Combat

Modern conflicts are not just waged by state sponsored armed forces. In the last two decades there has been a rapid growth in the international recruitment of Private Military Companies (PMCs), used for everything from protecting top-level diplomats from harm in the Middle East to defending resource mining sites throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

These commercial security contractors are indispensable partners to states, NGOs and corporations the world over. The growth of privatized conflict presents structural issues for international law and diplomacy.

The Loopholes of Modern Legal Systems in War

Among the most consistent and frequent challenges to global peace and security is the glaring accountability vacuum relating to non-state actors. When a uniformed state soldier is found to have committed crimes they are subject to the rigorous legal structures of the military justice system, including the Geneva Convention. By comparison, PMC operators often exist in a legal grey area.

Host nations where such operators act, often experience a level of domestic instability where their own legal systems are overstretched, or politically weak to effectively take action against powerful private security forces. The nations routinely lack either the will or capacity to pursue legal action against heavily armed foreign PMC personnel. The home states of PMCs are never eager to prosecute for alleged offences committed abroad by the corporations which they sanction. This leads to an accountability vacuum.

Bringing the War-Zone Back Home

Attempts by domestic prosecutors to seek convictions for offenses such as murder or assault against their country’s PMC operators has led to lengthy and complex legal proceedings. Acts normally described a felony assault charge were made all the more difficult due to a defence team pointing to the hostile environment, self-defense and chain of command arguments during combat.

Diplomatic Fallout and Tensions

International Cooperation Needed for PMC Regulation

A new hybrid-electric heavy-lift cargo drone has been unveiled by the defense arm of U.S. company BETA Technologies. The MV250 debuted in the static display at the Farnborough International Airshow 2026, taking place in England this week. The vehicle shown at the airshow hasn’t flown, BETA Technologies confirmed, although it is described as being built using “all-flyable components.”

The new drone is a military adaptation of BETA Technologies’ Alia 250 electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which can carry five passengers or an equivalent load of cargo, plus the pilot. TWZ and other journalists today spoke to officials from BETA Technologies at Farnborough.

“The basic physics of the MV250 enable significantly longer range, higher speed, and a lower cost of operations when compared to tiltrotor and legacy platforms,” said Kyle Clark, founder and CEO of BETA Technologies. However, the claim that the MV250 exceeds the performance of a tiltrotor doesn’t stack up, based on published figures. “I believe we should be offering our military the most robust and best equipment in the world to maintain superiority and thus deterrence,” Clark added.

The uncrewed MV250 is primarily intended for cargo transport, with freight loaded and unloaded through an upward-opening nose visor. It can also deploy air-launched effects (ALEs) from a set of side-mounted launch tubes. A similar concept is currently being pitched by Sikorsky, with its uncrewed version of the Black Hawk helicopter, dubbed the U-Hawk, which is also intended to be able to fire dozens of ALEs, such as surveillance and reconnaissance drones and loitering munitions.

Other roles include casualty and medical evacuation, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).

BETA Technologies has also proposed that the drone can be used as a forward-located tactical power source, providing up to 500 kilowatts to troops on the ground for command and control, counter-drone, electronic warfare, or directed energy weapon applications.

In terms of cargo capacity, the MV250 has a cabin volume of 250 cubic feet for a payload of 2,000 pounds.

Published performance specifications include an operational radius of more than 250 nautical miles, a cruising speed in excess of 170 knots, and a ferry endurance of 12 hours at 20,000 feet.

The propulsion system involves four fixed-pitch propellers which provide for the VTOL capability. These are mounted on long booms that connect the 50-foot-span wings with the V-shaped tail.

Meanwhile, forward propulsion is provided by a single variable-pitch pusher propeller mounted in the rear of the fuselage.

Since it has a hybrid-electric drive, the turbine engine — mounted above the rear fuselage — doesn’t directly power the various propellers. Instead, it directly feeds a high-voltage bus, recharging the batteries, and powering the electric motors that spin the propellers. The engine can also be stopped, and the battery can provide power, which is highly reliable.

The MV250’s turbogenerator has been developed with GE Aerospace and is compatible with a range of NATO-compatible fuels.

Proving hybrid-electric concepts in military aviation has long been a goal, as operators seek to harness the benefits promised by the combination of fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, and enhanced operational flexibility. The last of these points is reinforced by the reduction in the number of moving parts compared to more conventional configuration, including losing the traditional drive train, reducing the risk of component failure and easing the burden on spare parts and maintenance man-hours.

Hybrid-electric propulsion offers inherent advantages when it comes to reducing infrared and acoustic signatures.

The drone relies on Sikorsky’s MATRIX system to provide full autonomy. At a minimum, the MV250 should be capable of autonomously navigating along predetermined routes using programmed waypoints, establishing a practical baseline for uncrewed logistics operations. Beyond this, more advanced autonomous capabilities — such as dynamically replanning flight paths and responding in real time to emerging threats, obstacles, or changing mission conditions — would significantly enhance operational effectiveness, particularly during resupply missions in contested or high-risk environments.

BETA x Sikorsky

Like other disruptors in the defense sector, BETA Technologies is looking to leverage its experience in the commercial realm to shake up the development cycles that the U.S. Army, Marines, and Air Force have previously relied on.

“Those organizations would wait years for external defense government funding to then build a very complicated and expensive, bespoke defense-only project,” Larry Smith of BETA Technologies said. “That typically will result in it being over schedule and over budget. Well, alternatively, what BETA is doing is using internal funding to rapidly create viable prototypes, not mockups, based on our commercial core technologies.”

Also speaking today, Kyle Clark emphasized how BETA Technologies can use advanced design and manufacturing techniques to influence the speed and scalability of production. He described “a really thoughtful composites integration,” in which all the components are bonded using something much like “a big panini press.” Clark continued: “There are no fasteners in that fuselage, so we can make it inexpensively and meet the demands of the military. When the call comes and says, ‘Can you give us 600 of these aircraft?’ The answer is yes, and the cycle time is graduated in hours and not months.”

As an example of how the design and manufacturing process has been refined, Clark noted how the company went from 14,000 fasteners and 580 parts in the wing, to fewer than 300 parts and zero fasteners. Consequently, the manufacturing time was cut from six weeks to a matter of hours.

Although distinguished by its hybrid-electric propulsion system, the MV250 enters an increasingly crowded market for VTOL-capable cargo drones.

Established helicopter manufacturers also have a stake here, with conversions of existing crewed rotorcraft.

These include the MQ-72C Lakota Connector, which is stated to carry a maximum payload of around 4,000 pounds, including slung loads, and the Airbus U145, adapted from the H145 light helicopter, with a payload of up to 2,600 pounds. You can read more about the MQ-72C in our previous coverage of that aircraft, here and here.

At the smaller end of the scale is the R66 Turbinetruck, based on the proven Robinson R66 airframe, which can carry a load of 1,300 pounds internally, or external loads supported via a cargo hook. The Turbinetruck uses the same MATRIX autonomy system as used in the MV250 and others. In a similar category to the Turbinetruck is the Uncrewed 505, a development of the Bell 505. Both those aircraft are set to be tested by the U.S. Marine Corps as that service seeks to field platforms that can rapidly resupply Marines in contested environments.

Robinson Unmanned | The Future of Autonomous Rotorcraft is Here

Based on published figures, the MV250 would seem to fall between the Lakota Connector and the U145 at one end of the scale, and the Turbinetruck and Uncrewed 505 at the other.

As for the Marines, they have been very much at the forefront of exploring the potential of uncrewed rotary-wing aircraft for use in future fleets of autonomous cargo drones. The Marine Corps considers uncrewed aerial and seagoing logistics “connectors” to be critical enablers of future expeditionary and distributed operations, particularly in a potential high-end conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific.

The U.S. Army is also looking at similar concepts, albeit currently at the larger end of the scale. Work includes optionally crewed and uncrewed versions of the H-60 Black Hawk series. The U-Hawk demonstrator, a fully uncrewed version of the Black Hawk helicopter, is intended to carry cargo and deliver launched effects and features clamshell doors in the nose. At the heavier end of the scale, Boeing has said its future plans for the H-47 Chinook include creating a path toward an uncrewed version of the aircraft.

Introducing the S-70UAS™ U-Hawk™

However, these capabilities are also attracting growing interest from military services around the world.

