The War Zone. Your daily source for military, defense, and geopolitics coverage.
Harrier
The USMC’s AV-8B Harrier Has Flown Off Into The Sunset
The Harrier Sundown ceremony marks the end of more than 50 years of Marine Corps jump jet operations.
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The Hidden History of America’s Harrier Jump Jets
The Harrier story is a transatlantic saga of improvisation, ambition, and unlikely partnership, which helped shape the F-35B.
Russia’s Baltic Fleet Successfully Attacked By Ukrainian Drones
Once considered a sanctuary for Russian naval power, the Baltic Fleet is now in the crosshairs of Ukraine’s expanding long-range strike campaign.
Iran Launches New Attacks On Kuwait, Bahrain (Updated)
U.S. Central Command says it “conducted self-defense strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island.”
Any Plans For Direct U-28 Draco Special Ops Surveillance Plane Replacement Abandoned
There are signs now that the U.S. special operations community is on track to stop flying dedicated crewed surveillance planes entirely.
Are Ukrainian Mirage 2000s Now Flying Air-To-Ground Strike Missions?
A low-level run followed by a steep climb hints at a ground-attack mission as part of the Mirage’s expanding combat repertoire.
Next Generation Penetrator Bomb Slated To Replace MOP Has Been Designated GBU-76
The official designation comes as the Air Force plans to field the GBU-76 take shape.
Inside SOCOM’s Search For New Machine Guns, Rifles And Ammo
Lt. Col. Alan Wood, SOCOM’s Program Manager for Lethality, offers some exclusive insights into the future of SOCOM small arms.
Night Stalker MH-47 Chinooks May Get Aerial Refueling Tanker Role
Special ops MH-47 Chinooks that could refuel other aircraft midair would give the Night Stalkers their own organic tanker capability.
U.S. Military’s Shahed-136 Kamikaze Drone Clone Is Getting Hivemind Swarming Capability
Shield AI is providing the software to unlock the combat-proven LUCAS’s cooperative swarming potential, which could drastically increase its lethality.
Is The U.S. Flying MQ-1 Predator Drones Again?
Questions surrounding the loss of an “MQ-1” to Iran highlight the possibilities and pitfalls of sending the Predator back into the fray.
Turkey’s Secretive Electronic Warfare Jet Appears In New Imagery
The long-delayed HAVA SOJ is designed to blind enemy air defenses from outside highly contested airspace.
MQ-28 Ghost Bat Now Flying Over The Pacific From U.S. Navy Base
Boeing says tests off California are about showing the Australian-born MQ-28’s maturity and promoting sales, which could include ones to the Pentagon.
U.S.-Iran Ceasefire On The Brink After Tit-For-Tat Attacks (Updated)
Adding to the pressure, Iran has renewed threats to also close the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait, now an absolutely critical conduit for oil exports.
Littoral Combat Force Takes Up Station In Caribbean Under Navy’s New Deployment Concept
Here’s where all of America’s aircraft carriers and big-deck amphibious assault ships are as of June 1, 2026.
Trump Declares He Is Lifting The Naval Blockade On Iran (Updated)
Why the blockade would be lifted without a deal being signed isn’t clear and Iranian media is pushing back against his claims.
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Russian Trucks Get ‘Dazzle’ Paint To Throw Off AI-Enabled Drones
The disruptive paint appears designed to confuse machine-vision targeting systems as autonomous drones become a growing threat.
Bunker Talk: Let’s Talk About All The Things We Did And Didn’t Cover This Week
That was our last can of Pringles…
Containerized Variant Of Navy’s Drone-Swatting HELIOS Laser Being Pushed By Congress
HELIOS is the only laser able to down drones installed on an active Navy warship, and putting it in a container would open up new deployment possibilities.
Severity Of America’s Depleted Advanced Weapons Stockpiles Detailed In New Report
America’s stockpile of critical standoff and air and missile defense weapons is now a strategic vulnerability foes could take advantage of.
Ukrainian Gripen Fighters To Arrive In 2027, Long-Range Meteor Missiles Claimed To Be Included
Sweden’s transfer of Gripens will give Ukraine more than a new fighter, pairing its trademark dispersed operations with Meteor missiles and radar planes.
Search For New 5.56mm “Flyweight” Special Operations Machine Gun To Kick Off Soon
The Flyweight Assault Machine Gun will provide a replacement for a lightweight special operations-specific version of the M249 SAW.
Inside The Effort To Build Ukraine’s Ground Robot Arsenal
Ukraine has a voracious demand for ground drones as they increasingly perform logistics, rescue and combat operations.
Airbus Looks To Sweden’s Saab As Europe’s Sixth-Gen Fighter Plans Unravel
As FCAS tensions deepen, Airbus is exploring alternatives with Saab, raising the prospect of a shakeup in Europe’s future air combat plans.
Congress Moves To Block Trump Class Battleship Work Until Its Key Weapons Are Mature
Such a delay could end the battleship program before it really starts, and the House Armed Services Committee is also demanding answers on the new frigate.
F/A-18 Super Hornets Eyed To Replace Navy’s Remaining F-5 Adversaries
Swapping dated F-5s for F/A-18E/Fs would give the Navy a more threat representative adversary fleet to emulate advanced enemies, like China.
Where Are The Carriers As Of May 26, 2026: Nimitz Arrives In The Caribbean
Meanwhile, USS George Washington departed Yokosuka, Japan, amid heightened Chinese naval activity in the Western Pacific.
Another Day Of Uncertainty In The Strait After U.S. Claims Strikes On Iranian Minelayers
Negotiations to end the war drag on as the crisis in the Strait continues to evolve.
South Korea Getting Nuclear Submarines Is A Huge Deal
Nuclear propulsion will give South Korea more capable subs, but it will also lay the groundwork for a future sea-based nuclear deterrent option.
Another Battle Damaged KC-135 Tanker Seen Passing Through RAF Mildenhall
The images of the shrapnel-peppered KC-135 are another example of the damage inflicted by Iran during the now-paused war.
China’s “Bohai Sea Monster” Reappears With Apparent Weapons Hardpoints
New details add weight to the idea that the “Bohai Sea Monster” has a kinetic role to play, although the general concept could be supersized for other missions.
The Tiny Chipmunk Trainer Was The Cold War’s Most Unlikely Spyplane
The humble Chipmunk propeller trainer spent decades spying on Soviet forces in and around divided Berlin.
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….
