TODAY

On Monday, we reported on Sikorsky’s new U-Hawk cargo helicopter, which is a UH-60 Black Hawk that has been converted into an uncrewed hauler by removing the cockpit and adding clamshell doors in its place, fly-by-wire flight control systems, and additional modifications. You can read all about this aircraft, its genesis, and its capabilities in our report linked here.

Now we have gotten a tour of the actual helicopter on the show floor at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual conference just outside of Washington, D.C. Erskine “Ramsey” Bentley, Strategy and Business Development, Advanced Programs at Sikorsky, gave us the walk around, explaining all the U-Hawk’s features.

Check it out in the video below:

Contact the author: [email protected]

The State Department says the US has ‘no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans’ after revoking visas over critical social media posts.

The US Department of State says it has revoked the visas of six foreigners over remarks they made on social media about Charlie Kirk, the conservative political activist who was shot dead at a rally in September.

“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans. The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,” the department said in a post on X on Tuesday evening in the US.

The post was followed by a list of screenshots and critical remarks from six social media accounts, which the State Department said belonged to individuals from South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay and Mexico.

“An Argentine national said that Kirk ‘devoted his entire life spreading racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric’ and deserves to burn in hell. Visa revoked,” the State Department tweeted along with a screenshot that had the username blacked out.

The screenshot post said Kirk was now somewhere “hot” – an allusion to religious descriptions of hell.

The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.

The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. Here are just a few examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the U.S.:

— Department of State (@StateDept) October 14, 2025

The news from the State Department came as Kirk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday by President Donald Trump.

Kirk, who was 31 at the time of his death, was a cofounder of the conservative Turning Point student organisation. He was credited with driving young voters to vote for Trump during last year’s US presidential election.

His death led to a wave of social media commentary on the US left and right about his politics, as Trump elevated him to the status of a “martyr for truth” during a memorial service.

More than 145 people were fired, suspended, or resigned over social media posts or comments about Kirk, according to a New York Times investigation.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said the Trump administration could revoke the visas of foreign nationals over comments on Kirk, while Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau urged internet users to report social media comments of people applying for US visas.

“I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalising, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action,” Landau tweeted in September. “Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the [State Department] can protect the American people.”

In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country. I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light…

— Christopher Landau (@DeputySecState) September 11, 2025

While the State Department has required visa applicants to share their social media handles on their applications since 2019, in June, it added the provision that student applicants must make all their social media accounts public for government vetting.

The move follows a crackdown on international students who supported pro-Palestine protests on university and college campuses across the US under the Trump administration.

In August, a State Department official told Fox News it had revoked more than 6,000 student visas this year.

About two-thirds of visas were revoked because students reportedly broke US law, the Fox News report said, while “200 to 300” were cancelled because they supported “terrorism” or engaged in “behaviour such as raising funds for the militant group Hamas”.

The White House says it will release a list of programmes to be cut on Friday after earlier eliminating 4,200 positions at a range of government departments.

President Donald Trump has renewed his threat to cut “Democrat programmes” as the United States government shutdown heads into its fifteenth day without resolution.

“The Democrats are getting killed on the shutdown because we’re closing up programmes that are Democrat programmes that we were opposed to… and they’re never going to come back in many cases,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday, according to ABC News.

Trump said a list of programmes may be released as soon as Friday, although he did not provide further details in his remarks. He said that “Republican programmes” would be safe.

Trump has already used the government shutdown to pause or cut $28bn in federal funding for infrastructure and energy projects in Democrat-leaning states like California, Illinois and New York.

The White House has also started making cuts to the federal workforce. About 4,200 employees from eight government departments and agencies received “reduction-in-force notices” on Friday, according to CNBC.

Major cuts were made at the Treasury Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some programmes on the chopping block included those historically supported by Republicans as well as Democrats. They included the entire staff of the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which works with low-income communities, according to CNBC.

There are about 2.25 million civilian federal employees, according to the Congressional Budget Office, of whom some 60 percent work in the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.

Approximately 750,000 federal employees have been on furlough since the shutdown began two weeks ago, while “essential” workers have continued working without pay until they can be reimbursed when the shutdown ends.

The White House says it will take the unusual move of reallocating $8bn in existing funds to keep paying military and coastguard personnel throughout the shutdown, although historically, they also work without pay.

The Senate remains deadlocked over a government spending bill needed to end the shutdown.

A Republican-backed spending bill, which would have extended government funding to November 21, on Monday failed in a vote of 49 to 45, broadly down party lines.

The bill needs 60 votes to pass, but Republicans have failed to sway more Democrats to their side after gaining the support of a few individual legislators. Democrats are blocking the bill to force Republicans to negotiate on healthcare subsidies.

Handover comes as Trump says Hamas must disarm or be disarmed, ‘perhaps violently’.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, took out “a couple of” gangs, without identifying which groups, Anadolu reports.

“They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad, very, very bad gangs. And they did take them out, and they killed a number of gang members, and that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s okay,” Trump told reporters at the White House, alongside Argentinian President Javier Milei. “It’s a couple of very bad gangs.”

His remarks came a day after Hamas and Israel carried out a hostage-prisoner swap that saw hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released from Israel’s notorious Ofer military prison and other prison facilities in the Negev Desert. All 20 living Israeli hostages were also released.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump announced the start of “phase two” of his Gaza ceasefire agreement, following the release of hostages under the first stage of the deal brokered by Türkiye, the US, Qatar and Egypt.

Phase two of the deal calls for the establishment of a new governing mechanism in Gaza, the formation of a multinational force and the disarmament of Hamas.

Trump said he spoke to Hamas and the group will disarm.

“They will disarm, and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them — and it’ll happen quickly and, perhaps, violently, but they will disarm,” he added.

Freed from Israeli prison: I still cannot believe I am out after 24 years

The U.S. Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), better known as the Night Stalkers, has been exploring ways to ensure it can operate in more heavily defended airspace in the future. This includes making increased use of uncrewed aircraft, the employment of new electronic warfare and decoy capabilities, and just flying longer and faster. The U.S. special operations community as a whole continues to reorient itself around preparing for high-end fights, such as one across the broad expanses of the Pacific against China, after decades of low-intensity missions in much more permissive environments.

