The Bundestag's budget committee on 14 June approved the procurement of the Arrow Weapon System and Arrow 3 missiles for the Bundeswehr. (IAI)

The budget committee of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, on 14 June approved the procurement of six IRIS-T SLM (Surface Launched Medium Range) ground-based air defence (GBAD) systems and the Arrow Weapon System (AWS), including missiles.

Germany plans to sign a letter of commitment with the Israeli government by the end of 2023 on the procurement of the AWS and Arrow 3 missiles, with a planned initial operational capability by the fourth quarter of 2025, the German Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on its website on 15 June. This will require the Israeli government to make advance payments and commission the building of production capacity “in a timely manner”, speeding up the procurement process by six months, according to the German MoD.

The US plans to take 15 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles from its reserves and send them to Ukraine. (US Transportation Command)

The US wants to supply more Stryker armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) in the latest assistance package to Ukraine.

The package will provide Ukraine with USD325 million worth of equipment from US stocks, the Pentagon announced on 13 June. The 15 Bradleys and 10 Strykers will help support Ukrainian offensive operations as vehicles are damaged, said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.

Singh told reporters the Pentagon has always anticipated systems would get damaged and had plans in place to replace some of these systems. The US has not included Bradleys and Strykers in assistance packages since early 2023, but some packages included mobility assistance equipment such as bridging tools.

“I don't know that it'd be a one-to-one ratio every time, but something that went into our calculations when we provide this equipment to the Ukrainians is that there could be battlefield losses and damages,” she said.

USS Freedom and USS Independence were both decommissioned in 2021. (US Navy)

As the US Navy (USN) assesses some of the first overall fleet operations – and recreates operational concepts – for its littoral combat ships (LCSs), the service appears to be just as determined to quickly reduce LCS numbers as it was to introduce and augment the LCS force decades ago.

LCSs were initially designed decades ago and built to conduct antisubmarine warfare (ASW), surface warfare (SuW), and mine countermeasure (MCM) missions with fast, lightly armed, and relatively inexpensive hulls that would last about a quarter of a century.

However, first-of-class USS Freedom (LCS 1) was decommissioned in September 2021. USS Independence (LCS 2) was decommissioned in July 2021. Both had served the fleet for just over a decade.

Even as the USN was decommissioning its first LCSs, the service was tasking others with different missions, introducing them to fleets in major theatres that faced more competitive threats than when LCSs were first conceived.

USS Sioux City (LCS 11) conducted counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean Sea, for example, seizing 1,100 kg of cocaine between April and October 2021.