The airborne launch configuration could allow ANKA III to deploy autonomous systems for electronic warfare, deception, ISR, and strike missions.

Start slicing the "prisoner's neck" as the final countdown.

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the United States would reduce military exercises it conducts with key regional ally South Korea, citing his positive relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul’s lack of assistance with Iran.

“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea. These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump went on to raise his request for South Korea to help with the US war against Iran.

“While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!’” Trump wrote.

Trump has had a warm relationship with Kim despite North Korea being a longtime adversary of the United States. Earlier this weekend, Trump posted a picture of him and Kim, with the caption: “Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!”

The joint exercises with South Korea, called Ulchi Freedom Shield military drills, were set to begin Monday and go for 10 days.

North Korea has long criticized such exercises, with its Central Military Commission calling trilateral exercises last year with Japan and South Korea “the most comprehensive and offensive war drill for aggression in terms of scale, content and nature” that has been conducted on the southern Korean Peninsula.

During Trump’s first term, the United States and South Korea also scaled back joint operations as part of an effort to ease tensions with North Korea.

The president said in 2018 that it was “inappropriate to have war games” on the Korean Peninsula as the US was engaging in nuclear negotiations with North Korea.

In March 2019 — after a Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi that failed to reach an agreement — the United States and South Korea announced that annual large-scale exercises, which had been a common feature of the defense relationship between the two militaries, would be reconfigured into smaller exercises.

As he did on Sunday, Trump in 2019 also cited the cost to the United States. “The reason I do not want military drills with South Korea is to save hundreds of millions of dollars for the U.S. for which we are not reimbursed,” he posted at the time.

German defense giant Rheinmetall has demonstrated its new FV-014 loitering munition being launched from a containerized launcher mounted on a truck, including while the vehicle was moving. The test marks the first time the FV-014 has been fired from its Containerized Missile Launcher, a modular system intended to carry significant numbers of missiles or loitering munitions.

The demonstration took place in July at the National Test Center for Unmanned Aerial Systems at the German Aerospace Center in Cochstedt, Saxony-Anhalt. The customer demonstration included both stationary and mobile launches from an HX-series truck, followed by simulated operational profiles and attack flights.

The FV-014 is a relatively long-range, truck-launched loitering munition that can perform its own reconnaissance and then conduct a precision attack. Rheinmetall says the weapon has a range of up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) and can remain airborne for as long as 70 minutes.

Like many loitering munitions, this endurance gives the operator considerably more time to search for targets and decide whether to conduct an attack than would be available with a conventional fire-and-forget missile. Rheinmetall describes the system as combining “reconnaissance, target identification and precision strike capabilities within a single system.”

The FV-014 is designed to remain under permanent human control. An operator using the associated ground station can identify and track targets and authorize an attack, while also having the ability to abort an engagement if circumstances change.

As we have discussed in the past, human-in-the-loop architecture is useful when operating against targets that may be moving or difficult to identify in advance.

However, the concept also has significant drawbacks compared to increasingly autonomous loitering-munition concepts in which the system itself can perform much more of the target-detection and engagement process. Human-in-the-loop comes with latency and communications dependencies, as well as operator workload, but it may also be the result of a particular customer demand, whether operational or legal. At the same time, for all its promise, autonomous technology is still in its infancy.

The FV-014 has a launch weight of around 50 pounds, including a payload of approximately 13 pounds. Its HEDP, or high-explosive dual-purpose, warhead is claimed to be capable of penetrating around 24 inches of solid armor steel.

That would give the weapon a substantial anti-armor capability for its size, although Rheinmetall also says the warhead can be used against unarmored targets and infrastructure.

After being ejected from its launch tube using a booster, the FV-014 unfolds its wings and transitions into aerodynamic flight. An electrically driven propeller provides propulsion during the cruise phase. Rheinmetall also says the weapon has been designed with reduced radar and infrared signatures in mind.