Army Col. Stephen Smith, head of the 160th SOAR, talked about planning for future operations in denied areas deep inside an opponent’s anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) ‘bubble’ during a panel discussion today at the Association of the U.S. Army’s main annual symposium. TWZ‘s Howard Altman was in attendance and had the opportunity to speak more with Smith directly afterward. The Night Stalkers publicly acknowledged fleets include a mixture of heavily modified MH-60M Black Hawk, MH-47G Chinook, and AH/MH-6R Little Bird helicopters. The 160th also has MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones. The unit expects to eventually receive special operations-specific versions of the Army’s future MV-75A tiltrotor.

“Over the last 20 years that I’ve been in the Regiment, we have been really, really good at deploying in an environment like GWOT,” Smith said, referring to the Global War on Terror era of operations in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. “What we have done over the last 10 years is, we’ve looked at the near-peer threats across the globe, and we looked at ‘how does the 160th expect to operate inside that environment?’”

“So, what we’re going to have on the aircraft to defend the aircraft, by itself, will not survive in the A2/AD environment,” he also said bluntly during the panel, speaking generally about the known Night Stalker fleets.

Specialized training for Night Stalkers to help them survive in more contested environments has existed, but there is clearly a new paradigm.

“What we realized was really two major takeaways. The number one takeaway is we can’t do it alone. The idea of ‘alone and unafraid,’ that does not exist in the denied area planning space,” he explained. “And then, second, we needed a team to look at that. So we stood up a five-person team that consisted of our aviation flight leads.”

“When we started looking at the training concept of how the 160th is going to operate, we leveraged the three range complexes on the West Coast of the United States to create an environment that provides us a ‘tyranny of distance‘ problem, but also the complexity of using those three ranges to replicate a near-peer,” he added.

The 160th’s commander says the unit has come from all this with new views on how it might operate in more heavily defended environments going forward. This includes additional emphasis on crewed-uncrewed teaming.

“Manned-unmanned teaming is the future. We’ve talked about the potential of launched effects off the aircraft, or a potential loyal wingman,” Col. Smith said. Launched effects is a broad term that the U.S. military currently uses to refer to uncrewed aerial systems configured for different missions, like reconnaissance or acting as loitering munitions, which can be fired from other aerial platforms, as well as ones on the ground or at sea.

“We see in the near future, for our primary mission of crisis response, and also denied area penetration, we still see a human in the loop,” Smith noted. “We don’t expect to send Kit [Col. Kitefre Oboho, commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment] and his team to the X without Night Stalkers in the front of the aircraft.”

Smith highlighted how the 160th has already been teaming its crewed helicopters with its MQ-1Cs drones as something the unit is looking to build on. “So, when we train on the West Coast, we’ll use an MQ-1 to lead the half [a group of helicopters] into the objective.”

This also leads into the electronic warfare and decoy capabilities the Night Stalkers are looking at as part of future denied area operations planning.

“We can hang different capabilities on that platform [the MQ-1C]. So that platform could look like a Black Hawk. It could look like a [CH-]47. It could look like a Little Bird,” Smith said. “So we’re using that as a decoy, [and there are] potentially other capabilities on [the] side of that aircraft.”

The 160th is also exploring other new electronic warfare capabilities, including improved self-protect jamming systems, according to Smith. “We’re also looking at a layered effect of using cyber and space to create a pulse for us to be able to penetrate,” he added.

There’s also just the matter of being able to fly longer and do so faster. The 160th is already well known for conducting long-duration flights in challenging and hostile environments. The unit’s MH-60Ms and MH-47Gs are capable of being refueled in flight to extend their range. Night Stalkers typically fly their missions at extremely low altitudes and under the cover of darkness, using terrain to help mask their ingress and egress.

“Leveraging the cover of darkness, leveraging weather, flying at low altitudes, and flying where the enemy systems are not. That seems somewhat obvious, but that is really driving the basis of our Night Stalker fundamentals, [and] mission planning to create those contingencies so we can buy down a number of the risk,” Col. Smith said.

However, historically, 160th operations have often been punctuated by stops at temporary forward arming and refueling points (FARP) along the way, to and from objectives. Smith says extending the range of his fleets will be key to future operations in denied areas because of the vulnerabilities that landing in the middle of a mission creates.

“One of the things we’ve learned is, if you go to ground, you’re vulnerable,” he said. “And so we have leveraged our aerial refuel[ing capability] to get after that, and we look at some of our collapsible fuel systems inside the aircraft to do that.”

There is a question here that is increasingly facing the entire U.S. military, about how existing non-stealthy aerial refueling tankers will be able to support any fixed or rotary-wing aircraft operating deep in high-threat areas. The U.S. Air Force, which currently provides the bulk of aerial refueling support to the 160th, has separately been looking at ways to get after that problem set, as you can read more about here.

This is also where the future special operations version of the MV-75A, which is set to offer the 160th an important boost in speed and range, especially over its MH-60Ms, could also come into the picture. Those tiltrotors are also expected to have aerial refueling capability. Questions do also remain about what the final special operations configuration of the MV-75A may look like, though we know the core design is already being developed with specific features to make it more readily adaptable to that role.

“That’s a great question, and we don’t know, and that’s why we’re actually having that conversation,” Col. Smith told TWZ‘s Howard Altman after the panel when asked for more information about what the special operations configuration of the MV-75A might look like. “We have not determined what that looks like. Is it the version that we’re all in lockstep with, is that going to be the version? possibly. Is [sic] there some minor modifications? potentially.”

What is clear is that the 160th SOAR is looking hard at ways to ensure that it can bring its unique skill sets and otherwise survive, even in more contested environments, while taking part in future high-end fights.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Qatar are the headline news in the latest group of confirmed entrants for next year’s FIFA 2026 World Cup following the most recent round of qualifying matches.

