army

Some of the reservists accused of sexually assaulting a detainee have already started combat roles, reports Israeli Army Radio.

Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir has authorised five soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian inmate in the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp to return to reserve service after charges against them were dropped, according to Israeli media reports.

The soldiers, all from the Force 100 unit assigned to guard military prisons, are being reinstated despite an ongoing, internal military inquiry into their conduct.

Israeli Army Radio reported that some of the reservists have already returned to active duty, including deployment to combat roles.

An Israeli army statement, cited by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, said: “The investigation does not prevent them from continuing to serve … the command-level investigation will be completed as soon as possible.”

The reinstatement comes after Israel’s top military lawyer dropped all charges against the soldiers last month, closing a case that had been among the most divisive in Israel’s recent history.

The soldiers had been charged with aggravated assault and causing severe injury, after footage broadcast by Israeli television showed them abusing a Palestinian man in Sde Teiman. The military’s own indictment described soldiers stabbing the detainee with a sharp object near his rectum, causing cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an internal tear.

A doctor at the facility, Yoel Donchin, told Haaretz he was so shocked by the Palestinian inmate’s condition that he initially assumed it was the work of a rival armed group.

Military Advocate General Itay Offir said the indictments were scrapped partly because of “complexities in the evidentiary structure” and “difficulties” arising from the detainee’s release to the Gaza Strip.

Rights groups condemned the decision as a legal injustice, with Amnesty International calling it “yet another unconscionable chapter in the Israeli legal system’s long-standing history of granting impunity to perpetrators of grave crimes against Palestinians”.

“Since the start of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, and despite overwhelming evidence of widespread torture and abuse, including sexual violence, against Palestinians in Israeli detention centers, only one Israeli soldier has so far been sentenced over torturing a Palestinian detainee,” said the rights group in a statement.

Palestinians released from Israeli detention have reported suffering widespread abuse while in custody.

A February report by the Committee to Protect Journalists also cited dozens of formerly detained Palestinian journalists describing “routine beatings, starvation and sexual assault” in Israeli custody.

Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, has arrived in Iran for high-level talks aimed at reviving negotiations between Tehran and the United States. The visit comes as Iran warns it could halt trade across key waterways if a US naval blockade on its ports continues.

Sources tell Al Jazeera that Pakistani mediators are hopeful about a breakthrough on Iran’s nuclear programme.

A high-level Pakistani delegation has travelled to Iran to hold talks focused on arranging a fresh round of negotiations between Iran and the United States, a week before their fragile truce is due to expire.

Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir is heading the delegation that arrived in Tehran on Wednesday evening, according to Iranian state media. It said he came with a new message from the US and plans to coordinate a second round of US-Iran talks, after an initial round in Islamabad ended on Sunday without a deal to end the war.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi is also joining mediation efforts in Tehran, while Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is in Saudi Arabia for the first stop in a four-day Gulf tour.

Pakistan’s diplomatic blitz comes as competing US and Iranian sea blockades strain tensions – and the global economy – but amid indications of progress towards a deal to end the war, which has killed 3,000 people in Iran and spiralled across the Middle East.

“The urgency is being driven by the ceasefire expiring on April 22, and Pakistani officials are hoping they can get that extended,” said Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett from Islamabad. “Sharif will try and convince regional partners to also use their leverage to convince the US to participate in new talks with Iran and make sure there is no diplomatic line-crossing.”

Washington ‘feels good’ about potential deal

The latest mediation appears bolstered by optimistic comments from US President Donald Trump, who said the world should brace for an “amazing two days” as the war with Iran is close to over.

Trump also said his negotiators were likely to return to Pakistan, thanks largely to the “great job” Munir was doing to moderate the talks.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later reiterated that additional talks with Iran would likely go forward in Islamabad. “We feel good about the prospects of a deal,” she told reporters on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, the US military said its naval blockade on all Iranian ports was still in effect, with US forces “present, vigilant and ready to ensure compliance”.

The blockade, which Iran’s military slammed as a violation of the ceasefire, turned nine ships away as of Wednesday, according to US Central Command.

The commander of Iran’s joint military command, Ali Abdollahi, threatened to halt trade in the region if the US did not lift its blockade. He also warned Iran would retaliate by blocking trade through the Red Sea along with the Gulf and Sea of Oman.

‘Detractors on all sides’

Mediators in the conflict are pushing for a compromise on three main sticking points – Iran’s nuclear programme, control of the Strait of Hormuz, and compensation for wartime damages.

Iran’s Foreign Minister spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has said Iran is open to discussing the type and level of its uranium enrichment, but his country “based on its needs, must be able to continue enrichment”, according to Iranian state media.

Sources told Al Jazeera that Pakistani mediators are optimistic about a potential major breakthrough on the nuclear front, which is the reason for Munir’s rare diplomatic trip.

“It looks like there is some agreement in the making, but we’ve been cautioned by sources [close to the mediation effort] that there are detractors on all sides,” said Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid from Doha.

He said the detractors include elements “in Tehran, in Washington, DC, and biggest of them all, according to Pakistani sources, is Israel, which does not want a peace deal and wants a perpetual war in the region”.

The Cold War-era Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne might have been plagued with issues, but there’s no doubt it was among the world’s most advanced helicopters of its day. The AH-56 was so fast, and its features so ahead of their time, that the U.S. Army has decided to port over its name for its highly anticipated MV-75 tiltrotor, now officially named the Cheyenne II. The name also continues the Army’s tradition of naming its helicopters after great Native American tribes, and will find its place among icons like the Apache, Chinook, and Lakota.

