logo
WATCH: NATO Warship Fires Ship-Killer Missile in Boost for US Alliances

WATCH: NATO Warship Fires Ship-Killer Missile in Boost for US Alliances

Newsweek2 days ago
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
A Canadian warship—currently deployed in the Indo-Pacific with NATO allies—tested its ability to sink enemy vessels earlier this month during a live-fire missile drill near Australia.
The missile firing was conducted as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025—an ongoing war game involving 19 Indo-Pacific, North American and European nations. It comes amid China's rapid military buildup and expanding naval presence in the broader Western Pacific.
Newsweek has reached out to the Chinese Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The live-fire drill, conducted by the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville de Québec, marked the second time Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 has featured anti-ship capabilities, after the U.S. army conducted a missile strike on a maritime target on July 16.
Both missile firing events appear to be a response to China's demonstration of its growing naval power through two high-profile missions in the Pacific earlier this year—a dual aircraft carrier deployment and the circumnavigation of Australia—alarming the U.S. and its allies.
What To Know
In a video released on Tuesday, the Ville de Québec was seen firing a Harpoon anti-ship missile. According to the Canadian Joint Operations Command, the warship rearmed with Harpoon missiles in Darwin, northern Australia, on July 9 in preparation for the exercise.
In this still image taken from video provided by the Royal Canadian Navy on July 22, 2025, the Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Québec fires a Harpoon anti-ship missile during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 in...
In this still image taken from video provided by the Royal Canadian Navy on July 22, 2025, the Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Québec fires a Harpoon anti-ship missile during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 in waters off northern Australia. More
Royal Canadian Navy
The U.S.-made Harpoon missile, which has a range of over 69 miles, can be launched from aircraft, land-based coastal defense systems, and submarines, in addition to surface ships.
The Canadian warship also conducted a missile rearmament following the live-fire event, according to the Australian military. It became the second Canadian naval vessel to be rearmed in Australia, after the frigate HMCS Vancouver at the Port of Broome in 2024.
"Utilizing Darwin to rearm a Canadian warship with conventional munitions is a significant achievement for the [Australian Defense Force] and our interoperability with close partners," said Australian Chief of Joint Operations, Vice Admiral Justin Jones, in a press release.
The Ville de Québec departed Canada in April for a deployment in the Indo-Pacific, aimed at promoting peace, stability, and the rules-based international order, according to Canada's Department of National Defence. It joined a NATO naval strike group led by the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
On July 9, in preparation for its participation in Ex TALISMAN SABRE, #HMCSVilledeQuébec conducted a rearm in Darwin, Australia, of Harpoon Missiles. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/5XhfzFTeBF — Canadian Joint Operations Command (@CJOC_COIC) July 11, 2025
Both the British and Canadian warships conducted operations with a U.S. naval strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS George Washington in waters north of Australia on July 18.
What People Are Saying
The Canadian Joint Operations Command said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on July 12: "Conducting a forward rearmament this far from home…strengthens our interoperability with partners and allies in the Indo-Pacific region and ensures our forces are ready to respond anywhere when called upon to defend Canada and our allies."
Australian Vice Admiral Justin Jones, Chief of Joint Operations, said in a press release on Monday: "Canada's participation in Talisman Sabre and rearmament of HMCS Ville de Québec in Darwin will help to maintain strong interoperability between our forces."
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen whether Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 will feature additional anti-ship missile live fires, as the U.S. continues to arm its Pacific allies with anti-ship weapons.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Anger in Aussie tourist region after council ban rejected: 'So wrong'
Anger in Aussie tourist region after council ban rejected: 'So wrong'

Yahoo

time7 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Anger in Aussie tourist region after council ban rejected: 'So wrong'

