Latest news with #Wedgetail
The Advertiser
5 days ago
- Business
- The Advertiser
Australia hands over first tranche of tanks to Ukraine
The first tranche of Australian tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army to help its defence against Russia's invasion. Australia pledged to give Ukraine 49 Abrams tanks at a value of $245 million. Defence Minister Richard Marles said the tanks would aid Ukrainian firepower and complement other military equipment donated by allies to repel Russia's invasion. "Australia remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine and seeing a just and lasting peace," Mr Marles said. A majority of the tanks have been delivered and a final tranche will arrive in the coming months, but actual numbers haven't been released. Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine are targeting civilians in record numbers, according to the United Nations human rights office. At least 139 civilians have been killed and more than 790 injured as of July 15. June marked the deadliest month for civilians in more than three years, the UN said. Australia will also deploy a Wedgetail aircraft to Europe in August to protect the corridors to Ukraine through which aid is delivered. "Australia stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine," Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said. Australia has committed more than $1.5 billion to aid Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022. It comes as the federal government negotiates a non-binding security pact with Ukraine, following more than two dozen other nations that have similar agreements. The agreements are largely vague, aren't legally binding and don't include joint security or defence guarantees. Areas of co-operation for Australia and Ukraine likely to be included in such a pact span military assistance and collaboration. A second agreement eliminating double taxation to encourage investment in Ukraine to help it rebuild after the devastating war is also set to be inked. The delivery of tanks also comes as United Nations and humanitarian partners launched an appeal to try and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to protect Ukrainians facing a harsh winter as Russia attacks critical infrastructure. The winter response plan aims to deliver humanitarian assistance to more than 1.7 million people between October 2025 and March 2026. The first tranche of Australian tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army to help its defence against Russia's invasion. Australia pledged to give Ukraine 49 Abrams tanks at a value of $245 million. Defence Minister Richard Marles said the tanks would aid Ukrainian firepower and complement other military equipment donated by allies to repel Russia's invasion. "Australia remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine and seeing a just and lasting peace," Mr Marles said. A majority of the tanks have been delivered and a final tranche will arrive in the coming months, but actual numbers haven't been released. Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine are targeting civilians in record numbers, according to the United Nations human rights office. At least 139 civilians have been killed and more than 790 injured as of July 15. June marked the deadliest month for civilians in more than three years, the UN said. Australia will also deploy a Wedgetail aircraft to Europe in August to protect the corridors to Ukraine through which aid is delivered. "Australia stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine," Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said. Australia has committed more than $1.5 billion to aid Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022. It comes as the federal government negotiates a non-binding security pact with Ukraine, following more than two dozen other nations that have similar agreements. The agreements are largely vague, aren't legally binding and don't include joint security or defence guarantees. Areas of co-operation for Australia and Ukraine likely to be included in such a pact span military assistance and collaboration. A second agreement eliminating double taxation to encourage investment in Ukraine to help it rebuild after the devastating war is also set to be inked. The delivery of tanks also comes as United Nations and humanitarian partners launched an appeal to try and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to protect Ukrainians facing a harsh winter as Russia attacks critical infrastructure. The winter response plan aims to deliver humanitarian assistance to more than 1.7 million people between October 2025 and March 2026. The first tranche of Australian tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army to help its defence against Russia's invasion. Australia pledged to give Ukraine 49 Abrams tanks at a value of $245 million. Defence Minister Richard Marles said the tanks would aid Ukrainian firepower and complement other military equipment donated by allies to repel Russia's invasion. "Australia remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine and seeing a just and lasting peace," Mr Marles said. A majority of the tanks have been delivered and a final tranche will arrive in the coming months, but actual numbers haven't been released. Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine are targeting civilians in record numbers, according to the United Nations human rights office. At least 139 civilians have been killed and more than 790 injured as of July 15. June marked the deadliest month for civilians in more than three years, the UN said. Australia will also deploy a Wedgetail aircraft to Europe in August to protect the corridors to Ukraine through which aid is delivered. "Australia stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine," Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said. Australia has committed more than $1.5 billion to aid Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022. It comes as the federal government negotiates a non-binding security pact with Ukraine, following more than two dozen other nations that have similar agreements. The agreements are largely vague, aren't legally binding and don't include joint security or defence guarantees. Areas of co-operation for Australia and Ukraine likely to be included in such a pact span military assistance and collaboration. A second agreement eliminating double taxation to encourage investment in Ukraine to help it rebuild after the devastating war is also set to be inked. The delivery of tanks also comes as United Nations and humanitarian partners launched an appeal to try and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to protect Ukrainians facing a harsh winter as Russia attacks critical infrastructure. The winter response plan aims to deliver humanitarian assistance to more than 1.7 million people between October 2025 and March 2026. The first tranche of Australian tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army to help its defence against Russia's invasion. Australia pledged to give Ukraine 49 Abrams tanks at a value of $245 million. Defence Minister Richard Marles said the tanks would aid Ukrainian firepower and complement other military equipment donated by allies to repel Russia's invasion. "Australia remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine and seeing a just and lasting peace," Mr Marles said. A majority of the tanks have been delivered and a final tranche will arrive in the coming months, but actual numbers haven't been released. Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine are targeting civilians in record numbers, according to the United Nations human rights office. At least 139 civilians have been killed and more than 790 injured as of July 15. June marked the deadliest month for civilians in more than three years, the UN said. Australia will also deploy a Wedgetail aircraft to Europe in August to protect the corridors to Ukraine through which aid is delivered. "Australia stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine," Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said. Australia has committed more than $1.5 billion to aid Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022. It comes as the federal government negotiates a non-binding security pact with Ukraine, following more than two dozen other nations that have similar agreements. The agreements are largely vague, aren't legally binding and don't include joint security or defence guarantees. Areas of co-operation for Australia and Ukraine likely to be included in such a pact span military assistance and collaboration. A second agreement eliminating double taxation to encourage investment in Ukraine to help it rebuild after the devastating war is also set to be inked. The delivery of tanks also comes as United Nations and humanitarian partners launched an appeal to try and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to protect Ukrainians facing a harsh winter as Russia attacks critical infrastructure. The winter response plan aims to deliver humanitarian assistance to more than 1.7 million people between October 2025 and March 2026.
Perth Now
5 days ago
- Business
- Perth Now
Australia hands over first tranche of tanks to Ukraine
The first tranche of Australian tanks has been handed over to the Ukrainian army to help its defence against Russia's invasion. Australia pledged to give Ukraine 49 Abrams tanks at a value of $245 million. Defence Minister Richard Marles said the tanks would aid Ukrainian firepower and complement other military equipment donated by allies to repel Russia's invasion. "Australia remains steadfast in our support for Ukraine and seeing a just and lasting peace," Mr Marles said. A majority of the tanks have been delivered and a final tranche will arrive in the coming months, but actual numbers haven't been released. Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine are targeting civilians in record numbers, according to the United Nations human rights office. At least 139 civilians have been killed and more than 790 injured as of July 15. June marked the deadliest month for civilians in more than three years, the UN said. Australia will also deploy a Wedgetail aircraft to Europe in August to protect the corridors to Ukraine through which aid is delivered. "Australia stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine," Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said. Australia has committed more than $1.5 billion to aid Ukraine since Russia's invasion in February 2022. It comes as the federal government negotiates a non-binding security pact with Ukraine, following more than two dozen other nations that have similar agreements. The agreements are largely vague, aren't legally binding and don't include joint security or defence guarantees. Areas of co-operation for Australia and Ukraine likely to be included in such a pact span military assistance and collaboration. A second agreement eliminating double taxation to encourage investment in Ukraine to help it rebuild after the devastating war is also set to be inked. The delivery of tanks also comes as United Nations and humanitarian partners launched an appeal to try and raise hundreds of millions of dollars to protect Ukrainians facing a harsh winter as Russia attacks critical infrastructure. The winter response plan aims to deliver humanitarian assistance to more than 1.7 million people between October 2025 and March 2026.
