The War Zone. Your daily source for military, defense, and geopolitics coverage.
Marine Expeditionary Unit Deploying To The Middle East: Report
The flotilla of Navy ships with Marines and their vehicles packed aboard will bring a very flexible set of capabilities to Operation Epic Fury.
Latest News
Iranian Submarine Sunk By ATACMS Short Range Ballistic Missile
ATACMS and PrSM ballistic missiles have played a key role in destroying Iran’s Navy from afar.
KC-135 Tanker Crashes In Iraq During Operation Epic Fury Sortie (Updated)
U.S. Central Command says two aircraft were involved in the incident and that a search and rescue effort is currently underway.
U.S. Navy Won’t Be Ready To Escort Tankers Through Hormuz For Weeks (Updated)
Escorting oil tankers in the strait is an incredibly high-risk mission, and might not even be enough to ensure their safe passage.
Railgun Being Fired By U.S. Navy Again After Abandoning It For Years
The Trump class “battleship” has breathed new life into the Navy’s railgun ambitions, which it previously shelved after hitting technical hurdles.
What Cops Saw Chasing Down New Jersey Drones
A large tranche of never-before published documents provides insights into what law enforcement saw in the skies during the drone scare of 2024.
Did B-2s Just Drop GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators On Another Iranian Nuclear Site? (Updated)
Satellite imagery shows a prized hardened facility at Iran’s Parchin military complex with three massive impact points in a neat row on top.
Iran Turns Up The Heat Around The Strait Of Hormuz (Updated)
Iran struck three commercial ships today in its continuing effort to inflict economic pain and political pressure on the U.S. and its allies.
More Latest News
Serbian MiG-29 Appears Armed With Chinese Supersonic Standoff Missiles
Previously only known to be in Pakistani service, the Chinese-made CM-400 air-to-ground missile has now appeared on Serbian MiG-29 jets.
Massive Leap In Ability To Spot Iranian Drones Headed To Persian Gulf
The E-7A Wedgetail is arguably the best aircraft anywhere in the world for spotting low-flying Iranian drones and cruise missiles.
Bell’s X-76 Fold-Away Rotor Aircraft Is DARPA’s Newest X-Plane
Planned to fly in 2028, the X-76 will explore technologies for fast-flying runway-independent aircraft with folding rotors, crewed and uncrewed.
Israeli F-16 Appears Carrying A Mysterious Precision Bomb
Distinct markings on the bomb suggest it may be filled with an incendiary payload.
Bunker Talk: Let’s Talk About All The Things We Did And Didn’t Cover This Week
It’s been a really, REALLY long week, guys…
Trump Demands “Unconditional Surrender,” Iran Says Bring On The Ground Invasion (Updated)
Trump wants to pick the country’s new leader, while Israel continues to strike at what’s left of Iran’s current leadership in Tehran.
Kuwaiti F/A-18’s Triple Friendly Fire Shootdown Gets Stranger By The Day
Questions mount over the bizarre blue-on-blue incident over Kuwait that resulted in the loss of three U.S. Air Force F-15Es.
The Misconception That Air Supremacy Has Been Achieved Over Iran
While there are areas where air superiority exists over Iran, total air supremacy has not been achieved, which should be no surprise.
Ukrainian F-16s Had Only A Handful Of Sidewinder Missiles Available: Report
The conflict in the Middle East is now also driving up demand for and increasing scarcity of various kinds of air-defense effectors.
Strikes Hobble Iranian Missile Threat As Concerns Over Interceptor Stockpile Mount (Updated)
There is a war of attrition ongoing between Iran’s stockpiles of standoff weapons and the U.S. and its allies’ supplies of interceptors.
Israeli Air Force First To Claim F-35 Air-To-Air Kill Of A Crewed Aircraft
The Iranian Yak-130 combat trainer was shot down while flying over Tehran.
Kuwaiti F/A-18 Hornet Responsible For Shooting Down Three USAF F-15E Strike Eagles: Report
The bizarre friendly fire incident resulted in the total loss of all three Strike Eagles, but their crews survived.
Trump’s Plan To Escort Ships Through Strait Of Hormuz Would Put U.S. Navy Warships In The Crosshairs
U.S. Navy’s surface combatants would be tasked with sailing repeatedly through a super weapons engagement zone to get ship traffic moving.
New Russian Air-Launched Cruise Missile Appears In Ukraine
The Izdeliye 30 is likely cheaper, faster to produce, and harder-hitting than previous Russian air-launched cruise missiles.
More U.S. Fighter Aircraft Heading To Middle East
Additional F-35As and F-15Es will be arriving in the CENTCOM area of responsibility shortly.
Iranian Kamikaze Drone Boat Makes First Successful Strike Of War
Iran, a pioneer in lower-end uncrewed surface vessel technology, used at least one to attack the oil tanker MKD VYOM in the Gulf of Oman.
The War Zone — also known by the shorthand TWZ — has become an essential resource for the defense industry, the national security community, and the interested public at large since it was launched in 2016.
From its early beginnings to the present day, TWZ’s purpose remains the same.
The site stands at the nexus of military technology, strategy, and foreign policy. As a full-spectrum defense news and analysis website, TWZ covers the air, sea, land, space, and cyber domains of warfare, with an infusion of geopolitical context and technological analysis to offer readers deeper, yet easy-to-consume, insights than what they will find anywhere else….
