France Orders Autonomous Combat Submarine Drone for 2028 Sea Trials

France Orders Autonomous Combat Submarine Drone for 2028 Sea Trials

France has officially commissioned Naval Group to construct an operational Unmanned Combat Underwater Vehicle demonstrator slated for sea trials in twenty twenty-eight. Naval News reports that the contract with the French defense procurement agency and the Defense Innovation Agency moves the heavy combat drone program into the hardware build phase. The autonomous vessel will measure more than ten meters in length, featuring an open architecture designed for air transport inside an A four hundred M transport plane. It builds upon a company-funded extra-large unmanned underwater vehicle that completed sea trials in twenty twenty-three to validate energy systems, sensor fusion, and underwater navigation. For autonomy, the platform will use Naval Group’s Steeris OnBoard decision-making software, allowing the vehicle to adjust mission plans without continuous operator communications. French defense planners are prioritizing seabed warfare capabilities to counter foreign underwater activity across vital maritime domains.

Houthi Missile Barrage Hits Riyadh Aramco Tower and Oil Hubs

Yemen’s Houthi forces launched a massive coordinated missile and drone barrage across Saudi Arabia on Sunday, damaging an Aramco office tower in central Riyadh. Defence Blog reports that the multi-pronged strike targeted the capital, southern border cities, and vital oil hubs in the Eastern Province. Saudi air defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles over Riyadh along with cruise missiles and strike drones, but falling debris damaged the King Abdullah Financial District tower. Air raid alerts also sounded across Najran, Dammam, and Buqayq, which hosts the kingdom’s largest crude processing plant. Fighting resumed in July twenty twenty-six. The coalition has intercepted at least fifteen missiles and drones over Saudi territory since early November. The expanding strike campaign threatens critical energy infrastructure and metropolitan centers as regional fighting continues to escalate.

Ukraine Strikes Key Rostov Bridge and Russian Missile Chip Factory

Ukrainian strike drones damaged a strategic bridge along the Novorossiya highway spanning the Mius River in Russia’s Rostov region overnight into Sunday. According to Kyiv Post Defense, the precision strike hit transport infrastructure in Neklinovsky district, forcing Russian authorities to restrict traffic to a single reversible lane. The highway functions as a critical military transit corridor connecting Rostov-on-Don directly to Russian forces occupying southeastern Ukraine. The bridge strike followed a series of deep operations, including Ukrainian Navy Neptune cruise missile strikes on the Proton-Elektroteks plant in Oryol. That defense facility manufactures power semiconductors and inverter switches for Iskander-M ballistic missiles and guidance modules for Kh-seventy-one cruise missiles. Ukrainian drones also hit the Saratov Oil Refinery, an installation processing roughly one hundred forty thousand barrels of crude per day. Interdicting proximate supply routes while targeting microelectronics plants directly impairs Russian frontline logistics and precision missile assembly.

Russia Fires 115 Missiles and 3,000 Drones at Ukraine in One Week

Russian forces launched one hundred fifteen missiles, nearly nineteen hundred guided aerial bombs, and over three thousand strike drones against Ukraine in a single week. Kyiv Post Defense reports that President Volodymyr Zelensky warned a significant portion of the ballistic missiles used in the barrages were manufactured during this calendar year. Zelensky urged allied nations to adopt a twenty-second sanctions package targeting Russian missile manufacturing lines to halt production at the industrial source. Ukrainian defense intelligence has repeatedly recovered Western-origin microelectronics inside downed cruise and ballistic missiles. Kyiv is now pushing Group of Seven partners to synchronize secondary trade bans on dual-use chips and specialized chemicals. As allied interceptor stockpiles face pressure, choking off component supply chains remains essential to disrupting serial Russian missile production.

Kuleba Details 2022 Russian Surrender Demands and US Weapons Delays

Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba revealed that Russia’s spring twenty twenty-two peace proposals demanded Ukraine reduce its armed forces to fifty thousand personnel and surrender all long-range strike weapons. Kyiv Post Defense reports that Kuleba characterized the Istanbul negotiations as disguised capitulation designed to place Ukrainian military arsenals under Russian guard. Speaking in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda, Kuleba warned that Moscow is presenting identical ultimatums today, demanding Ukraine abandon NATO membership and accept severe military caps. He also stated that Washington is tightening pressure on Kyiv ahead of upcoming diplomatic engagements. Moscow’s core demands remain unchanged from twenty twenty-two, making diplomatic progress difficult while Ukrainian forces wait for delayed Western interceptors.

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