Based on a commercial design, the MV250 — or a version of it — also has significant potential in the civilian space. Missions here could include disaster response and firefighting, but it would be equally well suited to cargo transport, particularly for remote resupply operations and logistics support to offshore platforms and isolated inland locations.

Overall, this is another example of emerging eVTOL capabilities bleeding into traditional rotary-wing defense segments, and we are likely to see much more of it in the future.

While the MV250 remains in the prototype stage, it reflects a broader shift in military aviation toward autonomous logistics platforms derived from commercial technology. As armed forces seek faster, more flexible ways to sustain distributed operations, aircraft like the MV250 could help redefine how cargo, supplies, and even combat capabilities are delivered on future battlefields, but it will also be entering an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Anduril’s YFQ-44 Fury Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) caught the attention of aircraft trackers yesterday evening when it appeared to leave its developmental home at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville and flew alongside its Learjet chase aircraft west. The pilotless ‘fighter’ would end up recovering at America’s central hub for uncrewed aircraft operations, Creech Air Force Base in southern Nevada, home of the MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-170 Sentinel. It is the first time that we know of that Fury has been hosted at Creech. TWZ has now found out what Fury will be doing there and what it will soon be joined by.

The USAF’s CCA program is really picking up steam, with both of the Increment One down-select aircraft – Anduril’s YFQ-44 Fury and General Atomics’ YFQ-42 Dark Merlin – having been chosen for production. Now, the next step in their ongoing development is imminent. Both types will be hosted by Creech for an exercise that will test the CCAs’ ability to operate from austere locales with minimal logistical footprint, and often on the move from location to location, under the USAF’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) combat doctrine. This operational concept was baked into the CCA requirements from the get-go, which you can read all about here.

A USAF spokesperson responded to our inquiry about Fury’s arrival at Creech with the following statement:

“From July 20-24, 2026, the Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) Experimental Operations Unit (EOU) is conducting an Agile Combat Employment (ACE) exercise at Creech AFB, Nevada. Military operators are leading end-to-end ground and flight operations for both the YFQ-42 and YFQ-44 to build tactical concepts, test lean sustainment, and refine Air Force-led human-machine teaming alongside observers from the Royal Netherlands Air Force.“

“CCA testing is taking place at a combination of government-owned and contractor-owned facilities. Testing is occurring at sites that allow us to evaluate CCA performance in realistic operational scenarios. Further details are protected for operational security.“

The CCA EOU was stood up exactly for these kinds of trials. The unit is working to blaze a path for the service to operationalize its CCA ambitions, and its personnel certainly have their work cut out for them. Some of the biggest concerns surrounding the CCA concept have more to do with logistics, maintenance, integration with the manned fighter force, and above all else, building trust, than with how they will shoot down other aircraft. This exercise is clearly aimed at reducing risks in these areas and adding clarity to what pages will be needed in the USAF’s future CCA playbook.

The timing is especially relevant, too. The EOU just got done with testing the same ACE concepts in the Pacific with Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat CCA as part of Exercise Valiant Shield. This should provide a good baseline to compare with the capabilities of the YFQ-44 and YFQ-42.

A similar exercise happened at Edwards Air Force Base in California in April of this year, but, at the time, just the YFQ-44 Fury could attend. The Dark Merlin had an accident and was in a stand-down period while the cause was understood and resolved. Dark Merlin has been back in the air for some time now, and the USAF placed a huge vote of confidence in both designs with their decision to move them into production.

It’s also worth noting that the Fury that flew to Creech AFB, serial number 25-1003, was the same one that recently made history as the first American CCA to fire an air-to-air missile.

New test footage: first missile shot from YFQ-44A.

YFQ-44A executed an end-to-end, beyond-line-of-sight strike against a simulated target.

The test, executed out of @EdwardsAFB, represents an important step in turning CCA into an operational capability. pic.twitter.com/70cRIs6uXJ

— Anduril Industries (@anduriltech) July 15, 2026

There is a remarkably large amount of pressure on the CCA program, overall. Much is being bet on this technology as a way to help provide the USAF’s aging force with a tactical edge and to furnish the combat mass needed to confront a near-peer opponent on their own turf – China. And this adversary is moving ahead with its own loyal wingman efforts at what appears to be a rapid pace.

Regardless, there is still much to learn about actually employing CCAs in a true end-to-end combat context, and this appears to be what this latest exercise at America’s premier drone base is all about.

Contact the author: Tyler@twz.com

BAE Systems revealed the Brontanax today, a new collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) loyal wingman drone designed for use by the U.K. Royal Air Force. Its unveiling comes less than a week after the service launched its new CCA program, named Storm Fighter, as it seeks to build what it describes as “Europe’s first sixth-generation air force.”

The Brontanax prototype was presented today at the Farnborough International Airshow in England, during an event attended by the United Kingdom’s newly appointed Defense Secretary Wes Streeting. The prototype — rather than a technology demonstrator — was built in secret at BAE Systems’ facility in Warton, Lancashire.

The aircraft is now being prepared for ground-based testing at Warton prior to flight testing within U.K. airspace, and there are reports that it could take part in a NATO exercise as early as next year.

The appearance of the Brontanax also comes a day after BAE Systems revealed details of how it’s exploring using the Eurofighter Typhoon to control CCAs as part of a broader effort to roll out new capabilities for the jet. Ultimately, however, it appears that the Brontanax effort will also, at the very least, inform the kinds of drones that will also accompany the U.K. F-35 and the future Tempest combat jet into battle.

BAE Systems says the Brontanax is roughly the size of its Hawk advanced jet trainer, which is around 41 feet long, with a wingspan of approximately 33 feet. The manufacturer did not, however, provide details of its planned performance, nor of its critical autonomy system, and the degree to which it will be able to perform missions and functions, absent from human control.

The name Brontanax means “thunder king” in ancient Greek.

We had already gotten a look at the outward appearance of the Brontanax when BAE Systems published a rendering of a pair of the drones when the Storm Fighter program was launched last week.

As we stated at the time, the notably stealthy aircraft has some features reminiscent of renderings of the Tempest, including large-area trapezoidal wings and cropped outward-canted vertical stabilizers. There is a prominent chine line and a faceted fuselage. It also features a shovel-like nose plus low-observable apertures. The drone has a wedge-shaped ventral air intake, partially shrouded by a prominent ‘lip,’ and this feeds a serpentine inlet. The end result is not likely to be a very low observable (VLO) overall design, but certainly low observable (LO) one.

Now that we have seen the finished Brontanax, it is also apparent how deep the fuselage is, suggesting generous internal space for fuel and stores. The landing gear, with a twin-wheel nose unit and substantial mains, looks notably robust to deal with heavier loads, likely with an eye toward carrier launch and recovery and austere airfield operations.

A front view of the drone reveals a blister in the nose, likely housing a camera for flight testing, and there are data probes for the same function. It looks like there is a low-observable aperture behind that blister, which could accommodate an infrared search and track system, or other sensor, in an operational configuration.

Initially, the Brontanax prototype is fitted with a Williams turbofan engine, but thought is also being given to using Rolls-Royce’s Orpheus powerplant family.

In terms of missions, BAE Systems says the Brontanax is intended to provide electronic warfare, precision strike, and air-to-air capabilities. Previously, Luke Pollard, the U.K. minister for defense readiness and industry, had said that the Storm Fighter program would “deliver guardian angel and attack dog drones.”

BAE Systems has also described an experimental scenario in which CCAs armed with very long-range Meteor air-to-air missiles extended the reach, effectiveness, and the combat mass of Typhoons in the air defense role. BAE Systems officials confirmed today that the Brontanax drone’s internal weapons bay is compatible with all weapons currently in service with the Royal Air Force.

The focus on electronic warfare reflects growing U.K. interest in this area, with other examples including Storm Shroud, which will provide the Royal Air Force with a new uncrewed electronic warfare drone that will enter service this year. Last week, the Royal Air Force announced another new EW drone, named Storm Chrome.

StormChrome is likely to be a longer-range stand-in electronic warfare drone with similar capabilities to the current Tekever AR3-based StormShroud, but much longer range – able to support deep strike missions by crewed aircraft and drones. Leonardo BriteStorm payload is likely. pic.twitter.com/JNzCXk4Pri

— JamesFennell MBE (@FennellJW) July 18, 2026

Surprisingly, the ability of the Brontanax, or a variant of it, to operate from aircraft carriers is not referenced beyond a short clip in a BAE Systems video. Under Project Vanquish, the Royal Navy plans to demonstrate a fixed-wing, short takeoff and landing autonomous collaborative platform (ACP) from a Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier before the end of 2027. The ACP terminology has been used in the United Kingdom in the past and is broadly equivalent to CCA, and BAE Systems may well plan to adapt the Brontanax for this naval requirement, or a follow-on one, too.

