Free Republic

In a year-end speech to the Ukrainian people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised an increase in domestically produced weapons in the coming year for the country’s war against Russia. “And next year, the enemy will feel the wrath of domestic production,” Zelensky said in the speech Sunday. “Our weapons, our equipment, artillery, our shells, our drones, our naval ‘greetings’ to the enemy and at least a million Ukrainian FPV drones.”

Israeli soldiers foiled “an elaborate Hamas ambush” that used dolls and children’s backpacks rigged with speakers playing sounds of crying to lure them into a terrorist tunnel in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said Friday. Footage released by the IDF showed the alley where the ambush would have been staged. “Here in every corner were … explosives,” .... The forces subsequently found children’s dolls and backpacks with speakers to imitate crying sounds and songs, the footage showed. “The goal is to draw us in to look for, to see these things … they play voices in Hebrew so...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday pushed for the U.S. to continue supporting Ukraine, arguing it was vital to stand united against dictatorships and that politics must not “betray the soldier” in the fight for freedom. Zelensky, speaking at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University in Washington, D.C., in a visit to the Capitol this week, said that American weapons “can get the job done” and defeat Russian forces in Ukraine, asking the U.S. to maintain its support. “It’s crucial that politics don’t even try to betray [the] soldier, because just like weapons are needed for defense, freedom always requires unity,”...

STUTTGART, Germany — The leader of a Germany-based brigade that maintains vast amounts of Army weaponry and supplies has been quietly fired from her position. Col. Crystal Hills was removed as commander of the 405th Army Field Support Brigade by Maj. Gen. David Wilson, head of Army Sustainment Command, the service said in a statement late Monday. Wilson fired Hills “due to loss of trust and confidence in her ability to command,” said Kimberly Conrad, a spokeswoman for Army Sustainment Command. The command refused to say when Hills was fired or who, if anyone, has replaced her at the helm...

In 2022, global military budgets hit $2.2 trillion, an eighth consecutive year of increase.Part of those budgets were used for the procurement of arms, but which countries are major weapons suppliers, and how do they influence the global arms trade?In the chart below, Visual Capitalist's Bhabna Banerjee and Marcus Lu highlight the top 10 countries with the biggest share of global arms exports using data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).Which Country Exports the Most Weapons?The U.S. is the biggest weapons exporter, accounting for 40% of the total volume of international arms transfers between 2018–2022. Nearly one-fifth of...

SALT LAKE CITY — A federal jury Thursday in Washington decided Utah activist John Earle Sullivan didn’t just document the U.S. Capitol riot, he was a participant.The jury convicted Sullivan of all seven counts, according to investigative reporter Jordan Fischer. That includes three charges related to carrying a weapon – a knife – and counts accusing him of interrupting Congress as it voted to certify the U.S. presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.According to Fisher, the judge ordered that Sullivan be held in custody while he awaits sentencing.Weapons charges like what Sullivan was convicted of have sent other Jan. 6...

During an interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday’s “NBC Nightly News,” host Lester Holt stated that while Israel has produced video of weapons “it says were recovered at the al-Shifa hospital, video of what may be a tunnel” that “doesn’t necessarily point to a Hamas command and control center as Israel and the U.S. have maintained.” Holt asked, “Israel is showing video of weapons it says were recovered at the al-Shifa hospital, video of what may be a tunnel. But it’s clear that the evidence doesn’t necessarily point to a Hamas command and control center as Israel...

Israel said its forces were operating in and around Gaza's biggest hospital, a chief objective in its campaign to destroy Palestinian Hamas militants that the army says stored weapons and ran a command centre in tunnels beneath the buildings. Israeli troops forced their way into Al-Shifa Hospital in the early hours of Wednesday and spent the day deepening their search, the army said. An army video showed automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets it said were recovered from an undisclosed building within the complex. "The troops continue to search the hospital in a precise, intelligence-based, manner," Israeli army spokesperson...

We've seen a lot of anti-Israel protesters. We saw some who stormed a New York City store because it had flyers of the kidnapped Israelis out front, and police had to protect the building and the people. But the folks who stormed into the Port of Oakland managed to do something that everyone should find more than a little troubling. Somehow they were able to get through a fence and onto the grounds of the port area. At least three of them got onto the ladder for the U.S. Ready Reserve Force roll-on/roll-off vessel MV Cape Orlando, thinking it was...

