Read the latest articles from The War Zone (Page 45)

Battles take place between the new Syrian government's Defense Ministry forces and the forces loyal to Bashar Assad on March 7, 2025, in outskirts of Jableh, Latakia countryside, Syria.
Syria

Worst Fighting In Syria Since Fall Of Assad Regime

Fighters loyal to the former Assad regime have risen against government forces in the volatile coastal region of northwest Syria.

CIRCA 1983: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman watch as he tries to control the NORAD defense computers in a scene for the MGM/UA movie "WarGames" circa 1983. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Bunker Talk

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

"Shall we play a game?"

U.S. Army AH-64 Apaches Armed With Israeli Spike Missiles Now Flying in Iraq
AH-64

U.S. Army AH-64 Apaches Armed With Israeli Spike Missiles Now Flying in Iraq

With newly operational Israeli Spike-NLOS missiles, Army AH-64s have a new and very precise way to engage targets at much greater ranges.

Ukraine is feeling the affects of a U.S. pause in providing intelligence products and weapons.
Russia

Ukraine Feeling Impact Of U.S. Arms, Intel Pause

Ukraine Situation Report: Russia is making advances in Kursk and launched a massive missile and drone barrage on energy targets last night.

The U.S. Space Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Mission Seven successfully landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, March 7, 2025. The X-37B landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, to exercise the service's ability to recover the spaceplane across multiple sites. 
X-37B

X-37B Returns To Earth, Space Force Won’t Commit To Buying More

The Orbital Test Vehicle-7 mission included several novelties, including a highly elliptical orbit for the X-37B that allowed for unpredictable changes in its path.

B-21 refueling requirements are pushing rethinking of tanker needs.
NGAD

B-21 Aerial Refueling Demands Further Point To It Being A Stealthy Flying Gas Can

How the Air Force plans to use the B-21's extremely long endurance capabilities has created new requirements for its tanker fleets.

While it has long been a world-ending threat in science fiction, U.S. Air Force and Space Force officials see artificial intelligence (AI) playing important, if not critical roles in the command and control enterprise at the heart of America's nuclear deterrent capabilities.
Nuclear Command And Control

How The Military Wants AI To Help Control America’s Nuclear Arsenal

Science fiction has warned us about melding AI and nuclear command and control, but Pentagon leadership sees it as a critical tool for future deterrence.

NATO is learning lessons from the war in Ukraine.
NATO

NATO Operations Chief’s Five Lessons Learned From War In Ukraine

NATO is taking note of opportunities and glaring deficiencies in its ability to wage war, some of which are harder to capitalize on than others.

The U.S. does not know how many weapons the Houthis posses, but praise their innovative abilities.
Iran

Houthi Weapons Arsenal Remains A Mystery To The U.S.

Despite 18 months of attacks by the Houthis, the U.S. does not have a clear idea of how many standoff weapons they possess or how they get all of them.

The U.S. Air Force's new Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones are being developed around fundamentally different understandings of maintenance, logistics, and sustainment, with a heavy focus on commercial-of-the-shelf components, than the service's existing crewed and uncrewed platforms.
U.S. Air Force

Collaborative Combat Drones Designed From Ground Up To Do Logistics Differently

Using many parts found in civilian aircraft and sporting features specifically for operating in austere forward locales are key tenets of CCA.

F-16 Fighting Falcons from Kunsan Air Base and South Korean KF-16s taxi to the runway together during Exercise Buddy Wing 14-8 at Seosan Air Base, Republic of Korea Aug. 21, 2014. The purpose of the exercise was not only to improve interoperability between U.S. Air Force and ROKAF fighter squadrons, but to practice with ROKAF KF-16 units for their first upcoming RED FLAG exercise in Alaska.
F-16

South Korean F-16s Just Bombed A Town By Accident

Eight 500-pound Mk 82 bombs detonated in a South Korean village located just 20 miles away from the border with North Korea.

U.S. Air Force officials remain focused on the ability to disperse forces to far-flung operating locations as the primary means of reducing vulnerability to enemy attacks.
U.S. Air Force

USAF Generals Downplay Calls For More Hardened Aircraft Shelters In Pacific Theater

USAF pushback on new hardened infrastructure comes as emphasis grows on being able to fight from bases while under attack.

A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle conducts combat patrols over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Oct. 20, 2024. The F-15E is deployed within the USCENTCOM AOR to help defend U.S. interests, promote regional security, and deter aggression in the region.
F-15

F-15’s New EPAWSS Electronic Warfare Suite Already Has Successor In Development

The EPAWSSv2 boasts improved processing power and will be able to handle a greater number of threats to keep pace with developments in air defense.

Lockheed Martin has revealed more about its Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT, pronounced ‘comet’), a revised design based on its Speed Racer air vehicle, a missile-shaped uncrewed system you can read more about here. The CMMT is now said to be a family of systems, intended to yield low-cost air vehicles designed for a wide range of missions.
U.S. Air Force

Lockheed’s Low-Cost Cruise Missile ‘Truck’ Is Now In Testing

The modular Common Multi-Mission Truck is now being proposed for launch from both air and ground platforms to carry out a wide range of mission sets.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), has revealed that its jet-powered MQ-20 Avenger drone, equipped with U.S. government-provided autonomy software, took part in a recent Orange Flag test exercise. This is the latest milestone for the Avenger, which has been heavily involved in the testing of different artificial intelligence-driven autonomy systems for several years now.
Air Combat Exercises

MQ-20 Avenger Tests ‘Hivemind’ AI In Orange Flag Exercise

General Atomics jet-powered drone took part in the exercise loaded with 'reference autonomy stack' software from Shield AI.

Thales Scorpion will equip the F-22s of the Hawaii ANG.
F-16

F-22 Raptor Pilots Finally Getting Helmet Mounted Displays

Beyond equipping Hawaii-based F-22s, Thale's Scorpion will now be standard on all F-16s in the USAF's fleet.

A deep review of the U.S. Air Force's paused plans to acquire a new crewed sixth-generation stealth combat jet came to the unambiguous conclusion that the service needs such an aircraft to be best positioned to achieve air superiority in future high-end fights.
F-22

Next Generation Fighter Critical To Future Air Superiority, Key USAF Study Concluded

We now know the key findings of a deep review of the USAF's paused Next Generation Air Dominance combat jet program.

A novel type of jet propulsion, a rotating detonation engine (RDE), has been successfully tested by Pratt & Whitney. The development is highly significant for the U.S. military, with RDE technology at the center of the project called Gambit, which aims to provide a propulsion system for a mass-producible, low-cost, high-supersonic, long-range weapon for air-to-ground strike.
U.S. Air Force

Rotating Detonation Engine For Future High-Performance Missiles Successfully Tested

Operationalizing the RDE would be a breakthrough for low-cost, high-supersonic, long-range air-to-ground strike weapons.

A slender, partially covered naval ship that recently emerged in Washington state is the Defiant, a new medium-sized uncrewed surface vessel (USV) designed from the keel up to operate without any humans ever onboard.
U.S. Navy

Mysterious Naval Vessel Spotted In Washington State Is A New DARPA Drone Ship

USX-1 Defiant is meant to operate with no humans onboard for long periods, with missile carrying variants eyed for future production.

The U.S. Air Force has designated the drones that General Atomics and Anduril are currently developing as part of the first phase, or Increment 1, of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program as the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively.
Loyal Wingman

‘Fighter Drone’ Designations Officially Assigned To Collaborative Combat Aircraft By USAF

General Atomics and Anduril's CCAs are officially designated YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, the first aircraft with 'fighter drone' prefixes ever.