In 2022, the Army picked a design from Bell, based on that company’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor, as the winner of its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition. In January of this year, the Army confirmed to TWZ that it planned to accelerate its timeline for the MV-75 by multiple years, fielding the first examples in 2027 versus 2031.

The rollout took place today at the Army Aviation Association of America’s Army Aviation Warfighting Summit in Nashville, Tennessee. Speaking to journalists, including TWZ, before that event, Maj. Gen. Clair A. Gill, the commanding general of the Army Aviation Center and Portfolio Acquisition Executive — Expanded Maneuver Air, announced the MV-75’s rollout as “a pivotal moment for Army Aviation, for our soldiers.”

In keeping with other Army rotorcraft, the MV-75’s name also honors a Native American tribe (more accurately, two tribes), the Cheyenne.

As Maj. Gen. Gill explained: This name reflects more than heritage. It reflects identity. The Cheyenne people inhabited the Great Plains for 400 years, adapting to a harsh and unforgiving environment as highly proficient hunters and gatherers. Their way of life required constant mobility, organized around nomadic buffalo hunting, enabling them to assemble, disassemble, and move quickly to meet the demands of their environment. In many aspects, that same ability to rapidly organize, reposition, and operate with precision is reflected in the MV-75 platform.”

“Life in that environment demanded resilience and strength,” Gill continued. “Tribes navigated rivalries, dirt, conflict, and adapted as Westward expansion reshaped the landscape around them. Today, the Cheyenne are represented by the Northern Cheyenne tribe in Montana, in the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes in Oklahoma, whose legacy reflects the proud and enduring warrior tradition, ground and protection, provision and leadership. Those values demand capability, and in today’s fight, that capability comes in the form of speed, range, lethality, and adaptability. That spirit of mobility, resilience, and disciplined strength is what the name Cheyenne II represents.”

As for the other, historical Cheyenne, the AH-56, this was a first-generation attack helicopter drafted during the Vietnam War. Most impressively for the time, the helicopter could hit a 224-mile-per-hour cruise speed and dash at speeds up to 240 miles per hour, driven by a nearly 4,000-horsepower turbine engine and a pusher propeller on the tail boom.

F 03873 US Army Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne multi weapon attack Helicopter

While it boasted incredible performance and was packed full of advanced features, the AH-56 was destined for failure. A combination of technical issues, program management shortfalls, changing procurement priorities, high cost, and a fatal crash in 1969 saw the program terminated. But despite never entering service, the Cheyenne left a profound impact on the concept of close air support and attack helicopter design and today holds a special place in military aviation history.

On the other hand, there are plenty of obvious differences between the AH-56 and the MV-75, not least their missions. They also had different prime contractors, and, the Army must hope, will have very different outcomes.

Maj. Gen. Gill continued: “What the [AH-56] Cheyenne was when it was initially conceived in the 1960s was a transformational leap ahead in technology. It was a rotorcraft when we were still learning how helicopters flew and how we could get the maximum utility, speed, and range out of them. And the Cheyenne, at the time that it was developed, was completely different. It had a pusher prop on it that allowed it to achieve speeds that we hadn’t seen before. You could draw a lot of parallels between going from the current fleet of rotorcraft that we fly, that is really 1960s, 1970s-era technology … to what we’re doing with the tiltrotor technology. Twice as far, twice as fast, vertical takeoff and landing, but flying at airplane speeds. You can certainly draw the metaphor there if you want, between the AH-56 back in the late 1960s and the MV-75 today.”

Continuing on the transformational theme, Brent G. Ingraham, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology, provided his assessment of the MV-75, describing it as “a generational capability for the Army,” and one that “truly fundamentally changes how commanders think about distance, time, and maneuver on the battlefield.”

Ingraham continued: “It combines the vertical lift of a helicopter with the speed and range of an airplane, allowing us to project combat power from safer distances, penetrate deeper into contested environments, and deliver soldiers where they are needed most, faster than we ever have before.”

For the soldier, this means “restoring full-squad insertion at extended range, expanding medevac reach well beyond today’s Golden Hour, enabling large-scale, long-range air assault operations that can reshape the battlefield,” Ingraham added. Just as critically, the Cheyenne II will be able to self-deploy globally, reducing cost, complexity, and response time in a crisis. This is also especially relevant for future operations in the Indo-Pacific region, where operating locations and objectives are likely to be dispersed across large areas with limited options for making intermediate stops.

Ingraham also noted another key aspect of the program, namely the incredibly aggressive schedule to get it into service. Claiming the program as an “acquisition success story,” he described the team moving “with urgency while maintaining discipline.”

The MV-75 is designed around a modular, open-systems approach, with a digital backbone that should make it easier to adapt and upgrade as the program evolves.

“That means we can rapidly integrate new technologies, adapt to emerging threats, and avoid the costly redesigns of the past,” Ingraham said.

Ingraham confirmed that the fielding timeline is being accelerated, which means the first Cheyenne II unit should be equipped in Fiscal Year 2030. Exactly how realistic that ambition is is something that we will discuss in a follow-on story.

As Ingraham said, speed matters, not just in the air, but in acquisition as well.

“We did it through strong partnerships across industry, the requirements community, and our operational units like the 101st [The 101st Airborne Division, the Army’s premier air assault unit, and the first unit set to get MV-75s], ensuring this platform is not just technologically advanced, but operationally relevant from day one. Simply put, the MV-75 Cheyenne II is how we deliver capability at the speed of relevance.”

For a rotary-wing program that puts a lot of emphasis on speed, its new Cheyenne II name is especially appropriate. Let’s just hope its warp-speed development doesn’t end the same way as its partial namesake.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com