, pinching off the North Carolina daylight.

    A few remaining Airmen watched as the aircraft peeled off the runway and shrank soundlessly into the sky, bringing everyone back home. The takeoff and landing of a C-130 Hercules would not be possible without the 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron at the Wyoming Air National Guard and people like them. But they do not seek glory or praise.

    They are the quiet professionals.

    The Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron recently returned from a weeklong trip to the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site, where they all received hands-on training in their respective trades and crafts from April 27-May 3, 2025. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class Michael Swingen)
    The Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron recently returned from a weeklong trip to the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site, where they all received hands-on training in their respective trades and crafts from April 27-May 3, 2025. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class Michael Swingen)
    The Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron recently returned from a weeklong trip to the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site, where they all received hands-on training in their respective trades and crafts from April 27-May 3, 2025. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class Michael Swingen)
    The Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron recently returned from a weeklong trip to the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site, where they all received hands-on training in their respective trades and crafts from April 27-May 3, 2025. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class Michael Swingen)
    The Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Civil Engineer Squadron recently returned from a weeklong trip to the North Carolina Air National Guard Regional Training Site, where they all received hands-on training in their respective trades and crafts from April 27-May 3, 2025. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class Michael Swingen)

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: First RAF flight for British nationals leaves Israel

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    First RAF flight for British nationals leaves Israel

    As announced by the Foreign Secretary in the House of Commons, A RAF flight to take vulnerable British nationals and their dependents out of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) has departed this afternoon.

    • The RAF flight to transport vulnerable British nationals and their dependents out of Israel and the OPTs left today
    • Further flights will be based on demand and the latest security situation
    • British nationals should continue to register their presence in Israel and the OPTs to be contacted with further guidance on potential further flights

    Addressing the House of Commons today, the Foreign Secretary announced the first RAF flight to help vulnerable British nationals wanting to leave Israel and the OPTs has taken off this afternoon (23 Jun) from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. 

    The flight is for vulnerable British nationals plus their immediate family members who are eligible to travel. All passengers must hold a valid travel document and non-British immediate family members require valid visas/permission to enter or remain that was granted for more than six months. 

    The government has worked with partners in recent weeks to enable this flight to operate, with further flights to be considered depending on demand and the latest security situation on the ground. British nationals in Israel and the OPTs urged to continue to register their presence to be contacted with further guidance on any future flights. 

    Foreign Secretary David Lammy said:   

    Throughout the crisis, the safety of British Nationals in the region has been our top priority. That is why the UK Government is working with the Israeli authorities to arrange RAF and charter flights to help those wanting to leave. 

    Today’s flight will bring British nationals and their dependents safely back to the UK. While the situation in the Middle East remains volatile, we are working around the clock to secure more flights and bring more people home.

    Due to ongoing restrictions in Israeli airspace and the security situation on the ground, the government used an RAF A-400M aircraft for the flight from Tel Aviv to Cyprus – with passengers due to transfer on to a civilian charter aircraft for the onwards journey to the UK this afternoon. 

    Those eligible for the flights will be expected to pay for their seat – and payment will be taken on registration via the flight booking form. This fee will be refunded to those who are not allocated a seat – in line with the government’s approach to previous charter flights from the region. 

    UK Government officials have been working around the clock to keep British nationals safe, with consular officers deployed to the border in Jordan and extra consular support based near the border in Egypt. These officials are on hand to provide advice on onward travel to British nationals crossing and support to vulnerable British nationals.  FCDO Rapid Deployment Teams are working across the region to bolster the support offered by British Embassy officials.     

    British nationals should continue to register via the Register Your Presence portal that will be used to confirm any further details in due course. 

    Commercial flights are continuing to operate from Egypt and Jordan, and international land border crossings to these countries remain open. 

    The situation remains volatile and the government’s ability to run flights out of Israel and the OPTs could change at short notice. 

    Media enquiries

    Email newsdesk@fcdo.gov.uk

    Telephone 020 7008 3100

    Email the FCDO Newsdesk (monitored 24 hours a day) in the first instance, and we will respond as soon as possible.

    Updates to this page

    Published 23 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Estes Leads Letter Supporting American Aerospace Trade

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ron Estes (R-Kansas)

    Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas), representative of the Air Capital of the World and co-chair of the House Aerospace Caucus, recently led a letter with 23 colleagues urging United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer and the Trump administration to build on the zero-zero tariff environment for aerospace and defense manufacturing as part of the 1979 Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft.
     
    “America’s A&D companies are global leaders in manufacturing and sustaining technologies across the commercial aviation, defense, and space sectors,” writes Rep. Estes and colleagues. “The U.S. A&D industry produces the best systems and components in the world, resulting in the largest consistent trade surplus across the U.S. manufacturing sector. In 2023, American A&D exports were $135.9 billion, and imports were $61.4 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $74.5 billion.”
     
    The letter concludes, “For these reasons, we respectfully urge the Administration to build on the success of the zero-zero tariff environment in this sector by reinforcing such treatment through all bilateral trade negotiations. This will drive additional U.S. competitiveness in the global aerospace sector. We appreciate the Administration’s continued attention on these issues and look forward to a sustained partnership to make sure America continues to drive leadership of the global aerospace industry.”
     
    Rep. Estes was joined by Reps. Sam Graves, Adrian Smith, Mike Kelly, David Schweikert, Kevin Hern, Carol D. Miller, Gregory F. Murphy, M.D., Blake D. Moore, Beth Van Duyne, Mike Carey, Brian K. Fitzpatrick, Rudy Yakym III, Jack Bergman, Pete Stauber, Tracey Mann, Barry Moore, Jay Obernolte, Brad Finstad, Rich McCormick, MD, MBA, Brian Jack, Brad Knott, Tim Moore and Derek Schmidt.
     
    Download the full letter here or read below.
     
    The Honorable Jamieson Greer
    Ambassador
    United States Trade Representative
    600 17th Street NW
    Washington, DC 20006
     
    Dear Ambassador Greer:
     
    We write to commend this Administration’s commitment to restore a robust American manufacturing sector. We are proud to work with the Administration to make historic progress to make American manufacturing great. In this context, we write to highlight the importance of the 1979 Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft (the “Agreement”) to the United States’ Aerospace and Defense (A&D) industry’s trade surplus, specifically civilian aviation, and its high-wage domestic manufacturing workforce. 
     
    America’s A&D companies are global leaders in manufacturing and sustaining technologies across the commercial aviation, defense, and space sectors. The U.S. A&D industry produces the best systems and components in the world, resulting in the largest consistent trade surplus across the U.S. manufacturing sector. In 2023, American A&D exports were $135.9 billion, and imports were $61.4 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $74.5 billion.
     
    Comprising more than 100,000 companies, large and small, across commercial and defense markets, the American A&D industry drives the U.S. economy, generating nearly $422 billion in business output in 2023. That alone contributed 1.6 percent to the 2023 U.S. gross domestic product.
     
    A&D companies invest tens of billions of dollars annually in the United States, creating highly skilled new jobs and enhancing U.S. economic and national security. These companies provide top-paying jobs in all 50 states with numerous employees, facilities, and suppliers. In 2023, the domestic A&D workforce grew 4.8 percent to over 2.2 million employed Americans.
     
    The U.S. A&D industry is a best-in-class example of an America First Trade Policy. It creates high-wage manufacturing jobs in every state and its commitment to innovation sustains U.S. world leadership in aerospace technology.
     
    A key reason for American dominance in the global aerospace industry is how the United States has leveraged the Agreement. In the 1960s and 1970s, several competing countries established tariffs and non-tariff barriers for commercial aviation production and its supply chain. Working on a bipartisan basis, Congress and the Administration collaborated on structuring and negotiating a sectoral agreement to establish wholly reciprocal duty-free trade for commercial aircraft, parts and components. There are 33 signatories and 25 observer countries that have consistently adhered to this reciprocal tariff-free regime.
     
    America’s innovative A&D industry has taken full advantage of this reciprocity to establish global dominance. Since the Agreement came into effect in 1980, the U.S. trade surplus in A&D has grown over 2,000 percent. American companies control the high end of the value chain, increasing U.S. competitiveness and our trade surplus. In addition, the innovation, profits, and growth of the U.S. commercial aviation sector is integral to the U.S. defense industry due to crossover benefits of A&D technologies and our world-class manufacturing workforce.
     
    For these reasons, we respectfully urge the Administration to build on the success of the zero-zero tariff environment in this sector by reinforcing such treatment through all bilateral trade negotiations. This will drive additional U.S. competitiveness in the global aerospace sector. We appreciate the Administration’s continued attention on these issues and look forward to a sustained partnership to make sure America continues to drive leadership of the global aerospace industry.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: A Problem With Measuring the Availability of Military Aircraft During the Coronavirus Pandemic

    Source: US Congressional Budget Office

    Three main questions are addressed in this presentation:

    • How did the pandemic affect the use of military aircraft?
    • How did the pandemic affect the availability of military aircraft?
    • Is there a problem with the Department of Defense’s measurement of aircraft availability?

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China proposes legal boost for low-altitude economy in aviation law revision

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    China is considering provisions to boost the development of the low-altitude economy in proposed revisions to its Civil Aviation Law, a spokesperson said on Monday.

    The draft revisions are set for their second deliberation at a session of the country’s top legislature from June 24 to 27, Huang Haihua, spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, told a press conference.

    Key revisions include the introduction of state measures to optimize low-altitude airspace resource allocation and the promotion of an integrated service supervision platform for civilian low-altitude flights, according to Huang.

    The changes seek to build regulatory frameworks for airworthiness certification and flight management specifically tailored to support low-altitude economic activities, while expanding practical application scenarios.

    The latest draft adds a dedicated chapter for aviation development and promotion, outlining strategies to advance civilian aviation manufacturing through enterprise-led innovation systems combining industry, academia, and research.

    Additionally, the legislation highlights optimizing national airport networks and accelerating aviation hub construction.

    In response to growing public concern over airline service standards, the amendment strengthens consumer safeguards.

    The draft obligates airlines and airports to provide sound food and accommodation arrangements for passengers during significant flight delays or cancellations, formalizing legal protections against service disruptions.

    The latest revision draft builds upon an initial review conducted in February 2025, incorporating feedback to modernize aviation governance amid rapid technological advancements and evolving market demands.

    The current civil aviation law came into force on March 1, 1996, and has undergone six amendments since then.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News in Brief: FRCE Innovation Lab manufactures quick win for F-35 fleet

    Source: United States Navy

    At the Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) Innovation Lab, a team of two fulfilled a request from the F-35 Joint Program Office to use additive manufacturing – commonly referred to as 3D printing – to produce an O-ring installation tool used for all three variants of the fifth-generation fighter jet. With innovative thinking and the use of forward-leaning technology, FRCE helped fill the gap and put 2,000 tools in aircraft maintainers’ hands within days.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: IAM District 837 Hosts Leadership Tour of Boeing St. Louis Facilities Ahead of Vital Negotiations

    Source: US GOIAM Union

    IAM District 837 President and Directing Business Representative Tom Boelling recently led a high-level tour of Boeing’s St. Louis-area facilities, joined by IAM Resident General Vice President Jody Bennett. The tour provided an in-depth look at the critical aerospace manufacturing work being performed by IAM members across three key locations: St. Louis, St. Charles, Mo., and Mascoutah, Ill.