An Australian council's unanimous decision to ban a controversial industry has been rejected by a state government, leaving local legislators 'disappointed'. Shire of Yarra Ranges councillors voted to be excluded from the commercial kangaroo harvesting program due to concerns about the impact of ongoing shooting on the region's tourism, but it was told it did not have the power to make the request. Located less than an hour from central Melbourne, the Yarra Ranges encompasses suburbs, farms and the world-famous Yarra Valley wine region, which attracts 3 to 5 million visitors annually. Many international tourists bus out to its rolling hills to see wild kangaroos, and some residents delight in watching mobs of the animals over the fence in paddocks and parks. But kangaroos don't understand fencelines, and a friendly "skippy" that's chilling in a family's backyard could hop over to a neighbouring farm and face danger. Under the Kangaroo Harvesting Program (KHP), introduced by the Labor state government in 2019, it could then be shot and processed into pet food, or even sold for human consumption. The program has resulted in conflict in the region. In 2021, Yahoo News spoke to a teary dog walker who discovered that her local kangaroo mob had been shot and butchered, with body parts left strewn across the paddocks of Chirnside Park. Councillor worries about kangaroo harvest's impact on tourism Council's official request to be excluded from the Gippsland Harvesting Zone of the KHP was made in May, following a vote in April, and it was rejected in July. Council responded with a strongly worded letter, telling the Allan government the decision would 'cause distress and concern among members of our community'. Councillor Tim Heenan seconded the motion for the Yarra Ranges to be excluded from the KHP. Speaking with Yahoo this week, he said he had concerns about entire families of kangaroos being depleted, and accused the government of being 'bloody-minded' in its response. 'I just can't understand why the state government thinks it's a good thing. We're a tourist area. We have people who come up here for nature, and shooting kangaroos here is so wrong,' he said. Protest planned against government kangaroo decision Chirnside Ward Councillor and Acting Mayor, Richard Higgins, told Yahoo councillors had tried to 'advocate for the community' and now that the request had been rejected, there was little they could do. He said if kangaroo advocates continued to garner the support of other councils around Victoria, the state government could change its mind. Angry Yarra Ranges residents have planned a protest on August 2 to urge the state government to reconsider its decision. Protest organiser and Yarra Ranges resident Alyssa Wormald accused Victoria Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos of 'thumbing his nose at the community'. 'Council took their due diligence seriously and conducted a great deal of research and consultation before they agreed unanimously in April 2025 that we need commercial kangaroo shooters out of our communities,' she said. Claim kangaroos causing 'significant harm' to environment Dimopoulos did not respond to questions from Yahoo News about the decision, but his office shared a statement from a state government spokesperson maintaining the program was 'humane and sustainable', and that changes to harvest zones were not decisions that could be made by councils. "Victoria takes a conservative approach when setting kangaroo control levels to no more than 10 per cent of the population each year, to ensure harvesting does not compromise the sustainability of kangaroo populations," it said. "Changes to harvest zones, including the adjustment of the exclusion zone boundary are not made at the request of local councils, but by consideration of local kangaroo population levels." The spokesperson continued, saying kangaroos can have 'significant impacts on Victoria's environment' and that 'sometimes it is necessary to control their population'. Yahoo asked Dimopoulos's office where specifically in the Yarra Ranges kangaroo populations were causing 'significant impacts' on the environment, but it did not respond. Separate from the KHP, farmers who are concerned about kangaroos damaging property can apply to shoot or disperse them under an Authority to Control Wildlife (ATCW). This is not something councillors voted against. They have challenged the KHP, which allows licensed 'harvesters' to enter properties at the request of landholders and potentially shoot all the kangaroos in a paddock so they can be processed for meat and skins. What did the councillors have to say? A number of councillors have expressed frustration that attempts to advocate for their constituents were unsuccessful. Some, like Heenan, have a fundamental objection to kangaroo harvesting, and despite assurances from the government about sustainability, he has concerns about its impact on local populations. 'As a kid, I always understood that we had tonnes of wildlife — emus, koalas, kangaroos — but the times are changing,' he said, before noting that once stable koala populations in NSW and Queensland plummeted following the Black Summer bushfires. Yahoo News reached out to all councillors from the shire about the state government's decision to reject their request, except for Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child as he recused himself from the April vote. Councillor Jeff Marriott said he was disappointed by the state government's determination, adding, 'We made our decision and we'd hoped that would have been paid attention to.' Councillor Len Cox, who raised the motion in April, said in an email he had 'a strong opinion on this matter', but was unable to be reached for further comment. Councillors Mitch Mazzarella and Peter Mcilwain referred all questions to the acting mayor. Councillor Gareth Ward was unable to be immediately contacted. Councillor Fiona McAllister gave a strong indication she would not speak with Yahoo about the Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.

