Latest news with #Wiesbaden
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Army Europe chief unveils NATO eastern flank defense plan
WIESBADEN, Germany — The U.S. Army and its NATO allies are embarking on the execution of a new 'Eastern Flank Deterrence Line' plan that aims to enhance ground-based capabilities and drive military-industrial interoperability across the alliance, the U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander said Wednesday at the Association of the U.S. Army's inaugural LandEuro conference in Wiesbaden, Germany. As part of the plan to counter Russian threats and enable scalable, global deterrence, the Army and its NATO allies are urgently developing standardized, data-driven systems, common launchers and cloud-based coordination, according to Gen. Christopher Donahue. Regional plans have been coming together for some time, but the Army, along with NATO, is first focusing on the Baltic states 'to try to get to how do you actually make it so that industry and the nations know exactly what the requirements are — ultimately that is now known as the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line,' Donahue said. 'We know what we have to develop and the use case that we're using is you have to [deter] from the ground,' he said. 'The land domain is not becoming less important, it's becoming more important. You can now take down [anti-access, aerial-denial] A2AD bubbles from the ground. You can now take over sea from the ground. All of those things we are watching happen in Ukraine.' For example, Donahue noted, Kaliningrad, Russia, is roughly 47 miles wide and surrounded by NATO on all sides and the Army and its allies now have the capability to 'take that down from the ground in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than we've ever been able to do.' 'We've already planned that and we've already developed it. The mass and momentum problem that Russia poses to us … we've developed the capability to make sure that we can stop that mass and momentum problem," Donahue said. The plan includes a system to share data. NATO has already procured that system, Donahue said, referencing its choice of Palantir's Maven Smart System, an artificial intelligence platform from Palantir that takes a vast amount of data and rapidly analyzes information to help military commanders make decisions. 'We already know exactly what we have to do with cloud and we know exactly the type of actual unmanned systems, brigades, everything else that we need for that,' Donahue said. Specifically, the Army wants these capabilities to be interoperable with NATO partners. The Army also wants a common launcher that serves in both an offensive and defensive capacity, along with a fire control system that any nation can use. And, Donahue said, 'We want everything to be optionally manned,' whether that is an air defense or a long-range fires system. 'We want it to be one system, optionally manned, where we'll be able to take munitions from any country and shoot through them,' he said. And the Army wants to lower the cost of systems. 'As a general rule, whatever you're shooting at, whatever your weapon system or munition you shoot at, another adversary's capability, it should be cheaper than what you're shooting,' Donahue stressed. Donahue acknowledged the obvious existence of bureaucracy but said that on the U.S. side, reform in things like foreign military sales is coming and the Army will be able to move at a much faster rate. Directly addressing industry, Donahue said, 'We have sent a clear demand signal to you of exactly what we need. … If you sell us something, it has to be interoperable. You have to share the [Application Programming Interface]. The cost has to go down.' Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
No time to waste: NATO chief urges rapid industrial mobilization
WIESBADEN, Germany − As the U.S. and its allies in Europe pledge to ramp up defense spending amid mounting global threats, the supreme allied commander of Europe is calling on industry to deliver real capabilities to the field in record time. 'We can tell industry exactly what it is that we need for all the leaders that are out there. It's our job, I think, to hold industry accountable to deliver quickly and to hold ourselves accountable for giving industry the ability to deliver quickly through our acquisition processes,' U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said July 17 during his first public speech since taking command at the Association of the U.S. Army's inaugural LandEuro conference in Wiesbaden, Germany. 'We've got to do this fast. We need real capabilities and we need them delivered as soon as possible. We can't afford to wait, future pledges are no longer enough,' he said. 'To do this, the defense industrial base on both sides of the Atlantic is going to have to become fully activated.' Grynkewich stressed there's plenty of work to go around, it's not a matter of investing in one or the other. 'It needs to be one seamless industrial base that can deliver capability and capacity for the alliance,' he said. Moving quicker is easier said than done. Every country will have to contend with their own budget approval process and work through red tape across borders. U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made a pledge earlier this year on a trip to NATO headquarters that the U.S. would conduct major foreign military sales reform. Even so, the U.S. military and NATO have developed solid regional plans beginning with a clear one focused on the Baltic States that will help guide government and industry in getting capabilities to units there. The U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander, speaking a day earlier at the conference, said the 'Eastern Flank Deterrence Line' plan aims to enhance ground-based capabilities and drive military-industrial interoperability across the alliance. As part of the plan to counter Russian threats and enable scalable, global deterrence, the Army and its NATO allies are urgently developing standardized, data-driven systems, common launchers and cloud-based coordination. The plan includes a system to share data. NATO has already procured that system – Palantir's Maven Smart System – an artificial intelligence platform that takes a vast amount of data and rapidly analyzes information to help military commanders make decisions. U.S. Army Europe and Africa officials have also adopted Maven at headquarters, using it for mission command and visibility across the theater. The system has completely replaced PowerPoint briefings and offers information to commanders in real-time. On NATO's wish list, according to Grynkewich, are capabilities that mirror a Ukrainian brigade. 'How do we get our brigades to have the same level of capability where we can match what they're able to do today?' Additionally, Grynkewich said he wants to focus on air defense. 'There's never enough air defense. You always want more, but it's an acute requirement, whether it's counter-[unmanned aircraft systems] or counter-ballistic missiles,' he said. And there will also be a continued focus on long-range fires, Grynkewich noted. 'We need the capability to hold things at risk.' Industry now has real incentives in place, Grynkewich said, with the new commitment made by NATO nations at the last summit to spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense by 2035. 'I would ask industry folks who are here and elsewhere to realize that sustained commitment should be a powerful signal to do the things you need to do, to expand production lines, to increase [research and development] spending, etc., so that we can get where we need to go,' he said. Leadership is now moving to deliver new and emerging technology to the battlefield along with legacy technology that is still relevant and will work to make things interoperable. 'I challenge each of the chiefs of defense, land forces commanders and every leader in here to hold themselves to account for that. There's no time to waste,' Grynkewich said. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lieferando to cut 2,000 food delivery jobs in Germany