Simon Barnes, the group managing director of BAE Systems’ Air sector, provided more details about the Brontanax, including the fact that, as well as being operated by a Typhoon pilot, the drone can be controlled by a mission commander on the ground.

An open architecture and modular design are intended to future-proof the Brontanax, making it easier to adapt to meet evolving threats, while maintaining operational relevance.

Although it hasn’t commented on its level of ‘attritability,’ BAE Systems is clearly looking to offer a lower-cost air combat platform that can also be produced at scale, if required. According to The Telegraph, the company says the Brontanax will come with a price tag around a quarter of that of the Typhoon. The unit cost of a Typhoon varies dramatically depending on where you look and from what time period. If using a general figure of $115M each, the drones would cost around $28.5M each. This is in line with the cost of CCAs being developed in the U.S., for instance. Still, all this depends on how the cost of the Typhoon is being calculated, and the price range can be pretty vast.

“We recognize armed forces are being challenged to meet the demands of speed, adaptability and scale,” Barnes said. “Our collaborative combat aircraft will provide the ability to extend the reach of crewed aircraft, generating greater combat mass at lower cost, while keeping pilots out of harm’s way.”

On an industrial level, the new CCA has been designed and built by BAE Systems’ FalconWorks, its rapid prototyping team, paid for using the company’s own research and development budget.

Cognizant of the fact that other companies, including more established CCAs, will also be competing for the Royal Air Force’s Storm Fighter requirement, BAE Systems is stressing the homegrown nature of its Brontanax.

“This capability represents a significant company investment in the U.K.’s future of air power and builds on our long-standing commitment to innovation,” Barnes explained. “Alongside supporting defense priorities, it will strengthen the U.K.’s sovereign defense ecosystem by creating opportunities for SMEs, suppliers and partners across the country.”

Competition is still likely to come from the United States, in particular, including the Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat, in which BAE Systems is also involved, and the British firm is also working in collaboration with Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division, which is also heavily involved in CCAs. Other U.S. pitches could come from Northrop Grumman, Kratos, or General Atomics, which has pitched to the United Kingdom a carrier-capable member of its highly modular Gambit drone family.

In its Defense Investment Plan, published last month, the U.K. government confirmed a $406-million investment in the Storm Fighter CCA program.

Since BAE Systems is already working alongside the Royal Air Force on its CCA effort, the Brontanax would appear to be well placed to win a domestic order, if the U.K. government is serious about fielding a sovereign loyal wingman capability as well as supporting local industrial capability. When it comes to low observable capabilities and stealthy drones, BAE Systems’ experience dates back many years, including a proof-of-concept UCAV testbed called Taranis.

BAE Systems – Taranis Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) First Flight [1080p]

Speaking today, Defense Secretary Streeting heralded the Brontanax as“a testament to the extraordinary talent and innovation across our sovereign defense industry.”

The Chief Of The Air Staff, Air Marshal Sir Harv Smyth, described the Brontanax as “a major step” toward the Royal Air Force’s ambition to become Europe’s first “sixth-generation air force.” He also said that the Brontanax prototype is expected to fly next year.

At this stage, the “sixth-generation air force” rubric is somewhat unclear, although Smyth described it in terms of an ecosystem in which “uncrewed air systems integrate seamlessly with our crewed platforms, exponentially increasing our survivability, our lethality, and ultimately our conventional deterrence.”

Whether the Brontanax ultimately enters Royal Air Force service remains to be seen. BAE Systems is entering an increasingly crowded field where other CCA developers already have years of flight-testing and autonomy work behind them, while integrating uncrewed aircraft with crewed fighters remains a major technical challenge. Australia, China, the United States and even Russia are ahead in terms of actual flight testing collaborative drones for fighter aircraft, so the pressure is on for the United Kingdom, especially as it grapples with fighter fleet-size constraints, which could be at least partially alleviated with the introduction of CCAs. At the same time, this drone could give the UK a banner sovereign airframe to export to allies around the globe, which could be extremely lucrative in the years to come.

All told, the appearance of the Brontanax is the clearest sign yet of Britain’s ambition to field a sovereign collaborative combat aircraft capability, underscoring the central role uncrewed systems are expected to play in the Royal Air Force’s future airpower vision.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

For the first time in U.S. military history, uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) were used as a strike weapon in combat. The use of Saronic Corsair USVs took place July 12 during a series of attacks against “dozens” of Iranian targets, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). It came as the U.S. and Iran have continued to trade strikes primarily related to control over the Strait of Hormuz, with President Donald Trump proclaiming he wants to take over the strategic chokepoint and reinstate the naval blockade on Iranian ports. Meanwhile, Iran has also been launching attacks against several Arab nations in the most recent flare-up of hostilities as a shaky ceasefire continues to disintegrate.

“Yesterday, using multiple one-way attack surface drones, CENTCOM forces successfully struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran,” the command stated on X Monday morning. “Three Corsair unmanned surface vessels hit the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, marking the first time American forces have employed sea drones in combat operations. Last night’s strikes degraded Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial shipping.”

This attack is the latest iteration of the U.S. Navy’s use of drone boats in combat. Last month, a Saronic Corsair USV rescued the crew of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache that crashed in the Gulf of Oman after it was downed by Iran. That was the first known instance of a drone boat being used to recover personnel as part of a search and rescue mission, and has major implications for these operations going forward. 

“The surface drone that assisted in last night’s rescue of the Apache crew off the coast of Oman was a U.S. Navy Corsair unmanned surface vessel operated by U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59,” U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesman, told TWZ at the time. “The task force began fielding these drones in theater in late March.”

Historic sea drone rescue near Strait of Hormuz for Apache helicopter crew members

Established in 2021, Task Force 59 is a testbed unit that is tasked with experimenting with the integration of new uncrewed and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into day-to-day naval operations across the Middle East. It appears that the task force is starting to operationalize those technologies more broadly. Using USVs in an attack role could help reduce the burden on aircraft and crews for strikes, at least against certain targets out to sea and along the coast. Above all else, it creates another vector for kinetic operations against the enemy, which complicates their defensive plans.

In a recent interview with TWZ, Saronic co-founder Rob Lehman declined to provide any details about this mission set or any others Corsair was conducting in the region. However, he did say its success will reverberate across the USV industry.

“I think the tangible impact to the industry is that autonomous systems are now perceived as real credible capabilities rather than a science and technology kind of sideshow where we’re desperately trying to prove that the tech can play a role in these types of operations,” Lehman told us. “So my hope is that not just for Saronic, but all of our partners on the commercial side, that it’s an accelerant to getting more of these capabilities in the war fighters’ hands.” 

As we have frequently reported, Ukraine has used USVs to devastating effect on the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The Magura line of drones, among others, has played a key role in this campaign.

Many successful attacks have been recorded against Black Sea Fleet vessels and facilities, forcing the general evacuation of Russian naval assets from occupied Crimea to bases in Russia proper.

The Houthi rebels of Yemen actually pioneered the operational use of kamikaze USVs years ago. We first reported about this capability in January 2017, when an explosive-laden Houthi USV struck a Saudi frigate. Before that, Iran developed various crude kamikaze USVs and those capabilities soon migrated to their Houthi proxies, which put them to use in the Red Sea for the first time.

You can see the January 2017 attack in the video below.

فيديو يؤكد الهجوم الانتحاري على الفرقاطة السعودية

As we have frequently noted, the U.S. and Iran signed a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on June 17. The MoU provided a 60-day extension of the ceasefire to iron out an agreement to end fighting throughout the region, including Lebanon, prevent Iran from seeking nuclear weapons, end U.S. sanctions and resume the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, among other points.

Control over the Strait has proven to be the biggest flashpoint, as evidenced by the aforementioned flare-up of fighting.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has continued to claim it controls the Strait.

As we noted earlier in this piece, Trump just proclaimed that the U.S. would take over the Strait.

“We hit them very hard last night,” Trump told Fox News. “Every time they send a drone, we hit them very hard. But we had a deal. What nobody knows, we had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We’ve had 10 deals with these people, and so we’re just going to hit them very hard, and we’re going to keep the Strait, and we’ll probably run it.”

“We’ll become the guardian of the Strait,” the American leader added. “Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the Strait.”