The hosts of the 2022 edition of the global showpiece event reached the finals for the first time through the qualification route, when they beat the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.

South Africa also clinched a tight group, with fellow African giants Nigeria pushed to the playoffs, on a tense final day of group stage qualifiers on the continent. This came a day after Cape Verde’s first qualification for the World Cup finals.

The European teams still have some way to go to finish their qualifying groups, but the picture has become far clearer with some progress already made.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a close look at how the qualifying process stands around the globe:

Which teams are in the FIFA World Cup 2026?

After the latest round of qualifying matches, here is a breakdown of the confirmed contenders from each of the six regions:

Hosts: Canada, Mexico, United States

Asia: Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Uzbekistan

Africa: Algeria, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia

Europe: England

Oceania: New Zealand

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay

Who can still qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026?

Africa: Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Nigeria will play off for the final intercontinental spot from the continent. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has yet to announce the dates for those matches.

Asia: The UAE and Iraq will vie for one intercontinental playoffs spot when they compete over two legs in the final stage of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers in November.

Europe: 53 of the 54 European teams vying for 16 qualification spots can still confirm their berths, alongside England, as their first-round matches will run until November 18.

North, Central America and the Caribbean: With the World Cup host nations taking three spots, only three are left up for grabs. They will be decided on November 18. Bermuda, Costa Rica, Curacao, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago have all advanced to the third round. The three second-placed teams from each group will then fight for the intercontinental playoffs spot.

Oceania: New Caledonia have qualified for the intercontinental playoffs.

South America: Bolivia have qualified for the intercontinental playoffs, having missed out on one of the six automatic qualifying positions.

28/48 ✅@Aramco | #WeAre26 pic.twitter.com/eaksBnrBYM

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) October 14, 2025

Which major teams have been eliminated from qualification?

Peru and Chile, who were third-place finishers in 1962, were the biggest names to miss out from the South America qualifiers, where Venezuela were also eliminated.

Although not considered a powerhouse in Asia, China will be disappointed not to reach their first finals since 2002.

Angola, Libya, Mali and Namibia will be among those disappointed to be eliminated from the African qualification.

Indonesia were hoping to reach only a second World Cup, and made a valiant run to the fourth round of AFC qualification. But they will be disappointed not to have gone one step further following their Dutch recruitment drive, which included their coach, Patrick Kluivert.

Bahrain, who topped their 2023 AFC Asian Cup group stage ahead of South Korea, only to be eliminated by Japan in the round of 16, will be deflated to have missed out on the chance to showcase their skills on the global stage. Palestine were only seconds away from reaching the fourth round of the AFC qualifier and, following their historic run to the knockout stage of the last Asian Cup, will also be disappointed not to have at least gone one step further in their continental qualifiers.

When will all the teams for the FIFA World Cup 2026 be confirmed?

European qualification rounds stretch beyond the current group stages to March, while the intercontinental playoff final is scheduled for the same month, so the final 48 teams for the World Cup will not be known until less than three months before the tournament. March 31, 2026, is when all qualification will come to an end.

When and where is the draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026?

The World Cup draw, as revealed by US President Donald Trump in August, will take place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

“It’s the biggest, probably the biggest event in sports, I guess,” said Trump, who made the announcement in an Oval Office event where he was joined by Vice President JD Vance and FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Trump also did not rule out overseeing the draw himself.

When is the FIFA World Cup 2026 scheduled?

The tournament begins in Mexico City on June 11, and ends with the final in New Jersey on July 19.

United States President Donald Trump says his Gaza ceasefire deal will bring peace to the Middle East.

Some 20 world leaders, including Trump, signed the agreement at a special summit in Egypt on Monday.

The deal outlines the steps both Hamas and Israel must take to maintain the ceasefire and end the war in Gaza.

But it does not quite address the bigger question of what will happen in the Palestinian territory beyond the next few months.

What about Israel’s larger occupation? And the establishment of a viable Palestinian state?

How will Trump’s plan address these important issues?

Presenter: Nick Clark

Guests:

Ori Goldberg – political commentator

Phyllis Bennis – fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies

Muhammad Shehada – visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations

Israel has imposed new restrictions on aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip and will not open the Rafah crossing as planned, while Israeli forces killed several people in the Palesitinian territory as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire came under growing strain.

Israel notified the United Nations on Tuesday that it will only allow 300 aid trucks – half of the number it originally agreed to – daily into the Gaza Strip from Wednesday.

Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, confirmed the UN had received the note from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza.

The COGAT note said no fuel or gas will be allowed into the war-torn enclave except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud noted that allowing 300 trucks of aid each day was “not nearly enough” for famine-stricken Gaza.

“Three hundred is not enough. It’s not going to change anything,” he said.

Israeli authorities also announced the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed.

The restrictions came hours after Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians in attacks in northern and southern Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

At least six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza City, and three others were killed in Khan Younis.

Sources from al-Ahli Arab Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic on Tuesday that Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinians in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City.

The Israeli military said it opened fire to remove a threat posed by people who approached its forces in northern Gaza.

The attacks come four days after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect, preparing the way for an exchange of captives and partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

The ceasefire is the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s proposal for ending Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed at least 67,913 people and wounded 170,134 since October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities. The remains of thousands of other people are estimated to be under the rubble in Gaza.

At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 others were taken captive.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hamas and Israel carried out an exchange on Monday that saw the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails and 20 Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip. Some 154 prisoners were exiled to Egypt.

Hamas was also due to return the remains of 24 dead captives on Monday, but the group only handed over four coffins.

Trump’s ceasefire plan provided a mechanism if that handover didn’t happen, saying Hamas should share information about deceased captives and “exert maximum effort” to carry out the handover as soon as possible.

Hamas said that it would transfer the remains of four more deceased Israeli captives on Tuesday, and the Israeli military said that the Red Cross had received the bodies.

The Israeli military accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire “regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages”.

Trump noted the delay in handing over the remains of the deceased captives in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED! Phase Two begins right NOW!!!” he wrote.