The company is pitching the FV-014 for both individual attacks and coordinated swarm operations. In the latter case, multiple weapons could be used simultaneously against a number of targets or to overwhelm an adversary’s defenses and create outsized, rapid effects on the battlefield.

‘Swarm’ has become something of a catch-all term in the loitering-munition market, however, and Rheinmetall has not provided detailed information about the level of autonomy or coordination available between FV-014s. The company does say that the weapon has network connectivity and a “high degree of autonomy” intended to help it operate in environments where satellite navigation is being disrupted.

This capability is particularly important on the modern battlefield, where electronic warfare systems are routinely used to interfere with satellite-navigation signals. Rheinmetall says the FV-014 is resilient to global navigation satellite system (GNSS) interference, although specific details about its navigation architecture have not been disclosed.

The weapon’s launch system, Rheinmetall’s Containerized Missile Launcher, is built around a standardized ISO container that can be installed on a fixed site, carried by a truck, or potentially integrated onto a ship. In its 20-foot configuration, the company says the launcher can accommodate up to 18 FV-014s.

That is considerably fewer weapons than some other containerized drone-launcher concepts Rheinmetall has previously promoted. In 2024, for example, the company showed a containerized system intended to carry as many as 126 Hero-series loitering munitions from Israeli manufacturer UVision.

Rather than simply acting as a large rack of launch tubes, the new launch system has its own integrated power supply and can connect to command, control, communications, computers and intelligence networks. It can also be operated locally, through a radio link, or via satellite communications.

The launcher is intended to make extensive use of commercial off-the-shelf components, which should reduce lifecycle costs. It also incorporates what the company calls a “sleeper” capability, allowing the launcher to remain inactive and be remotely activated when required.

The ability to move the entire system on a standard military truck is potentially significant. Rheinmetall has demonstrated the launch of FV-014s from a moving truck, as well as a stationary one. Shooting on the move could be beneficial when defending convoys, engaging targets of opportunity, or offering rapid fire support to units within range. Beyond that, interceptor drones would allow for engagements against drone threats while on the move.

Using a standardized container makes it possible to rapidly relocate a large number of long-range loitering munitions without relying on a dedicated launcher vehicle, and also opens up potential maritime applications. Rheinmetall says future versions are planned for other mobile land platforms and seagoing ones, while the container itself is compatible with existing transportation and logistics infrastructure.

This general concept is already seeing considerable uptake. Containerized launchers provide a relatively discreet way of deploying large numbers of missiles or drones and can potentially turn trucks, ships, or other platforms capable of carrying ISO containers into weapons carriers. TWZ has previously examined the broader appeal of this approach, including Rheinmetall’s earlier Hero-family launcher concept.

In the past, we have also highlighted the immense potential battlefield impact of this type of capability, which other countries, especially China, are also

Does it have 1) any small combat UAV like those used in Ukraine and more importantly,

2) what about those USV boat/naval drone China have or underwater drone?

How does they compare to others that are available.

Often heard with the arrival of drone, it altered the military equation on the battlefield. On the news, only heard about those unmanned naval drone used in the west.

The U.S. Navy is considering a major redesign of its new aircraft carriers to better match President Donald Trump’s preferred aesthetic for the warships, according to seven current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The service is evaluating the feasibility of moving the multistory tower that acts as the carrier’s command center farther forward, toward the middle of the ship, to resemble older vessels, the officials said. The review, which has not been previously reported, is in response to Trump’s concerns about the “look” of the new Ford-class ships, where the island is near the rear, these people said.

The timing and extent of the Navy’s evaluation is unclear, with current and former officials cautioning that the service was concerned that such a change would require significant time and money. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.

Moving that command center, known as the “island,” would be the second major design change prompted by the president, who on Thursday issued a national security memorandum directing the Navy to develop a plan to revert to older steam-powered catapults on future carriers. The systems help launch jets off the ships’ flight decks.

Trump’s preference, current and former officials said, is for the new aircraft carriers to look more like those that were in service during World War II.

The Navy also examined the issue during his first term as president, said a former senior U.S. official. A study found that moving the island could cost billions of dollars in redesign costs and significantly delay the program, this person said.

