Militants in Gaza, Yemen, and Lebanon targeted Tel Aviv with rockets and missiles on the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked an expanding multifront war in the Middle East. Most of the strikes, which were preceded by sirens that sent Israelis into bomb shelters, were intercepted or fell harmlessly into open areas. Israeli officials said two people were lightly injured by shrapnel.
The United States government has spent more than $22 billion on fighting the conflict in the Middle East since war erupted a year ago on Oct. 7, 2023, according to new research. The Costs of War project at Brown University found the U.S. has spent at least $22.76 billion on supporting Israel over the past year and for related American military operations in the region, including battling the Iranian-backed Houthi militants in the Red Sea.
In July, nine months after the devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Israel Defense Forces released one of its first publicly available investigations into the failures of that day, a study of the battle of Kibbutz Be’eri, where 101 civilians were killed during the Hamas attack. But it is clear the Israeli military could not wait nine months to begin reacting to the Oct. 7 attacks, as it mounted an aggressive, deadly retaliatory campaign in Gaza. The IDF has been evolving in real time in the year of war since—using new technology, reorganizing its fighting forces and even adjusting the way it trains its soldiers.
In recent years, Air Force leaders have put a renewed emphasis on electronic warfare, recognizing the importance of the nonkinetic fight. As new kinds of EW threats emerge from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more, learn more about how USAF is keeping up with the change.
A Russian hypersonic missile struck the area of Ukraine’s major Starokostiantyniv airbase on Oct. 7 , Kyiv said. The latest strike on Starokostiantyniv in the western Khmelnytskyi region came a day after the Dutch defense minister said the Netherlands would supply Ukraine with more F-16 jets in the coming months. There were no civilian casualties and no damage to critical infrastructure, said Serhiy Tyurin, governor of Khmelnytskyi.
Since 2020, when the Pentagon established a technical architecture to connect counter-drone systems, their digital backbone has been the Army’s Forward Area Air Defense Command & Control. FAAD-C2 is built by Northrop Grumman and in widespread use by U.S. forces and, increasingly, foreign allies like the Baltic States. On Oct. 7, Northrop announced it had developed a new AI-driven upgrade to FAAD-C2, an Advanced Battle Manager to help users handle “complex aerial swarm scenarios.”
The Netherlands will deliver F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine over the coming months, with the Dutch defense minister acknowledging for the first time that the handover of 24 warplanes to the embattled country is underway.
The prevailing "bigger-is-better" approach to artificial intelligence—ingest more training data, produce larger models, build bigger data centers—might be undermining the kind of research and development the U.S. military actually needs now and in the future. That’s the argument in ... a new paper that scrutinizes common assumptions driving AI research.
Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence, but actual no-kidding military applications can be hard to identify. “If you have a data problem, or if you can make a problem into a data problem, it's probably a good fit for AI,” says Angela Sheffield, an internationally recognized expert in nuclear nonproliferation and applications of AI for national security.
Iran looks to have fielded a Chinese laser directed energy weapon intended for ‘dazzling’ drones or even destroying them in certain circumstances, as well as other new counter-drone capabilities. The Iranian government has been central in the global proliferation of uncrewed aerial systems, including kamikaze drones, but also faces many of the same kinds of threats, especially from Israel.
A new type of military airlifter is rising to the top of the U.S. Air Force’s list of modernization priorities: small, autonomous, electric-powered aircraft capable of short takeoffs and landings—and numbering in the hundreds. Air Force Material Command (AFMC) is in the market research phase for the Next-Generation Intratheater Airlift (NGIA) concept.
If you are considering military service or currently serving, fitness is more than just a routine. Physical activity becomes an integral part of your life, and you should adopt these habits in your post-military life as best you can.