    “Our members take immense pride in the work they do to support our military and protect our country,” said IAM Resident General Vice President Jody Bennett. “This tour was an important reminder of what we stand for, not just as union members, but as the builders of American strength and security.”

    District 837 members play an essential role in building and producing some of the world’s most advanced military aircraft and defense systems. These include the iconic F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets, the state-of-the-art T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer, and the groundbreaking MQ-25 Stingray, the U.S. Navy’s first carrier-based unmanned aerial refueler.

    The visit underscored the skill, dedication, and pride of IAM members who contribute to national defense and aerospace innovation daily. It also served as an opportunity for leadership to hear directly from the workforce ahead of upcoming negotiations, ensuring that their voices remain central to the process.

    The post IAM District 837 Hosts Leadership Tour of Boeing St. Louis Facilities Ahead of Vital Negotiations appeared first on IAM Union.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Fengate appoints Darcy Wilson as transportation lead 

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    HOUSTON, June 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Fengate Asset Management (Fengate) today announced the appointment of Darcy Wilson as Managing Director, Transportation, further expanding its infrastructure senior team and signaling the firm’s continued growth in the United States (U.S.). 

    Based in Fengate’s Houston office, Wilson will lead the transportation strategy to bring the firm’s aviation, road, rail, logistics, and maritime expertise to projects and companies across the U.S. and Canada.

    “Fengate has a strong portfolio of transportation assets on both sides of the border, and Darcy’s industry knowledge and experience will best position the firm to secure deals where we can add the greatest value for communities, the environment, and our investors,” said Mac Bell, Managing Director, Infrastructure Investments and head of Fengate’s social and transportation group. 

    “I am thrilled to join the growing Fengate business to lead their transportation strategy. I look forward to working with the Fengate team to invest in attractive opportunities in transportation infrastructure projects and companies that generate strong returns for investors,” said Wilson. 

    Wilson brings significant transportation investment experience to Fengate, including sourcing, assessing, and executing investments into operating businesses. Prior to joining Fengate, Wilson was with Duration Capital Partners where he was a founding member upon its spin out of Oaktree Capital Management (Oaktree).  

    He previously led Oaktree’s investments in Signature Aviation, OTG Management, and STG Logistics, and served on the board of STG Logistics. Prior to Oaktree, Wilson was with Highstar Capital and J.P. Morgan’s investment banking group in New York. 

    His appointment follows the firm’s announcement of a digital infrastructure head in April. 

    About Fengate 

    Fengate is a leading alternative investment manager focused on infrastructure, private equity and real estate strategies, with more than $7 billion of capital commitments under management. The firm has been investing in infrastructure since 2006 with a focus on mid-market greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets in the transportation, social, energy transition and digital sectors. Fengate is one of North America’s most active infrastructure investors and developers with a portfolio of more than 50 assets. Learn more at www.fengate.com. 

    Media contact 

    Maddison Sharples 
    Vice President, Communications and Marketing 
    +1 416 254 3326 
    maddison.sharples@fengate.com 

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Taxi fleet job fair to be held

    Source: Hong Kong Information Services

    The Transport Department said today that a job fair for the recruitment of taxi fleet drivers will be held on Wednesday at the Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices.

    The fair is being jointly organised by the Labour Department and three taxi fleet operators. It will aim to enhance job seekers’ understanding of taxi fleets and give fleet operators a chance to meet their recruitment needs. 

    Job seekers will be able to submit job applications on-site and may be invited to on-the-spot interviews.

    The fair will be held from 2.30pm to 5pm at the Kowloon West Job Centre in Sham Shui Po and admission is free.

    According to the operators, they will offer various incentives to fleet drivers, including a referral bonus for new drivers and safe driving bonuses. They will also provide flexible working hour arrangements.

    The operators will offer pre-service training to enhance drivers’ customer service skills. Passengers will be able to schedule trip using online hailing platforms, thereby increasing drivers’ potential income.

    In addition, operators will implement systematic management to support drivers in handling customer enquiries and feedback, creating a better working environment.

    The department is setting up designated fleet taxi stopping places at the airport, certain boundary control points to provide convenience for fleet drivers in picking up passengers on pre-booked trips.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: “Digital platforms have become a key form of ensuring economic and cultural sovereignty”

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –

    © Mikhail Varushchev / Roscongress Foundation

    HSE Academic Director Yaroslav Kuzminov spoke at the SPIEF-2025 session “In Search of New Sources of Growth: Is a Different Model of Global Financial and Trade Architecture Possible?” The discussion was built around processes in the global economy related to the strengthening of multipolarity and the increasing role of new centers of global growth — states of the Global South and East. The participants discussed the potential and possibilities of a new model of international interaction.

    The global economy is often viewed as a dual system consisting of two large blocs, currently led by the United States and China. However, the world is much more complex, noted Yaroslav Kuzminov.

    “The collective West is trying to preserve itself as a single market system with single institutions, offering them to the rest of the world, but its foundation – free trade and unconditional protection of private property – is now being subjected to crushing blows from national and bloc protectionism. On the other hand, China, with all its economic and technological power, cannot act as the leader of the second world, it cannot gather around itself, as the United States did in its time or the Soviet Union did, other countries, because it is not free,” he said.

    The HSE academic director explained that American and Soviet leadership was based on two pillars: basic defense spending and economic preferences for allies. Now, countries are creating their own economies that are resilient to external influences. This implies the development of domestic production and the diversification of export markets. But this is not enough for sustainable economic growth, especially in the context of the global technological revolutions that are currently taking place.

    “The future is very uncertain, it is very difficult to make forecasts. If earlier the source of uncertainty was only future technologies, today it is geopolitical ruptures and geopolitical unions,” noted Yaroslav Kuzminov.

    In his opinion, the key argument for future technological power and future economic power is R

    “The problem of the center and the periphery arises, and this problem can only be solved by an extremely politically complex pooling of resources, pooling the efforts of different countries, which requires a degree of trust and a level of awareness of the common interest that, in my opinion, is simply impossible to achieve now. In these conditions, almost all technological innovations are developed within national frameworks, and this is where the problem of the “golden nail” arises. The “golden nail” is the problem of a deficit in the scale of the market. We can offer any breakthrough things, but if our market is limited to hundreds of millions of people and we compete with companies that have a market of billions of people, we will still have a “golden nail”. Therefore, it is necessary to single out those companies, those technological areas that correspond to the scale of the politically accessible market, and in other cases talk about localizing transnational companies in their sales markets, setting requirements for these companies to operate in national markets. I would call this the internal rooting of transnational companies ready to work with national jurisdictions,” says Yaroslav Kuzminov.

    At the same time, he noted that completely new solutions are not in the sphere of technology, the market is growing not only due to them. First of all, this is logistics: logistics chains have changed, two political zones of rupture have formed between the EU and Russia and in the Middle East. In these conditions, opportunities arise for countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and India, which act as trade hubs.

    The most important elements of global changes are also related to the human capital of the golden billion countries, the HSE scientific director said. If in the countries of the collective West the share of the middle class is decreasing due to the share of families requiring state support, including migrants, then in the countries of Asia and the South it has grown to a third of the population, in Russia it is also about 35%.

    The middle class is people who can and want to choose, and who have the income and education to do so. The growth of the middle class leads to the formation of political and cultural innovations that act as economic drivers to the same extent as technological solutions. Middle class consumption acts as an economic driver along with heavy technological innovations.

    The second engine is the digital economy, which has received a new lease of life thanks to economically significant digital platforms. “Digital platforms have become a key form of ensuring economic and cultural sovereignty, and countries that underestimate their role will lose strategically,” Yaroslav Kuzminov summed up. The US, China, and Russia have their own platforms and digital ecosystems, he emphasized.

    The Global South is more diverse than the Soviet and Western systems of the past, it includes many regions with different levels of development and has not yet formed structurally, believes Andrey Kostin, President and Chairman of the Management Board of VTB Bank. Despite the fact that today the BRICS countries produce no less than the G7 countries, the entire financial infrastructure is controlled by Western countries and has ceased to be effective due to the fact that the balance of power has changed.

    “Due to the fact that the South is complex in itself, the internal relations are very difficult, we are still moving slowly. We need to create our own alternative center of the Global South and use settlements in national currencies. Sooner or later we will have to come to some denominator, we will have to create our own financial market infrastructure, because the current financial system meets exclusively the interests of the West. There are calculations that the BRICS countries lose about 30 billion a year on settlements through the dollar system. Perhaps the countries would survive this, but the political pressure that is exerted with the help of the dollar is, of course, unacceptable,” he said.

    Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexey Overchuk noted the importance of developing integration in the post-Soviet space. “We strive first and foremost to try to create conditions for reducing the costs of our producers of goods and services here, at home, inside. We started with measures to protect our own market and create a single customs circuit in order to control the market inside, develop relevant technical regulations, standards and reduce barriers as much as possible. And we have largely achieved this: trade within the CIS is developing much faster than trade with countries of the outside world,” he emphasized.

    At the same time, work is actively underway to develop international transport corridors to the markets of the Global South and to conclude agreements on free trade zones in order to provide the most comfortable environment for the promotion of Russian goods.

    The founder of En Group, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the P.A. Stolypin Institute for Growth Economics Oleg Deripaska believes that the task of doubling the Russian economy over the next 12 years is quite realistic. To do this, it is necessary, among other things, to create competitive production in aviation and transport power engineering. He called on businesses not to wait for the end of geopolitical tensions, but to actively develop now, in the current conditions.

    Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov noted that BRICS financiers are currently working in three main areas: the creation of cross-border payment, inter-depository, insurance and reinsurance infrastructure.

    The issue of the need to create a BRICS depository infrastructure was raised by Russia during its presidency of the association. However, this issue is not easily resolved. “We see that many countries are wary of investments, of settlements with our country, but I want to say that the question of how profitable it is, how profitable it is, is always at issue here. The desire to earn money solves any problem,” he explained.

    Anton Siluanov also spoke in favor of joint recognition of rating agencies within the BRICS framework. The head of the Ministry of Finance noted that partners from China are already very actively applying their rating assessments to business, including in Russia.

    In addition, the session was attended by the Minister of Foreign Trade of Qatar Ahmad bin Mohammed Al Sayed, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank Benedict Okey Oramah and President of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank Serhat Koksal.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Speech by CE at Greenway 2025 – Accelerating Changes (English only) (with photos/video)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         â€‹Following is the speech by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, at Greenway 2025 – Accelerating Changes today (June 23):
     
    Your Excellency Ambassador Harvey Rouse (Ambassador and Head of Office of the European Union to Hong Kong), Mr Iñaki Amate (Chair of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong), consuls-general, heads of chambers, ladies and gentlemen,
     
         Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure to join you, once again, at the Greenway forum, the fourth edition, this year under the theme of “Accelerating Changes”. And, as before, it’s organised by the European Union Office to Hong Kong and Macao, and the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.
     