Hamas has previously said recovering the bodies of some captives could take more time because not all sites where they were held are known, and because of the vast Israeli destruction of the enclave.

“The headline here is, Israel is already starting to put threats of restricting aid going into Gaza for what they say is the slow work by Hamas to get the bodies of the deceased captives back to Israel,” Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo said, reporting from the UN.

@ajplus

Israel unilaterally broke the last ceasefire in Gaza. AJ+ spoke to journalist and analyst Omar Rahman about what might make this deal different. #Gaza #Ceasefire #Israel #PeaceDeal #Palestine

♬ news, documentary, serious, depressing : L(1488971) – 8.864

UN urges more aid deliveries

The UN and the International Red Cross called for all crossings into Gaza to be opened to allow desperately needed aid into the enclave. The UN had 190,000 metric tonnes of aid waiting and ready to go into Gaza, OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said on Tuesday.

UNICEF spokesman Ricardo Pires, meanwhile, said the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had 1,370 trucks ready to enter Gaza.

“The level of destruction, again, is so huge that it will take at least 600 trucks a day, which is the aim that we have,” he said. “We’re far from that.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) also stressed the need to send more aid into Gaza.

“We need to scale up the delivery of medical supplies because the pressure on hospitals is not going to ease overnight,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters.

“We need really to bring as many supplies as we can right now to make sure that those health workers who are still providing healthcare have what they need.”

The US has struck another vessel off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people, President Donald Trump has said.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the vessel belonged to “narcoterrorists” and that it was “trafficking narcotics.”

This is the fifth strike of its kind by the Trump administration on a boat accused of trafficking drugs on international waters since September. In total, 27 people have been reported killed, but the US has not provided evidence or details about identities of the vessels or those on board them.

Some lawyers have accused the US of breaching international law, and neighbouring nations like Colombia and Venezuela have condemned the strikes.

In his Truth Social post, Trump said “intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known” route for smuggling.

He also posted an aerial surveillance video showing a small boat on water that is struck by a missile and explodes.

Trump did not specify the nationality of those on board, or what drug smuggling organisation they are suspected of belonging to. He added that no US military personnel were injured.

The strike comes after a recent leaked memo sent to Congress, and reported on by US media, that said the administration determined the US was in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.

The US has positioned its strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels as self-defence, despite many lawyers questioning their legality.

The U.S. Army continues to lag behind global trends when it comes to fielding drones and systems to counter their use by hostile forces, according to a top general overseeing soldiers in Europe. Units forward-deployed in the European theater are trying to break a cycle of seemingly endless experimentation to actually operationalize relevant capabilities, especially within smaller units, buoyed now by major U.S. military-wide initiatives.

Army Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, commander of V Corps, talked about issues relating to drones and counter-drone capabilities at a panel discussion at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual symposium yesterday. TWZ‘s Howard Altman was in attendance and had a chance to talk further with Costanza immediately afterward. From World War II through the Cold War, and for years afterward, V Corps was a key component of the Army’s presence in Europe. Inactivated in Germany in 2013, it was reestablished at Fort Knox in Kentucky in 2020, and a forward headquarters in Poland was subsequently stood up.

“We’re behind. I’ll just be candid. I think we know we’re behind,” Costanza said in response to a direct question at the panel from our Howard Altman. “We’ve been talking about counter-UAS [uncrewed aerial systems] and UAS capability for a better part of a decade, since, really, we watched the war in Armenia and Azerbaijan go on, and saw very much the beginning of the drone UAS capabilities.”

Azerbaijan’s armed forces captured particular global attention with their use of kamikaze drones during a war with Armenia in 2020. They had already been employing those capabilities on a more limited level for years beforehand. The Israeli-made drones they employed traced their roots back decades, and came from companies that continue to be world leaders in this space, as you can read more about here. In 2020, Azerbaijan also employed Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2s, a traditional fixed-wing design capable of employing precision munitions that has seen significant sales globally, including to Ukraine.

The propaganda video below from the State Border Service of Azerbaijan highlights how much of a fixture kamikaze drones were in the 2020 war between that country and Armenia.

“We aren’t moving fast enough,” Costanza continued. “And it really took Russia’s invasion of Ukraine [in 2022], and the way they’re innovating, and Ukrainians are innovating, to realize, hey, we need to move fast.”

Both sides of the ongoing conflict now make extensive use of various types of weaponized drones, especially highly maneuverable first-person view (FPV) kamikaze designs, in and around the front lines, and now increasingly deeper behind them. Ukraine and Russia also employ longer-range kamikaze drones for attacks further inside each other’s territory. Various types of uncrewed aerial systems had already become steadily more significant factors in the fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country that followed Moscow’s seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

“I think we do,” Costanza also said when asked specifically if the U.S. military needed a capability broadly in line with the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 long-range kamikaze drone. The Shahed-136 has become something of a household name as a result of Russia’s heavy use of variants and derivatives, including types it now produces domestically, in attacks on Ukraine. Last month, TWZ laid out a detailed case for why the U.S. military should already be buying tens of thousands of Shahed-136 clones, which you can find here.

As part of his response to the questions from our Howard Altman, Costanza highlighted Project Flytrap as a prime example of efforts underway to try to reverse these trends. Flytrap is an ongoing series of Army-led training events in Europe focused on counter-drone capabilities and tactics, techniques, and procedures to go with them.

“I think Flytrap is the start point to that, right? So I think Flytrap is taking the capabilities we have right now, identifying how we layer those capabilities, and then taking that, giving it back to the Army, and saying, here’s how you do it now, go make the acquisition purchase,” Costanza said. “Flytrap is just really trying to figure out what the systems are that we need. The scope and scale piece goes back to the Army.”

“What we learned is that there’s really no one system solution. It takes a layered approach. And you know, the way to think about it is, you have to detect what’s in the air, what’s a threat. You have to decide what you’re going to do about it, and that you need the means to actually do something about it,” Col. Donald Neal, commander of the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which falls under V Corps, also said yesterday while speaking alongside Costanza. “There’s no one system solution to protecting the air above you.”

