The U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman have expanded testing of the B-21 thanks to two ground test articles, which are being used to evaluate the bomber's core construction and the time it takes before certain parts break. The tempo of flight testing of the initial pre-production Raider is also growing, with the jet now sometimes taking to the skies twice a week. Air

B-21 Ground Test Airframes Join Flying Pre-Production Raider

The B-21 Raider test force is growing as trials accelerate with an operational date by the end of the decade still the goal.

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Walkie Talkie exploded in Lebanon

More Electronics Explode In Lebanon As Israel Declares ‘New Phase’ Of War

The detonation of thousands of devices along with other developments may be a precursor to a full-on Israeli military operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The U.S. Air Force has released new video footage of its first pre-production B-21 Raider stealth bomber undergoing flight testing.

New Look At B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber Flight Testing Released

B-21 Raider testing is progressing at Edwards Air Force Base ahead of the planned fielding of the bombers toward the end of the decade.

The U.S. Air Force is pushing ahead with experimentation that could lead to the transformation of KC-135 tankers into optionally crewed aircraft, as well as the development of other autonomous aerial refueling capabilities. U.S. military interest in autonomous airlifters, an area where China has been notably surging forward in the past few years, is also growing.

Work Toward KC-135 Tankers That Fly Themselves, Uncrewed Cargo Aircraft Pressing Ahead

Autonomous tankers and cargo aircraft could be key in a high-end fight with China, which is working on its own drone airlifters.

A huge explosion has rocked the Tver region, in the west of Russia, with initial reports indicating that Ukrainian long-range attack drones targeted an ammunition depot there. Videos and pictures on social media from the scene show an initial explosion, with a very large fireball, followed by a significant visible shockwave, then several minutes’ worth of secondary explosions illuminating the night sky.

Massive Russian Weapons Depot Still Burning After Ukrainian Drone Attack

Strikes in the Tver region targeted warehouses full of rockets and missiles, reportedly including some delivered to Russia by North Korea.

Lockheed Martin's losing entry in the first increment of the U.S. Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone program was a very stealthy design, the head of the famed Skunk Works advanced projects division has disclosed. The company is now expecting future CCA increments to revolve around proposals that might lean closer to not just being lower-cost, but maybe even expendable, to support a concept of operations that requires tolerance for very high losses.

Skunk Works’ Losing Loyal Wingman Drone Was Very Stealthy “Gold Plated” Design

Lockheed Martin is now exploring optionally expendable designs to propose in an attempt to win the second round of the CCA program.

The U.S. Space Development Agency, or SDA has outlined the progress made so far in demonstrating a satellite-based Link 16 network to transmit data directly from space, as well as the potential of laser communications to connect satellites together, and to use those same satellites to conduct missile tracking from low Earth orbit (LEO).

Link 16 Coverage From Space, Laser Communications Relays Make Major Advances

The Space Development Agency is seeing major promise during testing of new low-cost Link 16 datalink, laser communications, and missile tracking satellites.

General Atomics CCA

General Atomics Says Its Collaborative Combat Aircraft Is Like A Bic Lighter

General Atomics gave us a close look at their XQ-67 and CCA designs and some new insights into how they balanced affordability capability into an optimal package.

Hezbollah pager

Hezbollah’s Exploding Pagers Could Be As Monumental A Cyber-Espionage Operation As Stuxnet

We live surrounded by networked devices equipped with packs full of potential energy, possibly offering adversaries an unprecedented vector for kinetic attacks.

The U.S. Air Force has no plans to acquire stealthy uncrewed combat air vehicles (UCAV) capable of operating with very high degrees of autonomy independently of crewed aircraft, at least in the near term publicly, despite surging Chinese developments in this domain.

No Flying Wing UCAVs Being Developed By U.S. Air Force While China Surges Ahead

The U.S. continues to pass over very stealthy, long-range, highly autonomous UCAVs in favor of pursuing lower-cost 'loyal wingman' drones.

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August 10, 2018. Long corridors form a labyrinth that leads to the different rooms of the anti-atomic shelter in Avdeevka, Ukraine. Photo by Gaelle Girbes/Getty Images.

Bunker Talk: Let’s Talk About All The Things We Did And Didn’t Cover This Week

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Russia's Kursk counteroffensive is fully underway.

Russia’s Kursk Counteroffensive Fully Underway

After more than a month, Russia has finally launched a major effort to kick Ukraine out of the Kursk region.

Russia is now using thermite-spewing dragon drones in Ukraine.

Russia Now Using Thermite-Spewing ‘Dragon Drones’ To Torch Ukrainian Positions

A week after video first emerged of Ukraine's thermite-spewing drones Russia is now using a similar incendiary weapon.

