Peter Apps

On the first day of the Farnborough airshow last week, an unusual-looking craft with upward-pointing propellers along its wings rose into the sky from the main runway: the new electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) lightweight "air taxi" from Britain’s Vertical Aerospace.

As Estonia's Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur prepared to fly to the NATO summit in Ankara this month, he revealed to local journalists that several hundred U.S. troops deployed to his Baltic nation in the winter had quietly been withdrawn – with no clear sign of when or whether they might return.

The U.S. is not making it simple for European defence to stand on its own feet

Launched in Seattle in 1943, the U.S. minesweeper Vigilance survived a Japanese submarine and air attack in the United States’ last Pacific war before being transferred to the Philippines in 1967. Last month, decommissioned, she finally met her end in joint drills with the U.S., sunk by the first missiles ever fired by Japan’s post-war military outside its own territorial waters.

As U.S. and Ukrainian officials this week neared a landmark deal on drone production, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius was visiting a frontline command post with his own Ukrainian counterparts, demonstrating Berlin’s support for the Kyiv government.

As U.S. Vice President JD Vance returned to Washington last weekend after unsuccessful peace talks in Pakistan over the crisis in the Gulf, China’s Foreign Ministry was preparing for a bumper slate of visitors including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the leaders of Spain, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates.

Inside a hangar on an industrial estate near a motorway and a port, sleek glass fibre hulls shaped like oversized canoes spray-painted naval grey await the fitting of nearby packaged engines and other high-tech systems.

As Biden administration national security adviser Jake Sullivan met General Zhang Youxia in August 2024, the tired and strained look on the American’s face contrasted with the relaxed smile of the veteran Chinese officer, then at the height of his power as the top uniformed member of the People’s Liberation Army.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military invited Fox News host Brian Kilmeade to its largest army base in Europe to meet its top ground commander General Chris Donahue and attend one of his legendary daily training sessions with troops.

As he doubled down on suggestions the Trump administration might look to seize control of Greenland from Denmark in an interview on CNN on Monday, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller made it clear he believed that in any contest of diplomatic will or military might, the U.S. would prevail.