A key “challenge has been getting the network straight, being able to have the data in a cloud-based environment that we can process it in a way that’s integrated, not just with the counter-UAS systems, but the larger, integrated air and missile defense network, and how we do that. So we’re working through that,” Costanza further noted. “What we need to do now is take those systems, integrate them with an AI [artificial intelligence] capable, data-driven mission command system, [and] sync it all together, not just [for the] U.S., but across all our NATO partners.”

The 2nd Cavalry Regiment has been taking a leading role in Project Flytrap, as well as separate but adjacent efforts to step up the fielding of uncrewed aerial systems, including weaponized types, within the service’s own formations.

“2nd Cavalry Regiment is standing up what they call Delta Company,” Costanza noted during the panel. “It’s taking all the different systems that can have effects, lethal, non-lethal – so not just kinetic, but EW [electronic warfare] – counter-UAS, [as well as] UAS, [and] creating one organization to synchronize those capabilities faster than what we’re able to do right now.”

The Army has already been experimenting with similar units, which have been referred to as Strike Companies and Multi-Purpose Companies (MPC) in the past, outside of 2nd Cavalry, which you can read more about here.

Project Flytrap is also tied in with a NATO-wide initiative announced earlier this year, dubbed the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line, to bolster counter-drone and a wide array of other capabilities with a particular eye toward threats emanating from Russia. America’s allies in Europe have been seeing a surge in drone incursions, including over sensitive sites, as Moscow has been ramping up hybrid war efforts.

“I think Putin feels he’s in conflict with NATO right now,” Costanza told our Howard Altman in the interview after the panel. “I think he’s just going to continue to ramp that up until we stop it, and NATO knows that, but we still haven’t done that yet.”

When it comes to the broader issue of the Army lagging in the fielding of drones and counter-drone systems, Project Flytrap and the other work V Corps is involved in are clearly aimed at operationalizing new capabilities. The Pentagon has publicly lauded Flytrap as an example of the services moving to act on the new direction from the Secretary of War intended to address increasingly worrisome capability and capacity gaps that extend well beyond American forces in Europe.

In July, the Pentagon announced a sweeping array of policy and other changes structured around the central goal of getting huge numbers of drones, including weaponized types, into the hands of units, especially smaller ones, across the entire U.S. military. In August, Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) stood up as the newest U.S. military organization intended to act as a focal point for the accelerated development and fielding of counter-drone systems for use on the battlefield, as well as to defend facilities and assets within the homeland.

At the same time, what Gen. Costanza talked about yesterday still sounds very much like the kinds of test and evaluation efforts that have been going on for years already. As he himself acknowledged, much of the work that has been done to date has not translated into major new operational capabilities, even as Ukraine and Russia, and many other countries globally, particularly China, have pushed ahead. The Army faced pointed criticism in July after touting the test of a grenade-dropping drone in Europe, a capability that has been in daily use for years now on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Grammy-winning R&B singer D’Angelo has passed away at age 51 following a “prolonged and courageous battle with cancer”, according to a statement from his family.

On Tuesday, his loved ones released a statement announcing his death. “The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life,” it read.

“We are saddened that he can only leave dear memories with his family, but we are eternally grateful for the legacy of extraordinarily moving music he leaves behind.”

D’Angelo, whose real name was Michael Eugene Archer, was best known for his silky vocals during the 1990s and 2000s, with his record Voodoo earning him the 2001 Grammy for Best R&B album.

His hit single from that album, Untitled (How Does It Feel), not only won him another Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, but it also catapulted him into the mainstream spotlight with its steamy music video, featuring a shirtless D’Angelo singing directly to the camera.

The music publication Rolling Stone has ranked Voodoo as one of its best albums of all time.

News of his passing prompted an outpouring of remembrances from fans, including fellow musicians.

“I never met D’Angelo but I love him, respect him, admire his gift. This loss HURTS!!” singer-songwriter Jill Scott wrote on the social media platform X, adding: “R.I.P. GENIUS.”

Another musician, rapper Doja Cat, offered condolences to D’Angelo’s loved ones. She called him “a true voice of soul and inspiration to many brilliant artists of our generation and generations to come”.

In his music, D’Angelo blended hip-hop grit, emphatic soul and gospel-rooted emotion into a sound that helped spearhead the neo-soul movement of the 1990s.

Earlier this year, the Virginia native celebrated the 30th anniversary of his debut studio album Brown Sugar, a platinum-selling offering that produced signature hits like Lady.

That 1995 album earned him multiple Grammy nominations and cemented him as one of R&B’s most original new voices.

D’Angelo’s sultry vocal style — a mix of raspy texture and church-bred fluidity — set him apart from his peers. That voice became inseparable from the striking visuals of the Untitled (How Does It Feel) music video.

Its minimalist aesthetic became a cultural touchstone, igniting conversations around artistry, sexuality and vulnerability in Black male representation.

Beyond his own catalogue, D’Angelo’s artistry shone in collaborations. He memorably duetted with Lauryn Hill on the soulful ballad Nothing Even Matters, a highlight of her landmark 1998 album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

He also contributed to The Roots’ 1996 album Illadelph Halflife and was part of the supergroup Black Men United, which yielded one song, U Will Know, for the film Jason’s Lyric in 1994. D’Angelo wrote and co-produced the single.

D’Angelo was in a four-year relationship with Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone in the 1990s.

The pair met while he was finishing the album Brown Sugar and bonded over their similar backgrounds: Both are from the South and both grew up in the church. Stone worked on the album with D’Angelo, and the pair co-wrote the song Everyday for her 1999 debut album, Black Diamond.

Stone described D’Angelo as her “musical soul mate” in an interview with The Associated Press in 1999, adding that their working relationship was “like milk and cereal”.

“Musically, it was magic,” Stone said. “It’s something that I have not been able to do with any other producer or musician.”

They had a son together, the artist Swayvo Twain, born Michael Archer Jr. Stone died earlier this year in a car crash. She was 63.

