#air-defences

#air-defences

Retired Army Special Forces officer Mike Nelson criticized Hegseth's rhetoric, stating, 'That's a necessary end to achieve goals through military force - you have to kill people to achieve them. That's not the end. It's a weird obsession with death for the sake of it.'

The Boeing E-4B 'Nightwatch,' also known as the 'Doomsday plane,' made several loops above the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska on Monday. The massive jet serves as a flying command post for top officials, including the president, vice president and Secretary of War, during crises.

Emil Michael, who oversees the Pentagon's AI efforts, sold his xAI shares for between $5 million and $25 million, having initially valued them at up to $1 million. This sale raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest given his role in negotiating with AI companies.

The economics are hard to ignore. Shooting down a drone with AeroVironment's LOCUST laser system costs less than $10, using just two to five seconds of laser energy. Compare that to the interceptor missiles currently used against Iranian drone swarms, which cost orders of magnitude more and are in short supply across allied arsenals.

When I brought up the drones that Ukraine has used so effectively against Russian tanks, the company's chairman and CEO, Armin Papperger, was withering in his dismissal. 'This is how to play with Legos,' he told me.

The current collision between the Department of Defense and Anthropic over whether Anthropic's A.I. models should be bound by ethical constraints or made available for all uses the Pentagon might have in mind raises significant concerns about the future of AI governance.

North Korea's testing spree involved ballistic missiles armed with cluster-bomb warheads, expanding its nuclear-capable forces aimed at South Korea. The tests included anti-aircraft weapons and electromagnetic systems.

CEO Chris Calio emphasized the urgency of delivering critical products for national security, stating, 'We understand that our products are critical to national security. And I can tell you across the organization, we absolutely feel the responsibility and urgency to deliver more and to deliver it faster.'

Giulio Douhet proposed a revolution in warfare, stating that victory would come from large-scale aerial bombardments targeting civilians and infrastructure rather than just combatants.

The E-3 Sentry, with its distinctive rotating radar dome, is a flying command center that allows American forces to see and coordinate the battlefield. In recent weeks, Iran destroyed one on a runway in Saudi Arabia and reportedly damaged another.

NATO is sending another Patriot missile defence unit to its Incirlik Air Base, after several ballistic missiles Ankara says were fired by Iran were downed heading towards or in Turkish airspace. The ministry announced the new missile battery during a Wednesday briefing at the Incirlik base, located near the southern city of Adana, saying it would complement national-level measures to ensure the security of our airspace and our citizens.

The U.S. military has fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in four weeks of war with Iran, burning through the precision weapons at a rate that has alarmed some Pentagon officials.