Trump suggested that the U.S. be paid for this effort.

“And we should be reimbursed for that,” he posited. “When we do that, we’re going to be reimbursed because the other nations are very wealthy.”

Trump also took to his Truth Social network to say that he is reinstating the naval blockade on Iranian ports that was removed when the MoU was signed last month. He added that the U.S. will impose a toll on shipping.

“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World,” the president proffered. “The process and formation will begin immediately.”

The U.S. military using drone boats in a kinetic strike role sets a new precedent not just for operations in the CENTCOM region, but also those in other flashpoints, including the Pacific. It comes as the Pentagon has adopted a number of other capabilities that have been ‘borrowed’ from other conflicts, including the first use of one-way attack drones loosely based on Iran’s Shahed-136, for instance. But it is interesting that these kamikaze drone boats were not deployed at the start of the war, when sea and shore targets were plentiful. That points to the Pentagon still racing to catch-up with some weapons developments from conflict zones overseas or at least at opening the aperture for how and when those technologies are used operationally.

UPDATE: 12:26 PM EDT –

The video released by CENTCOM this morning appears to show one of the Corsair USVs attacking what looks to be a Ghadir class diesel-electric midget submarine.

Given the frequency of U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s key naval base at Bandar Abbas during this conflict, it is unclear how Iran still had any of these vessels left.

As we previously reported, U.S. forces apparently sunk another Ghadir class boat in March. It was struck by an AGM-114 Hellfire missile, a U.S. official told TWZ. At the time, we questioned how many Ghadir class submarines were in Iran’s inventory before the current conflict. However, prior estimates had generally put the size of that fleet at between 16 and 20 hulls.

The Ghadir class boat in the new CENTCOM video was sitting on the dock, so it is possible Iran pulled it out after the ceasefire went into effect. 

UPDATE: 1:01 PM EDT –

Saronic released a statement.

“The U.S. military has confirmed that Saronic Corsairs were used by U.S. Central Command in operations against Iran. According to CENTCOM, three military variant Corsair unmanned surface vessels (USVs) struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility at Bandar Abbas Naval Base — the first time American forces have employed sea drones in combat operations,” the company stated. “We are proud that our technology supported this mission and helped degrade threats to commercial shipping. Saronic remains committed to delivering autonomous maritime systems that strengthen the security of the United States and its allies.”

UPDATE 2:38 PM EDT –

CENTCOM provided an update on the blockade.

“At the Commander in Chief’s direction, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces will resume blockading maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports on July 14 at 4 p.m. ET,” the command stated on X. “CENTCOM forces will enforce the blockade against vessels transiting to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas. The U.S. military continues to support traffic flow through regional waters for all vessels not violating the blockade.”

“The resumption of the U.S. blockade against Iran follows the initial implementation from April 13 to June 18,” the command added. “CENTCOM forces redirected more than 140 compliant vessels, disabled nine non-compliant ships, and allowed over 50 commercial vessels supporting humanitarian aid to pass through the blockade during the two-month period.”

“All mariners are advised to monitor Notice to Mariners broadcasts and contact U.S. naval forces on bridge-to-bridge channel 16 when operating in the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz approaches,” CENTCOM noted. “Additional information will be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice.”

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

The U.S. Navy is envisioning a future force of carrier-based uncrewed aircraft capable of attacking enemy forces at least 1,000 nautical miles away from the ship. They would also have to be able to do this without needing to refuel in mid-air, though tankers could further extend their reach. This, along with other details, offers the first real sense of the combat drone capabilities the Navy wants to add to its future carrier air wings.

The range target was included in a very broad request for information (RFI) contracting notice regarding a future Air Wing of the Future (AWOTF) “family of systems,” which Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) put out this week. NAVAIR is looking for prospective drone designs that could perform any combination of eight distinct missions. These are surface warfare; strike warfare; anti-submarine warfare; air warfare; electronic warfare; intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting (ISR&T); mobility; and logistics. A breakdown of how these missions are defined, in general terms, in the RFI is provided below.

It should be noted here that the Navy says the family of AWOTF platforms already includes the MQ-25A Stingray tanker drone, which will have a secondary surveillance and reconnaissance role, as well as future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). The Navy is still very early on in the process of defining what it wants its CCA drones to be able to do, even just initially. As TWZ has noted in the past, the MQ-25’s core design and baseline performance, specifically its extreme endurance and low-signature design, also leave open the possibility that it could be adapted to strike, advanced ISR, and other missions in the future.

“For missions involving attacking the enemy, the system must be capable of delivering effects a minimum of 1,000 NM [nautical miles; approximately 1,151 miles statute miles or 1,900 kilometers] from the CVN without refueling,” the RFI NAVAIR issued yesterday says.

The drones must be “fully compatible with both Nimitz class and Ford class CVN launch and recovery systems,” per the RFI. “The system must demonstrate increased combat effectiveness over current 4th generation platforms at a given spot factor.”

Spot factor here is the amount of physical space the platform occupies, which is a very important consideration for carrier-based aircraft, where room on the flight deck and below is at a premium. Though the focus is on prospective carrier-based designs, the RFI also highlights the Navy’s interest in vertical takeoff and landing capable drones that could operate from destroyers or other vessels. This is something the service has openly discussed in the past and that we will come back to later on.

The Navy also wants any potential designs to be “capable of integration into existing U.S. Navy Unmanned Carrier Aviation (UCA) control systems.” Furthermore, the service is asking prospective vendors to explain how their concepts “address flight autonomy (e.g., carrier pattern, taxiing) and mission autonomy (e.g., dynamic tasking / retasking, threat evasion, automated aerial refueling) maturity,” and whether “their solution is single-role, multi-role, or a modular/variant-based approach.”

The video below from Collins Aerospace offers a notional look at what crewed-uncrewed teaming involving carrier and land-based CCA-type drones might look like in the future.

Collaborative Mission Autonomy

The range requirement is particularly interesting. As adversary anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) bubbles continue to expand in scale and scope, carriers and their air wings will be pushed further and further away from target areas. Having aircraft, crewed and uncrewed, that can cover those extended distances will be vital. Having CCA-type drones, in particular, with ranges similar to or greater than that of the crewed fighters they are expected to be paired with, is also key to enabling that particular concept of operations.

Not necessarily needing tanker support to complete those missions will also be a boon. Aerial refueling capacity is always in high demand during sustained conflicts, as underscored by the recent fighting with Iran, and that need will be further magnified in a future high-end fight against a near-peer opponent like China. Those same tankers would, by extension, also be top targets for enemy forces.

The new uncrewed carrier-based aircraft RFI from NAVAIR outlines exactly this reality:

“Aligned with the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), the 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS) issued by the Department of War, and the Chief of Naval Operations’ (CNO) Fighting Instructions, the Navy is seeking capability improvements to expedite transition from a 4th-generation-centric Carrier Air Wing (CVW) to a 5th/6th-generation manned-unmanned AWoTF. This transition supports the Golden Fleet initiative and the Navy Warfighting Concept, which is a proactive approach leveraging global maritime maneuver to gain sea control, impose sea denial, and project power independently. Unmanned systems are critical to increasing Carrier Strike Group (CSG) strike capacity, extending CVW operational reach, and introducing advanced methods for executing Naval Aviation missions in a Highly Contested Environment (HCE). The objective is to evaluate the feasibility of fielding platforms with extended range and payload capacity, while minimizing deck footprint and integrating with established CVN infrastructure.”

Currently, the tactical core of the Navy’s carrier air wings remains the fourth-generation F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter, along with its EA-18G Growler electronic warfare cousin. Fifth-generation F-35C Joint Strike Fighters are starting to be increasingly in the rotation. The service is also still planning to acquire a new sixth-generation combat jet, currently referred to as F/A-XX, and is hoping to settle on a design in the coming months.

A 1,000 nautical mile range target is in line, at least in broad strokes, with what the Navy is looking for in terms of combat radius for F/A-XX. The service has said in the past that the sixth-generation jets will offer a 25 percent increase in range over the existing tactical combat jets. This would be roughly 837.5 nautical miles (just over 1,551 kilometers) based on the stated combat radius of the F-35C (670 nautical miles, or close to 1,241 kilometers). The F-35C has the longest reach, with a relevant payload, of any tactical jet in the Navy’s current inventory. The service has also previously expressed interest in finding new ways to extend the unrefueled range of its F/A-18E/Fs and EA-18Gs.

