Russia has fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in a test launch that comes as the Kremlin approaches the two-month mark in its war with Ukraine.
We will share the details of that launch plus the new weapons the US has begun training Ukrainian troops on and the death of a Navy officer in Hawaii.
This is Defense and National Security, your late-night guide to the latest happenings at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, I’m Ellen Mitchell. Sign up here.
Russia tests intercontinental ballistic missile launch
Russia carried out a test launch of its intercontinental ballistic missile, the Sarmat, on Wednesday, according to the country’s defense ministry.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said later on Wednesday that Russia had notified the United States in advance of the test, so “we were not surprised and do not consider it a threat to the United States or its allies.”
Kirby added that the Defense Department “remains focused on Russia’s illegal and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine.”
test details: The missile was launched at 3:12 pm Moscow time from a silo at the Plesetsk State Test Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region, an area in western Russia about 1,640 miles north of Moscow.
The Defense Ministry said the missile flew towards the Kura test site on the Kamchatka Peninsula, which lies along the Bering Sea, before landing in a “designated area” in Kamchatka.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that after completing the Sarmat test program, the weapon would enter service with the country’s Strategic Missile Forces.
A veiled threat: Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March 2018 that his country’s new missile system would render any US missile defense system “useless” and warned the West that it had “failed to contain Russia” .
On Wednesday, Putin congratulated his army on the test launch and said he would “think of those who are trying to threaten Russia,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted the ministry as saying.
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CAPITOL POLICE SAY ‘NO THREAT’ AFTER EVACUATION, PLANE WARNING
The US Capitol and nearby building were briefly evacuated Wednesday night after an apparent false alarm about an Army plane that was in the area and was on its way to drop paratroopers for a pregame event at Nationals Park. .
Capitol Police initially issued an alert for the Capitol and other nearby buildings to be evacuated due to a “likely threat” from a plane, though later tweeted shortly before 7 p.m. that there was “no threat.” Police issued the go-ahead shortly after 8 p.m.
Read more here.
US begins training Ukrainian troops on howitzers
Howitzer artillery and rounds for the system have arrived in Europe and US troops have begun training Ukrainian forces on how to use them, a senior US defense official said on Wednesday.
In the last 24 hours, four flights carrying military aid for Ukraine from the $800 million package approved by the Biden administration last week have arrived in Europe.
“Some of those flights included howitzers,” the official told reporters. “In the next 24 [hours]there will be additional flights coming from the United States to the region with howitzers.”
limited details: The official also said that the training of “a small number” of Ukrainians on how to use howitzers has started in an unnamed country outside of Ukraine, and the training is expected to last a week.
Just over 50 Ukrainians will be trained in the system, and those troops will then return to their country to train their colleagues, the official said.
Course to: The US is expected to send 18 howitzers and 40,000 artillery shells to Ukraine as part of the latest multi-billion dollar presidential withdrawal package.
Read more here.
CORRECTION OF PENTAGON PROBLEMS IN WAR PLANES
The Pentagon’s top spokesman, John Kirby, told reporters on Tuesday that Ukraine had “received additional platforms and parts so that they can increase the size of their fleet, the size of their aircraft fleet.”
But on Wednesday, Kirby admitted that he had made a mistake and that Ukraine had received only parts from other countries, not “complete planes”.
“I was wrong. They have not received complete aircraft from another nation. They had given me to understand that an offer made by another nation in the region had indeed been effective. … I was wrong to say that, in the past tense, they had been given complete aircraft. I’m sorry for the mistake,” Kirby said.
Ukraine also moved quickly to clear up the confusion, with its air force tweeting that the country “received no new planes from partners! With the help of the US government. [the Ukrainian Air Force] received spare parts and components for the restoration and repair of the Armed Forces aircraft fleet, which will allow [us] put more equipment into service.
Navy officer dies during a training event in Hawaii
A US Navy junior officer died over the weekend while training with Marines at a base in Hawaii, the service revealed Wednesday.
Lt. jg Aaron Fowler, 29, “became unresponsive during training” at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay on Sunday and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, according to a Navy statement.
limited details: No additional details were released about the incident, which is currently being investigated by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and local authorities.
Since January, Fowler had been assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit One, a unit that cleaned up explosive hazards on land and at sea, and was based in San Diego, California. He entered the Navy in 2012 and commissioned after graduating from the Navy. Academy in May 2018, according to the service.
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ON TAP TOMORROW
- Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will speak at Friends of Europe on the current and future relationship between the US, the European Union and China at 9 a.m.
- The Vandenberg Coalition will host a virtual discussion on “The Role of Grand Strategy in Advancing U.S. Interests, Today’s National Security Challenges, and a Vision for the Next President’s Foreign Policy” at 12 p.m.
- The Nuclear Deterrent and Missile Defense Forum at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies will hear from Peter Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, at 1 p.m.
- Defense One will host a virtual forum on artificial intelligence with Matt Turek, program manager for the office of information innovation at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Brett Vaughan, director of artificial intelligence at the Navy, at 1 p.m.
- The Brookings Institution will speak on “Protection of Civilians in Associated Military Operations” at 1:30 p.m.
WHAT WE ARE READING
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