West Australian
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
How Pete McDonald & Howie Croft at Wedgetail Brewing made Australia's best beer: a stunning dark lager
Tucked in a quiet corner down the back streets of Mandurah, no one would assume that Wedgetail Brewing is home to Australia's best beer. But it's official: One of Mandurah's best-kept secrets is officially home to the country's best beer — a dark lager that snagged the champion Australian beer trophy at the Australian International Beer Awards, the world's biggest annual beer competition, earlier this month. Pete McDonald and Howie Croft opened Wedgetail Brewing about 18 months ago and the taproom has quickly become a favourite among locals. But the recent success at the AIBAs proved what locals already knew: the beers Howie and Pete and producing are something special. It's a far cry from the shed on head brewer Howie's property, where the pair first began experimenting with homebrews. 'Our first beers were probably pretty ropey,' Pete laughed. 'Typically with home brewing, you start off with kits, a lot of the work is done for you, it's cheap alcohol at first, and then you start getting the hang of it, and with a lot of learning and reading, you realise there's a bit more to it.' The duo met while working in WA's north decades ago and decided to take the plunge and open the taproom after Howie was made redundant. The brewery's name comes from the Wedgetails the pair would encounter while flying choppers over the Pilbara. The winning beer in question, the dark lager, is something Howie says he's been working on for a decade. The dark lager is served looking as one would expect but the taste is a surprise. It has all the best tasting notes of a dark lager: coffee, malt, and chocolate. But it leaves the drinker with none of the worst elements, no overwhelming bitterness and none of that fullness that discourages a second pint. The dark lager didn't just take out the top gong at the AIBAs but also best independent beer and best dark lager. Surprisingly, though, the brewery's newly crowned 'best' beer isn't the founders' favourite. 'Mine is the IPA. I keep going back to that, it's an older style traditional IPA and that's maybe my roots, I suppose,' Pete said. 'Mine's the draught, it's quite refreshing,' Howie added. The venue is always busy and has been embraced by the community. 'This place wouldn't exist without them; we would have fallen flat on our face without that support,' Pete said. Currently, the only way to drink a beer outside of the taproom is to fill up a growler, but the pair recently invested in a canning machine and are hoping to begin selling their products in local bottleshops soon. 'We'll get our heads around that, and we'll be canning our own product directly,' Pete said. 'It'll be a lot more flexible, a lot more efficient and cheaper. So watch this space, we'll be coming out with cans too.' Wedgetail's hearty pub grub is also a standout, with young gun head chef Rhys Hura passionate about matching the quality of the beer to the food. There's a roaring oven producing delicious wood-fired pizzas and Rhys hopes his steak sandwich will make the finals in WA's best steak sandwich awards. 'I've taken all the aspects of what makes a good steak sanga and reinvented it as something that's different, but also quite modern,' he said. 'We chose Scotch fillets because with the fat content, it renders down and comes apart really easily. 'There's a green tomato relish, which I made to be like a normal tomato relish, but green tomatoes have less tartness and less acidity than red tomato does.' Rhys also uses the beer to flavour the food, with the darker beers going into the sauce on the ribs, the wheat beer in the fish finger batter and the barrel-aged beer being used to make ice cream. The pair hope to have more success at the upcoming Perth Royal Show and have entered the dark lager, the double red ale and the draught. 'So we're hoping that the product will perform again,' Pete laughed. Erskine's Boundary Island Brewery also earned a trophy for best traditional India pale ale with its The Deckie IPA, and King Road Brewing in Oldbury took home prizes for two of its King Road Short Stay Series beers: the American pale ale and NZ Cryo.
Perth Now
27-05-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
Soaring high: how Wedgetail made Australia's best beer
Tucked in a quiet corner down the back streets of Mandurah, no one would assume that Wedgetail Brewing is home to Australia's best beer. But it's official: One of Mandurah's best-kept secrets is officially home to the country's best beer — a dark lager that snagged the champion Australian beer trophy at the Australian International Beer Awards, the world's biggest annual beer competition, earlier this month. Pete McDonald and Howie Croft opened Wedgetail Brewing about 18 months ago and the taproom has quickly become a favourite among locals. But the recent success at the AIBAs proved what locals already knew: the beers Howie and Pete and producing are something special. It's a far cry from the shed on head brewer Howie's property, where the pair first began experimenting with homebrews. 'Our first beers were probably pretty ropey,' Pete laughed. 'Typically with home brewing, you start off with kits, a lot of the work is done for you, it's cheap alcohol at first, and then you start getting the hang of it, and with a lot of learning and reading, you realise there's a bit more to it.' Pete (left) and Howie mulling over a dark lager. Credit: Nicole Spicer The duo met while working in WA's north decades ago and decided to take the plunge and open the taproom after Howie was made redundant. The brewery's name comes from the Wedgetails the pair would encounter while flying choppers over the Pilbara. The winning beer in question, the dark lager, is something Howie says he's been working on for a decade. The dark lager is served looking as one would expect but the taste is a surprise. It has all the best tasting notes of a dark lager: coffee, malt, and chocolate. But it leaves the drinker with none of the worst elements, no overwhelming bitterness and none of that fullness that discourages a second pint. The dark lager didn't just take out the top gong at the AIBAs but also best independent beer and best dark lager. Surprisingly, though, the brewery's newly crowned 'best' beer isn't the founders' favourite. 'Mine is the IPA. I keep going back to that, it's an older style traditional IPA and that's maybe my roots, I suppose,' Pete said. 'Mine's the draught, it's quite refreshing,' Howie added. The venue is always busy and has been embraced by the community. 