In addition, the U.S. Air Force has previously said the combat radius of its new sixth-generation F-47 fighter and its initial fleet of CCA drones will be “1,000+” and “700+” nautical miles, respectively. As TWZ has noted in the past, the estimated combat radii of both the F-47 and F/A-XX are significant, but also notably not as drastic an increase as many had been expecting or may think is necessary given the aforementioned evolution of the threat ecosystem.

As an aside, it is interesting to remember that the Navy’s abortive Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program had been aiming for a platform with a combat radius of up to 2,000 nautical miles when operating in the strike role. There was also a requirement to be able to fly surveillance and reconnaissance orbits in areas 1,200 nautical miles from the deck of a carrier. UCLASS payload requirements fluctuated, but a pair of X-47B stealthy demonstrator drones tested during the program were designed to carry two 2,000-pound-class munitions internally.

UCLASS showed much promise, and the X-47Bs achieved many firsts for carrier-based drones. Despite this, UCLASS was transformed into the radically different Carrier-Based Aerial-Refueling System (CBARS) program in the mid-2010s, which then led to the MQ-25. This was a shift that seemed abrupt to many and was done for reasons that are still not entirely clear, as TWZ has previously explored in detail in a seminal feature readers can find here.

Northrop Grumman’s X47-B Completes 1st Carrier Catapult Launch

Northrop Grumman X-47B | First to Complete Autonomous Aerial Refueling

As mentioned, the Navy is still refining the requirements for its planned carrier-based CCA drones. Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics, and Northrop Grumman are all on contract now to develop conceptual designs. So far, what we have seen are designs intended to operate from carriers in a broadly traditional manner using existing catapults and/or arresting gear. General Atomics has publicly put forward a carrier-based member of its highly modular Gambit family of drones, which are based around the common chassis concept that you can read more about here. Boeing has also previously shown a rendering of a carrier-based version of its MQ-28 Ghost Bat, a drone developed by the company’s Australian subsidiary. The Navy has also expressed specific interest in Ghost Bat.

It is also worth pointing out that the NAVAIR RFI uses the term “combat radius” but also frames the requirement around “delivering effects” out to the desired range without the need for refueling. This might leave the door open to concepts that use stand-off munitions and/or other capabilities to extend the functional reach of the drone, even if its actual combat radius is under 1,000 nautical miles.

As mentioned earlier, the RFI also discusses VTOL drone operations for vessels other than carriers. Concepts of operations that involve launches from carriers (or other ships) and recovery at tertiary points at sea (or on land) could also have impacts on the range equation. Depending on their design and performance, drones could be launched from forward locations and then recover aboard carriers further to the rear, too.

Shield AI has notably talked about exactly this kind of flexibility as being a key benefit of its still-in-development X-BAT stealthy jet-powered combat drone. X-BAT is designed to take off and land vertically using nothing more than a trailer-based launch and recovery system. Shield AI is aiming for a maximum range of 2,000 nautical miles for the drone, which you can learn about in far more detail here

X-BAT: Earth Is Our Runway

The Navy, in cooperation with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has explored other relevant ship-based uncrewed VTOL concepts in the past, as well.

AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY (ANCILLARY)

There are also drone designs that can be launched and/or recovered in very different ways. The U.S. Marine Corps’ first CCA-type drone will be a version of the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie that can operate from traditional runways, as well as make rocket-assisted takeoffs using static launchers. Earlier Valkyrie variants can also be launched using the latter method, and are recovered via parachute. The new MQ-58s for the Marines will still need to touch down on a runway at the end of a sortie, but this mix of capabilities still offers significant additional operational flexibility.

Beyond exploring specific design concepts and capability mixes, NAVAIR’s RFI makes clear that the Navy is very much still refining its overall vision for what the uncrewed complement of future carrier air wings will look like. Senior service officials have said in the past that the goal is for the total makeup of carrier air wings to eventually be 60 percent or more uncrewed.

At the same time, the Navy has acknowledged that it has been moving more slowly than the Air Force and Marines with its plans to develop and field a carrier-based CCA fleet. The NAVAIR RFI also points to efforts now to expand that work, but it remains unclear when operational CCAs, or any other future uncrewed members of the AWOTF, will appear on the decks of U.S. carriers. The Navy has consistently said that it is focused first on fielding the much-delayed MQ-25, which will then help serve as a ‘pathfinder’ for other drones. The service is now targeting next year to finally reach initial operational capability with the Stingray, something that was originally scheduled to happen in 2024.

What we do know now is that the Navy also sees a combat radius of at least 1,000 nautical miles as a key threshold requirement for uncrewed tactical elements of its future carrier air wings.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

For several months, Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport was so packed with U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tankers deployed for the fight against Iran that officials in Jerusalem complained about the toll that presence was taking on airport operations. The issue came to a head on Tuesday, when Israel’s Transportation Minister placed a limit on how many of these jets can land at Ben Gurion Airport. The move comes despite an increase in fighting between the U.S. and Iran and with several Arab nations coming under fire from the Islamic Republic. Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced a new round of strikes against Iranian targets as the naval blockade on that nation’s ports is being restored.

While an anonymously sourced Israeli news story stated that U.S. and Israeli officials are irate about this decision, three experts we spoke with suggest that despite ratcheted-up kinetic actions, the restrictions on tanker operations at Ben Gurion will be more of an inconvenience to U.S. forces than a major problem.

At issue is the tension faced by a very busy international airport operating at the peak of summer travel season, while also having to host dozens of American tankers deployed for high-tempo combat operations that are currently not happening.

“Hundreds of thousands of plane tickets were bought by Israelis to fly and enjoy their summer vacation,” Miri Regev said earlier on Tuesday. “We promised that we will enable commercial flights and we will not cancel a single ticket because of American refueling planes.”

“Therefore I have given instructions that we will not allow any U.S. refueling tankers to land at Ben Gurion Airport beyond the agreed number of 20 planes, and the remaining planes will land at Air Force bases.”

As we reported in the past, the U.S. Air Force began sending tankers to Ben Gurion in the lead-up to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began Feb. 28.

Nine KC-46 Pegasus and five KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling jets arrived at Ben Gurion in the days before hostilities began. The number of U.S. Air Force tankers, as well as the service’s cargo jets, at the airport has grown tremendously since then.

“A fleet of about 75 U.S. refuelers and cargo planes had parked at Ben Gurion Airport for many months, as part of the US military buildup in the region prior to the war,” the Times of Israel reported on Tuesday. “Following the partial removal of the tankers in recent weeks, more than 30 US refueling planes are estimated to be stationed at Ben Gurion Airport, crowding out civilian aircraft and creating a shortage of parking spaces.” 

In our previous reporting, we noted that dozens of U.S. Air Force refueling aircraft deployed to Ben Gurion Airport had been expected to stay in Israel at least until the end of this year, though those plans now appear to be in flux.

Satellite imagery indicates the US has withdrawn 32 of the roughly 60–72 aerial refueling tankers it had stationed at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, leaving about 32 as of early July 2026.

Source: @EGYOSINT pic.twitter.com/V8hKe2BfzJ

— Clash Report (@clashreport) July 7, 2026

Meanwhile, there are alternatives for the dozen or so KC-135s and KC-46s that now need a new home. The Air Force can operate tankers from several other bases in Israel as well as across the region. However, bases closer to Iran have come under dense Iranian fire and five tankers were reportedly damaged in an Iranian long-range strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in March. Operating far forward during war time, such as at the traditional hub for these operations, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, isn’t possible due to the extreme risk posed by Iranian standoff weapons. Other bases, like Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan is already packed with aircraft with little room for dozens of tankers.

As we noted earlier in this piece, the tanker limit reportedly upset U.S. and Israeli officials alike.

“Senior officials at U.S. Central Command have contacted the IDF’s top brass and Israel’s defense establishment in recent hours following the Transportation Ministry’s decision Tuesday not to allow additional American refueling aircraft to land at Ben-Gurion Airport,” according to Israel’s Ynet news outlet. “According to sources familiar with the details, the Americans were angered by the decision and made clear that it directly harms the operational needs of U.S. forces operating in the region amid the escalation with Iran. They said the refueling aircraft are a vital component of the regional deterrence and defense array.”

TWZ cannot independently confirm Ynet‘s reporting. Earlier in the day, Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, CENTCOM’s spokesman, told us that the command “will continue working with our Israeli partners to best position U.S. aircraft to support operations.”