         The European Union (EU) has long been one of Hong Kong’s long-standing business partners. Hong Kong takes pride in being home to 1 640 EU (European Union) companies, which makes the EU the largest foreign business community in Hong Kong. Thank you and welcome indeed.
     
         Alongside business, we come together in so many others areas of mutual interest, from education and cultural exchange to innovation and technology pursuits. And, yes, to the environment – to global warming and all the complexities it entails.
     
         Because climate change affects us all, it must involve us all. Each and every one of us.
     
         The World Meteorological Organization’s latest report, published last month, notes that there is a 70 per cent chance that the five-year average warming, for 2025 to 2029, will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius. That’s up significantly from the 47 per cent chance forecast in its report last year. So from a 47 per cent chance the forecast jumped to 70 per cent.
     
         Allow me, for the next few minutes, to tell you what Hong Kong is doing to work against the universal threat of climate change, and to achieve climate neutrality.
     
         Since Hong Kong reached its carbon peak, in 2014, our carbon emissions have dropped by about a quarter. In 2023, our per capita carbon emissions were about 4.58 tonnes. To put that in perspective, it is 60 per cent of the EU’s emissions, so we aren’t doing too badly, and only one quarter of that of the United States.
     
         Hong Kong is well on its way to cutting its carbon emissions in half by 2035, achieving carbon neutrality before 2050, which is our stated goal.
     
         Last week, we welcomed the news that Hong Kong is once again one of the world’s top three most-competitive economies. We are dedicated to decarbonising this international financial, shipping and trade centre while keeping up with our competitiveness. And we do that by engineering green transformation through innovation.
     
         Hong Kong’s prowess in financial services places us, favourably, in becoming Asia’s premier hub for green and sustainable finance. With our financing platforms, we could help to mobilise the capital for climate solutions, while ensuring robust integrity within our financial markets.
     
         Last year, the total green and sustainable debts issued in Hong Kong exceeded US$84 billion. And the volume of green and sustainable bonds arranged here amounted to US$43 billion. That places us first in the Asian market for seven years in a row, capturing 45 per cent of the region’s total.
     
         Our regulatory framework is fundamental to creating a sustainable finance ecosystem. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority published the Hong Kong Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance last year, aligning our taxonomy with the two mainstream taxonomies of the Mainland and the European Union. Encompassing economic activities in power generation, transportation, construction, and water and waste management, it will facilitate green finance flows and promote sustainable development.
     
         Like our economy, Hong Kong’s resolve to green transformation goes beyond finance. Consider green transport, a transformation moving into the fast lane on our roads. The adoption of electric vehicles has been remarkable.
     
         Just five years ago, Hong Kong was home to about 14 000 electric vehicles. By the end of last year, that number had surged to about 110 000, that’s seven times more.
     
         Today, seven out of every 10 newly registered private cars in our city are electric. That, ladies and gentlemen, is among the highest growth rates in the world.
     
         Vehicles, of course, are only one part of a complex equation. An extensive and convenient charging network is the backbone of any electric vehicle revolution.
     
         Our strategy is people-centric, recognising that the best place to charge is at home or at the workplace. Through our EV-charging at Home Subsidy Scheme, we expect to see charging infrastructure installed in about 140 000 parking spaces in private residential buildings by the 2027-28 financial year. That will enable a smooth and non-disruptive electric vehicle transition for thousands of households.
     
         As for our world-class public transport system, we have unveiled a clear Green Transformation Roadmap for public buses and taxis.
     
         Through targeted subsidy schemes, that will fast-track the introduction of about 600 electric buses and 3 000 electric taxis. We are managing the transition in an orderly manner, using incentives rather than penalties, to ensure that our green ambitions don’t translate into additional costs for passengers.
     
         Our vision for green mobility goes well beyond the road. As one of the world’s premier aviation hubs, we’re looking to the skies, too, to chart the green way to our transport future.
     
         Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF, is critical to the long-term future of air travel. It’s also essential to ensuring Hong Kong’s continuing leadership in aviation.
     
         SAF has the potential to reduce life-cycle carbon emissions by more than 80 per cent compared to conventional jet fuel. The Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) Government is working closely with the Airport Authority to set a clear target for SAF consumption.
     
         Globally, SAF supply is limited, and the cost remains high. And we see this as an opportunity for Hong Kong to innovate and lead.
     
         We are exploring a range of supply options, including collaborations with enterprises in the Mainland and internationally. Our goal is to establish a stable and competitive regional supply chain for SAF, taking advantage of our unique position within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It will accelerate the decarbonisation of our aviation industry and provide greener travel options.
     
         Our green ambitions also extend to the iconic Victoria Harbour, a vital artery for our city. Our Pilot Scheme for Electric Ferries will shape the future of maritime transport.
     
         With a commitment of HK$350 million, the Government is subsidising the construction of new electric ferries and their charging infrastructure, allowing operators to test the new green technology in local waters with full support.
     
         The first two of these pioneering vessels are already navigating Victoria Harbour, following rigorous testing.
     
         Beyond the local waters, we are greening the vast shipping lanes that connect Hong Kong to the world. Hong Kong is already a top 10 port for vessel refuelling.
     
         To build on this, we launched an Action Plan on Green Maritime Fuel Bunkering late last year, with the goal of transforming Hong Kong into a leading international centre for green maritime fuel bunkering.
     
         Industry response has been overwhelmingly positive, with key partners worldwide expressing strong interest in developing the services here. Hong Kong will spearhead the global effort in decarbonising shipping and, in doing so, create new economic opportunities. Something my good friend has already said: “Green actually means business.”
     
         When it comes to environmental connectivity, I’m pleased to note that EU companies play an important role in Hong Kong’s waste management and recycling facilities.
     
         And I look forward to the expertise and support of EU companies in the Northern Metropolis, our new engine for growth dedicated to green living, and the area’s long-term green development.
     
         Ladies and gentlemen, Hong Kong has an iconic skyline. It also holds a treasure of having some 40 per cent of its land pulsing as the city’s green lungs, with country parks breathing life into our metropolis, conservation areas cradling biodiversity little seen in other global financial hubs.
     
         This is Hong Kong’s defining paradox: where business and ecology coexist in symphony. For us, economic dynamism and environmental stewardship aren’t just compatible – they’re dual engines propelling our future. We balance development with sustainability. And we will do all we can to work with other places, the EU very much included, on the green way forward.
     
         I look forward to building strong ties with the EU, to finding solutions to climate change, to creating far-reaching opportunities for us all.
     
         My thanks to the organisers, the European Union Office to Hong Kong and Macao and the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. I’m grateful, too, to today’s supporting organisations – the Business Environment Council, the Consulate General of Sweden and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
     
         I am certain you will enjoy today’s Greenway forum, and I look forward to our continuing, rewarding, co-operation in the years to come. Thank you.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Thales and Qatar Airways sign agreement regarding the latest IFE Technologies and dedicated local Service Hub to support airline’s strategic growth plan

    Source: Thales Group

    Headline: Thales and Qatar Airways sign agreement regarding the latest IFE Technologies and dedicated local Service Hub to support airline’s strategic growth plan

    @Thales

    Thales, a global technology leader in the defence, aerospace, cybersecurity and digital solutions markets, and Qatar Airways, a multiple award-winning airline recently voted the ‘World’s Best Airline’ by Skytrax in 2025, have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to support Qatar Airways’ strategic fleet growth plan announced last month. This agreement sets the course for future inflight entertainment (IFE) innovations to support Qatar Airways’ digital transformation journey, giving the airline access to the most innovative technologies.

    In addition, this MoA covers the opportunities for development of a dedicated IFE service and maintenance center based in Doha, Qatar. The mission of this local Thales facility is to provide rapid access to services such as repair, spare distribution, technical assistance and turnkey maintenance for the full range of Thales IFE products on Qatar’s growing new fleet. The state-of-the-art facility will be designed to ensure the highest standards of operational efficiency.

    The purpose of this MoA is to support Qatar Airways’ growth and the expansion of its new fleet. It builds on a strong and long-standing relationship between the two companies. Over the years, Thales has been Qatar Airways’ trusted IFE provider for several aircraft platforms, including their Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, and Airbus A350 and A380 aircraft. This partnership was recently expanded to include Qatar Airways’ new A321 NX fleet, which will be equipped with Thales’ award-winning FlytEDGE cloud-native IFE solution.

    In alignment with Qatar Vision 2030, this partnership will help drive industry-leading innovations and contribute to the growth of the local aerospace and MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations) ecosystem by bringing high-skilled jobs to the country.

    Qatar Airways Chief MRO Officer, Eng. Ali Al Saadi said: “We are pleased to witness the continued advancement of our collaboration with Thales. As we strive to maintain the highest standards in aviation technology and operational excellence, it is imperative that we remain at the forefront of innovation. Our partnership with Thales reinforces this ambition and supports our ongoing commitment to delivering industry-leading solutions.”

    Yannick Assouad, Executive Vice-President, Avionics, Thales said “We are pleased to grow our partnership with Qatar Airways. This MOA highlights, once again, our mutual dedication to innovative technologies and the highest standards of operational excellence. It paves the way for a local service hub and growing expertise in Doha, bolstering the airline’s future growth ambitions.”

    About Thales

    Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies for the Defence, Aerospace, and Cyber & Digital sectors. Its portfolio of innovative products and services addresses several major challenges: sovereignty, security, sustainability and inclusion.

    The Group invests more than €4 billion per year in Research & Development in key areas, particularly for critical environments, such as Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum and cloud technologies.

    Thales has more than 83,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2024, the Group generated sales of €20.6 billion.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI USA: NASA Tech to Use Moonlight to Enhance Measurements from Space

    Source: NASA

    NASA will soon launch a one-of-a-kind instrument, called Arcstone, to improve the quality of data from Earth-viewing sensors in orbit. In this technology demonstration, the mission will measure sunlight reflected from the Moon— a technique called lunar calibration. Such measurements of lunar spectral reflectance can ultimately be used to set a high-accuracy, universal standard for use across the international scientific community and commercial space industry.  
    To ensure satellite and airborne sensors are working properly, researchers calibrate them by comparing the sensor measurements against a known standard measurement. Arcstone will be the first mission exclusively dedicated to measuring lunar reflectance from space as a way to calibrate and improve science data collected by Earth-viewing, in-orbit instruments. 

    “One of the most challenging tasks in remote sensing from space is achieving required instrument calibration accuracy on-orbit,” said Constantine Lukashin, principal investigator for the Arcstone mission and physical scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “The Moon is an excellent and available calibration source beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The light reflected off the Moon is extremely stable and measurable at a very high level of detail. Arcstone’s goal is to improve the accuracy of lunar calibration to increase the quality of spaceborne remote sensing data products for generations to come.” 
    Across its planned six-month mission, Arcstone will use a spectrometer — a scientific instrument that measures and analyzes light by separating it into its constituent wavelengths, or spectrum — to measure lunar spectral reflectance. Expected to launch in late June as a rideshare on a small CubeSat, Arcstone will begin collecting data, a milestone called first light, approximately three weeks after reaching orbit. 
    “The mission demonstrates a new, more cost-efficient instrument design, hardware performance, operations, and data processing to achieve high-accuracy reference measurements of lunar spectral reflectance,” said Lukashin.  

