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TWZ. Where the cutting-edge of military technology, tactics, strategy, and geopolitics collide.

TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG), using publicly available open-source information. Created by Ian Ellis-Jones Carrier Tracker

Where Are The Aircraft Carriers?: September 9, 2026

The Navy is applying lessons learned from recent marathon carrier cruises to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which conducted an unreported maintenance availability ahead of deployment.

Latest News

Ukraine

Ukraine Carried Out Its Deepest Drone Strike On Russia Ever

The strike hit an energy processing plant 1,700 miles from the Ukrainian border in Russia’s gas-rich Arctic region.

Drones

Hermeus Unveils Air-Launched Ramjet Test Vehicle for High-Speed Experiments

The ramjet-powered vehicle could give researchers and developers a new way to put hardware into sustained high-Mach flight environments.

U.S. Air Force

First Look At General Atomics’ Wildfire, Its Successor To The MQ-9 Reaper (Updated)

The USAF is hunting for new lower-cost armed drones to perform the same missions as the MQ-9 in the wake of huge Reaper losses.

Americas

Army Now Testing Anthem Long-Range Strike Weapon Built for Mass Production

Serial production of the relatively crude but cheap weapon is slated to begin in Texas next year, with plans to also build the weapon in Germany and Israel.

Iran

Everything We Know About The U.S. Navy’s Submersible Drone Iran Just Captured

Anduril’s Dive-LD uncrewed underwater vehicle falling into Iranian hands is significant, but the system was designed to be risked in contested waters.

Yemen

Saudi’s Remaining Energy Lifeline To The World Under Threat After Successful Houthi Strikes (Updated)

Having the Strait of Hormuz and energy exports via the Red Sea shut down at the same time has long been a top fear for global oil markets.

U.S. Air Force

USAF Wants MQ-9 Reaper Successor At A Fraction Of The Cost At $10M Each

The USAF has aggressive cost and schedule goals for new drones to succeed the MQ-9 fleet that has suffered major losses.

Baltic Sea

EA-37B Flew Along Kaliningrad Border As Part Of “Specialized” Recon, EW Flight Package

The USAF’s new EA-37B Compass Call electronic warfare jet was part of a larger NATO package that flew along the doorstep of Russia’s strategic military outpost.

U.S. Air Force

Air Force Wants Family Of Expendable Target Drones That Can Mimic Everything From Stealth Fighters To UAV Swarms

With rapidly evolving threats around the globe, the USAF’s target drones need to start making leaps to catch up and a new family of systems is wanted for this.

Site Expansions Underpin Lockheed Martin’s Munitions Production Ramp

Branded Content: Bigger sites, advanced manufacturing techniques, and boosting the workforce are key industry commitments to increased munitions production.

U.S. Army

Army Widens Stinger Surface-To-Air Missile Replacement Search

Lockheed and Raytheon are developing competing Stinger replacements now, but the Army wants to put additional designs to the test next year.

F/A-18E/F

Blackbeard Low-Cost Hypersonic Missile Testing On The F/A-18 Super Hornet Has Begun

The Navy is aiming to have at least a limited operational arsenal of Blackbeard hypersonic missiles within the next two years.

Canada

Trump Threatens Canadian Jets At The Center Of Army Aerial Surveillance Plans

Threatening to block Bombardier sales in the U.S. is different than actually following through with it, but Canada also has a vote.

Russia

Russia’s New Stealthy Lower-Cost Air-Launched Standoff Weapons On Display In Egypt

Moscow is pitching a new generation of precision weapons abroad, even as the war that produced them complicates their export prospects.

People's Liberation Army Air Force (China)

China’s Huge WZ-X Stealth Drone’s Strange Wing Configuration Confirmed

New photos of the WZ-X airborne give us a clearer view of the aircraft’s unique wing design.

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)

USS Abraham Lincoln Is Getting A Badly Needed Scrubbing While In Thailand

The ship pulled into Thailand earlier this week caked in rust and algae after 286 days at sea.

U.S. Navy

The Three Foreign Frigates Being Studied For Possible U.S. Navy Service

Modern Japanese, South Korean, and Turkish frigate designs have emerged as possible contenders to meet increasingly urgent Navy demands.

