Ben Wallace snipes at Ukraine....

Ben Wallace, the UK's Defence Secretary has taken another swipe at the Ukrainian regime telling President Volodymyr Zelensky he should show more "gratitude" to Western nations for the weapons supplied and saying the U.S. and the UK are not "Amazon". Wallace said "I said to the Ukrainians last year, when I drove 11 hours to [Kyiv] be given a list - I said, I am not Amazon."

Wallace reportedly told Zelensky this at a meeting during the NATO summit in Vilnius and then repeated the comments during various media interviews.  The remarks are another blow for Zelensky who failed to get a clear timeframe for Ukraine's entry into NATO and other 'conditions' that Ukraine is required to meet which have not yet been fully disclosed. NATO leaders confirmed this week that Ukraine would only be permitted to join the alliance "when allies agree and conditions are met".  It is being reported that currently, the USA, UK and Turkey are all against Ukraine's entry and a small number of other nations have not yet openly commented.  

However,  the summit was not all bad news for Ukraine, there were a number of commitments to supply more equipment to the war-torn nation.  The UK has pledged to supply 70 logistic and combat vehicles, ammunition for Challenger 2 tanks and support package for equipment repair.  The UK will also join a NATO project to establish a medical rehabilitation centre for Ukrainian soldiers.

Germany has finalised a €700million package for Ukraine which includes two Patriot defences systems, 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, as well as some more tanks and ammunition. France has said it will supply additional long range cruise missiles and Norway will increase its military support to Ukraine by 2.5 billion crowns this year to 10 billion.

Russia plans to display NATO equipment it has destroyed in Ukraine outside the embassies of Western countries that supplied it, parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Wednesday.

"The proposal to install burned equipment next to the embassies of those countries that send it to Ukraine is especially interesting," said Volodin, who issued orders for such a display to be organised.

Boeing-NATO PROJECT X Challenge Spurs Innovative Ideas for Future Autonomous Capabilities

The joint Boeing – NATO PROJECT X innovation challenge has generated new ideas for autonomous systems to reach inaccessible locations and improve situation awareness. This three-month-long intense rapid-prototyping competition allowed innovators from Dutch universities, including the Technical University of Delft, the opportunity to propose new approaches to supporting the Alliance’s most pressing needs.

Robert Weaver, deputy assistant secretary-general for Defence Investment at NATO, highlighted the importance of autonomy and its digital enablers in areas such as data and artificial intelligence. “Project X sets a benchmark for new and creative ways to engage academia and industry and help Allies develop and adopt emerging technologies at the speed of relevance,” said Weaver.

“This project is a fantastic example of the great potential within such public-private partnerships and the speed of innovation we can achieve if we inspire young innovators to apply a unique and creative approach to tackling tomorrow’s challenges,” said Kim Stollar, managing director, EU & NATO Government Affairs at Boeing International. “We all agree that there is a bright future ahead of all of the PROJECT X participants.”

The two competing PROJECT X teams presented their concepts at an event in May hosted by Unmanned Valley, an autonomous technology incubator in Valkenburg, Netherlands.

“Surrounded by the leading experts from NATO, Boeing, and an incredible team, PROJECT X has given me the opportunity to finally put theory into practice, which resulted in a highly fruitful and rewarding experience that opened up a new range of opportunities,” said Dennis van Eck van der Sluijs during his team’s final presentation.

Different approaches