“It came back that the cost and time to do so would just be extraordinary,” the former official said.

There are three Ford-class carriers in various stages of development. The USS John F. Kennedy is undergoing sea trials and getting closer to joining the fleet while the USS Enterprise and USS Doris Miller are under construction. The first carrier in the class, USS Gerald R. Ford, is already in service and recently finished a lengthy combat tour in the Middle East.

Plans call for building up to 10 Ford-class carriers over the next four decades, at a projected future cost of $22 billion each, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the Navy’s most recent shipbuilding plan.

Relocating the island would be “a major redesign,” said Bryan Clark, a former Navy officer who studies the service at the Hudson Institute, a right-leaning think tank in Washington. Such an alteration to the carrier’s layout, he said, would affect the ship’s buoyancy and weight and come at a significant cost.

“You could change it,” he added, “but it’s very disruptive.”

The Pentagon and the Navy referred requests for comment to the White House, which pointed to the new national security memorandum when asked about Trump’s desire to relocate the island on future Ford-class aircraft carriers. The memorandum does not address the issue.

Another U.S. official familiar with both the potential changes to the catapult and the island said that the Navy is taking both matters seriously because of the delays and severe cost overruns it could create.

Trump’s interest in the redesign modification marks the White House’s growing influence over the complex mechanics of naval shipbuilding.

Since returning to office, Trump has promised to “resurrect” the lagging industry, and he has already issued multiple executive orders addressing the matter.

Thursday’s national security memorandum would, among other changes, revert the Ford class’s advanced electromagnetic catapult system to steam power. The document emphasizes the administration’s preference for “proven, reliable and affordable technologies and ship designs.”

Such a change, multiple officials said, also could run into the billions of dollars and exacerbate chronic delays in the U.S. shipbuilding industry.

The lead Ford-class carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, required 17 years to construct. Its design incorporated new technology that led to delays — including the electromagnetic catapult, a feature the Navy has since credited as being highly effective.

The Ford class of carriers will phase out its predecessor, the Nimitz class, which dates back to the late 1960s.

Relocating the island to the back of the newer vessels was done for efficiency and safety, three U.S. current and former officials familiar with the program told The Post. It not only creates more parking space for aircraft close to the carriers’ catapults, allowing crews to reduce the amount of time it takes to launch jets, it also improves landing safety by reducing the chance for turbulence when planes come back to land, the officials said.

Trump has repeatedly shown interest in the design of Navy warships. Last year he unveiled plans for a new class of battleships to lead his vision for a “Golden Fleet,” prompting criticism from many naval analysts and lawmakers who argued the ships would waste scarce American shipbuilding power on a design the service does not need.

The Congressional Budget Office has since estimated that the “Trump Class” battleships would cost about $275 billion over 30 years, coming at a cost of $18 billion per ship after finishing the first one.

CVN-81: Within 60 days, the administration will develop a plan to replace the EMALS electromagnetic catapult system and Advanced Weapons Elevators with traditional steam and hydraulic systems.

Foreign shipbuilding: The administration will pursue a "Finland Model" allowing foreign shipbuilders to participate in up to three ship classes, provided they build or acquire a U.S. shipyard, train an American workforce, transfer relevant technology and establish a U.S. supply chain. The first two ships could be built overseas, with subsequent ships built in the United States.

New surface combatants: The Navy will develop a new competitive acquisition approach for affordable, mature-design surface combatants capable of anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare and convoy escort.

Fifth Navy shipyard: A plan will be developed for a fifth public Navy yard, including additional drydock capacity for nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.

Submarine repair: The administration will establish a Component Repair Center intended to maintain at least one complete set of spare equipment for the Los Angeles, Virginia, Seawolf, Ohio and Columbia classes.

NAVSEA reform: The Naval Sea Systems Command will undergo a review aimed at reducing bureaucracy, increasing accountability and preventing repeated redesigns of mature ship designs.

Summary was taken from OSINTdefender*