Israel To Keep Rafah Crossing Closed & Limit Aid Until Hamas Returns Remaining Hostages + AUSA in Washington D.C + More

For review:

1. Israel To Keep Rafah Crossing Closed & Limit Aid Until Hamas Returns Remaining Hostages.

2. Post Gaza Ceasefire: Hamas gunmen tightened their grip in Gaza on Monday and Tuesday, sources in the Strip said, including carrying out public executions.

Hamas has killed at least 33 people since a ceasefire took effect on Friday in a crackdown on groups that have tested its grip, sources in the strip said.

3. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that supplying U.S. Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine could end badly for everyone, especially U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mr. Medvedev, said it is impossible to distinguish between Tomahawk missiles carrying nuclear warheads and conventional ones after they are launched - a point that President Vladimir Putin's spokesman has also made. 

4. Secretary of the Army Driscoll today teased a shake-up in the way the Army buys its weapons and platforms, saying that he wants to adopt more of a private sector-like model that “speeds up the cycle of innovation for us.”

5. Leonardo DRS is partnering with European land defense specialist KNDS to throw their hat in the ring for the US Army’s forthcoming howitzer competition.

The two signed a “strategic teaming agreement” to offer the Army the CAESAR self-propelled howitzer. Though KNDS makes the CAESAR, Leonardo DRS, the US arm of Italian parent Leonardo, will be the integrator and prime for the project.

6. A year after the program was cancelled, the Army may reverse course and back the development of a next-generation interceptor for the Patriot Missile System-  called the Lower-Tier Future Interceptor (LTFI).  

7. The UH-60 Black Hawk is now fully reconfigured to be an unmanned aircraft capable of flying a variety of missions, according to Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky.

The aircraft is designated the S-70 UAS and nicknamed the U-HAWK.