Food delivery service Lieferando said on Thursday it plans to lay off around 2,000 couriers in Germany starting at the end of the year, many of them in Hamburg. The reduction amounts to roughly 20% of the company's entire fleet, said Lieferando, which is part of the Dutch multinational Just Eat Takeaway group. The reason for the cuts is a shift in the company's delivery model: going forward, it will increasingly rely on subcontractors for so-called "last-mile" delivery. "The competitive landscape and the market are changing faster and more fundamentally than ever," said Lennard Neubauer, Lieferando's Germany chief, in an interview with dpa. "Customers expect reliable service and short delivery times." In some areas, this can no longer be guaranteed under the current set-up, he said. In particular, Lieferando will partner with specialized logistics firms to handle deliveries in smaller markets such as Wiesbaden, Lübeck and Bochum, Neubauer added. The same approach will be taken in Hamburg, which because of the city's size will be hit especially hard. Lieferando points out that working with subcontractors is common practice in the market, saying rivals such as Uber Eats and Wolt also operate this way. Many of their riders work as freelancers, a setup that labour advocates say can lead to exploitative conditions. Lieferando's approach of employing riders directly had long been welcomed by labour representatives, making the backlash to this partial outsourcing all the more likely. Germany's Food, Beverages and Catering Union has spent years pushing for a collective agreement for Lieferando employees, including a minimum wage of €15 ($17) per hour. With parts of the delivery business now moving to third-parties, the union will likely find it more difficult to fight for uniform working conditions. Solve the daily Crossword
Al Arabiya
5 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Patriots to move to Kyiv ‘as quickly as possible', NATO top commander says
Preparations are underway to quickly transfer additional Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, NATO's top military commander Alexus Grynkewich said on Thursday, as the country suffers some of the heaviest Russian attacks of the war so far. 'We are working very closely with the Germans on the Patriot transfer,' he told a conference in the German city of Wiesbaden. 'The guidance that I have been given has been to move out as quickly as possible.' US President Donald Trump this week announced a toughened stance against Russia for its more than three-year war in Ukraine and promised new missiles and other weaponry for Kyiv. He said on Tuesday that some Patriot missiles, coming from Germany, were already on their way to Ukraine. A meeting of Patriot-owning nations and Ukraine donors, aimed at finding additional Patriot air defense batteries for Kyiv and chaired by Grynkewich, could take place on Wednesday next week, a source close to the talks told Reuters. The expert level meeting is expected to be held at NATO's military headquarters SHAPE near the Belgian town of Mons, according to the source. Grynkewich said there was also an issue of sequence with regard to deliveries to Ukraine. 'Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio just talked about capabilities that are in Europe (which) can be moved more quickly than something coming off the production line,' Grynkewich noted. 'But the production line can then be used to backfill the capabilities that others donate.' He said he had no sense of what number of Patriot systems might be freed up for delivery to Kyiv. 'There will be a lot more to follow, we're going to move as quickly as we can on this,' he said. After a meeting with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Washington on Monday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said a decision on supplying two US-made Patriot systems to Kyiv could be reached within days or weeks. Germany has already donated three of its own Patriot units to Kyiv. Ukraine treasures the Patriot system, built by US defense company Raytheon, as its most valuable means to intercept ballistic and hypersonic missiles fired by Russia.
Reuters
5 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Patriots to move to Kyiv 'as quickly as possible', says NATO top commander
WIESBADEN, Germany, July 17 (Reuters) - Preparations are underway to quickly transfer additional Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, NATO's top military commander Alexus Grynkewich said on Thursday, as the country suffers some of the heaviest Russian attacks of the war so far. "We are working very closely with the Germans on the Patriot transfer", he told a conference in the German city of Wiesbaden. "The guidance that I have been given has been to move out as quickly as possible." U.S. President Donald Trump this week announced a toughened stance against Russia for its more than three-year war in Ukraine and promised new missiles and other weaponry for Kyiv. He said on Tuesday that some Patriot missiles, coming from Germany, were already on their way to Ukraine. A meeting of Patriot-owning nations and Ukraine donors, aimed at finding additional Patriot air defence batteries for Kyiv and chaired by Grynkewich, could take place on Wednesday next week, a source close to the talks told Reuters. The expert level meeting is expected to be held at NATO's military headquarters SHAPE near the Belgian town of Mons, according to the source. Grynkewich said there was also an issue of sequence with regard to deliveries to Ukraine. "Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio just talked about capabilities that are in Europe (which) can be moved more quickly than something coming off the production line", Grynkewich noted. "But the production line can then be used to backfill the capabilities that others donate." He said he had no sense of what number of Patriot systems might be freed up for delivery to Kyiv. "There will be a lot more to follow, we're going to move as quickly as we can on this," he said. After a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Washington on Monday, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said a decision on supplying two U.S.-made Patriot systems to Kyiv could be reached within days or weeks. Germany has already donated three of its own Patriot units to Kyiv. Ukraine treasures the Patriot system, built by U.S. defence company Raytheon (RTX.N), opens new tab, as its most valuable means to intercept ballistic and hypersonic missiles fired by Russia.