DeepSeek, Trump's Plan Steer Agenda at China's Top AI Forum
DeepSeek, Trump's Plan Steer Agenda at China's Top AI Forum

Yahoo

time7 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

DeepSeek, Trump's Plan Steer Agenda at China's Top AI Forum

(Bloomberg) -- Star founders, Beijing officials and deep-pocketed financiers converge on Shanghai by the thousands this weekend to attend China's most important AI summit. At the top of the agenda: how to propel Beijing's ambitions to leapfrog the US in artificial intelligence — and profit off that drive. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom The World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which has featured Elon Musk and Jack Ma in years past, was devised to showcase the cutting-edge of Chinese technology. This year's attendance may hit a record as it's taking place at a critical juncture in the US-Chinese tech rivalry. This week, US President Donald Trump unveiled his so-called AI Action Plan — a sort of call to arms to ensure the country keeps its lead in the post-ChatGPT epoch. At the same time, the emergence of DeepSeek in January galvanized a generation of Chinese developers to ride a nationwide investment and innovation wave. From Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to fledgling firms such as Minimax, the country's aspirants in the field have since moved aggressively to try and close the gap with the likes of OpenAI and Google. 'While many recognize DeepSeek's achievements, this represents just the beginning of China's AI innovation wave,' said Louis Liang, an AI sector investor with Ameba Capital. 'We are witnessing the advent of AI mass adoption, this goes beyond national competition.' The Shanghai conference rundown for now remains largely unknown — as it has in years past just days before kickoff. Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend, and tech leaders from Tencent Holdings Ltd. to ByteDance Ltd. and startups like Zhipu AI and Moonshot are likely to turn out in force. Here's what we can expect from the summit starting Saturday. DeepSeek's Aura Neither the startup nor its reclusive founder Liang Wenfeng feature in the advance literature for the event. And yet, the two-year-old firm is likely to be one of the topics du jour. Since its low-cost, high-performance AI model humbled much of Silicon Valley, the industry has watched China closely for another seismic moment. In a field notorious for splashing billions of dollars on Nvidia Corp. chips and data centers, DeepSeek's no-frills approach inspired a re-think of traditional models. And it challenged what till then was unquestioned US supremacy in bleeding-edge technology: Xi Jinping himself turned out in public in February to congratulate Liang and his fellow tech entrepreneurs. China craves another big breakthrough. Downloads and usage of DeepSeek models have slowed, as has the pace of new model rollouts that peaked over the spring at once every few days. Now, much of the industry talk centers on why DeepSeek's R2 — the followup to its seminal R1 — hasn't yet emerged. Local media have blamed everything from Liang's perfectionist streak to performance glitches. Trump's, and Xi's, Ambitions The conference gets underway days after the US leader signed executive orders to loosen regulations and expand energy supplies for data centers. 'From this day forward, it'll be a policy of the United States to do whatever it takes to lead the world in artificial intelligence,' Trump told executives and lawmakers at a DC event. Among the attendees was Jensen Huang, whose Nvidia is one of the companies at the heart of the global AI movement. Much has been made in Washington of China's seemingly meteoric ascent in AI, with observers saying the country is now perhaps just months behind the US in terms of AI sophistication. That's a wafer-thin margin compared with sectors such as semiconductors, where America is regarded as many years or even generations ahead. Trump's newly announced action plan is likely to spur Chinese companies into accelerating their own plans to go global, in part by aggressively open-sourcing their platforms. Beijing wants AI to become a $100 billion industry by 2030. At the Communist Party's April Politburo study session, Xi emphasized that China must push for breakthroughs in critical areas like high-end chips and AI research. Rise of the Robots Chinese humanoid makers are expected to showcase their most advanced models. Last week, UBTech posted a video of its Walker S2 humanoid walking to a battery station, removing the pack from its back, placing it on the recharge pad before fitting itself with a new battery. While obviously edited and choreographed, it encapsulated the advances that Chinese firms have made in a wide-open field — and their lofty ambitions. Unitree