...And it has been almost completely cut off from the rest of the world for nearly 17 years, when Hamas seized control, prompting Israel and Egypt to impose a strict siege on the territory, which is ongoing. Israel also maintains an air and naval blockade on Gaza as well as a vast array of surveillance. Which begs the question: How did Hamas amass the sheer amount of weaponry that enabled the group to pull off coordinated attacks that have left more than 1,200 people dead in Israel and thousands more injured – while continuing to rain rocket fire down on...

Israel’s consul general in Miami on Thursday clarified Gov. Ron DeSantis’ role in facilitating a claimed transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel, DeSantis’ office and presidential campaign said earlier in the day that he had helped ship weapons and drones to Israel at the consulate’s request, When pressed for more details, Redfern declined to disclose the private parties or specify what the federal hurdles had been. Redfern later clarified that the state did not purchase the weapons and ammunition, and that those items “were transported separately” to Israel... The secrecy surrounding how the weapons were acquired and shipped comes...

Jack Poso 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec BREAKING: The Israeli consul general of Miami has come out and stated that DeSantis lied about sending weapons to Israel

LEWISTON, Maine — At a news conference in his hometown Thursday evening in Lewiston, Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat who had enjoyed an A+ rating from gun rights advocates, said he regretted his past opposition to an assault weapons ban and said he would now support a ban. Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays. At least 18 people were killed and 13 injured Wednesday night in deadly shootings in Maine. Skip to end of carousel Maine shootings (Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images) The manhunt for suspect Robert Card is ongoing after at least...

MIAMI (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he's arranged to send drones, weapons, and ammunition to Israel as it prepares for an incursion of Gaza in response to Hamas' attack. It's the latest official response DeSantis has taken to back Israel as he competes in the 2024 Republican primary.

The Department of Defense on Monday admitted it is now having to send back to Israel some of the weapons it sent from its stocks there to Europe for Ukraine, while insisting it could supply both. “We withdrew 155 [shells] from the stockpile in Israel for our forces in [European Command] and now we are sending that back to Israel for their use,” a senior defense official told reporters during Pentagon press conference. In January, the Pentagon first acknowledged that in order to supply Ukraine with 155 mm artillery shells for its ground war with Russia, it dipped into its...

On Monday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said that President Joe Biden requested supplemental funding from Congress because the U.S. running low on the weapons it needs for its own defense is “a concern.” But “the United States military can continue to defend our national security interests all around the world.” Co-host Phil Mattingly asked, “In the President’s primetime address, he talked about the aid he’s seeking for Ukraine, and how much of that aid is to basically refill American stockpiles. My question is, the state of those stockpiles...

When they’ve been asked in the past, spokesmen for North Korea’s hermit government have insisted that they don’t sell military equipment to terrorist groups. (Perish the thought.) But the evidence is building that Hamas was using some Nork gear when it launched its attack on Israel. Video released by Israeli intelligence, along with discarded hardware collected at the scene of at least one of the attacks shows that the Hamas terrorists were using the F-7 shoulder-fired, rocket-propelled grenade launcher, manufactured by North Korea. The RPG-7 (as it’s also called) is generally used as an anti-tank weapon, and while it is...

In August 2022, more than one-fifth of the 1,000 rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group toward Israel failed and landed in Gaza. These rockets caused one-third of the 44 deaths recorded.

WASHINGTON — North Korea has delivered thousands of weapons and other military equipment to Russia for use in Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, US officials said Friday. “Our information indicates that in recent weeks, North Korea has provided Russia with more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on a call. It’s unclear exactly how much materiel and munitions each container holds, but photos released Friday indicate the vessels are full-sized shipping containers of the type often seen on rail cars or cargo ships.

It’s well known that the United States Army and Marines maintain a significant stockpile of used, damaged, or older models of weapons. Some are damaged and waiting to be safely salvaged, but many of them are still functional, requiring a bit of cleaning or maintenance. Some may be perfectly fine, but they’ve been replaced by newer models. Now that our allies in Israel are rushing to outfit an expanded military force to take on Hamas and their civilians are looking for hardware also, someone finally thought to ask the army about those stockpiles and how we could ship out the...