Hawkins declined to elaborate.

“Israel is a strong military ally, and we appreciate the warm hospitality for American forces as we work shoulder to shoulder in promoting regional security and stability,” Hawkins stated.

Meanwhile, as we have noted in earlier reporting, the U.S. has already returned F-22 Raptors that were flying out of Ovda Air Base in Israel back to the United States. Other aircraft, such as A-10s and F-15Es, have also returned home from or have been replaced in the CENTCOM region. So clearly there is a lot of shifting of aviation assets taking place even amid current operations.

A former senior U.S. Air Force leader acknowledged the tensions inherent in operating military aircraft for combat operations out of a civilian airport. However, Ben Gurion is considered one of the most important airfields in the region, the former official told us. 

Ben Gurion’s location, situated just to the southeast of Tel Aviv, roughly in the center of the country, is a big factor, both in terms of geography and Israel’s vaunted integrated air defense system (IADS), the former leader added.

Still, he suggested that the new limits at Ben Gurion don’t automatically mean a restriction in U.S. air operations against Iran or in support of partner forces.

Given the existing options in the region, CENTCOM and the Air Force will be looking at what runway, ramp space, and equipment availability there is elsewhere.

“Flow control is something we’re always concerned about during combat operations,” he explained, adding that planners will consider distance to where the tankers have to orbit, proximity to potential threats, and the capacity to launch sorties.

“They really work in advance to create the best mix of protection, survivability, and an operational envelope,” the former senior leader noted.

Retired Air Force Col. Troy Pananon, who once commanded Mildenhall Air Base, a tanker installation in the U.K., surmised that the Ben Gurion restrictions will have limited effects.

“I would say the base has an impact on the overall plan, but it doesn’t limit the ability to execute,” said Pananon, who was quick to point out he has no inside information about current operations. “Tanker planners can and should modify the plan to ensure there is enough fuel airborne in the AOR to accommodate the requirements for the receivers servicing the designated targets for the day. In other words, if they are limited in capacity at base A, they can or will supplement from base B, or adjust loiter times or targets.”

“Air campaigns by nature are a fluid event and stresses the importance of planners, leadership and C2 [command and control,” he added.

Israel is carrying out a balancing act when it comes to Ben Gurion, a high-ranking IDF official told us.

The airport “is effectively Israel’s only major international civilian airport,” he noted. “Haifa and Ramon handle only a very small fraction of Israel’s civilian air traffic. Operationally, Ben Gurion can accommodate roughly 20 U.S. Air Force refueling tankers. Beyond that number, the impact on civilian aviation becomes significant.”

However, “at the same time, Ben Gurion is arguably the safest airport in the region for U.S. aircraft,” the IDF official pointed out. “That is why discussions are currently focused on finding the right balance between parking tankers at Ben Gurion and dispersing them among Israeli Air Force bases. In my view, this is fundamentally an operational, economic and civil aviation issue, not a political one.”

The issue of U.S. Air Force tankers at Ben Gurion interfering with civil aviation is not new.

“The presence of the aircraft—not the U.S. military—is causing significant operational difficulties at Ben Gurion Airport, as they are parked almost everywhere possible at the airport,” Israel’s N12 News reported on X back in May.

בישראל התקבלו מסרים מהאמריקנים שלפיהם עשרות מטוסי התדלוק המוצבים בנמל התעופה בן גוריון צפויים להישאר בארץ לפחות עד סוף השנה האזרחית. נוכחות המטוסים שלא הצבא האמריקני מעוררת קשיים משמעותיים בתפעולו של נתב”ג, שכן הם חונים כמעט בכל מקום אפשרי בנמל@Dean_Fisher_

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) May 18, 2026

How long the limitations at Ben Gurion last remains an open question, especially should Israel find itself at war again with Iran. 

As we pointed out in previous reporting, the KC-46s and KC-135s now at Ben Gurion alone are a tanker force far larger than what the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has in its inventory today. Each KC-46 also carries more fuel to offload to receivers than a KC-707 or a KC-135. During Epic Fury, when both the U.S. and Israel were attacking Iran, U.S. tankers gassed up IAF jets.

All this being said, in a time of war, these restrictions would be quickly lifted and civilian flights would decline. While moving aircraft around to other bases and still providing the majority of the refueling capacity available before the tankers’ exodus from Tel Aviv will certainly be possible, sortie rates and durations for receiver aircraft could still suffer in a sudden crisis. Seeing as these are tankers, their availability and proximity to their ‘customers’ has downstream effects. It comes down to how much gas is available in the sky at any given time versus the needs of the air operation. Luckily, America’s tanker crews and planners are masters at juggling their assets to make sure any changes in basing has a minimal impact on commanders’ needs.

The Israeli Transportation Minister’s decision comes as the prospects for a diplomatic settlement of the tensions between the U.S. and Iran seem dimmer than at any point since a ceasefire was agreed to on April 8.

As we noted earlier in this piece, CENTCOM forces “began launching an additional round of strikes on Iran to continue degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the command stated on X. “The strikes are taking place as American forces prepare to resume the naval blockade against Iranian ports and coastal areas. The blockade goes into effect at 4 p.m. ET.”

At 3 p.m. ET today, U.S. Central Command forces began launching an additional round of strikes against Iran to continue degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The strikes are taking place as American forces prepare to resume the…

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 14, 2026

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “warned Iran on Tuesday against launching future attacks on Israel, saying Tehran would face a far harsher response than in previous confrontations,” the Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.

“Do not count on it being quiet if you attack us,” Netanyahu said while speaking at the Negev Conference in Dimona. “Do not count on a rerun; this will be a different event, much more powerful.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu, today, at the Negev Conference in Dimona – in a message to Iran’s leaders:
“We are prepared for any scenario. I can tell you only one thing, and I will say this to the leaders of Iran: Do not count on it being quiet if you attack us. Do not count on a… pic.twitter.com/tbgRd7PNon

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) July 14, 2026

Given all this, it does not appear there will be much of a reduction in the need for U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tankers in the Middle East. However, where they will be based remains in flux.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

The MQ-28 Ghost Bat drone will gain a valuable opportunity to prove its relevance in a high-end coalition environment as part of Valiant Shield 26, the sprawling U.S.-led military exercise spanning Japan, Guam, Hawaii, and Australia, which began this week. It is also, as far as we know, the first time that the MQ-28 has taken part in a multinational large-force exercise of any kind. The participation of the collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) comes soon after Boeing confirmed it was conducting a separate series of test flights of the drone off the coast of southern California, part of efforts to validate autonomous operations and demonstrate rapid deployment from an allied location.

While Australia’s contribution to Valiant Shield includes a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and around 80 personnel, one of the more notable aspects is the involvement of Australian Defense Forces (ADF) aviator observers alongside a U.S.-led MQ-28 component. The arrangement will allow Australian personnel to work with operators and planners as the uncrewed aircraft is employed in a complex, multi-domain operational environment for the first time.

Directed by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Exercise Valiant Shield 2026 kicked off on Monday and continues through July 1.

“Valiant Shield demonstrates our enduring commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Adm. Steve Koehler, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a media release. “Exercising advanced multidomain capabilities with our allies ensures we continue to seamlessly innovate and operate together, project combat power together, and prevail over any challenge — together.”

The U.S. Air Force today released a series of photos showing an MQ-28 taking part in Valiant Shield. The drone was photographed at Rota, in the Northern Mariana Islands, on June 21. Accompanying captions state that the Ghost Bat will be used to advance human-machine teaming, including flying in concert with crewed fighters.

“The Department of the Air Force and its partners will analyze the aircraft’s contribution as a force multiplier that extends the reach, awareness, and survivability of crewed platforms in contested environments,” the U.S. Air Force adds.

The MQ-28 involved in the exercise is configured with an infrared search and track (IRST) sensor system in the nose. The Ghost Bat is a highly modular design, with the nose section designed to be readily swappable.

The Ghost Bat’s participation in Valiant Shield comes as Australia continues efforts to mature collaborative combat aircraft concepts, an increasingly important component of future air warfare, with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) currently very much at the forefront. Designed to operate alongside crewed fighters and other assets, like tankers and airborne early warning and control aircraft, the MQ-28 is intended to extend sensor coverage, serve as a weapons platform, and perform a variety of other missions while reducing risk to human pilots.