teased a bargain-basement price of under $10,000 for its androids. And just this week, TikTok-owner ByteDance posted a video of its ByteMini robot painstakingly hanging a shirt on a clothes rack — a simple human exercise yet an intricate dance for a machine. They join the likes of AgiBot and UBTech in collectively driving a promising field in which American companies have so far failed to stake out a clear lead, despite decades of effort. The Chinese companies 'are targeting hundreds to thousands of units to be delivered this year, racing to establish the ecosystem,' Morgan Stanley analyst Sheng Wong said in a note this week. Show the Money Venture capitalists and dealmakers will be hunting for emerging tech leaders. And not all of them are Chinese. China's largest venture capital houses are tapping the market for at least $2 billion in new funds. At least six of the country's most prominent VC firms — including Lightspeed China Partners and Monolith Management — are creating dollar-denominated funds designed to allow overseas investors to pool bets on Chinese companies. That's a wave of fundraising that hasn't been seen among Chinese VCs for years. It's unfolding as global investors reassess the country's startup landscape and economy, which are showing signs of revival after years of Covid-era stagnation and regulatory headwinds. Organizers promise a breakout event that will feature startup pitches and live demos for dealmakers. Startups by the hundreds are expected to fill a 70,000 sq-meter exhibition hall, showing off everything from autonomous delivery drones to machines that dispense toilet paper. Missing Global Touch Attendees are unlikely to spot US companies — at least not in major fashion. In 2024, Tesla Inc. popped up with its Cybertruck and Optimus robot. This year's speaker lineup doesn't (yet) include Musk but does list industry pioneer Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, the Canadian scientist who pioneered artificial neural networks. With the US-China tech rivalry accelerating, many American companies remain wary of drawing the spotlight. Still, Beijing is likely to take the opportunity to continue pushing its international agenda. One of the conference centerpieces is a 'High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance' to discuss the challenges in deploying AI responsibly. To many observers, it's also emblematic of China's overarching goal of setting global standards. 'Since 2018, China has used WAIC to stake its claim on global AI technical and political leadership,' said Tom Nunlist, associate director of the Beijing-based consultancy Trivium. 'With the race to AI now neck and neck between the US and China, that play is more compelling than ever.' --With assistance from Vlad Savov. (Updates with video of ByteDance's mini-robot from the 14th paragraph.) Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Confessions of a Laptop Farmer: How an American Helped North Korea's Wild Remote Worker Scheme A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Oil Extends Gain on US Trade Deal Optimism, Diesel Tightness
Oil Extends Gain on US Trade Deal Optimism, Diesel Tightness

Yahoo

time7 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Oil Extends Gain on US Trade Deal Optimism, Diesel Tightness

(Bloomberg) -- Oil rose a second day on optimism over US trade talks ahead of next week's deadline, and as tightness in diesel markets boosts sentiment. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom Brent crude climbed toward $70 a barrel after adding 1% on Thursday, while West Texas Intermediate traded above $66. Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said he was confident that his country could reach an agreement with the US before Aug. 1, while Brazil and Mexico looked to broaden trade ties. Meanwhile, diesel prices have soared, leading to steep premiums for niche crude grades that yield more of the fuel and injecting much-needed strength into a bogged down oil market. The latest European Union measures restricting Russian energy imports have also added to the tightness, according to TotalEnergies SE. Crude has remained in a holding pattern this month, but is down for the year as increased supply from OPEC+ adds to concerns over a looming glut. The group will next meet on Aug. 3 to decide on production levels. 'As summer demand wanes and surging crude supply continues into the fall, we think global crude inventories will rise sharply,' said Robert Rennie, head of commodity and carbon research at Westpac Banking Corp. Brent prices are likely to decline toward $60, he said. Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Confessions of a Laptop Farmer: How an American Helped North Korea's Wild Remote Worker Scheme A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store