Know What's Happening in Defense
Know What's Happening in Defense
Zelensky meets Syrian president to forge security cooperation
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Syrian President Ahmed al‑Sharaa in Damascus, pledging security cooperation and joint food‑security projects. The visit follows Kyiv’s recent drone‑defense deals with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, highlighting Ukraine’s push to export its drone expertise to the Middle East.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Kraken Robotics acquires Colvya Group for $615M
The Contractor Flying Approved Organisations Scheme (Basic Uncrewed Air Systems) (CFAOS (BU)) establishes a formal mechanism for approving defence‑contractor organisations that operate UK military‑registered uncrewed air systems in the Open Category and Specific S1 sub‑category. Approval follows Regulatory Article 1031 and requires organisations to submit evidence aligned with the latest MAA regulatory publications. Approved entities undergo periodic, risk‑based on‑site reviews by the MAA CFAOS branch to ensure ongoing compliance. The scheme’s latest update, Version 4 of the CFOE (BU), was published in March 2026.
A 40‑year‑old Ghanaian national, Derrick Van Yeboah, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was a senior member of a fraud operation that stole more than $100 million from U.S. victims through romance scams and business‑email‑compromise attacks between 2016...
Merlin Labs announced the successful completion of the Preliminary Design Review for its Merlin Pilot autonomous system on the C‑130J Super Hercules, clearing a key technical hurdle with U.S. Special Operations Command. The milestone unlocks the Critical Design phase, where...
HMS Middleton, the Royal Navy’s last Gulf‑based minehunter, arrived in Southampton aboard the semi‑submersible heavy‑lift vessel MV Rolldock Storm after a 6,200‑nautical‑mile transit from Bahrain. The ship was transported rather than sailing under her own power because she no longer holds certification...
The UK Ministry of Defence has transitioned its Cyber Security Model from version 3 to version 4, introducing four new Cyber Risk Profiles (Level 0‑3) and a digital Supplier Cyber Protection Service for risk assessments and assurance questionnaires. Under CSMv4, suppliers must self‑assess...
Ukrainian troops have stopped deploying Latvian‑made AtlasPro reconnaissance drones after field tests revealed persistent software glitches and reliability problems. Military analyst Taras Chmut publicly accused the manufacturer and Ukrainian procurement officers of delivering an unusable system, even suggesting fraud in the...
JMIC data shows routine commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has virtually stopped, with only two cargo vessels recorded in the past 24 hours versus the usual 138. The pause follows a U.S.–Israel strike on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory...
‚What emerges is…the “strike-as-strategy” paradox: the substitution of impressive tactical actions for comprehensive strategic design. Under Trump, this tendency is reinforced by a political culture that demands televised displays of military prowess. The Maduro raid will encourage the dangerous notion that...
The U.S. Navy christened the future USNS Robert Ballard (T‑AGS 67) on Feb. 28, 2026 at Bollinger Shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Named for the legendary oceanographer who located the Titanic, the 353‑foot vessel is a larger, modernized version of the Pathfinder‑class survey ships. It will...
ParaZero Technologies announced the appointment of Bat‑Sheva Noy as Vice President of Global Sales, aiming to accelerate its international commercial push in the drone safety and aerospace defense arena. Noy arrives from a two‑decade tenure at Pfizer, where she led...
Agilica and DronePort announced a strategic partnership to embed Agilica’s ultra‑wideband (UWB) positioning system into DronePort’s innovation hub, targeting autonomous drone operations where GNSS signals are unavailable. The collaboration will debut a permanent UWB installation in DronePort’s outdoor cage with...
Beechat Network Systems joins Unmanned Systems Technology as a Gold Partner, showcasing its Kaonic™ mesh radio platform for UAVs, UGVs and autonomous platforms. The solution delivers infrastructure‑free, multi‑hop networking with up to 128 encrypted hops, dual‑band SDR operation and cryptographic...
Belgium pledged up to 30 F‑16 fighter jets for Ukraine but has not delivered any, citing the ongoing replacement of its own fleet with F‑35s. The lack of a formal delivery timetable means the jets remain tied up in Belgium’s...