Storm Shadow

Increasing Indications Storm Shadow Missiles Will Be Cleared For Use Inside Russia

Storm Shadow would wreak havoc on forces and critical logistics nodes in Russia, but the U.K. and the U.S. have been weighing the risks of escalation.

A Russian military correspondent narrowlly avoided being killed by a drone hunting him down in a house.

This Ukrainian Drone Hunting A Russian Inside A Building Has Big Horror Movie Vibes

A nerve-racking video offers a visceral depiction of what it is like hiding in fear of a drone trying to kill you.

Ukraine has unleashed the heaviest drone attack so far against Moscow. The overnight raid on the Russian capital killed at least one person and caused widespread damage and disruption. The long-range strikes come as Ukrainian officials are increasingly frustrated by Western restrictions on using weapons that they have supplied to hit targets deep within Russia.

Moscow Hit By Unprecedented Ukrainian Drone Barrage

Ukraine launched a mass drone attack against the Russian capital with impacts occurring across the region.

We have just gotten our clearest view so far of a Chinese J-20 stealth fighter powered by the definitive WS-15 domestically produced engines. While the appearance of the photo at this point raises a number of questions, it’s meanwhile clear that the significant shortcoming of the J-20 — its powerplant — appears to have now been addressed.

Our Best Look Yet At China’s J-20A Fighter With WS-15 Engines 

The domestically developed turbofans are expected to confer ‘supercruise’ performance on the stealthy Chinese fighter.

JAS39C Gripen Ukraine

Sweden’s JAS-39 Gripen Fighters Still On The Table For Ukraine

There are no immediate plans to transfer the jets to Ukraine but a new aid package gives Sweden that option.

The U.S. Army has renewed interest in new longer-range artillery shells, such as ramjet-powered types, following its axing of plans to buy a next-generation tracked self-propelled 155mm howitzer.

Focus Grows On Longer-Range Artillery Shells After Army Axes Next-Gen Howitzer

Ramjet rounds and other new shells could help the Army squeeze more range out of its existing howitzers as it reassesses its artillery future.

Iranian-made Shahed-136 'Kamikaze' drone flies over the sky of Kermanshah, Iran on March 7, 2024. Iran fired over 100 drones and ballistic missiles on Saturday, April 13, 2024, in retaliation to an attack on a building attached to the country's consular annex in Damascus that killed the guards, and two generals of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on April 01, 2024. Iran has blamed Israel for the attack on April 5, 2024 in Tehran.

Russian Shahed Kamikaze Drone Crashes In Latvia

Russian drones came down in two NATO countries, while mysterious drone incursions continue to fuel fears of espionage.

Iranian ground-to-ground Sajil missile launches at an undisclosed location in Iran on November 12, 2008.

Iranian Ballistic Missiles Have Arrived In Russia: Reports

The long-feared development comes as Western allies pledge more weapons to Ukraine but with no movement on the issue of using some of them to strike targets deep in Russia.

The Control Room at the York Bunker which was used at the height of the Cold War following its construction in 1961. (Photo by John Giles - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

Bunker Talk: Let’s Talk About All The Things We Did And Didn’t Cover This Week

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A Boeing 737 carrying Senator J.D. Vance, former President Donald Trump's running mate for Vice President, and others, inadvertently intruded briefly into some of the most restricted airspace on the planet earlier this week as it left Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport.

J.D. Vance’s Campaign Jet Inadvertently Buzzed The Washington Monument

Washington, D.C.'s skies are some of the most heavily restricted in the world and the airspace near the White House is totally off-limits.

F-16 belonging to VFC-13, flying over Carson Valley, NV.

Navy Tried To Buy Greek F-16s To Turn Them Into Adversaries

The Navy nearly got a batch of Greek F-16s as 'red air' aggressors, before U.S. Air Force jets became available.

A video has emerged showing a Ukrainian Su-24M Fencer swing-wing combat jet carrying what is said to be new air-launched guided munition.

Mystery Munition Appears Under Ukrainian Su-24 Fencer Attack Jet’s Wing

Ukraine is in great need of more air-launched stand-off munitions and ones that can be used without foreign restrictions.

Chiefs aboard the USS Manchester created a huge security risk by setting up a private WifI network.

The Story Of Sailors Secretly Installing Starlink On Their Littoral Combat Ship Is Truly Bonkers

The fact that an LCS deployed with a Starlink system operating onboard and the captain had no clue about it is a very disturbing revelation.

Must Read Features

The use of thermite-dispersing drones by Ukraine has proliferated.

Thermite-Spewing ‘Dragon’ Drones Are Ukraine’s Newest Battlefield Innovation

Kursk Invasion A Bargaining Chip Zelensky Says

Above All Else JASSM Would Give Ukraine A Steady Supply Of Cruise Missiles

Balloon-Based Sensor That Pinpoints Location Of Drone Operators Emerges In Ukraine

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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….

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