U.S. to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the U.S. will send Ukraine a battalion of 31 M1 Abrams tanks, the Army’s premier main battle tank, in a significant show of support for Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

The tanks won’t arrive in Ukraine for many months, and the Pentagon is working through the challenges involved in providing the training, equipment and fuel to operate the 70-ton tracked weapons, officials said.


But the decision is a huge symbolic win for Ukraine, which is bogged down in brutal fighting across the country and preparing for a spring counteroffensive to repel the Russians. Other nations, including Germany, are set to send their own modern tanks to Kyiv, which has been pleading for the weapons for months.

“Putin expected Europe and the United States to weaken our resolve. He expected our support for Ukraine to crumble with time. He was wrong,” Biden said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “These tanks are further evidence of our enduring, unflagging commitment to Ukraine and our confidence in the skill of the Ukrainian forces.”

Biden approved the tanks as part of a $400 million procurement through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a fund set aside by Congress to support Ukraine. The U.S. will now sign contracts for the 31 Abrams tanks, along with 120mm rounds and other ammunition, eight tactical recovery vehicles, other support vehicles and equipment, training, maintenance and sustainment, according to the State Department.

The news comes after weeks of discussions between U.S. and European leaders, particularly the Germans, who have long resisted sending their own Leopard 2 tanks. Biden has spoken with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz multiple times this month about providing assistance to Ukraine, and the two nations announced last month that they would send Patriot missile systems to help defend Ukrainian cities, said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

Top members of Biden’s national security team — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley and national security adviser Jake Sullivan — also met frequently with their German and European counterparts, including most recently at a meeting of defense ministers at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, last week.

Top U.S. officials urged Germany to send their Leopard 2s, which are abundant across Europe and easier for the Ukrainians to use and maintain than the Abrams. But Berlin stood firm, with senior German leaders privately telling Washington that they would only send Leopards if the U.S. sent Abrams.

The president knew Ukraine needed Leopards on the battlefield as soon as possible, so he worked with his national security team to approve the Abrams. He ultimately decided to send American tanks after Austin’s recommendation, according to two other U.S. officials.

USAF C-17s cleared to transport new nukes to European bases

FAS: In November 2022, the Air Force updated its safety rules for airlift of nuclear weapons to allow the C-17A Globemaster III aircraft to transport the new B61-12 nuclear bomb.

The update, accompanied by training and certification of the aircraft and crews, cleared the C-17A to transport the newest U.S. nuclear weapon to bases in the United States and Europe.

The C-17As of the 62nd Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord serve as the Prime Nuclear Airlift Force (PNAF), the only airlift wing that is authorized to transport the Air Force’s nuclear warheads.

The updated Air Force instruction does not, as inaccurately suggested by some, confirm that shipping of the weapons began in December. But it documents some of the preparations needed to do so.

Politico reported in October last year that the US had accelerated deployment of the B61-12 from Spring 2023 to December 2022. Two unnamed US officials said the US told NATO about the schedule in October.

But a senior Pentagon official subsequently dismissed the Politico report, saying “nothing has changed on the timeline. There is no speeding up because of any Ukraine crisis, the B61-12 is on the same schedule it’s always been on.”

Although the DOD official denied there had been a change in the schedule, he did not deny that transport would begin in December.

The B61-12 production scheduled had slipped repeatedly. Initially, the plan was to begin full-scale production in early-2019. By September 2022, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was still awaiting approval to begin full-scale production. Finally, in October 2022, NNSA confirmed to FAS that the B61-12 was in full-scale production.

The B61-12 is intended as an upgrade and eventual replacement for all current nuclear gravity bombs, including the B61-3, -4, -7, and probably eventually also the B61-11 and B83-1. To that end, it combines and improves upon various aspects of existing bombs: it uses a modified version of the B61-4 warhead with several lower- and medium-yield options (0.3-50 kilotons). It compensates for its smaller explosive yield (relative to the maximum yields of the B61-7 and -11) by including a guided tail-kit to increase accuracy, as well as a limited earth-penetration capability.

At this point in time, it is unknown if B61-12 shipments to Europe have begun. If not, it appears to be imminent. That said, deployment will probably not happen in one move but gradually spread to more and more bases depending on certification and construction at each base.

There are currently six active bases in five European countries with about 100 B61 bombs present in underground Weapons Storage and Security Systems (WS3) inside aircraft shelters. A seventh site in Germany (Ramstein Air Base) is active without weapons present and an eighth site – RAF Lakenheath – has recently been added to the list of WS3 sites being modernized. The revitalization of Lakenheath’s nuclear storage bunkers does not necessarily indicate that US nuclear weapons will return to UK soil, especially since as recently as December 2021, NATO’s Secretary General stated that “we have no plans of stationing any nuclear weapons in any other countries than we already have . . . ” However, the upgrade could be intended to increase NATO’s ability to redistribute the B61 bombs in times of heightened tensions, or to potentially move them out of Turkey in the future.

BREAKING: VIDEO -Pilot ejects from F-35 as it crash-lands at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth Thursday morning.

NBCDFW: 

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A pilot ejected from a Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II fighter jet during a landing at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth Thursday morning.