    Measurements of lunar reflectance taken from Earth’s surface can be affected by interference from the atmosphere, which can complicate calibration efforts. Researchers already use the Sun and Moon to calibrate spaceborne instruments, but not at a level of precision and agreement that could come from having a universal standard.   
    Lukashin and colleagues want to increase calibration accuracy by getting above the atmosphere to measure reflected solar wavelengths in a way that provides a stable and universal calibration source. Another recent NASA mission, called the Airborne Lunar Spectral Irradiance mission also used sensors mounted on high-altitude aircraft to improve lunar irradiance measurements from planes. 
    There is not an internationally accepted standard (SI-traceable) calibration for lunar reflectance from space across the scientific community or the commercial space industry. 
    “Dedicated radiometric characterization measurements of the Moon have never been acquired from a space-based platform,” said Thomas Stone, co-investigator for Arcstone and scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). “A high-accuracy, SI-traceable lunar calibration system enables several important capabilities for space-based Earth observing missions such as calibrating datasets against a common reference – the Moon, calibrating sensors on-orbit, and the ability to bridge gaps in past datasets.” 

    If the initial Arcstone technology demonstration is successful, a longer Arcstone mission could allow scientists to make the Moon the preferred reference standard for many other satellites. The new calibration standard could also be applied retroactively to previous Earth data records to improve their accuracy or fill in data gaps for data fields. It could also improve high-precision sensor performance on-orbit, which is critical for calibrating instruments that may be sensitive to degradation or hardware breakdown over time in space. 
    “Earth observations from space play a critical role in monitoring the environmental health of our planet,” said Stone. “Lunar calibration is a robust and cost-effective way to achieve high accuracy and inter-consistency of Earth observation datasets, enabling more accurate assessments of Earth’s current state and more reliable predictions of future trends.”  
    The Arcstone technology demonstration project is funded by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office’s In-space Validation of Earth Science Technologies. Arcstone is led by NASA’s Langley Research Center in partnership with Colorado University Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, USGS,  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Resonon Inc., Blue Canyon Technologies, and Quartus Engineering.  
    For more information on NASA’s Arcstone mission visit: 
    https://science.larc.nasa.gov/arcstone/about/

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: After the smoke clears, a wildfire’s legacy can haunt rivers for years, putting drinking water at risk

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ben Livneh, Associate Professor of Hydrology, University of Colorado Boulder

    Burned ground can become hydrophobic and almost waxlike, allowing rainfall to quickly wash contaminants downslope. Ben Livneh/University of Colorado

    Picture a wildfire raging across a forested mountainside. The smoke billows and the flames rise. An aircraft drops vibrant red flame retardant. It’s a dramatic, often dangerous scene. But the threat to water supplies is only just beginning.

    After the smoke clears, the soil, which was once nestled beneath a canopy of trees and a spongy layer of leaves, is now exposed. Often, that soil is charred and sterile, with the heat making the ground almost water-repellent, like a freshly waxed car.

    When the first rain arrives, the water rushes downhill. It carries with it a slurry of ash, soil and contaminants from the burned landscape. This torrent flows directly into streams and then rivers that provide drinking water for communities downstream.

    As a new research paper my colleagues and I just published shows, this isn’t a short-term problem. The ghost of the fire can haunt these waterways for years.

    Scientists explain how wildfires can contaminate water supplies and the ways they measure the effects, summarized in their 2024 publication. University of Colorado-Boulder.

    This matters because forested watersheds are the primary water source for nearly two-thirds of municipalities in the United States. As wildfires in the western U.S. become larger and more frequent, the long-term security and safety of water supplies for downstream communities is increasingly at risk.

    Charting the long tail of wildfire pollution

    Scientists have long known that wildfires can affect water quality, but two key questions remained: Exactly how bad is the impact? And how long does it last?

    To find out, my colleagues and I led a study, coordinated by engineer Carli Brucker. We undertook one of the most extensive analyses of post-wildfire water quality to date. The results were published June 23, 2025, in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.

    We gathered decades of water quality data from 245 burned watersheds across the western U.S. and compared them to nearly 300 similar, unburned watersheds.

    A map of the basins studied shows the outlines of fires in red and burned basins in black. The blue basins did not burn and were used for comparisons.
    Carli Brucker, et al., 2025, Nature Communications Earth & Environment

    By creating a computer model for each basin that accounted for its normal water quality variability, based on factors such as rainfall and temperature, we were able to isolate the impact of the wildfire. This allowed us to see how much the water quality deviated after the fire, year after year.

    The results were stark. In the first year after a fire, the concentrations of some contaminants skyrocketed. We found that levels of sediment and turbidity – the cloudiness of the water – were 19 to 286 times higher than prefire levels. That much sediment can clog filters at water treatment plants and require expensive treatment and maintenance. Think of trying to use a coffee filter with muddy water – the water just won’t flow through.

    Concentrations of organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus were three to 103 times greater in the burned basins. These dissolved remnants of burned plants and soil are particularly problematic. When they mix with the chlorine used to disinfect drinking water, they can form harmful chemicals called disinfection byproducts, some of which are linked to cancer.

    More surprisingly, we found the impacts to be really persistent. While the most dramatic spikes in phosphorous, nitrate, organic carbon and sediment generally occurred in the first one to three years, some contaminants lingered for much longer.

    Contaminants including phosphorus, organic carbon and nitrates lingered in water supplies for years after wildfires. The charts show the average among all burned basins eight years before fires (light blue) and all burned basins after fires (orange). The gray bars show levels in the year immediately after the fire. The horizontal purple line shows levels that would be expected without a fire, based on the prefire years.
    Carli Brucker, et al., 2025, Nature Communications Earth & Environment

    We saw significantly elevated levels of nitrogen and sediment for up to eight years following a fire. Nitrogen and phosphorus act like fertilizer for algae. A surge of these nutrients can trigger algal blooms in reservoirs, which can produce toxins and create foul odors.

    This extended timeline suggests that wildfires are fundamentally altering the landscape in ways that take a long time to heal. In our previous laboratory-based research, including a 2024 study, we simulated this process by burning soil and vegetation and then running water over them.

    After mountain slopes burn, the rain that falls on them washes ash, charred soil and debris downstream.
    Ben Livneh/University of Colorado

    The stuff that leaches out is a cocktail of carbon, nutrients and other compounds that can exacerbate flood risks and degrade water quality in ways that require more expensive treatment at water treatment facilities. In extreme cases, the water quality may be so poor that communities can’t withdraw river water at all, and that can create water shortages.

    After the Buffalo Creek Fire in 1996 and then the Hayman Fire in 2002, Denver’s water utility spent more than US$27 million over several years to treat the water, remove more than 1 million cubic yards of sediment and debris from a reservoir, and fix infrastructure. State Forest Service crews planted thousands of trees to help restore the surrounding forest’s water filtering capabilities.

    A growing challenge for water treatment

    This long-lasting impact poses a major challenge for water treatment plants that make river water safe to drink. Our study highlights that utilities can’t just plan for a few bad months after a fire. They need to be prepared for potentially eight or more years of degraded water quality.

    We also found that where a fire burns matters. Watersheds with thicker forests or more urban areas that burned tended to have even worse water quality after a fire.

    Since many municipalities draw water from more than one source, understanding which watersheds are likely to have the largest water quality problems after fires can help communities locate the most vulnerable parts of their water supply systems.

    As temperatures rise and more people move into wildland areas in the American West, the risk of wildfires increases, and it is becoming clear that preparing for longer-term consequences is crucial. The health of forests and our communities’ drinking water are inseparably linked, with wildfires casting a shadow that lasts long after the smoke clears.

    Ben Livneh receives funding from the Western Water Assessment NOAA grant #NA21OAR4310309, ‘Western Water Assessment: Building Resilience to Compound Hazards in the Inter-Mountain West’.

    – ref. After the smoke clears, a wildfire’s legacy can haunt rivers for years, putting drinking water at risk – https://theconversation.com/after-the-smoke-clears-a-wildfires-legacy-can-haunt-rivers-for-years-putting-drinking-water-at-risk-259118

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Industrial Strategy to boost growth and jobs in Wales

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Press release

    Industrial Strategy to boost growth and jobs in Wales

    Modern Industrial Strategy will make the UK the best country to invest in and grow a business and support tens of thousands of new jobs in Wales.

    The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy

    • Electricity costs for thousands of businesses to be slashed by up to 25%   
    • UK Government to establish a centre for doctoral training in semiconductors, led by Swansea University
    • Welsh businesses to benefit from innovation funding, access to finance, faster grid connections and better-equipped sites for expansion. 

    Wales is set for increased economic growth, billions in investment and tens of thousands of new jobs supported over the next decade as a result of the UK Government’s modern Industrial Strategy, which is published today (Monday 23 June).  

    The Strategy contains measures to forge a new relationship between business and government, making Wales and the UK the best place to start and scale up a business. 

    It will unlock growth across Wales, targeting areas of strength from the country’s strengths in aerospace in North Wales to the world’s first compound semiconductor cluster in South Wales.   

    More than 7,000 UK businesses are set to see their electricity bills slashed by up to 25%. British manufacturers currently pay some of the highest electricity prices in the developed world— in some cases, double the European average, while businesses looking to expand or modernise have faced delays when it comes to connecting to the grid.

    For too long these challenges have held back growth and made it harder for firms to compete globally. Today’s announcement marks a decisive shift — with government stepping in to support industry and unlock the UK’s economic potential.

    From 2027, the new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity costs by up to £40 per megawatt hour for over 7,000 electricity-intensive businesses in manufacturing sectors like automotive, aerospace and chemicals.

    These firms, which support over 300,000 skilled jobs across the UK will be exempt from paying levies such as the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market — helping level the playing field and make them more internationally competitive. Eligibility and further details on the exemptions will be determined following consultation, which will be launched shortly.

    The UK Government is also increasing support for the most energy-intensive firms — like steel, chemicals, and glass — by covering more of the electricity network charges they normally have to pay through the British Industry Supercharger. These businesses currently get a 60% discount on those charges, but from 2026, that will increase to 90%. This means their electricity bills will go down, helping them stay competitive, protect jobs, and invest in the future.

    These reforms complement the government’s long-term mission for clean power, which is the only way to bring down bills for good by ending the UK’s dependency on volatile fossil fuel markets.

    The Industrial Strategy is a 10-year plan to promote business investment and growth and make it quicker, easier and cheaper to do business in the UK, giving businesses the confidence to invest and create 1.1 million good, well-paid jobs in thriving industries – delivering on this government’s Plan for Change. 