'This place wouldn't exist without them; we would have fallen flat on our face without that support,' Pete said. Currently, the only way to drink a beer outside of the taproom is to fill up a growler, but the pair recently invested in a canning machine and are hoping to begin selling their products in local bottleshops soon. The AIBA awards take pride of place in the taproom. Credit: Nicole Spicer 'We'll get our heads around that, and we'll be canning our own product directly,' Pete said. 'It'll be a lot more flexible, a lot more efficient and cheaper. So watch this space, we'll be coming out with cans too.' Wedgetail's hearty pub grub is also a standout, with young gun head chef Rhys Hura passionate about matching the quality of the beer to the food. There's a roaring oven producing delicious wood-fired pizzas and Rhys hopes his steak sandwich will make the finals in WA's best steak sandwich awards. 'I've taken all the aspects of what makes a good steak sanga and reinvented it as something that's different, but also quite modern,' he said. 'We chose Scotch fillets because with the fat content, it renders down and comes apart really easily. 'There's a green tomato relish, which I made to be like a normal tomato relish, but green tomatoes have less tartness and less acidity than red tomato does.' Rhys also uses the beer to flavour the food, with the darker beers going into the sauce on the ribs, the wheat beer in the fish finger batter and the barrel-aged beer being used to make ice cream. The pair hope to have more success at the upcoming Perth Royal Show and have entered the dark lager, the double red ale and the draught. 'So we're hoping that the product will perform again,' Pete laughed. Erskine's Boundary Island Brewery also earned a trophy for best traditional India pale ale with its The Deckie IPA, and King Road Brewing in Oldbury took home prizes for two of its King Road Short Stay Series beers: the American pale ale and NZ Cryo.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Defense officials advocate for diverse target-tracking architecture
Amid reports that the White House may scrap the Air Force's plans to replace its fleet of air moving target indicator aircraft, defense officials in recent weeks have emphasized the key role the platform plays in the Defense Department's broader target-tracking architecture. The Pentagon in recent years has been exploring options for shifting some moving target indicator, or MTI, missions traditionally performed by aircraft to satellites. The Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office have been leading studies and launching prototypes to consider the viability and value of space-based options. As those demonstrations get off the ground, the Air Force is on a parallel path to replace the aircraft currently used to track air-moving targets — its aging E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System — with the more capable, Boeing-built E-7 Wedgetail. The E-7 has been viewed as a near-term bridge to whatever future architecture the department develops, and the service's plan is to buy the first two Wedgetail prototypes as soon as 2028. But as the White House and the Pentagon finalize a budget plan for fiscal 2026, President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly considering canceling the E-7 buy, according to Aviation Week. The Air Force wouldn't confirm the report, but a spokesperson told Defense News the service is 'continuing to work with OSD on the E-7A Wedgetail program throughout the development of the FY26 budget request.' In recent testimony and at events through the Washington, D.C., region, defense officials have emphasized the importance of an air moving target indicator capability that includes both air and space assets — especially as Space Force and NRO analysis is ongoing. Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs and requirements, said Thursday that while the space-based demonstrations haven't yet delivered clear data to inform program decisions, early indicators support a mixed architecture. 'We think there are kind of synergies of having both flavors of this capability right now, but we're really waiting for some just hard engineering data to understand what we can see from space, and how good is that going to be,' Bratton said during a virtual Mitchell Institute event. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told House appropriators May 6 that while satellites can provide key sensing capabilities, they're not ready to take over the full AMTI mission. As a result, aircraft like the E-7 Wedgetail and E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System are still needed. In a May 13 hearing, U.S. Northern Command Commander Gen. Gregory Guillot told the Senate Armed Services Committee the department needs a layered approach to tracking advanced threats that includes everything from undersea sensors to detect enemy submarines, standoff weapons, aircraft and satellites. 'I think it's a seabed-to-space approach,' Guillot said. Tracking ground and air moving targets will play a key role in what Guillot called the 'domain awareness layer' of a future Golden Dome capability — an advanced missile defense and defeat architecture championed by Trump. The Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office have been working closely on the MTI studies and have been largely tight-lipped about what satellites and other prototypes have been launched to demonstrate the space-based capability. NRO director Chris Scolese has acknowledged in the past that his agency launched some GMTI prototype satellites, and Guillot noted in the hearing this week there are 'a number of' AMTI prototypes on orbit today. The service expects to have an operational space-based MTI capability by the early 2030s. Bratton declined to offer more details on the AMTI demonstrations but said the results of all of the analysis will help answer key questions like, 'How good is this capability from space?' and 'How is it compatible with existing AMTI capabilities that the Navy and the Air Force fly?' Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told Defense News there are looming technical challenges surrounding the switch to satellites for MTI missions. Those include questions around power systems and whether a satellite sensor can penetrate cloud cover, he said. The satellites would also need to be more survivable and able to withstand an attack. A fully space-based MTI architecture is likely years away, Kendall said, and those systems would not be ready in time to retire the E-3 without risking a capability gap. 'We're trying to get a lot of that functionality into space, but that's going to take a while, and there's some technical challenges with that,' Kendall said, adding that the Wedgetail has been a crucial component of the Air Force's near-term planning. 'There's a pretty high sense of urgency about getting [the E-7] fielded,' he said.
