Read the latest articles from The War Zone (Page 74)

Israeli soldiers work on the maintenance of tanks deployed in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel near the border with Lebanon on September 29, 2024. Israel said on September 29 that it was carrying out new air raids against "dozens" of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, after killing the Iran-backed group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Israel has also raised the prospect of a ground operation against Hezbollah, prompting widespread international concern.
Israel

Israeli Ground Operation In Lebanon Has Begun

After months of increased fighting with Hezbollah, including recently crippling its communications and decapitating its leadership, Israel pushes into Lebanon.

Mysterious M60 Machine Gun Contract Awarded By U.S. Army
Machine Guns

Mysterious M60 Machine Gun Contract Awarded By U.S. Army

The Army is buying E4 and E6 variants of the M60, a family of machine guns that the entire U.S. military largely stopped using decades ago.

KC-707 IAF remote vision system
F-35A

Israeli 707 Tanker’s Secretive Remote Vision System Revealed In Long-Range Yemen Raid

The Israeli Air Force's geriatric Boeing 707 tankers played a key role in its longest-range strike mission in decades.

Russia is training on using helicopters to launch FPV drones to attack Ukrainian sea drones.
Russia

Russia Training To Launch FPV Drones From Helicopters To Counter Sea Drones

Deploying and controlling FPV drones from helicopters would be highly beneficial, allowing for rapid response with very flexible and inexpensive guided weapons.

NORAD F-16 and SU-35
F-16

Russian Su-35 Shown ‘Headbutting’ American F-16 At Very Close Range Off Alaska

The incident, which NORAD deemed “unprofessional,” occurred off Alaska during an intercept by F-16Cs of two Tu-95 Bears and their escorts.

Petra Reuter, owner of the Bundesbank Bunker Museum, walks past storage rooms for the substitute currency in the former vault of the bunker museum in Cochem, western Germany on February 8, 2022. The Bundesbank Bunker was a bunker of the German Federal Bank in Cochem for the storage of an emergency currency. From 1964 to 1988, up to 15 billion marks were stored in the top-secret facility to protect Germany from a national economic crisis in the event of hyperinflation caused by the Cold War. (Photo by Ina FASSBENDER / AFP) (Photo by INA FASSBENDER/AFP via Getty Images)
Bunker Talk

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

Pull up a chair and chat amongst friends.

Bunker Strike IDF lebanon
Israel

Israel Executes Massive Bunker Buster Strike On Hezbollah Command Headquarters In Beirut (Updated)

Israel targeted Hezbollah's leader in an unprecedented airstrike on a Beirut suburb.

Russians pushing toward Kharkiv Oblast city Ukraine liberated in 2022
Russia

Russians Advancing On Kharkiv Region City Ukraine Liberated In 2022

The city of Kupiansk was freed during Ukraine's stunning 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive but now the Russians are again closing in.

U-28 retirement
Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC)

Plans To Axe Special Operations Surveillance Planes Come Under The Microscope

Retiring U-28As and MC-12s to help make way for new OA-1K light attack planes may risk creating a major aerial intelligence-gathering gap.

After almost 45 years of service, including multiple combat deployments, the F-16 was formally retired today by the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF). At the same time, the service announced that the F-35A had attained full operational capability, with the stealth fighter now responsible for the full spectrum of missions previously handled by the Viper, including nuclear strike.
F-35A

The Last Viper Commander: Dutch Squadron Boss On Today’s Retirement Of The F-16

After 45 years, the final Dutch Vipers bowed out today, with the F-35A stealth fighter formally taking over all their missions.

Imagery said to show the aftermath of a highly targeted air strike on a car in Lebanon has prompted questions about whether a previously unknown miniature munition designed to produce extremely little collateral damage may have been employed.
Air-To-Ground

Was A Mini “Sword Bomb” Just Used To Strike A Car In Lebanon?

Damage to the car's windshield has prompted comparisons to the AGM-114R9X missile with its pop-out blades, but there are other possibilities.

The mysterious incident at China’s Wuchang Shipyard in the spring of this year resulted in the sinking of the country’s latest nuclear-powered attack submarine, according to U.S. officials.
Nuclear Attack Submarines (SSNs)

China’s New Nuclear Submarine Sank During Mysterious Incident In Wuhan: Report

A strange incident caught in satellite imagery was indeed a major mishap involving a Chinese submarine, according to a new report.

KC-10 Extender tail #86-0036 performs its final mission as it heads of to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., following a July 13 ceremony at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., that marked the first retirement of 59 Extenders intended for eventual replacement by the KC-46A Pegasus. A total of three KC-10s from the Air Force’s Backup-Aircraft Inventory were congressionally approved for retirement during Fiscal Year 2020. As KC-10s are retired, the 309th AMARG will continue to support the remaining Extenders with spare parts as they are flown for several years while the KC-46A Pegasus is integrated into Air Mobility Command’s Total Force tanker enterprise. For nearly four decades, the KC-10 has helped secure global reach for America, providing in- flight refueling to U.S. and coalition aircraft, from Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm to Operation Inherent Resolve. The KC- 10 is flown from JBMDL by both the 305th AMW and its associate Air Force Reserve unit, the 514th AMW.
KC-10

Final KC-10 Extender Tanker Flies Into Retirement

The flight from Travis Air Force Base in California will bring down the curtain on a 43-year career for the trijet KC-10 Extender tanker-transport.

The U.S. Marine Corps says it has demonstrated new capabilities for operating future drones with high degrees of autonomy in expeditionary operations with another test flight of one of its stealthy XQ-58 Valkyries.
XQ-58

Third Marine XQ-58 Valkyrie Flight Test Uses Link 16 For Control

Marine Corps' plans to operate drones like the XQ-58 from far-flung forward locations will require robust command and control networks.

AGM-154 JSOW for Ukraine's F-16
Ukraine

Biden Surging $8B In Aid To Ukraine That Includes AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons For F-16s

The new package that will give Ukraine's F-16s standoff strike capabilities was announced while President Zelensky is visiting the U.S. Capital.

Around The Globe

Israel’s Potential Invasion Of Southern Lebanon Looms Larger

After Hezbollah's launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv Israel's top commander told his troops to prepare to invade Lebanon.

Top Aces F-16
F-16

World’s Only Private Company With F-16 Aggressors Talks Rapidly Evolving Their Capabilities

Top Aces ex-Israeli F-16s are receiving upgrades, including new avionics, radars and infrared search and track systems.

For the first time in more than four decades, China has fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) out in the Western Pacific, ostensibly for training purposes.
ICBMs

First Chinese ICBM Test Into The Pacific In Decades Is A Big Deal (Updated)

China last fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific in 1980 and its latest launch highlights its rapidly evolving nuclear posture.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is looking to explore concepts for a new drone capable of lugging around up to 70,000 pounds of cargo, roughly twice what the U.S. Marine Corps' CH-53K King Stallion helicopter can lift.
CH-53K

Search For Cargo Drone That Can Lift Twice As Much As A CH-53K King Stallion Kicks Off

Drones capable of lifting up to 35 tons could be valuable for sprinting cargo from ships to shore and getting forces inland across rivers.

Dutch missile ship
SM-2

New Dutch Navy Support Vessels Will Be Missile-Toting Wingmen To Frigates

Small and with a tiny crew, the new support vessels will add important magazine capacity to frigates, and launch loitering munitions.