D’Angelo also has a daughter, Imani Archer.

Among the tributes to D’Angelo’s artistry on Tuesday was a social media post from Tyler, the Creator, who reminisced about combing his local music store on his ninth birthday.

“I had $20 in birthday money and my eyes set on leaving with one thing. VOODOO by D’Angelo,” Tyler, the Creator, wrote on Instagram. “I had no idea that would help shape my musical dna.”

“I couldn’t understand how someone could write something so simple but personal but broad but genius,” he continued. “Thats how special he was.”

The actor and musician Jamie Foxx, meanwhile, offered his memories of seeing D’Angelo perform live at the concert venue House of Blues.

“Your voice was silky and flawless,” Foxx wrote on Instagram, addressing the late D’Angelo directly. “I was also in pure awe of your talents…. roaming around on each instrument, displaying your expertise in every note and every song.”

Foxx added that D’Angelo would be missed forever. “That’s why today real tears run down my face.”

Recent battlefield gains by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) may turn the tide in Kordofan, analysts have told Al Jazeera.

Sudan’s devastating war between the SAF and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has raged for two and a half years, resulting in massive displacement and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.

Yet SAF’s capture in September of the strategic city of Bara, which the RSF was using for logistics, supplies, and as a muster point for reinforcements, is seen as a sign that SAF may have swung the pendulum in its favour.

Why is Bara important?

Bara lies about 350km (217 miles) southwest of the capital Khartoum along the “Export Road” used to truck goods from Khartoum to el-Obeid, capital of North Kordofan State.

It also exports its own agricultural products and livestock to the rest of Sudan.

The Khartoum-el-Obeid connection is vital because from el-Obeid, roads lead outwards to South Sudan and Sudan’s east and Darfur in the west.

From Khartoum, roads lead northeast to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the wartime government was until recently. Roads also lead north to Egypt and east to Eritrea and Ethiopia.

SAF took el-Obeid in February, after a two-year RSF siege, and took Khartoum in March, so taking Bara gave it solid control over the Export Road to use as a supply route, independent Sudanese military and political analyst Akram Ali told Al Jazeera.

Bara and el-Obeid lie near the westernmost reaches of SAF control, well to the east of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the last city SAF holds in the vast western region. Between the two is a stretch of RSF control – and siege on el-Fasher – that SAF has to breach.

For the RSF, keeping Bara and a foothold in Kordofan was important because it allowed it to put pressure on SAF, which holds territory to the north, and to link the areas it controls in Kordofan and Darfur to South Sudan, links it uses to move weapons and fighters.

How did SAF take Bara?

The army launched an offensive on Bara from the south on September 11, while RSF defences were concentrated on the eastern side, analyst Abdul Majeed Abdul Hamid said.

SAF sent continuous drone strikes against RSF targets, then launched the Darfur Track Armed Struggle Movement, an assault force known for mobility and speed, from el-Obeid.

The force successfully engaged and defeated the RSF unit defending Bara, then entered the city with heavy firepower, according to a military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The officer said the operation relied on speed and keeping the RSF occupied on several fronts to prevent it from sending reinforcements.

Most of Bara’s civilians supported SAF, according to Abdul Hamid, and the RSF quickly retreated.

The operation cut off RSF supply and military support lines, he added, isolating their remaining positions in areas such as al-Khuwei to the west and al-Nahud to the east.

For the RSF, keeping Bara and a foothold in Kordofan was important because it allowed it to put pressure on SAF, which holds territory to the north, and to link the areas it controls in Kordofan and Darfur to South Sudan, links it uses to move weapons and fighters.

Losing Bara also meant that the RSF could no longer keep the city of el-Obeid under siege.

Will the RSF lose the Kordofans?

The RSF announced in February this year that it had entered an alliance with the Southern People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). South Kordofan includes the Abyei region, disputed between Sudan and South Sudan. The SPLM-N controls the vast, isolated Nuba Mountains region in South Kordofan, right up against the border with South Sudan.

However, despite that new stronghold, analysts told Al Jazeera that losing control over the Export Road spells a serious deterioration in the RSF’s power in the Kordofans.

“The army’s entry into el-Obeid marked the beginning of their actual collapse,” said Ali.

An army unit called “Al-Sayyad” – named after a commander killed in the early days of the war – had moved from Rabak, capital of White Nile State, in a campaign that eventually reached el-Obeid.

Political analyst Ahmed Shamukh said liberating Bara opens the door to reactivating the SAF air base in el-Obeid, the largest in Kordofan, after two years of inactivity, “significantly [enhancing] the logistical and combat capabilities of the Sudanese army” and helping SAF’s campaign to expel RSF from the Kordofans.

Taking back all of Kordofan would allow SAF to work towards liberating Darfur, Abdul Hamid said.

“The army has combat experience and personnel capable of liberating Kordofan with the same capabilities it used to retake the cities of central Sudan and the capital,” Abdul Hamid continued.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 10 million in what has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

According to the UN, a total of 24.6 million people face acute food insecurity, while 19 million people lack access to safe water and sanitation.

The Indonesia government said last week it will not grant visas to Israeli gymnasts for the World Championships.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has rejected appeals by the Israel Gymnastics Federation to be allowed to compete at a world championships in Indonesia this weekend.

The CAS also turned down Israel’s request to force the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to guarantee Israel’s participation, or alternatively cancel or move the artistic worlds, set to start on Sunday in Jakarta.

The Indonesian government last week said it will not grant visas to Israeli gymnasts, and the Swiss-based CAS said on Tuesday that FIG stated it has no control over Indonesia’s visa policies.

In its reaction to Indonesia’s move, the FIG did not threaten to take the event away from Indonesia as stipulated in its statutes for cases where the host refuses to issue visas. Israel wanted the FIG “taking note” of the government statement to be annulled, but CAS also rejected that on Tuesday.

Indonesia’s decision to deny visas came after Israel’s planned participation sparked intense opposition in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, which has long been a staunch supporter of Palestinians.

