Ukraine strikes Russian airfield with ATACMS missiles – POLITICO

— Ukrainian forces fired American-supplied ATACMS missiles, striking a Russian airfield in occupied Ukraine and marking the first known use of the long-range weapon.

— Multinational military exercises kicked off in Spain this week, in what is the first time the EU has led and organized wargames independently of NATO.

— An underwater telecommunications cable connecting Sweden and Estonia sustained damage, at around the same time an energy pipeline and communications cable linking Finland and Estonia were also damaged last week.

Good morning and welcome to Morning Defense. Tips to [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] or follow us at @joshposaner, @LauKaya and @calebmlarson.

UKRAINE FIRES ATACMS: Ukrainian forces used ATAMCS long-range missiles — quietly supplied by the United States — to destroy nine Russian military helicopters, an ammo depot and an air defense system in a large-scale attack against two airfields in Russian-occupied territory. The attacks occurred in occupied Berdyansk, a southern city in the Zaporizhzhia region and at an airfield in Luhansk, an occupied city in eastern Ukraine. It is the first publicly-known use of the American missile in Ukraine.

For more from our U.S. colleagues on how the Biden administration sent the Anti-Personnel/Anti-Materiel, or APAM — an older version of the ATACMS missile — to Kyiv, read here.

Hit hard: The Russian defense ministry has not issued an official statement about the attack. However, Russian pro-war bloggers have described Kyiv’s so-called “Operation Dragonfly” as probably one of the strongest blows to the Russian forces in Ukraine. Read more about the attack in Veronika’s story from Kyiv here.

Out in the open: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine used American ATACMS missiles in the strike against Russian aviation. “Thank you to everyone who is fighting and working for Ukraine! Thank you to everyone who is helping us! And today I am especially grateful to the United States,” Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel. “Our agreements with President Biden are being implemented. And they are being implemented very accurately — ATACMS have proven themselves.”

FRANCE: French President Emmanuel Macron and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas are having lunch at the Elysée Palace today to discuss the situation in the Middle East, Europe’s military support to Ukraine, as well as bilateral defense cooperation. Estonia is among the countries which signed a letter of intent in June to jointly buy MBDA’s Mistral 3 air defense system. 

SPACE: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joins a conference organized by the country’s big business lobby BDI today at the appropriately-named Kosmos venue in Berlin. The aim is to talk up prospects for space start-ups and the construction of a long-planned floating rocket launchpad in the North Sea. Scholz speaks at 12:45 p.m.

**A message from ASD: Driven by geopolitical uncertainties, there is a growing awareness of the risks of technological dependences. But how can Europe enhance its technological sovereignty, and what exactly does this mean? Find out more in our ASD Paper.**

WAR GAMES IN SPAIN: About 2,800 military personnel, 25 aircraft and six vessels are deployed this week to intervene in the fictitious country of Seglia, in the EU’s first live military exercise, including an amphibious assault. “Amphibious operations are the most complex ones to carry out with other armies [navy, land, air] and other countries,” French Colonel Jean-Hugues Delcourt, who leads Poitiers’ Marine Infantry Tank Regiment, told Morning Defense. Look for Laura’s dispatch from a French warship later this morning.

UNDERWATER INFRASTRUCTURE

ANOTHER CABLE DOWN: Swedish authorities said an underwater telecommunication cable linking Sweden and Estonia was damaged earlier in October, and at about the same time that an energy pipeline linking Finland and Estonia was also damaged.

Unknown culprits: “At present, we cannot say what caused the damage, but we can say that it occurred in temporal connection with the previously known damage,” said Swedish Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin on X. More on the cable damage from our colleague Claudia here.

BRETON‘S DEFENSE PLAN: The European Commission will put forward its defense industry investment strategy “early next year” instead of this November, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Tuesday. Following a meeting of the College of Commissioners, Breton said his vision of a funding plan for the bloc’s military contractors — which will almost certainly only be realized in the next political mandate — will include “a European Defense Investment Program,” or EDIP for short. That’s long been proposed as a way to change the modest off-budget finance now in place into a long-term support system for the bloc’s defense firms.

Strategy: Breton says the principal targets for the strategy will be to “consolidate” the EU’s short-term defense funds into “structural support” for joint arms procurement and munitions production, as EDIRPA and ASAP now do on a small scale. That will also include figuring out a “bridge” to make sure funding is available until the end of the EU’s current budgetary cycle in 2027, and doesn’t just drop off when the current temporary schemes end in 2025. 

More law: Finally, there will be a “regulatory framework to ensure the security of supply of defense,” Breton said.

More time: The French commissioner had intended to set out his defense investment plan on November 8, but decided to postpone it ahead of his chat with fellow commissioners on Tuesday.

BELGIAN EU PRESIDENCY TO GRAPPLE WITH DEFENSE CASH: Belgium takes on the rotating EU Council presidency in January and plans a substantive chat on long-term financing for the bloc’s defense industry, according to a preliminary schedule obtained by Morning Defense. The Belgian presidency will work on the European Peace Facility, according to the document, which can be used to fund military support and equipment for partner countries. As earlier exclusively reported by us, there’s a plan in place to pool €20 billion for four-year support for Ukraine but that’s almost certainly not going to happen before the end of the year.

Key dates: The Belgian draft agenda points to a January 30-31 informal meeting of defense and foreign ministers, with a formal meeting on May 28. There are also slots for a ministerial meeting on the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy and a separate Schuman Security and Defence Forum, which was launched as a platform for discussing the EU’s place in the world.