    Wales is already punching above its weight in many of the growth driving sectors set out in the Industrial Strategy. 

    The key measures for Wales are: 

    • More than £4bn for the advanced manufacturing sector in the UK over the next 5 years. Wales has a leading advanced manufacturing sector with companies such as Airbus based in Broughton in north Wales. 

    • UK Government to establish a centre for doctoral training in semiconductors, led by Swansea University, building on the world-leading cluster based in south Wales.   

    • A Defence Growth Deal cluster to build on Wales’s major strengths. The top five Ministry of Defence suppliers all have a footprint in Wales. 

    • A new British Business Bank champion for the Cardiff Capital Region to connect investors with businesses and kickstart growth. 

    • £30m for a Local Innovation Partnerships Fund in Wales to work with the Welsh Government and Innovate UK to grow innovation.  

    • The National Wealth Fund working with the Development Bank of Wales to identify and secure financing for investment projects in Wales. 

    • Support for the UK’s city regions and clusters by increasing the supply of investible sites through a new £600m Strategic Sites Accelerator, enhanced regional support from the Office for Investment, National Wealth Fund, and British Business Bank, and more. 

    • Strengthened support from the Office for Investment to help identify, shape and deliver strategic investment opportunities across the UK. 

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:  

    This Industrial Strategy marks a turning point for Britain’s economy and a clear break from the short-termism and sticking plasters of the past.

    In an era of global economic instability, it delivers the long term certainty and direction British businesses need to invest, innovate and create good jobs that put more money in people’s pockets as part of the plan for change.

    This is how we power Britain’s future – by backing the sectors where we lead, removing the barriers that hold us back, and setting out a clear path to build a stronger economy that works for working people. Our message is clear – Britain is back and open for business.

    Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens said: 

    Wales has huge potential and our government’s Industrial Strategy will harness the strengths of our businesses and workforce to drive growth and create jobs. 

    The strategy will support key sectors like aerospace and compound semiconductors while developing industries of the future like floating offshore wind where Wales is well-placed to be a world leader. 

    Our modern Industrial Strategy is built to last and make Wales one of the best places to invest and do business. Working alongside Welsh Government we will boost growth, raise wages and create wealth across our country.”  

    Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: 

    We’ve said from day one Britain is back in business under this government, and the £100 billion of investment we’ve secured in the past year shows our Plan for Change is already delivering for working people. 

    Our Modern Industrial Strategy will ensure the UK is the best country to invest and do business, delivering economic growth that puts more money in people’s pockets and pays for our NHS, schools and military. 

    Not only does this Strategy prioritise investment to attract billions for new business sites, cutting-edge research, and better transport links, it will also make our industrial energy prices globally competitive.  

    Tackling energy costs and fixing skills has been the single biggest ask of us from businesses and the greatest challenge they’ve faced – this government has listened, and now we’re taking the bold action needed. Government and business working hand in hand to make working people better of is what this Government promised and what we will deliver.” 

    Sarah Williams-Gardener, Chair of Fintech Wales, said:

    We are delighted to see financial services recognised as a key sector in this Industrial Strategy. We look forward to working closely with the Government to help unlock the sector’s full potential. 

    The emphasis on AI and the compute power required to support its development is particularly welcome, as we begin to see generative AI driving innovation across financial services—empowering both providers and customers through the next generation of digital banking platforms.

    Frank Holmes, Founding Partner of Gambit Corporate Finance and Chair of the Cardiff Capital Region Investment Board, said: 

    Today’s announcements mark a timely and important shift towards a connected, strategic approach to economic growth. The renewed focus on industrial strategy and SME finance speaks directly to the opportunities we are unlocking in the Cardiff Capital Region. We have backed innovative and scalable businesses like Whisper TV, showcasing how tailored regional finance can drive job creation, innovation and global reach.  

    The UK’s commitment to extending SME access to finance aligns perfectly with the ecosystem we are building  in CCR as a proven delivery partner and a model for regional economic development.” 

    Louise Harris, CEO of Tramshed Tech in Cardiff, said: 

    The launch of the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy is a pivotal moment for our tech and innovation ecosystem. By aligning local strengths with national ambition, this strategy provides a powerful platform for Welsh businesses to grow, attract investment and lead in emerging sectors such as technology, advanced manufacturing, and creative industries.  

    This strategy recognises that innovation isn’t just about technology in isolation – it’s about creating sustainable, high-quality jobs while tackling real-world challenges. This approach will create the perfect environment for startups and scale-ups to thrive, knowing they have both the infrastructure, skills and strategic support to take their innovations from Wales to the world.” 

    The Industrial Strategy is a 10-year plan to promote business investment and growth and make it quicker, easier and cheaper to do business in the UK, giving businesses the confidence to invest and create good, well-paid jobs in thriving industries – delivering on this government’s Plan for Change. 

    Investment from private companies is essential to creating new jobs, growing the economy and securing public services. That is why the Strategy will also introduce measures to make it quicker, easier and more profitable for businesses to invest in the UK, with the aim of significantly increasing businesses investment and in key growth sectors by 2035 and helping to create 1.1 million well paid jobs across all corners of the UK. 

    It will realise Wales’ economic potential and raise wages and living standards to a level that the people of Wales deserve.  

    The UK Government’s plans address the main barriers to growth, making it easier and quicker to do business and invest in Wales.  

    The Strategy’s bold plan of action includes: 

    • Slashing electricity costs by 20-25% to level the playing field for energy-hungry industries like chemicals and key growth sectors like automotive. 

    • Unlocking billions in finance for innovative business, especially for SMEs by increasing British Business Bank capacity to £25.6 billion, crowding in tens of billions of pounds more in private capital.  

    • Reducing regulatory burdens by cutting the administrative costs of regulation for business by 25% and reduce the number of regulators.   

    • Boosting R&D spending to £22.6bn per year by 2029-30 to drive innovation across the IS-8, with more than £2bn for AI over the Spending Review, and £2.8bn for advanced manufacturing over the next ten years. This will leverage in billions more from private investors. Regulatory changes will further clear the path for fast-growing industries and innovative products such as biotechnology, AI, and autonomous vehicles.

    • Attracting elite global talent to our key sectors, via visa and migrations reforms and a new the Global Talent Taskforce.  

    • Revolutionising public procurement and reducing barriers for new entrants and SMEs to bolster domestic competitiveness.  

    Five sector plans have also been published today:

    • Advanced Manufacturing – Backing our Advanced Manufacturing sector with up to £4.3 billion in funding, including up to £2.8 billion in R&D over the next five years, with the aim of anchoring supply chains in the UK – from increasing vehicle production to 1.35 million, to leading the next generation of technologies for zero emission flight.

    • Clean Energy Industries – Doubling investment in Clean Energy Industries by 2035, with Great British Energy helping to build the clean power revolution in Britain with a further £700 million in clean energy supply chains, taking the total funding for the Great British Energy Supply Chain fund to £1 billion.

    • Creative Industries – Maximizing the value of our Creative Industries through a £380 million boost for film and TV, video games, advertising and marketing, music and visual and performing arts will improve access to finance for scale-ups and increase R&D, skills and exports.

    • Digital and Technologies – Making the UK the European leader for creating and scaling Digital and Technology businesses, with more than £2 billion to drive the AI Action Plan, including a new Sovereign AI Programme and targeting R&D investment at frontier technologies such as cyber security in Northern Ireland, semiconductors in Wales and quantum technologies in Scotland. 

    • Professional and Business Services – Ensuring our Professional and Business Services becomes the world’s most trusted adviser to global industry, revolutionising the sector across the world through adoption of UK-grown AI and working to secure mutual recognition of professional qualifications agreements overseas.

    ENDS

    Updates to this page

    Published 23 June 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • India witnessing transformational decade under PM Modi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    In an exclusive interview with Doordarshan News, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh highlighted the sweeping governance reforms and inclusive development initiatives undertaken during the past 11 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. He described the period as a “transformational decade” that has democratized aspirations and expanded opportunities across regions and sectors.

    Democratisation of Civil Services and Aspirations

    Singh emphasized that the Civil Services, once dominated by select states like Bihar and Tamil Nadu, now see top performers from previously underrepresented regions such as Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, and Haryana. Citing examples like Parsanjit Kour from Poonch (AIR 11, 2022) and Anmol Sher Singh Bedi from Punjab (AIR 2, 2016), he hailed this shift as proof of the system’s increasing objectivity and accessibility.

    “This is the true essence of democracy—where every mother, regardless of her socio-economic standing, has the confidence to believe her child can reach the top,” he stated.

    Start-Up India Reframed Employment Thinking

    Singh noted that PM Modi’s 2016 call for “Start-Up India, Stand-Up India” revolutionized the employment landscape. “People realized that jobs don’t just mean Sarkari Naukri—they mean innovation, entrepreneurship, and startups,” he said. He pointed to the biotechnology sector’s exponential growth from just 50 startups in 2014 to over 10,075 in 2024, with a valuation leap from $10 billion to $170 billion.

    Integration of Northeast and J&K

    Lauding the integration of the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir into India’s mainstream development, the Minister said regions long isolated now enjoy railway connectivity and are participating in sectors like aviation and hospitality. He recalled the emotional story of young women from Manipur working in airlines—tragically lost in an Ahmedabad air crash—as symbolic of the transformation these regions have undergone.

    India’s Ascent in Space and Biotech

    Singh reaffirmed India’s rising stature in space and science. He announced that Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as the mission pilot on the Axiom-4 mission, conducting biotech experiments using indigenous kits. He added that India is on track to establish its own space station—‘Bharat Antariksh Station’—by 2035.

    Revolution in Governance and Service Delivery

    Highlighting key governance reforms, Singh said India’s grievance redressal system – Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) – has evolved into a global model, handling over 26 lakh grievances in 2024 with a 96% disposal rate—compared to just 2 lakh in 2014.

    He also praised the Digital Life Certificate (DLC) system for pensioners, powered by facial recognition technology, which spares elderly citizens from bank visits. Additionally, reforms now allow women officers to nominate parents or children as pension beneficiaries, reflecting a more compassionate system.

    Zero-Corruption Record and Cultural Shift

    Singh stated that “not a single charge of corruption” has surfaced against any member of the Union Council of Ministers over the past 11 years, contrasting it with previous regimes plagued by scams. He said this clean governance, combined with 100% saturation of schemes like PM Awas Yojana—even in non-traditional voter areas—signals a shift away from vote-bank politics.

    J&K Stability and Future Prospects

    Addressing the situation in Jammu & Kashmir, the Minister said normalcy has returned, with tourism booming. “Visit Pahalgam today—you’ll find it crowded despite recent incidents,” he said, adding that youth in the region are determined to be part of India’s development journey. He also called the recent discovery of lithium reserves in J&K a potential economic game-changer.

    Towards Viksit Bharat 2047

    Concluding his remarks, Singh underscored the role of citizens in shaping the nation’s future. “The real driving force behind Viksit Bharat 2047 will be the people of India—their support, aspirations, and participation will define the next 25 years of our journey,” he said.