White Settlement Chief of Police Christoper Cook said they were called at 10:15 a.m. by U.S. Navy Police and Lockheed Martin to help clear onlookers away a roadway adjacent to the runway while officials responded and investigated an incident with an aircraft.

According to Cook, a Lockheed-owned jet suffered some sort of malfunction that forced the pilot to eject the aircraft. Cook said the pilot's ejected seat and parachute were visible near the aircraft which came to a stop in the grass along the southwest side of the runway, near White Settlement Road and Spur 341/Lockheed Boulevard.

The B variant of the aircraft can land vertically like a helicopter. Video obtained by NBC 5 showed the aircraft landing vertically Thursday morning when it bounced. As it came back down, the tail end pitched up, driving the nose into the ground and snapping off the front landing gear. The aircraft then slid 180 degrees on its nose and right wing before turning back in the other direction. At that moment, with the aircraft on the ground, the pilot was ejected from the aircraft and the plane appeared to come to rest in the grass.

Cook said earlier in the morning that the pilot safely ejected but had no other information about the pilot's condition.

Lockheed Martin, who assembles the fighter jet at a facility immediately to the west of the base and shares the north-south 18/36 runway with the joint reserve base, confirmed the crash but offered no further update on the pilot's condition.

"We are aware of the F-35B crash on the shared runway at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth and understand that the pilot ejected successfully," Lockheed Martin said in a statement. "Safety is our priority, and we will follow appropriate investigation protocol."

Further details about the incident have not been confirmed by Lockheed Martin or officials at NAS JRB.

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Livermore Labs makes breakthrough on Nuclear fusion

CNN:


US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday morning that the nuclear fusion experiment conducted by US scientists replicated "certain conditions that are only found in the stars and sun."

"Ignition allows us to replicate for the first time certain conditions that are only found in the stars and sun. This milestone moves us one significant step closer to the possibility of zero carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society," she said.

Granholm continued: “This is what it looks like for America to lead, and we’re just getting started.”

“If we can advance fusion energy, we could use it to produce clean electricity, transportation fuels, power, heavy industry and so much more.”

“This monumental scientific breakthrough is a milestone for the future of clean energy,” said Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California.

The breakthrough was made by a team of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility in California on Dec. 5 – a facility the size of a sports stadium and equipped with 192 lasers.

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm called the breakthrough a “landmark achievement” in a statement.

In the statement, Granholm said scientists at Livermore and other national labs do work that will help the US "solve humanity’s most complex and pressing problems, like providing clean power to combat climate change and maintaining a nuclear deterrent without nuclear testing.”

The director of Livermore, Dr. Kim Budil, called scientists’ attempts to realize fusion ignition in the lab “one of the most significant scientific challenges ever tackled by humanity” and cheered the work of her lab’s scientists.

“Achieving it is a triumph of science, engineering, and most of all, people,” Budil said in a statement. “Crossing this threshold is the vision that has driven 60 years of dedicated pursuit. These are the problems that the U.S. national laboratories were created to solve.”

We are still a very long way from having fusion power the electric grid, never mind one power plant itself. The US project, while groundbreaking, only produced enough energy to boil about 2.5 gallons of water, Tony Roulstone, a fusion expert from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, told CNN.

That may not seem like much, but the experiment is still hugely significant because scientists demonstrated that they can actually create more energy than they started with. While there’s many more steps until this can be commercially viable, that is a major hurdle to cross with nuclear fusion, experts say.

“This is very important because from an energy perspective, it can’t be an energy source if you’re not getting out more energy than you’re putting in,” Julio Friedmann, chief scientist at Carbon Direct and a former chief energy technologist at Lawrence Livermore, told CNN on Monday. “Prior breakthroughs have been important but it’s not the same thing as generating energy that could one day be used on a larger scale.”

Past fusion experiments including one in the United Kingdom have generated more energy but have not had nearly as big of an energy gain. For instance, earlier this year, UK scientists generated a record-setting 59 megajoules of energy – about 20 times as the US-based project. Even so, the UK project only showed an energy gain of less than one megajoule.

There’s still many years and a long way to go to make the project commercially viable. Neither the US or UK-based projects “have the hardware and steps in place to convert fusion neutrons to electricity,” Anne White, head of MIT’s Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, told CNN.

But Roulstone pointed out that big ambitious nuclear energy projects have to start somewhere: In 1942, scientists in Chicago ran the first fission nuclear reactor for just 5 minutes in its first run; 15 years later, the first US-based nuclear power plant went online in Pennsylvania.

B-52 drops hypersonic AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- A B-52H Stratofortress successfully released the first All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon off the Southern California coast, Dec. 9.

This test was the first launch of a full prototype operational missile. Previous test events focused on proving the booster performance. Following the ARRW’s separation from the aircraft, it reached hypersonic speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, completed its flight path and detonated in the terminal area. Indications show that all objectives were met.

“The ARRW team successfully designed and tested an air-launched hypersonic missile in five years,” said Brig. Gen. Jason Bartolomei, Armament Directorate Program Executive Officer. “I am immensely proud of the tenacity and dedication this team has shown to provide a vital capability to our warfighter.”

The 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, California, executed the ARRW test flight.

ARRW is designed to enable the U.S. to hold fixed, high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk in contested environments.