Space: The Belgians list a European Space Agency meeting for May 30 followed by a “space summit,” which is presumably a meeting of ministers, that afternoon. EU ministers will then meet under the Competitiveness Council on May 31 and talk space, according to the workplan.

FLAWS WITH THE F-35: American defense industry heavyweight Lockheed Martin could soon face scrutiny about problems with the F-35 stealth fighter’s hardware and software that recently came to light. The latest variant, the first Technology Refresh 3 airframe, was slated for delivery by December of this year, but that date has now been pushed back until spring of 2024. 

MORE TROOPS IN EASTERN GERMANY: The German ministry of defense is preparing to station more troops in Saxony. The ministry called the southeastern state an infrastructure-rich technology location, making it ideal for a “future-capable Bundeswehr.”

Not when but where: The ministry is considering potential stationing locations at Bautzen and Görlitz. “I expect to make a decision on stationing the Bundeswehr in the Free State before the end of this year,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. “The question is not whether we station in Saxony, but where we station in Saxony.”

SPY FOOD: Being an intelligence agent isn’t all martinis shaken not stirred. The menu for Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service features faves like currywurst, salad and Kaiserschmarrn. For those with a hearty appetite, more here.

GERMAN-LITHUANIAN TANK REPAIR: The Lithuanian defense ministry announced that a German-Lithuanian repair hub — located in Lithuania — will repair Ukrainian-operated Leopard tanks with the goal of making them battle-worthy once again.

Repairs already underway: The Lithuanian Armed Forces press service explained that repair of German self-propelled PzH2000 howitzers had already occurred in Lithuania and that the first batch of 18 Ukrainian mechanics had been trained up on howitzer repair.

SWEDEN MULLS SENDING WARPLANES TO KYIV: The Swedish-designed Saab JAS 39 Gripen, a late Cold War-era fighter, could go head-to-head against Moscow’s forces in Ukraine. Stockholm is mulling supplying the fighter to Kyiv after several European countries agreed to send American F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Still, it could take up to a year before Ukrainian-piloted jets are in the air, and Stockholm won’t move until the country is in NATO.

More from our colleague Charlie Duxbury here.

TANKS TO UKRAINE: All 31 U.S.-made M1A1 Abrams tanks promised to Kyiv by the Biden administration have arrived in Ukraine, U.S. Colonel Martin O’Donnell, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Europe and Africa, told Voice of America. 

UK DEFENSE SEC IN DC: British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps is in Washington D.C. meeting his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin and American lawmakers. POLITICO’s Tim Ross and Alex Ward caught up with Shapps as he visited the U.K. Embassy. Shapps insisted that he tells Israeli ministers privately as well as publicly that Britain backs their right to target Hamas, in a “proportionate” way. “The U.K. believes that Israel absolutely has a right to go after Hamas, a terrorist organization who’s just swept in and killed probably 1,500 people, maimed and injured many more,” he said. “Judgements about how that’s done, as long as it’s within international humanitarian laws, are for Israel …  I say the same thing in private as I do in public, which is, under international humanitarian law, ensure it’s proportionate, but there’s a job to be done.”

Boots off the ground: Shapps is among the British ministers ringing round Middle East governments trying to prevent the conflict spiralling out of control. “Deterrence,” he said, was the main reason he’s sent military assets to the region. But what if it does escalate, with, say Iran or Hezbollah joining the war in a major way? Can he rule out sending Western or British troops? “There’s certainly no plans to put boots on the ground,” Shapps said. Which of course isn’t a guarantee. 

All about deterrence: “We’ve sent ships, we’ve sent aircraft, and helicopters, there’s marines. We have broadened our support in a variety of different locations in the Middle East. Why have we done that? Number one: deterrence. Let’s not have anyone look at this and think this is an opportunity for us to get involved and stir things up.” 

On Shapps’ agenda: Today Shapps will meet Austin and other military leaders at the Pentagon before laying a wreath at the Arlington National Cemetery and undertaking a tour of U.S. broadcasters. As well as expressing support for Israel, he will urge Americans not to forget the conflict in Ukraine.

EURO ANTI-AIR TECH TO SOUTH KOREA: MBDA, the European defense multinational, won a contract from Korea Aerospace Industries for their ATAM missile. The ATAM is a variant of the Mistral anti-air missile — already in service in South Korea — and will arm the Korean Marine Attack Helicopter, which will carry two ATAM launchers, each holding two missiles.

THE CZECHS BUY BRAZILIAN?: The Czech Ministry of Defense is in negotiations with Embraer, the Brazilian aerospace company, to acquire C-390 Millennium military transport planes. The C-390 airframe would be a boon to the Czechs, who do not currently operate any medium-sized long-range transport aircraft that are capable of using unpaved runways. “Until now,” the ministry said, “we have had to rely on our allies.”

THANKS TO: Jan Cienski and Zoya Sheftalovich.

**A message from ASD: The 21st century will be shaped by emerging and disruptive technologies, from AI and quantum to biotechnologies and novel materials. There is a growing competition between great powers for the control of these technologies and a willingness to use them to gain strategic and economic advantage over the other. Consequently, sovereignty over key technologies will determine not only the prosperity but also the security of Europe. This raises three main questions: For which technologies does Europe want to be sovereign? What does sovereignty mean in the context of technology and how can it be achieved? What does technological sovereignty mean for the EU vis-à-vis Member States and allied third countries? In the end, technological sovereignty can only be achieved with a combination of strategic (capability-driven) planning and targeted industrial policy, supported by coherent and persistent investments in selected key technologies. Find out more in our ASD Paper.**