  • India witnessing transformational decade under PM Modi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    In an exclusive interview with Doordarshan News, Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh highlighted the sweeping governance reforms and inclusive development initiatives undertaken during the past 11 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. He described the period as a “transformational decade” that has democratized aspirations and expanded opportunities across regions and sectors.

    Democratisation of Civil Services and Aspirations

    Singh emphasized that the Civil Services, once dominated by select states like Bihar and Tamil Nadu, now see top performers from previously underrepresented regions such as Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, and Haryana. Citing examples like Parsanjit Kour from Poonch (AIR 11, 2022) and Anmol Sher Singh Bedi from Punjab (AIR 2, 2016), he hailed this shift as proof of the system’s increasing objectivity and accessibility.

    “This is the true essence of democracy—where every mother, regardless of her socio-economic standing, has the confidence to believe her child can reach the top,” he stated.

    Start-Up India Reframed Employment Thinking

    Singh noted that PM Modi’s 2016 call for “Start-Up India, Stand-Up India” revolutionized the employment landscape. “People realized that jobs don’t just mean Sarkari Naukri—they mean innovation, entrepreneurship, and startups,” he said. He pointed to the biotechnology sector’s exponential growth from just 50 startups in 2014 to over 10,075 in 2024, with a valuation leap from $10 billion to $170 billion.

    Integration of Northeast and J&K

    Lauding the integration of the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir into India’s mainstream development, the Minister said regions long isolated now enjoy railway connectivity and are participating in sectors like aviation and hospitality. He recalled the emotional story of young women from Manipur working in airlines—tragically lost in an Ahmedabad air crash—as symbolic of the transformation these regions have undergone.

    India’s Ascent in Space and Biotech

    Singh reaffirmed India’s rising stature in space and science. He announced that Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as the mission pilot on the Axiom-4 mission, conducting biotech experiments using indigenous kits. He added that India is on track to establish its own space station—‘Bharat Antariksh Station’—by 2035.

    Revolution in Governance and Service Delivery

    Highlighting key governance reforms, Singh said India’s grievance redressal system – Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) – has evolved into a global model, handling over 26 lakh grievances in 2024 with a 96% disposal rate—compared to just 2 lakh in 2014.

    He also praised the Digital Life Certificate (DLC) system for pensioners, powered by facial recognition technology, which spares elderly citizens from bank visits. Additionally, reforms now allow women officers to nominate parents or children as pension beneficiaries, reflecting a more compassionate system.

    Zero-Corruption Record and Cultural Shift

    Singh stated that “not a single charge of corruption” has surfaced against any member of the Union Council of Ministers over the past 11 years, contrasting it with previous regimes plagued by scams. He said this clean governance, combined with 100% saturation of schemes like PM Awas Yojana—even in non-traditional voter areas—signals a shift away from vote-bank politics.

    J&K Stability and Future Prospects

    Addressing the situation in Jammu & Kashmir, the Minister said normalcy has returned, with tourism booming. “Visit Pahalgam today—you’ll find it crowded despite recent incidents,” he said, adding that youth in the region are determined to be part of India’s development journey. He also called the recent discovery of lithium reserves in J&K a potential economic game-changer.

    Towards Viksit Bharat 2047

    Concluding his remarks, Singh underscored the role of citizens in shaping the nation’s future. “The real driving force behind Viksit Bharat 2047 will be the people of India—their support, aspirations, and participation will define the next 25 years of our journey,” he said.

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The first flight of the Chinese airline Juneyao Air from Shanghai arrived in Vladivostok, Russia

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    Vladivostok, June 23 (Xinhua) — The first flight of China’s Juneyao Air from Shanghai arrived in Vladivostok, the administrative center of Russia’s Primorsky Krai, on Monday, the Russian city’s international airport reported on its website.

    Juneyao Air opened a direct flight from Shanghai to Vladivostok on June 23. On the morning of this day, the first Juneyao Air flight from Shanghai was greeted with a water arch at Vladivostok airport.

    The Primorye air hub marked the important event with a special edition of limited edition commemorative postcards. The first passengers were given them along with their boarding passes.

    The new route uses an Airbus 321 aircraft in a two-class configuration. Flights in the summer schedule are performed twice a week on Mondays and Fridays to Shanghai Pudong Airport. Flight time from Vladivostok to Shanghai is 3 hours 30 minutes.

    Taking into account the new Juneyao Air flights, the frequency on the Vladivostok-Shanghai route will reach 8 flights per week. At the moment, flights from Vladivostok airport to the Chinese metropolis are also operated by Russian airlines Rossiya and S7 Airlines. –0–

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • Kanishka bombing anniversary: EAM reiterates call for zero tolerance to terrorism, extremism

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday paid homage to the 329 victims of the 1985 Air India ‘Kanishka’ bombing, marking the 40th anniversary of one of the deadliest acts of aviation terrorism in history.
     
    Reiterating India’s firm stance against terrorism, Jaishankar underscored the need for global zero tolerance towards terrorism and violent extremism. He called the tragedy a grim reminder of the devastating consequences of allowing such ideologies to persist.
     
    “On the 40th anniversary of Air India 182 ‘Kanishka’ bombing, we honour the memory of the 329 lives lost in one of the worst acts of terrorism. A stark reminder of why the world must show zero tolerance towards terrorism and violent extremism,” Jaishankar said in a post on X.
     
    Air India Flight 182 was en route from Montreal to Mumbai via London and Delhi when it was destroyed mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean on June 23, 1985, after a bomb exploded in its cargo hold.
     
    The Boeing 747 aircraft, named after Emperor Kanishka of the Kushan dynasty, had just completed a scheduled stop at Montreal’s Mirabel Airport, where additional passengers boarded. The flight then resumed its journey toward London Heathrow before vanishing from radar shortly after establishing contact with Shannon Air Traffic Control in Ireland.
     
    The mid-air explosion occurred off the Irish coast, killing all 329 people on board, including 22 crew members. The investigation later revealed that the bomb had been placed in luggage originating from Vancouver, pointing to a transnational terror plot.
     
    The attack was attributed to the Khalistani extremist outfit Babbar Khalsa. Inderjit Singh Reyat, a British-Canadian national, pleaded guilty in 2003 for his role in assembling the explosive device. Another key conspirator, Talwinder Singh Parmar, a founding member of Babbar Khalsa, was believed to be the mastermind behind the bombing.
     
    To mark the solemn anniversary, a high-level Indian delegation led by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri arrived in Ireland on Sunday to participate in the memorial service at the Ahakista Memorial in Cork.
     
    The delegation includes BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh and elected representatives from five Indian states: Arvinder Singh Lovely (Delhi MLA), Baldev Singh Aulakh (Minister from Uttar Pradesh), Gurveer Singh Brar (MLA from Rajasthan), Trilok Singh Cheema (MLA from Uttarakhand), and Narinder Singh Raina (MLA from Jammu & Kashmir).
     
    The commemorative event is being held on Monday at the memorial site, in the presence of Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Canadian Minister Gary Anandasangaree, and several other international dignitaries.
     
    (IANS)

  • Airlines weigh Middle East cancellations after US strikes in Iran

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Commercial airlines around the world on Monday were weighing how long to suspend Middle East flights as a conflict which has already cut off major flight routes entered a new phase after the U.S. attacked key Iranian nuclear sites and Tehran vowed to defend itself.

    The usually busy airspace stretching from Iran and Iraq to the Mediterranean has been largely empty of commercial air traffic for 10 days since Israel began strikes on Iran on June 13, as airlines divert, cancel and delay flights through the region due to airspace closures and safety concerns.

    New cancellations of some flights by international carriers in recent days to usually resilient aviation hubs like Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, and Qatar’s Doha, show how aviation industry concerns about the region have escalated.
    However, some international airlines were resuming services on Monday.

    Leading Asian carrier Singapore Airlines, which described the situation as “fluid”, was set to resume flying to Dubai on Monday after cancelling its Sunday flight from Singapore.

    Similarly, Flightradar24 departure boards show British Airways, owned by IAG, was set to resume Dubai and Doha flights on Monday after cancelling routes to and from those airports on Sunday.

    Air France KLM cancelled flights to and from Dubai and Riyadh on Sunday and Monday.

    With Russian and Ukrainian airspace also closed to most airlines due to years of war, the Middle East had become a more important route for flights between Europe and Asia. Amid missile and air strikes during the past 10 days, airlines have routed north via the Caspian Sea or south via Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

    Added to increased fuel and crew costs from these long detours and cancellations, carriers also face a potential hike in jet fuel costs as oil prices rise following the U.S. attacks.

    AIRSPACE RISKS

    Proliferating conflict zones are an increasing operational burden on airlines, as aerial attacks raise worries about accidental or deliberate shoot-downs of commercial air traffic.

    Location spoofing and GPS interference around political hotspots, where ground-based GPS systems broadcast incorrect positions which can send commercial airliners off course, are also a growing issue for commercial aviation.

    Flightradar24 told Reuters it had seen a “dramatic increase” in jamming and spoofing in recent days over the Persian Gulf. SkAI, a Swiss company that runs a GPS disruption map, late on Sunday said it had observed more than 150 aircraft spoofed in 24 hours there.

    Safe Airspace, a website run by OPSGROUP, a membership-based organisation that shares flight risk information, noted on Sunday that U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites could heighten the threat to American operators in the region.

    This could raise additional airspace risks in Gulf states like Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, it said.

    In the days before the U.S. strikes, American Airlines suspended flights to Qatar, and United Airlines and Air Canada did the same with flights to Dubai. They have yet to resume.

    While international airlines are shying away from the region, local carriers in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq are tentatively resuming some flights after widespread cancellations.

    Israel is ramping up flights to help people return home, and leave. The country’s Airports Authority says that so-called rescue flights to the country would expand on Monday with 24 a day, although each flight would be limited to 50 passengers.

    From Monday, Israeli airlines will start to operate outbound flights from Israel, the authority said.

    Israeli airline El Al on Sunday said it had received applications to leave the country from about 25,000 people in about a day.

    (Reuters)

  • US strikes on Iran leave hopes for nuclear diplomacy in tatters

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Iran, Israel, United States, Donald Trump, missile strikes, nuclear sites,Iran, Israel, United States, Donald Trump, missile strikes, nuclear sites,In a bid to defuse the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program, foreign ministers from Europe’s top three powers hurried to meet their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva.

    Those hopes collapsed on Saturday when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on Iran’s three main nuclear sites, in support of Israel’s military campaign.

    “It’s irrelevant to ask Iran to return to diplomacy,” Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi, visibly angry, told reporters in Istanbul on Sunday, promising a “response” to the U.S. strikes. “It’s not time for diplomacy now.”

    Trump, who said the U.S. airstrikes “obliterated” the sites, warned in a televised speech on Saturday the U.S. could attack other targets in Iran if no peace deal was reached and urged Tehran to return to the negotiating table.

    Reuters spoke to seven Western diplomats and analysts who said the prospect of negotiations was negligible for now, with an unbridgeable gap between Washington’s demand for zero enrichment by Iran and Tehran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear program.