Valiant Shield offers a particularly relevant proving ground for the MQ-28. The exercise brings together forces from the United States, Australia, Japan, Canada, and New Zealand to train in responding to coordinated threats across the maritime, air, land, cyber, and space domains. Participants will be required to detect, track, and engage shared threats while operating across a vast geographic area and under realistic conditions.

For the Ghost Bat program, exposure to this type of coalition environment is significant. Future conflicts in the Indo-Pacific will require seamless integration between allied forces, crewed aircraft, and increasingly sophisticated autonomous systems. Observing how the MQ-28 is incorporated into a large-scale multinational exercise should provide valuable insights as Australia moves toward making its collaborative combat aircraft capabilities operational. Currently, the MQ-28 is slated to be in service with the RAAF in 2028, which would likely make it the first operational CCA anywhere in the world.

The exercise also reflects growing allied interest in integrating uncrewed systems into complex command-and-control architectures and air defense networks. As autonomous aircraft move from experimentation toward operational service, events such as Valiant Shield are becoming important venues for testing how these systems contribute to the broader fight rather than operating as standalone assets. Valiant Shield has served as a diverse test crucible in recent years, with advanced capabilities being put through their paces in a realistic, joint-force environment.

According to defense reporter Carter Johnston, the Ghost Bat’s Indo-Pacific deployment will include operations from an austere airfield led by the U.S. Air Force. This will be conducted under the Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept, something that is seen as fundamental to survival in a future conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific region. It is also notable that the U.S. Air Force’s new CCA drones are being developed from the ground up around concepts for distributed and disaggregated operations.

The exact status of the MQ-28 with the U.S. military testing community is somewhat unclear, as we have discussed before. There have been indications of Ghost Bat flight testing in the United States in the past, and the U.S. Air Force previously said it had made use of at least one MQ-28 to support advanced uncrewed aircraft and autonomy development efforts. Regardless, the Air Force, at least, has test units set up to explore exactly how to use CCAs operationally, including in an ACE-type environment. This kind of testing is now also involving the first two Air Force Increment 1 CCAs, with the YFQ-44 Fury ‘fighter drone’ prototype notably having been tested out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, helping to demonstrate how CCAs can be deployed and sustained in contested environments.

Other U.S. participants in Valiant Shield 2026 include the George Washington Carrier Strike Group, based around the aircraft carrier USS George Washington with the embarked Carrier Air Wing 5, the cruiser USS Robert Smalls, and the destroyers USS Benfold and USS Shoup.

Valiant Shield 2026 will also see the deployment of the containerized Typhon missile system in Japan. According to the Japan Ministry of Defense, the Typhon and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) will participate in Joint Integrated Anti-Ship Warfare training carried out in the waters around Kanoya and Amami Oshima Island. However, no live firing is scheduled.

The U.S. Army’s Typhon was first deployed to Japan last year, as you can read about here. The system, which can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6 multi-purpose missiles, is a growing feature of U.S. military activities in the wider Indo-Pacific region.

Returning to the Ghost Bat, it now seems that the test flights of the MQ-28 off the coast of southern California from the U.S. Navy’s base in Point Mugu, California, were an important precursor to Valiant Shield. In fact, the same drone that was flown out of Point Mugu, ATS-008, is the example now involved in Valiant Shield.

Boeing had previously said its main goals of those flights were to demonstrate the maturity of the design and promote export sales. As we noted at the time, the choice of testing location also seemed to be relevant given Boeing’s involvement in the Navy’s still-evolving carrier-based CCA plans.

As for the MQ-28’s previous test campaigns, the drone has been flying in Australia since 2021, with the RAAF having received eight Ghost Bats in the pre-production Block 1 configuration.

Boeing is now building the first of a batch of nine Block 2 drones for the RAAF, which will provide an intermediate stepping stone to the fully operational Block 3 version. The Block 3 aircraft is expected to be substantially larger and have a greater range. It will also feature an internal weapons bay that can accommodate a single AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), two GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs (SDB), or equivalently sized stores.

The RAAF has employed Block 1 MQ-28s to demonstrate some important capabilities in testing so far. This includes crewed-uncrewed teaming with RAAF E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft and F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters.

When it comes to potential export sales, participation in Valiant Shield will give Japan, Canada, and New Zealand a closer look at the drone and its capabilities. Of these, Boeing has already publicly named Japan as a potential customer and has said it is exploring potential opportunities with other unnamed countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

Valiant Shield should offer the clearest indication yet of how the Ghost Bat can contribute to a coalition fight. As the United States and its allies increasingly embrace autonomous combat aircraft, the MQ-28’s performance in one of the Indo-Pacific’s largest and most complex military exercises will be watched closely as an indicator of how collaborative combat aircraft could be employed across the region in the future.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Residents in Damascus rejected US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Syria should confront Hezbollah in Lebanon. They say Syria should avoid being drawn into new regional conflicts. In a rare critique, Trump told Israel to let Syria take on Hezbollah.

The Senate Armed Services Committee believes that the U.S. Air Force is currently unable to support combat search and rescue (CSAR) operations “in a major contingency.” Legislators say they are concerned about the CSAR force structure after the Air Force trimmed its buy of HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopters and also elected to transfer some of these aircraft to the so-called Air Force District of Washington (AFDW) mission set, as you can read about here. This comes on top of concerns that the HH-60W fleet isn’t well suited for the realities of a war in the Pacific while no better solution is being sought.

The Senate Armed Services Committee released a full copy of the proposed legislation earlier this week. In this, it states that it is “concerned about CSAR force structure” in the Air Force.

Up close with the HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter at Nellis AFB for The War Zone.

The importance of the Air Force CSAR mission, and the role of the HH-60W specifically, was underscored earlier this year when the type took part in efforts to rescue the crew of an F-15E Strike Eagle shot down in Iran.

Now, the committee points to the Air Force’s decision to truncate its buy of heavily modified HH-60Ws, followed by the transfer of 26 of these from CSAR units to the AFDW to replace UH-1N Twin Huey helicopters. AFDW uses these helicopters to support continuity of government plans, contingency response, homeland operations, and ceremonial honors in the National Capital Region. Under normal circumstances, the vast majority of AFDW missions involve VIP movements.

“The committee believes that these actions have left CSAR forces unnecessarily short of the forces needed to support CSAR operations in a major contingency,” the legislators say. The committee has now called upon the Secretary of the Air Force to conduct a study of CSAR requirements and capabilities, including HH-60Ws and HC-130J Combat King IIs, and provide a report briefing to Congress before the end of March 2027.

Until that study is completed, the committee has called upon the Secretary of the Air Force to avoid making any more changes in CSAR force structure.

The Air Force had once planned to replace its AFDW UH-1Ns with new MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters, but revealed last year it was considering using HH-60Ws for this role instead. The Air Force’s proposed budget for the 2027 Fiscal Year confirmed that it was moving ahead with these plans.

As we have discussed in the past, the HH-60W will bring a substantial increase in speed, range, and payload capacity compared with the aging UH-1Ns now flying AFDW missions, while also outperforming the smaller, lighter MH-139 in each of those key metrics.

The Air Force’s current plan calls for development of the HH-60W AFDW variant to begin in Fiscal Year 2027, starting October 1, with the first aircraft entering modification the following fiscal year. Those reconfigured Jolly Green IIs would then begin replacing the increasingly outdated UH-1Ns assigned to the AFDW mission at Andrews Air Force Base (now part of Joint Base Andrews).

TWZ had previously raised the question of how the transfer of 26 HH-60Ws for the AFDW role might affect the operational capacity of the rest of the CSAR-focused fleet.

In particular, the Air Force has no plans to procure additional Jolly Green IIs despite the upcoming transfer.

As the Senate Armed Services Committee points out, the Air Force already decided to scale back HH-60W purchases, from an original program of record for 113 of the helicopters. The total planned fleet now stands at 91. This amounts to the CSAR fleet losing roughly 30 percent of its entire Jolly Green II fleet, the first of which began entering Air Force service in 2022.

The legislators point to the ongoing demand for CSAR capabilities, not just in lower-end conflicts such as the war with Iran, but especially in potential future high-end fights, such as one between the United States and China in the Pacific, where aircrew losses would be greater by an order of magnitude.

For years, TWZ has warned that the growing reach and sophistication of modern air defenses are calling into question the viability of traditional fixed-wing and helicopter CSAR missions. In a high-end conflict, especially against China in the Pacific, even stealth aircraft are expected to face significant risks inside contested airspace. The idea that a Black Hawk helicopter, no matter what is bolted onto it, is going to survive in that same environment is highly questionable, and that’s if it can even reach the rescue point at all. The distances involved in the Pacific are far greater than those in Europe or the Middle East, which the legacy CSAR fleet was largely optimized around.

