Germany is reported to have sent 18 advanced Leopard tanks, 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, and 2 armoured recovery vehicles, while discussions witht the EU in stepping up the manufacture of artillery shells and munitions for Ukraine and its own armies as part of a new two billion Euro arms package.
Meanwhile: the Russian navy has been reported firing it's fabled supersonic missiles at targets in the Sea of Japan. Just testing.
“In the waters of the Sea of Japan, missile ships of the Pacific Fleet fired Moskit cruise missiles at a mock enemy sea target,” the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram account on Tuesday.
“The target, located at a distance of about 100 kilometres (62.14 miles), was successfully hit by a direct hit from two Moskit cruise missiles,” it added.
The P-270 Moskit missile, which has the NATO reporting name SS-N-22 Sunburn, is a medium-range supersonic cruise missile of Soviet origin and is capable of destroying a ship within a range of up to 120km (75 miles).
The Russian navy’s missile firing exercise comes a week after two Russian strategic bomber planes, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, flew over the Sea of Japan for more than seven hours in what Moscow said was a “planned flight”.
No wonder the Japanese government is getting nervous, what with North Korea firing missiles into the sea, while Kim Jong Un has called on his country’s scientists to expand production of “weapon-grade nuclear materials” and
build more powerful weapons, state media has reported.
According to the KCNA report on Tuesday, Kim was also briefed on an IT-based integrated nuclear weapon management system called Haekbangashoe, which means “nuclear trigger”. The system’s accuracy, reliability and security were verified during recent drills simulating a nuclear counterattack, the news agency added.
The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Tuesday after the United States conducted exercises in international waters with South Korea’s navy.