    “I think the prospects of effective diplomacy at this point are slim to none,” said James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank headquartered in Washington.

    “I’m much more worried about escalation, both in the short and the long term.”

    According to European diplomats, the three European allies – Britain, France and Germany – were not made aware of Trump’s decision to strike Iran ahead of time. French President Emmanuel Macron had promised on Saturday – just before the U.S. strikes – to accelerate the nuclear talks, following a call with his Iranian counterpart.

    One European diplomat, who asked not to be identified, acknowledged there was now no way of holding a planned second meeting with Iran in the coming week.

    In the wake of the U.S. military action, any European diplomatic role appears likely to be secondary. Trump on Friday dismissed Europe’s efforts towards resolving the crisis, saying Iran only wanted to speak to the United States.

    Three diplomats and analysts said any future talks between Iran and Washington would likely be through regional intermediaries Oman and Qatar, once Tehran decides how to respond to the U.S. airstrikes on its nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

    The attacks leave Iran with few palatable options on the table. Since Israel began its military campaign against Iran on June 13, some in Tehran have raised the prospect of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to signal Iran’s determination to accelerate enrichment, but experts say that would represent a considerable escalation and likely draw a forceful response from Washington.

    Acton, of the Carnegie Endowment, said Iran’s most obvious means for retaliation is its short-range ballistic missiles, that could be used to target U.S. forces and assets in the region. But any military response by Iran carried the risk of miscalculation, he said.

    “On the one hand, they want a strong enough response that they feel the U.S. has actually paid a price. On the other hand, they don’t want to encourage further escalation,” he said.

    EUROPEAN EFFORT ENDED IN FAILURE

    Even before the U.S. strikes, Friday’s talks in Geneva showed little sign of progress amid a chasm between the two sides and in the end no detailed proposals were put forward, three diplomats said. Mixed messaging may have also undermined their own efforts, diplomats said.

    European positions on key issues like Iran’s enrichment program have hardened in the past 10 days with the Israeli strikes and the looming threat of U.S. bombing.

    The three European powers, known as the E3, were parties to a 2015 nuclear deal that Trump abandoned three years later during his first term.

    Both the Europeans and Tehran believed they had a better understanding of how to get a realistic deal given the E3 have been dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme since 2003.

    But the Europeans have had a difficult relationship with Iran in recent months as they sought to pressure it over its ballistic missiles programme, support for Russia and detention of European citizens.

    France, which was the keenest to pursue negotiations, has in the last few days suggested Iran should move towards zero enrichment, which until now was not an E3 demand given Iran’s red line on the issue, two European diplomats said.

    Britain has also adopted a tougher stance more in tune with Washington and that was expressed in Geneva, the diplomats said. And Germany’s new government appeared to go in the same direction, although it was more nuanced.

    “Iran has to accept zero enrichment eventually,” said one EU official.

    A senior Iranian official on Saturday showed disappointment at the Europeans’ new stance, saying their demands were “unrealistic”, without providing further details.

    In a brief joint statement on Sunday, which acknowledged the U.S. strikes, the European countries said they would continue their diplomatic efforts.

    “We call upon Iran to engage in negotiations leading to an agreement that addresses all concerns associated with its nuclear program,” it said, adding the Europeans stood ready to contribute “in coordination with all parties”.

    David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, a Paris-based think tank, said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s government had taken advantage of the Europeans for years to gain time as it developed its nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities.

    “The European attempt ended in failure,” he said.
    However, the Europeans still have one important card to play. They are the only ones who, as party to the nuclear accord, can launch its so-called “snapback mechanism”, which would reimpose all previous UN sanctions on Iran if it is found to be in violation of the agreement’s terms.

    Diplomats said, prior to the U.S. strikes, the three countries had discussed an end-August deadline to activate it as part of a ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Tehran.

    “MULTIPLE CHANNELS” FOR U.S. TALKS

    In total, the U.S. launched 75 precision-guided munitions, including more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles, and more than 125 military aircraft in the operation against the three nuclear sites, U.S. officials said.

    US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday warned Iran against retaliation and said both public and private messages had been sent to Iran “in multiple channels, giving them every opportunity to come to the table.”

    Five previous rounds of indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran collapsed after a U.S. proposal at the end of May called for Iran to abandon uranium enrichment. It was rejected by Tehran, leading to Israel launching its attack on Iran after Trump’s 60-day deadline for talks had expired.

    Iran has repeatedly said from then on that it would not negotiate while at war.

    Even after Israel struck, Washington reached out to Iran to resume negotiations, including offering a meeting between the Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Istanbul, according to two European diplomats and an Iranian official.

    That was rebuffed by Iran, but Araqchi did continue direct contacts with US Special envoy Steve Witkoff, three diplomats told Reuters.

    One of the challenges in engaging with Iran, experts say, is that no-one can be sure of the extent of the damage to its nuclear program. With the IAEA severely restricted in its access to Iranian sites, it is unclear whether Tehran has hidden enrichment facilities.

    A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow, the site producing the bulk of Iran’s uranium refined to up to 60%, had been moved to an undisclosed location before the U.S. attack there.

    Acton, of the Carnegie Endowment, said that – putting aside from the damage to its physical installations – Iran had thousands of scientists and technicians involved in the enrichment program, most of whom had survived the U.S. and Israeli attacks.
    “You can’t bomb knowledge,” said Acton.

    (Reuters)

  • US strikes on Iran leave hopes for nuclear diplomacy in tatters

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Iran, Israel, United States, Donald Trump, missile strikes, nuclear sites,Iran, Israel, United States, Donald Trump, missile strikes, nuclear sites,In a bid to defuse the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program, foreign ministers from Europe’s top three powers hurried to meet their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva.

    Those hopes collapsed on Saturday when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on Iran’s three main nuclear sites, in support of Israel’s military campaign.

    “It’s irrelevant to ask Iran to return to diplomacy,” Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi, visibly angry, told reporters in Istanbul on Sunday, promising a “response” to the U.S. strikes. “It’s not time for diplomacy now.”

    Trump, who said the U.S. airstrikes “obliterated” the sites, warned in a televised speech on Saturday the U.S. could attack other targets in Iran if no peace deal was reached and urged Tehran to return to the negotiating table.

    Reuters spoke to seven Western diplomats and analysts who said the prospect of negotiations was negligible for now, with an unbridgeable gap between Washington’s demand for zero enrichment by Iran and Tehran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear program.

    “I think the prospects of effective diplomacy at this point are slim to none,” said James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank headquartered in Washington.

    “I’m much more worried about escalation, both in the short and the long term.”

    According to European diplomats, the three European allies – Britain, France and Germany – were not made aware of Trump’s decision to strike Iran ahead of time. French President Emmanuel Macron had promised on Saturday – just before the U.S. strikes – to accelerate the nuclear talks, following a call with his Iranian counterpart.

    One European diplomat, who asked not to be identified, acknowledged there was now no way of holding a planned second meeting with Iran in the coming week.

    In the wake of the U.S. military action, any European diplomatic role appears likely to be secondary. Trump on Friday dismissed Europe’s efforts towards resolving the crisis, saying Iran only wanted to speak to the United States.

    Three diplomats and analysts said any future talks between Iran and Washington would likely be through regional intermediaries Oman and Qatar, once Tehran decides how to respond to the U.S. airstrikes on its nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

    The attacks leave Iran with few palatable options on the table. Since Israel began its military campaign against Iran on June 13, some in Tehran have raised the prospect of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to signal Iran’s determination to accelerate enrichment, but experts say that would represent a considerable escalation and likely draw a forceful response from Washington.

    Acton, of the Carnegie Endowment, said Iran’s most obvious means for retaliation is its short-range ballistic missiles, that could be used to target U.S. forces and assets in the region. But any military response by Iran carried the risk of miscalculation, he said.

    “On the one hand, they want a strong enough response that they feel the U.S. has actually paid a price. On the other hand, they don’t want to encourage further escalation,” he said.

    EUROPEAN EFFORT ENDED IN FAILURE

    Even before the U.S. strikes, Friday’s talks in Geneva showed little sign of progress amid a chasm between the two sides and in the end no detailed proposals were put forward, three diplomats said. Mixed messaging may have also undermined their own efforts, diplomats said.

    European positions on key issues like Iran’s enrichment program have hardened in the past 10 days with the Israeli strikes and the looming threat of U.S. bombing.

    The three European powers, known as the E3, were parties to a 2015 nuclear deal that Trump abandoned three years later during his first term.

    Both the Europeans and Tehran believed they had a better understanding of how to get a realistic deal given the E3 have been dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme since 2003.

    But the Europeans have had a difficult relationship with Iran in recent months as they sought to pressure it over its ballistic missiles programme, support for Russia and detention of European citizens.

    France, which was the keenest to pursue negotiations, has in the last few days suggested Iran should move towards zero enrichment, which until now was not an E3 demand given Iran’s red line on the issue, two European diplomats said.

    Britain has also adopted a tougher stance more in tune with Washington and that was expressed in Geneva, the diplomats said. And Germany’s new government appeared to go in the same direction, although it was more nuanced.

    “Iran has to accept zero enrichment eventually,” said one EU official.

    A senior Iranian official on Saturday showed disappointment at the Europeans’ new stance, saying their demands were “unrealistic”, without providing further details.

    In a brief joint statement on Sunday, which acknowledged the U.S. strikes, the European countries said they would continue their diplomatic efforts.

    “We call upon Iran to engage in negotiations leading to an agreement that addresses all concerns associated with its nuclear program,” it said, adding the Europeans stood ready to contribute “in coordination with all parties”.

    David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, a Paris-based think tank, said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s government had taken advantage of the Europeans for years to gain time as it developed its nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities.

    “The European attempt ended in failure,” he said.
    However, the Europeans still have one important card to play. They are the only ones who, as party to the nuclear accord, can launch its so-called “snapback mechanism”, which would reimpose all previous UN sanctions on Iran if it is found to be in violation of the agreement’s terms.

    Diplomats said, prior to the U.S. strikes, the three countries had discussed an end-August deadline to activate it as part of a ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Tehran.

    “MULTIPLE CHANNELS” FOR U.S. TALKS

    In total, the U.S. launched 75 precision-guided munitions, including more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles, and more than 125 military aircraft in the operation against the three nuclear sites, U.S. officials said.

    US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday warned Iran against retaliation and said both public and private messages had been sent to Iran “in multiple channels, giving them every opportunity to come to the table.”

    Five previous rounds of indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran collapsed after a U.S. proposal at the end of May called for Iran to abandon uranium enrichment. It was rejected by Tehran, leading to Israel launching its attack on Iran after Trump’s 60-day deadline for talks had expired.

    Iran has repeatedly said from then on that it would not negotiate while at war.

    Even after Israel struck, Washington reached out to Iran to resume negotiations, including offering a meeting between the Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Istanbul, according to two European diplomats and an Iranian official.

    That was rebuffed by Iran, but Araqchi did continue direct contacts with US Special envoy Steve Witkoff, three diplomats told Reuters.