The article warns that prediction markets such as Polymarket are becoming real‑time sensors for classified military intent, citing the 2024 Maduro removal bet, a 2026 Israeli insider‑trading indictment, and the failed DARPA Policy Analysis Market. It explains how contract spikes...
The article argues that conflating crises with wicked problems leads institutions to default to command and force. It outlines a three‑tier typology—tame, crisis, wicked—and shows how misclassifying a wicked problem as a crisis narrows decision‑making. Using Tolkien’s Boromir and the...
Al-Qaeda has long used Iran as a sanctuary, and its central command recently issued a jihad declaration targeting U.S. and Israeli forces in the Middle East. The group now claims it will attack U.S. aircraft carriers and other regional assets,...
The Trump‑Xi summit scheduled for late‑2026 follows a fragile 2025 Busan truce that temporarily halted tariffs and export bans. While the pause eased immediate market stress, critical issues such as transshipment tariffs, rare‑earth and high‑end semiconductor controls remain unresolved. Chinese...
When my unit jumped into Northern Iraq in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq, we linked up with the Kurdish Peshmerga, who fought alongside American forces all the way south to Kirkuk. The Kurds are a proud people and a warrior...
The sponsor‑generated column from Hitachi Energy argues that protecting the United States electricity grid is a matter of national security. It highlights growing cyber and physical threats that could destabilize critical infrastructure and the economy. The piece promotes modernizing the...
THIS But the bigger lesson here: naval wars are decided quickly. Sometimes in hours. Japan knew this. That’s why they attacked Pearl Harbor. They just missed the carriers and fuel tanks. That war was decided at Midway. Doesn’t mean the war will be short....
The White House is evaluating the use of the Defense Production Act to accelerate weapons manufacturing as U.S. operations against Iran increase demand for precision munitions. Officials say existing stockpiles remain adequate for now, but a prolonged conflict could erode...
The U.S. Senate voted 47-53 to reject a War Powers Resolution that would have forced President Trump to obtain congressional approval before further military action against Iran, and the House followed with a 212-219 defeat of a similar measure. The...
Dr. Joseph Long argues that modern conflict has migrated from kinetic battles to the cognitive domain, where perception and narrative shape political outcomes. Influence operations—spanning strategic communication, cyber messaging, and economic statecraft—now sit at the core of hybrid warfare designs....
Just got this from Planet Labs, they are delaying posting imagery from specific areas in the Middle East 96 hours due to operational security concerns: Reads in part: As part of Planet’s commitment to responsible data practices and the safety of personnel...
#AVON won a $12.7m order for Filters for a middle east customer. ShareScope showing fwd p/e 20.5 falling to 18.3 and fwd Divvy 1.3% rising to 1.5%; not a crazy rating for a defence stock and seems to be on...
Microsoft announced it will continue offering Anthropic’s AI models across its consumer and enterprise platforms, including Microsoft 365, GitHub Copilot, and the AI Foundry, while barring only the Department of War. The Pentagon has labeled Anthropic a supply‑chain risk, prompting the...
The US is temporarily easing sanctions on Russian oil sales to India to address supply shortages and reduce the impact of the surge in prices in the wake of US and Israeli attacks on Iran. The decision to ease sanctions...
LUCAS Kamikaze Drones Lauded As “Indispensable” By U.S. Admiral In Charge Of Iran War Cloned from the Iranian Shahed-136, CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper praised the drones and their performance so far. https://t.co/1jrLntEJUb
Iran has built a clandestine fleet of roughly 60 Boeing and Airbus jets by exploiting shell companies, forged documents, and mid‑flight diversions that skirt international export controls. The network sources used parts through a global broker chain, reverse‑engineers components, and...
Overheard in Silicon Valley: “The current brainiac position is that AI *should* dictate war policy to the government but *should not* answer questions about your hangnail.”
Ship captain here. I’ve spent more time being tracked, followed, hunted, and observed by submarines than 99.999% of people on this app… and I’ve read dozens of books on how those encounters end. So should the U.S. Navy have rescued those IRGC...
