Canberra and Pyongyang throw their hats into the Ukrainian ring

(Originally published Oct. 24 in “What in the World“) Israel launched airstrikes against the Lebanese port of Tyre as it expanded its campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, fresh from a trip to Kyiv, confirmed that North Korea has sent troops into Russia to train to fight in Ukraine. South Korea has said that Pyongyang sent as many as 12,000 troops to Siberia to prepare for deployment. An official in Seoul said North Korea has also sent fighter pilots to the Siberian city Vladivostok, possibly to train in Russian warplanes.

Kyiv will soon get help from Australia. Having just ordered up $4.7 billion worth of American anti-missile missiles, the Aussies also just received a shipment of brand-new Abrams tanks from the U.S. So Canberra has announced that Australia will donate its 59 older Abrams to Ukraine.

Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurdish militia in northern Iraq and Syria in retaliation for what it said was a terrorist attack by the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) against a state aerospace company in Ankara. Both Moscow and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization expressed support for Turkey, which earlier this year won Washington’s approval to buy F-16 fighters as part of a deal to admit Sweden to NATO. As part of that deal, Sweden also agreed to toughen its stance against PKK.

General Dynamics reported that its third-quarter net profits rose 11.4%, to $930 million, on a 10.4% increase in sales, to $11.7 billion. The increase was led by a $597 million increase in sales at the company’s marine systems division, which builds and maintains ships and submarines for the U.S. Navy. In September, for example, General Dynamics’ NASSCO subsidiary received a $780 million contract to build up to eight oilers for the Navy—ships that deliver fuel and other cargo to warships.

The nature of warfare is changing, however, away from giant machines of warfare manned with hundreds or even thousands of personnel, to swarms of small, unmanned warcraft. According to former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary and Univ. of Pennsylvania professor Michael Horowitz, this is returning the importance of superior numbers to military strategy. In the past 50 years, he argues, the traditional importance of overwhelming an enemy with masses of troops, guns, tanks or planes has ebbed in favor of the ability to strike with technologically advanced precision. Drones deliver the latter, but also provide a more cost-effective means of achieving the former.