Israel is among 86 countries registered to compete at the worlds, with a team featuring 2021 Olympic gold medallist and defending world champion Artem Dolgopyat in the men’s floor exercise.

Now its participation is in doubt, even though the Israeli federation said in July that it had been assured by Indonesian officials that it would be welcome at the worlds. That would have gone against Indonesia’s longstanding policy of refusing to host Israeli sport delegations for major events.

The gymnastics spat is the latest example of how the global backlash against Israel over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza has spread into the arenas of sport and culture.

‘Legendary’, ‘pure class’ and ‘on another level’ are just some of the terms used to describe Kevin de Bruyne this week.

The Belgian is enjoying one of his best starts to a season since moving to Napoli on a free transfer this summer which begs the question, did he leave Manchester City a year too early?

The exodus of senior City players in the past year has been well documented, with the likes of Ederson, Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan and Kyle Walker all leaving for pastures new.

De Bruyne was also deemed surplus to requirements – despite 16 trophies and more than 400 appearances – and the midfielder, reluctant to leave, joined Napoli when his contract expired in June.

“I was a bit surprised but I just have to accept it,” said De Bruyne back in April. “Honestly, I still think I can perform at this level like I’m showing, but I understand clubs have to make decisions.”

It turns out the 34-year-old was correct in his self-assessment.

When Jibrin Kolo Adamu talks about how the HumAngle Accountability Fellowship changed his life, his eyes light up with purpose. “The fellowship was impactful because I am currently working because of the skills I acquired from it,” he said. 

He added that “I learnt the art of human storytelling, and it helped me to win several grants and partnerships for my organisation. I now lead advocacy programs because of the HumAngle training.”

Jibrin is one of many young journalists and advocates from Borno State who have passed through the HumAngle Accountability Fellowship. The fellowship program was launched in 2022 with support from the MacArthur Foundation to promote transparency, accountability through storytelling, and community-driven advocacy initiatives. Over the past three years, five cohorts have been trained, with fellows drawn from the northern, central, and southern federal constituents of Borno state.

For many of them, the fellowship was a turning point.

Halima Bawah, a fellow from central Borno, said the training gave her the courage to start her own organisation. “I launched an advocacy group promoting renewable and sustainable climate action solutions. Now my company provides climate-smart solutions, recycling plastic waste, and offering consultations to other organisations,” she explained proudly.

Rukkaya Ahmed Alibe, who works with a radio station in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State, said the fellowship transformed her broadcasting career. “I have integrated human-centred storytelling into my radio programs. It has made my work more impactful and connected to the people. I now produce stories that give voice to local communities,” she said.

Another alumnus, Abubakar Mukhtar Abba, from central Borno, shared how the fellowship inspired his journalism journey. “I had no background in journalism, but the fellowship gave me everything in six months. I am now a freelance journalist reporting important stories about the humanitarian crisis in the region. My stories are driven by the question of accountability and how it affects the lives of ordinary people. All thanks to HumAngle,” he said.

The fellowship aims to build a new generation of journalists and advocates who use storytelling to demand accountability and amplify community voices in conflict-affected areas.

Speaking during an alumni roundtable session held on Oct. 11 in Maiduguri, Angela Umoru-David, HumAngle Foundation’s Director, said the engagement was an opportunity to see how far the fellows have come. “Engaging with the alumni was an opportunity to experience first-hand the impact the fellowship had on the participants. We have achieved exactly what we hoped for: a network of young people pushing locally-driven solutions and demanding accountability,” Angela said.

According to Angela, many alumni are now leading organisations, winning international fellowships, and pursuing advanced studies abroad. “We have an alumnus pursuing a PhD in security studies in China, another starting a waste management and environmental protection company, and many others representing their communities on global platforms,” she added.

The stories of progress from the fellows are not limited to Borno State alone. Across Adamawa and Yobe, the fellows have similar stories. During a similar roundtable held in Yola, the Adamawa state capital, in September, fellows said HumAngle had been a major influence on how their careers are blossoming currently, expressing their willingness for collaborations in the future.

“The support HumAngle gives us goes a long way,” Habila Albert, a member of the second cohort of the fellowship noted. Fellows from Damaturu in Yobe also highlighted stories of collaboration within each other.

Salma Jumah, Senior Programme Officer of the Foundation, noted that the fellowship’s success reflects the power of knowledge and collaboration. “The learning session with the Accountability Fellows has shown us that they have built a strong network and a remarkable trail of impact. Hearing from participants across all cohorts, we’ve seen significant accomplishments and stories of change that speak to the strength of this community,” Salma said.

From classrooms to radio stations, and from local advocacy groups to international platforms, the fellows of the HumAngle Accountability Fellowship continue to inspire change and promote accountability and transparency in both private and public sectors across northeastern Nigeria.

AeroVironment has unveiled a new member of its Switchblade family of loitering munitions, the Switchblade 400. It is designed to offer similar capabilities, especially when it comes to destroying enemy tanks and other heavy armor, to the larger Switchblade 600, but in a package that a single individual can employ. It is also sized to fit into U.S. military standard Common Launch Tubes (CLT), which are typically used to fire precision-guided munitions and small uncrewed aerial systems from crewed and uncrewed aircraft, primarily within the special operations community.

Todd Hanning, product line director for what AeroVironment is currently calling its Mojave systems, which includes the Switchblade 400, talked about the new offering with TWZ‘s Howard Altman on the show floor at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual symposium today. The Switchblade 400 was originally developed to meet a U.S. Army requirement under the service’s Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) program. LASSO is also part of a larger effort that the service calls its Lethal Unmanned Systems Directed Requirement (LUS DR). The Army has already been buying Switchblade 300s, which are smaller than the new 400 version, as well as the bigger 600s, to meet its LASSO/LUS DR needs.

Hanning explained that the core Army requirement that led to the Switchblade 400 was a total weight of 40 pounds for the All-Up-Round (AUR), which consists of the loitering munition and its launch tube. AeroVironment’s website says a single individual can carry the weapon and have it ready to launch within five minutes. The Switchblade 600 is available in a man-portable form, but is designed for employment by a team and takes twice as much time to set up.