    One of the challenges in engaging with Iran, experts say, is that no-one can be sure of the extent of the damage to its nuclear program. With the IAEA severely restricted in its access to Iranian sites, it is unclear whether Tehran has hidden enrichment facilities.

    A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow, the site producing the bulk of Iran’s uranium refined to up to 60%, had been moved to an undisclosed location before the U.S. attack there.

    Acton, of the Carnegie Endowment, said that – putting aside from the damage to its physical installations – Iran had thousands of scientists and technicians involved in the enrichment program, most of whom had survived the U.S. and Israeli attacks.
    “You can’t bomb knowledge,” said Acton.

    (Reuters)

  • Satellite images indicate severe damage to Fordow, but doubts remain

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Commercial satellite imagery indicates the U.S. attack on Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant severely damaged – and possibly destroyed – the deeply-buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, but there was no confirmation, experts said on Sunday.

    “They just punched through with these MOPs,” said David Albright, a former U.N. nuclear inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security, referring to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bombs that the U.S. said it dropped. “I would expect that the facility is probably toast.”

    But confirmation of the below-ground destruction could not be determined, noted Decker Eveleth, an associate researcher with the CNA Corporation who specializes in satellite imagery. The hall containing hundreds of centrifuges is “too deeply buried for us to evaluate the level of damage based on satellite imagery,” he said.

    To defend against attacks such as the one conducted by U.S. forces early on Sunday, Iran buried much of its nuclear program in fortified sites deep underground, including into the side of a mountain at Fordow.

    Satellite images show six holes where the bunker-busting bombs appear to have penetrated the mountain, and then ground that looks disturbed and covered in dust.

    The United States and Israel have said they intend to halt Tehran’s nuclear program. But a failure to completely destroy its facilities and equipment could mean Iran could more easily restart the weapons program that U.S. intelligence and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) say it shuttered in 2003.

    ‘UNUSUAL ACTIVITY’

    Several experts also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of Fordow before the strike early Sunday morning and could be hiding it and other nuclear components in locations unknown to Israel, the U.S. and U.N. nuclear inspectors.

    They noted satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showing “unusual activity” at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting outside an entrance of the facility. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday most of the near weapons-grade 60% highly enriched uranium had been moved to an undisclosed location before the U.S. attack.

    “I don’t think you can with great confidence do anything but set back their nuclear program by maybe a few years,” said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. “There’s almost certainly facilities that we don’t know about.”

    Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat and member of the Senate intelligence committee who said he had been reviewing intelligence every day, expressed the same concern.

    “My big fear right now is that they take this entire program underground, not physically underground, but under the radar,” he told NBC News. “Where we tried to stop it, there is a possibility that this could accelerate it.”

    Iran long has insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

    But in response to Israel’s attacks, Iran’s parliament is threatening to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of the international system that went into force in 1970 to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, ending cooperation with the IAEA.

    “The world is going to be in the dark about what Iran may be doing,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group.

    ‘DOUBLE TAP’

    Reuters spoke to four experts who reviewed Maxar Technologies satellite imagery of Fordow showing six neatly spaced holes in two groups in the mountain ridge beneath which the hall containing the centrifuges is believed to be located.

    General Dan Caine, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that seven B-2 bombers dropped 14 GBU-57/B MOPs, 30,000-pound precision-guided bombs designed to drive up to 200 feet into hardened underground facilities like Fordow, according to a 2012 congressional report.

    Caine said initial assessments indicated that the sites suffered extremely severe damage, but declined to speculate about whether any nuclear facilities remained intact.

    Eveleth said the Maxar imagery of Fordow and Caine’s comments indicated that the B-2s dropped an initial load of six MOPs on Fordow, followed by a “double tap” of six more in the exact same spots.

    Operation Midnight Hammer also targeted Tehran’s main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, he said, and struck in Isfahan, the location of the country’s largest nuclear research center. There are other nuclear-related sites near the city.

    Israel had already struck Natanz and the Isfahan Nuclear Research Center in its 10-day war with Iran.

    Albright said in a post on X that Airbus Defence and Space satellite imagery showed that U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles severely damaged a uranium facility at Isfahan and an impact hole above the underground enrichment halls at Natanz reportedly caused by a Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-busting bomb that “likely destroyed the facility.”

    Albright questioned the U.S. use of cruise missiles in Isfahan, saying that those weapons could not penetrate a tunnel complex near the main nuclear research center believed to be even deeper than Fordow. The IAEA said the tunnel entrances “were impacted.”

    He noted that Iran recently informed the IAEA that it planned to install a new uranium enrichment plant in Isfahan.

    “There may be 2,000 to 3,000 more centrifuges that were slated to go into this new enrichment plant,” he said. “Where are they?”

    (Reuters)

  • MIL-Evening Report: NZ’s plan to ‘welcome anyone, from anywhere, anytime’ is not a sustainable tourism policy

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Regina Scheyvens, Professor of Development Studies, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University

    Getty Images

    Attracting more Chinese tourists to New Zealand, including during the off-season, was a major part of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s trade agenda during his visit to China last week. As Tourism Minister Louise Upston put it: “we welcome anyone, from anywhere, anytime”.

    It’s all part of the government’s plan to “turbocharge” the tourism sector with an additional NZ$13.5 million for marketing this year. The hope is this will help double the value of tourism as an export earner by 2034.

    The China visit built on the government’s Tourism Growth Roadmap which aims to attract 3.89 million visitors by 2026, and 4.78 million by 2030-34.

    Ironically, the release of the roadmap coincided with unprecedented, organised push-back against mass tourism across southern Europe this month. Fed up with the economic and cultural impact of too much “touristification”, residents of popular cities and islands in Italy, Portugal and Spain took part in coordinated protests, some even spraying tourists with water pistols.

    Before COVID upended international tourism in 2020, similar serious concerns were voiced in New Zealand about environmental degradation, crowding and congestion, and declining public support for tourism.

    But the plan to turbocharge tourism specifically aims to return international visitor arrivals to pre-COVID levels.

    From destination management to marketing

    As part of the government’s Tourism Boost Package, money generated by the International Visitor Levy (IVL) will be spent driving demand in Australia and elsewhere over the next two years.

    But this use of the visitor levy (which was raised to $100 in October last year) seems at odds with its stated purpose. According to New Zealand Immigration, “The IVL is your contribution to maintaining the facilities and natural environment you will use and enjoy during your stay”.

    Visitor levy revenue was strategically intended to support tourism regions to protect their natural environments and maintain crucial infrastructure.

    Diverting visitor levy income to fund overall tourism growth also seems to turn a deaf ear to the 2020 interim report from the Tourism Futures Taskforce and the 2023 Tourism Adaptation Roadmap from the Aotearoa Circle industry group.

    Both were widely acknowledged for their vision and ambition to create a future tourism that served the aspirations of Māori and local communities.

    There’s also a risk of the 29 Destination Management Plans developed since 2021 (with financial support from the visitor levy) being shelved in this detour from destination management to marketing.

    Anti-tourism protesters in Barcelona brandish water pistols, June 15.
    Getty Images

    Redefining tourism ‘value’

    There are several key questions about the practical implications of the government’s growth-oriented tourism development approach.

    Firstly, staff and infrastructure limitations mean destinations and business will struggle to accommodate more numbers. As the acting mayor of MacKenzie District has noted, several businesses around Tekapo were forced to operate below capacity last summer because there was no suitable housing available for the staff, only up-market holiday rentals.

    New Zealand also faces a tourism workforce crisis. Over the past ten years, there has been a 63% drop in the number of students taking tourism-related tertiary courses, and a 73% decrease in those completing hospitality courses.

    Meanwhile, from Northland to Queenstown, basic utilities such as electricity and drinking water are being stretched beyond capacity during peak visitation times.

    Secondly, there is a real risk of environmental damage from overtourism compromising the appeal of iconic attractions and destinations.

    But despite concern over growing visitor pressure at Piopiotahi/Milford Sound over the past decade, the government recently rejected a plan to manage numbers and ban cruise ships in the inner sound.

    Thirdly, there is the risk of tourism losing its social licence, as is happening in parts of Europe, given the huge burdens on small communities. As the mayor of Queenstown said recently: “When I first started as the mayor, I think it was one resident night to every 30 visitor nights. It is now one to 47.”

    Ultimately, long-term value creation through tourism can only happen when “value” is defined in more than monetary terms and in ways that deliver for all stakeholders, including businesses, visitors, communities, mana whenua and nature.

    The government’s focus on “turbocharging” economic growth through tourism now puts at risk what little progress has been made toward a sustainable tourism model and giving the regions most affected a voice.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. NZ’s plan to ‘welcome anyone, from anywhere, anytime’ is not a sustainable tourism policy – https://theconversation.com/nzs-plan-to-welcome-anyone-from-anywhere-anytime-is-not-a-sustainable-tourism-policy-259246

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • Iran Parliament Approves Strait of Hormuz Closure Following U.S. Nuclear Strikes as Global Energy Crisis Looms

    Source: Government of India

    Source: Government of India (4)

    Iran’s parliament has unanimously approved a dramatic proposal to close the Strait of Hormuz—the world’s most critical oil and gas shipping route—in direct retaliation for U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. While the decision signals a potentially catastrophic escalation with global repercussions, final authority to implement the closure lies with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which has not yet issued a formal order.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the move as “economic suicide” and warned it would provoke a strong American and allied military response. He urged China to use its influence with Tehran to prevent the closure, citing Beijing’s heavy dependence on the waterway for oil imports. Oil prices have already begun spiking on global markets, with analysts predicting a surge well above $100 per barrel if the blockade is enforced.

    The Strait of Hormuz handles approximately 20 percent of global oil exports and a significant share of liquefied natural gas shipments, making it one of the most strategically vital maritime chokepoints in the world. Senior Iranian lawmaker and Revolutionary Guards commander Esmaeil Kowsari confirmed that parliament concluded the strait should be closed but reiterated that the Supreme National Security Council holds final decision-making authority.

    Economists warn that a full closure could trigger cascading effects on global inflation and economic stability. Major economies in Asia and Europe—heavily reliant on West Asian energy supplies—face the prospect of severe supply disruptions that could cripple industrial output and consumer markets.

    The Chinese government now faces the delicate task of balancing its strategic partnership with Iran against the potentially devastating impact on its own energy security. While Beijing has not yet issued an official statement, American diplomats are actively engaging with Chinese counterparts to urge intervention before the crisis escalates further.

    In response, U.S. military forces throughout the region have been placed on heightened alert. The Pentagon is reportedly preparing for potential naval confrontations, as any sustained closure of the Strait of Hormuz would pose an existential threat to global energy security.

    The Iranian parliament’s decision marks the most serious threat to global energy supplies since the 1980s Tanker War, when Iran and Iraq targeted commercial shipping. Current tensions in West Asia have already disrupted aviation and shipping patterns, but a Hormuz closure would represent an unprecedented blow to the global economy amid an already volatile energy landscape.