The US Company Black Hills Ammunition has been awarded a $49.9 million contract to supply 5.56mm special ball, long-range ammunition to Jordan. The contract, which involves foreign military sales (FMS) to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, will be performed over a five-year period. Work is expected to be completed by September 2022.

According to the US DoD release, this ammunition is to be issued and deployed in support of US Forces engaged in combat involving the war on terror in various overseas operations.

American company General Atomics is likely to win the contract for Australia's first armed unmanned aerial vehicles, as Australia is poised to purchase its Reaper drones. Last month, it was reported that after seven years of service in the Australian Air Force, the latter has decided not to extend the lease of IAI's Heron UAV. IAI is now accusing the Australian Defense Department of lacking transparency in the evaluation process.

In May 1994, Lior Lotan was involved in an unusual hand-to-hand combat encounter with the wife of Mustafa Dirani. It happened in the Diranis' bedroom in Lebanon, which Lotan had entered through a window. The wife fought tooth and nail defending her husband, who was kidnapped and taken to Israel that night, in an attempt to bring about a breakthrough in the affair of the missing Israeli airman Ron Arad.

Recent reports have indicated, once again, that an Israeli defense industry – in this case it was Rafael Advanced Defense Systems – introduced a state-of-the-art model of an antitank missile. This time, the model introduced was the fifth generation of the electro-optically guided Spike missile family that may be launched from vehicles, helicopters, naval vessels or from a ground launcher. The new missile carries a tandem warhead possessing cutting-edge penetration capabilities – it can penetrate enemy armor at ranges of up to 5,500 meters.

The semi-subversive leisure activity of expert cyber analysts has evolved, over the last two years, into a hot trend in the cybersecurity world – organizations have started 'hunting' their attackers. The foundation for this hunting activity is the assumption that the organization has already been hacked and the attackers are currently doing things inside the organizational network that leave behind "digital footprints".

The Australian Army Hawkei vehicles will incorporate a new C4I Integral Computing System (ICS). The ICS will use a generic vehicle architecture and a central computing concept to host various C4I systems and communications to optimize and centralize the flow of information to the user, enabling rapid decision-making and multitasking at levels not previously achievable on land based platforms.

Egypt plans to purchase 50 Tigr (Tiger) armored vehicles for its Interior Ministry, Military Industrial Company’s CEO Alexander Krasovitsky told TASS at the Army-2017 forum.

"Yes, work is under way. The issue concerns 50 vehicles and we will probably sign a contract in the near future," Krasovitsky said.

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday voted to renew the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for another year after addressing American and Israeli complaints that the force was ignoring a Hezbollah arms buildup near the Lebanon-Israel border.

The force’s presence has helped keep the peace along the border since the Second Lebanon War of 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.

In 2015, Europe became the second largest destination for Israeli arms exports as the scope of European defense deals with Israel more than doubled – from $724 million in 2014 to $1.6 billion in 2015. This trend continued in 2016, as Israel’s defense exports to European countries reached $1.8 billion, far exceeding its transactions with the countries of North America ($1.265 billion), Latin America ($550 million), and Africa ($275 million) but still less than its defense exports to the countries of Asia ($2.6 billion).

A team of engineers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has successfully demonstrated a high-bandwidth, free-space optical (FSO) communications system between two moving ships, proving operational utility of FSO technology in the maritime environment.