The United States designated six Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, prompting President‑elect Claudia Sheinbaum to reassess Mexico’s security strategy. The authors model three possible responses—total subordination to U.S. efforts, covert subordination while preserving public sovereignty, and strategic resistance...
I don't believe any of this is true. I have seen on big outlets and influencers hyping this up. I don't believe HELIOS is even deployed to the region nor has it downed a drone in combat nor would it...
The blog argues that the U.S. and Israel’s justification for a war against Iran rests on a purported missile threat that lacks substantive evidence. It cites a 2025 Defense Intelligence Agency assessment indicating Iran cannot yet strike the United States...
Chinese state‑linked APT group UAT‑9244 has been compromising telecom service providers across South America since 2024. The campaign deploys three previously undocumented malware families—TernDoor, a Windows backdoor using DLL side‑loading; PeerTime, a multi‑architecture Linux ELF backdoor that leverages BitTorrent for...
"failure to beef up relevant defensive measures in a facility located so close to Iran is a curious lapse in planning." Lapse in planning? The major of the veterans on X were screaming and yelling about Biden sending so many of...
Fairbanks Morse Defense is using collaborative robots, or cobots, to weld aging diesel engines in U.S. nuclear‑navy shipyards, shrinking repair cycles from three weeks to one. Australian OEM Orbimax highlights cobots' lower speed and built‑in safety, allowing workers to operate...
Iran’s recent drone and missile barrage has struck the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman, with more than 95% of projectiles intercepted by Gulf defenses. The attacks have shaken public confidence but quickly gave way to a resilient mood as...
The U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran has rapidly expanded beyond the Middle East, affecting more than a dozen nations. Azerbaijan reported Iranian drones over its Nakhichevan exclave, while Tehran denied involvement and blamed Israel. A U.S. submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship...
The Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy, Elbridge Colby, told Congress the department will not issue a new Nuclear Posture Review, relying on the 2018 Trump‑era document. The 2018 review permits nuclear use in extreme circumstances and leaves strategic ambiguity about first‑strike...
SCSP released an interactive report estimating that artificial intelligence could influence 25 % to 64 % of tasks across all 131 Army officer MOS, with combat arms still seeing over a quarter of duties affected, especially during deployments. The study proposes four...
CyberPeace Foundation and Synergy Quantum announced the Global Quantum Threat Alliance (GQTA) at the CyberPeace Summit 2.0 in New Delhi on February 10, 2026. The alliance brings together governments, industry players, and academic researchers to confront the emerging risk that...
At the opening of China’s National People’s Congress, PLA officers listened intently to the government work report, signalling renewed loyalty to the Party. The display comes as Xi Jinping presides over the session with a calm demeanor, despite a sweeping...
On Feb. 28 the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran, hitting senior officials, missile sites and naval assets. Iran’s air defenses proved porous, allowing Israeli aircraft weeks of unchallenged sorties and resulting in more U.S. friendly‑fire incidents than...
U.S. Commerce Department is drafting rules that would require government approval for any export of AI‑focused semiconductors such as those made by AMD and Nvidia. The proposal differentiates review intensity based on order size, with small shipments getting a basic...
AI-enabled kill chains, swarming drones, high-energy lasers and stealth clusters...the weapons pummeling Iran," my latest @DailyMail https://t.co/5DPTssFCRC World War I introduced the tank and large-scale air combat. World War II debuted radar, jet aircraft, and the atomic bomb. The Gulf War...
It seems like this is now happening, with the news that the Iranian Navy auxiliary ship Bandar Abbas is now seeking shelter in port in Sri Lanka to wait out the war in an interned status.
“"The Mark 48 is one of the most lethal anti-ship weapons in the U.S. inventory," Thomas Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow at [@cnasdc], told Fox News Digital.” https://t.co/B4fV7Sgz82
Our Howard Altman asking about the use and efficacy of LUCAS drones at the CENTCOM presser today.
The Misconception That Air Supremacy Has Been Achieved Over Iran While there are areas where air superiority exists over Iran, total air supremacy has not been achieved, which should be no surprise. https://t.co/jOLoFEFr1r