Switchblade 400 needed to be a “single soldier lift,” Hanning said. “Switchblade 600, coming in at about 67 pounds, so right out of the gate, we’ve got to shed about 30 pounds off this thing. Yet we still want the same lethality for [sic; as] a Javelin.”

The Switchblade 600 notably features an anti-armor warhead based on the one in the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). AeroVironment also unveiled a Block 2 version of the Switchblade 600 today, which offers greater endurance and a new secondary payload bay for added flexibility, as well as improvements to its artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven automated target recognition capabilities.

Hanning said that the Switchblade 400 and Switchblade 600 Block 2 reflect a new modular, open-architecture approach AeroVironment is taking, which offers benefits when it comes to manufacturing and supply chains. The “same avionics, … the same camera architecture, same motor, [and] same power technology” are used in both models.

Overall, Switchblade 400 is “how do we take, really, a Block 2 [Switchblade 600], the next-gen, take 30 pounds out of it, and still do the same mission,” Hanning added. “Now you’re losing a little bit of endurance, right? We had to pull two cameras out, but you still have a gimbaled payload with probably the best optics out there on this kind of a platform, you’ve got the Javelin [warhead], you’ve got some new battery technology, and it’s very lightweight.”

AeroVironment’s website says Switchblade 400 has a maximum endurance of 35 minutes, and a speed profile that allows for 27 and 15 minutes of loiter time after reaching target areas 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) and 21.7 miles (35 kilometers) away, respectively. The company also says it can reach out to around 40 miles (65 kilometers) by handing off control to an operator closer to the target.

This all puts Switchblade 400 roughly in between current-generation Switchblade 300s and Switchblade 600s in terms of range and endurance, but with the ability to engage the same kinds of targets as the latter. Switchblade 300s have much smaller warheads weighing just under four pounds. Switchblade 400 also gives a single user a major boost in capability over a Javelin, which has a demonstrated maximum range of just under two and a half miles (4,000 meters) in its latest man-portable configuration, and no ability to loiter.

Hanning used the breadth of targets that Ukrainian forces have been using Switchblade 600s against to underscore the capabilities on offer. Ukraine has received tranches of both Switchblade 300s and 600s.

“They were shooting some tanks early on, but now you’re seeing them take out surface-to-air missile batteries constantly,” he said. “They’ve taken out some trains. A lot of command elements. But mostly what you’re seeing is those high-value assets, those mobile surface-to-air missile batteries.”

It is worth noting here that AeroVironment has been securing sales of Switchblade 300s and 600s to a growing number of countries beyond the United States and Ukraine in recent years. Last year, the U.S. government notably approved the potential sale of 720 Switchblade 300s to Taiwan. The Taiwanese armed forces have been stepping up their acquisition of a growing array of one-way attack drones as part of a larger strategy to challenge a potential intervention from the mainland, as you can read more about here.

That being said, lessons learned from the particular drone-heavy war in Ukraine have been very important for AeroVironment, according to Hanning.

“We take lessons learned from all of the systems that are in Ukraine, and rapidly inject that technology into the 400 and the 600 Block 2,” Hanning said. “So launching in different environments, on different ground surfaces, that was one. Tactics for range and for how you engage the target. So we’re engaging from higher altitudes. We’re engaging faster. We have different communication modes, silent modes, things like that.”

Hanning said the silent mode referred to here involves operating, at least for a time, without emitting signals that enemy forces could detect. He noted that members of the Switchblade family are designed around concepts of operations that involve a human at least ‘on-the-loop’ during any endgame attack run, despite their highly automated targeting capabilities.

In general terms of controlling Switchblades after launch, “we are running Silvus radio[s], but we are agnostic to radios. So we’ve also integrated an L3Harris radio. We did that about two weeks ago. Very easy,” he added. “So, we’re looking to, how can we shed weight at the soldier level so that we’re using all the common systems that they’re already carrying. So, if that’s a PRC radio that they’re already carrying, if we can leverage that for our C2 [command and control] scheme, then that’s what we’d want to do. … that’s part of that whole modular, open system architecture.”

Switchblade 400s, as well as 600s, could make use of their modularity in other ways going forward. Hanning highlighted the possibility of different warhead options by mentioning a test involving a different type supplied by a company called Corvid Technologies.

“We’re really open to whatever the DoD wants. When a lot of people come to us and say, ‘use my thing,’ and I’m like, well, what does the Army think about that?” Hanning said. “We need to know what they want versus what a vendor wants you to want. And so the best way to do that is to just be very open, hear the voice of the customer, and have the ability to integrate things.”

“When you start doing mixed payloads, you definitely want to play with some [things], maybe a smaller warhead, with some electronic warfare packages, things like that,” he continued. CACI is set to supply an electronic warfare package for testing on Switchblade 400 later this month.

AeroVironment’s emphasis on flexibility has already extended to launch modes. Launchers integrated into crewed and uncrewed armored and other ground vehicles, offering indirect fire and reconnaissance capabilities, have been put forward. The Switchblade 300, at least, has been test-launched from maritime platforms. Last month, General Atomics also announced a test launch of a Switchblade 600 from one of its MQ-9 Reaper drones.

Switchblade 400’s aforementioned ability to fit inside a CLT immediately opens up a host of additional potential launch platforms, including various crewed and uncrewed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. CLT-launched munitions are a particularly significant part of the current armament package on the U.S. Air Force’s AC-130J Ghostrider gunships, something they inherited from the now-retired AC-130W variants.

When it comes to the Army requirement that drove the initial development of the Switchblade 400, the service is currently evaluating four different options, according to AeroVironment’s Hanning. A downselect of some kind is expected to come in time, but it’s unclear whether the service might choose to further pursue multiple entrants.

Whether or not the Army ultimately acquires Switchblade 400s, it looks to be a significant new addition to this family of loitering munitions, which is seeing growing popularity globally.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Thousands of displaced Palestinians have been returning to northern Gaza following the ceasefire, only to find their homes reduced to rubble.