Ukraine

Ukrainian Sea Drones Strike Russian Black Sea Resort Town Of Sochi For The First Time

Ukraine Situation Report: The strike on Sochi’s port highlights the increasing reach of Kyiv’s drone boat attack campaign.

More Latest News

Bunker Talk

Bunker Talk: Labor Day Weekend Edition

Have a great and relaxing weekend gang!

F-15

First USAF F-15EX To Be Based In Japan Departs Boeing’s St. Louis Plant

The first F-15EX bound for the Japanese base comes as the program grapples with future sustainment concerns.

How Drone Detection Is Evolving To Counter Smaller, Faster, And Swarm Threats

Branded Content: Leonardo DRS explains how tactical radars form a central element of a layered counter-UAS threat detection system.

Royal Air Force

UK Government Commits To Boom Refueling For RAF Tankers

The next-generation Tempest fighter is driving the Royal Air Force to add a capability it currently lacks.

F-16

Missile Shortage Has Now Hit Ukrainian F-16 Force

The shortage is so acute that the air force frantically tracks incoming missile shipments and waits to see whether they arrive before Russia’s next aerial barrage.

Iran

Iranian Oil Tankers In The Cross Hairs Of New U.S. Campaign

At least two Iranian oil tankers were struck by the U.S. as part of Trump’s new tanker-for-a-tanker policy.

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)

USS Abraham Lincoln Looks Like It’s Been Through Hell After 286 Days At Sea

We got our first good look at the Lincoln as it pulled into port in Thailand for its only liberty call of its entire cruise and after sustaining high-tempo combat ops for months.

Frigates

Israeli LORA Ballistic Missiles Fired From German Frigate

LORA could give Germany’s navy a way to strike highly defended and hardened targets hundreds of miles inland.

China

Chinese Cargo Ships Clandestinely Gather Signals Intelligence: Report

It should not come as too much of a surprise that China is using its massive commercial fleet to spy around the globe as they go about their business.

Germany

Germany Formally Accuses Russia Of Attempted Drone Strike On Ukrainian An-124 Cargo Jet

The news comes as Germany’s power grid is also targeted, with separate incidents pointing to a widening threat in Germany and beyond.

Carrier Tracker

Where Are The Aircraft Carriers?: USS Abraham Lincoln Escorted To Thailand As The Middle East Heats Up

The Navy pulled a cruiser from the George Washington Carrier Strike Group to escort USS Abraham Lincoln into the South China Sea under unclear circumstances.

U.S. Navy

Navy Sounds Like It Now Wants The Air Combat Drone It Notoriously Passed Over A Decade Ago

A carrier drone with a heavy weapons capacity, long reach, and the ability to operate in heavily contested airspace is just what the junked X-47B was designed to offer.

M2/3 Bradley

Competing Bradley Fighting Vehicle Replacement Prototypes Delivered To The U.S. Army (Updated)

American Rheinmetall and General Dynamics Land Systems are facing off to supply the Army’s future XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle.

Naval Mines

Iranian Launchers Struck By U.S. Held Exotic And Highly Concerning Rocket-Delivered Sea Mines

Seeding mine fields at standoff distances via rockets puts the critical southern route through the strait, now a global lifeline, at great risk.

3M22 Zircon

Russia’s Zircon May Not Be A Hypersonic Cruise Missile After All

Ukraine’s intelligence report maps Zircon’s production chain and claims to identify U.S.-origin electronics inside the missile.

Japan

Japan’s First Dedicated Missile Defense Warship Is A Monster

Japan’s first ASEV missile defense ship just had its huge radar mast installed, providing a new sense of scale for these cruiser-sized warships.

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Must Read Features

Red Flag

Air Force Aggressor Squadron Has A Surprising Secondary Mission

China

How China’s Ballistic Missile And Nuclear Arsenal Is Ballooning According To The Pentagon

Confessions Of Series

A Tomcat Pilot’s Early Struggles to Tame the Mighty F-14

Airships & Blimps

The Monstrous Helistat Flew Just About As Good As It Looked

SEE MORE

TWZ — previously known as The War Zone — 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….

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The TWZ Team