NATO begins anti-Russian air drill in Arctic – Patrick Martin

More than 4,000 troops from six NATO countries and three non-member states began a major air exercise over far northern Europe Monday in one of the largest military mobilizations of the year. Arctic Challenge is to last two weeks and involves more than 100 warplanes from the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Norway, and the Netherlands, all NATO members, plus …

US Replenishes Israel’s Arsenal With $1.9 Billion in New Weapons – Paul Gottinger

This week the U.S. State Department approved almost $1.9 billion in new weapons for Israel. The approval comes just weeks after the Israeli rights group Breaking the Silence collected reports of possible violations of international law during Israel’s 2014 “Operation Protective Edge” in Gaza. The weapons sale includes 14,500 kits to upgrade “dumb” bombs into precision-guided munitions, over 12,000 unguided bombs, and …

Are Pilots Deserting Washington’s Remote-Control War?

There are roughly 1,000 such drone pilots, known in the trade as “18Xs,” working for the U.S. Air Force today. Another 180 pilots graduate annually from a training program that takes about a year to complete at Holloman and Randolph Air Force bases in, respectively, New Mexico and Texas. As it happens, in those same 12 months, about 240 trained pilots quit and the …