Back in 2023, one of the Air Force’s senior procurement officers asserted that the HH-60W fleet would not be “particularly helpful in the Chinese area of operations” due to these reasons. The Air Force’s cuts to planned purchases of HH-60Ws reflected this reality, while other senior officials have acknowledged that the service will need to rethink how it carries out this critical mission in future wars. The issue is that the cuts didn’t result in other capabilities taking the HH-60W’s place, like uncrewed systems and tiltrotors. So now there is an emerging gap in CSAR capabilities, both in terms of new ones more aligned with the challenges of the Pacific and just any kind of CSAR capability at all. Turning a large portion of the HH-60W fleet into VIP transports certainly doesn’t help with problem.

For the time being, at least, the Air Force is heavily reliant upon its HH-60Ws, regardless of potential vulnerabilities. With orders for the Jolly Green II slashed, and more than two dozen examples slated to switch to another mission, it is perhaps not surprising that legislators want to know how the Air Force will be able to conduct CSAR in the future.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The Senate Armed Services Committee is “concerned” about the U.S. Air Force’s current plan to retire its E–11A Battlefield Airborne
Communications Node (BACN) aircraft in Fiscal Year 2028. Legislators want more details about how the service expects to plug any capability gaps that might result from axing the highly specialized communications planes. The Air Force abruptly announced plans to retire the E-11A fleet, which has more than doubled in size in recent years, and supplant it with new space-based capabilities back in April.

A formal request for a briefing on the Air Force’s plans surrounding the E-11A fleet is included in a report accompanying a draft of the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for the 2027 Fiscal Year. The Senate Armed Services Committee released a full copy of the proposed legislation and the report yesterday.

The Air Force currently has 7 BACN jets in service, which are based on several different models from the Bombardier Global Express family of business jets. The BACN package has also flown operationally in the past on one of NASA’s high-flying WB-57F research aircraft and a fleet of now-retired EQ-4B Global Hawk drones.

“The committee is aware of the Department of the Air Force’s decision to cancel the E–11 Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) capability, which has historically provided critical communications relay and data translation functions enabling joint and coalition operations, particularly in contested and communications-degraded environments,” the report says. “The committee is concerned about the operational risk associated with the loss of the E–11 BACN capability and the lack of clarity regarding the Department’s plan to mitigate resulting gaps in airborne communications, data integration, and battle management.”

“Therefore, the committee directs the Secretary of the Air Force to provide a briefing to the congressional defense committees, not later than March 31, 2027, on the Department’s plan to address capability gaps resulting from the cancellation of the E–11 BACN capability,” it continues.

The briefing needs to at least provide the following:

• “A detailed justification for the decision to cancel the E–11 BACN capability, including cost, survivability, and operational considerations.”
• “An assessment of the operational risks created by the cancellation, including impacts on joint all-domain command and control, communications interoperability, and support to combatant commander requirements.”
• “A description of alternative capabilities, programs, or concepts of operation the Department plans to employ to replicate or replace E–11 BACN functionality, including any space-based, airborne, or ground-based solutions.”
• “Associated timelines, funding requirements, and acquisition strategies for such alternatives.”
• “A description of how the Department will ensure continuity of communications relay and gateway capabilities in contested environments during any transition period.”
• “An assessment of impacts to joint and coalition interoperability, including any risks to ongoing operations or contingency plans.”

Currently, the BACN aircraft provide an extremely valuable airborne communications gateway that can be used to relay data across various waveforms between platforms in the air, at sea, and on land. The planes offer a vital way to ‘translate’ between data-sharing systems that may not otherwise be able to ‘talk’ to each other. E-11As can also provide a vital node between line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight links. During the conflict in Afghanistan, the BACN aircraft became known for providing this service and creating an active data-sharing rebroadcasting network in a country where mountainous terrain could often limit the reach of line-of-sight links.

The Air Force first announced its intention to divest the E-11A fleet earlier this year as part of the rollout of its annual budget request. The service offered few additional details publicly at that time, beyond that the Hybrid Satellite Communications (STACOM) Terminal program would provide a “bridge” capability in the near term.

Hybrid SATCOM is a capability the Air Force is working to field on a variety of aircraft, including aerial refueling tankers and cargo planes, which is intended to give them better access to government-owned and operated and commercial satellite constellations. SpaceX’s Starlink network and its government-focused cousin, Starshield, are already in particular widespread and still-growing use across the U.S. military. Distributed constellations of satellites, like the ones used for Starlink and Starshield, to support various mission requirements are changing warfighting, and the pace of those developments is accelerating.

An annual force structure report that the Pentagon released last month offers some further insights into the Air Force’s argument for retiring the E-11As.

“Predicated on the successful deployment of next-generation orbital systems, the E-11A fleet is scheduled for divestment in FY 2028,” the force structure report says. “These space-based assets will provide equivalent relay and datalink capabilities, superseding current E-11A functions and enabling a modernized transition of the mission set. Consequently, all cost savings will be reinvested into the replacement capabilities.”

“As part of a broader strategy to align resources with the most pressing operational needs, the Department of the Air Force will divest its fleet of seven E-11A aircraft, with the action planned for FY 2028,” the report adds. “This decision allows for the strategic reallocation of fiscal resources to fund more critical, high-priority service requirements and accelerate modernization efforts in other key areas.”

The Air Force’s decision regarding the E-11A came without any real warning, at least publicly. As noted, the service had significantly increased the fleet size in recent years, driven in part by the retirement of the EQ-4Bs. The aircraft had looked set to continue serving for years to come.

Demand for the capabilities BACN offers has gone well beyond Afghanistan. The aircraft continue to be heavily utilized to support active combat operations, including as part of Operation Epic Fury against Iran this year. The platform was also utilized during the mission to capture former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in January.

At the same time, there are questions about the survivability of the E-11A going forward as a non-stealthy business jet-based aircraft, especially in the context of a future high-end fight. These concerns are even pronounced for the BACN aircraft given that a key aspect of their mission set to date has involved flying within range of line-of-sight links. A growing threat ecosystem that pushes the planes further and further from the forces they are expected to support would challenge their utility.

China and Russia, in particular, are developing very long-range anti-air missiles, and the Air Force itself has warned that designs with ranges of 1,000 miles could be in service by 2050. Ever-more sophisticated anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) ‘bubbles’ will be an increasing challenge for traditional non-stealthy combat support aircraft, not just BACN, as time goes on. Even smaller adversaries like Iran and North Korea, and even some non-state actors, are continuing to field more threatening air defense systems, as well.

As an aside, the U.S. Army now views very long-range air-launched drones as a key capability to help ensure the relevance of its new Bombardier Global Express-based ME-11B High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) surveillance and reconnaissance planes in future large-scale conflicts. You can read more about the plans for HADES here.

All this being said, there is also something of an interesting parallel, very broadly speaking, between the Air Force’s current plans for the E-11A fleet and its failed Pentagon-backed attempt to cancel the E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft program. The arguments for axing the E-7 were also heavily rooted in plans for new space-based capabilities, concerns about the vulnerability of a non-stealthy aircraft in future high-end conflicts, and a general desire to shift resources to other priorities. Congress ultimately intervened to save the Wedgetail program, and the Air Force and the Pentagon have now completely changed their tone, at least publicly, on the matter.

“I know our department had taken the position that it was … other satellite ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities] that was probably going to be capable of a lot of that in the future,” Secretary Pete Hegseth said in response to a question about the E-7 at a hearing in May. “But I think that mindset was indicative of a mindset that we’ve shed, which is the divest-to-invest mindset, which was an austerity mindset, that we’re going to get continuing resolution after continuing resolution. So, we [sic] got to get rid of these platforms in order to invest in these platforms. And there are gaps that need to still be filled. And there are systems that still need to be funded that are used on the battlefield right now, say, MQ-9s, A-10s, you name it.”

Hegseth’s comments here would seem to reflect a logic that one could also apply to the E-11A fleet, at least based on the arguments the Air Force has put forward for its divestment so far.

Whether Congress intervenes now to save the BACN aircraft remains to be seen. The Air Force is still expecting to continue flying the jets through next year at least.

The Air Force will now have a chance to more formally argue before members of the Senate Armed Services Committee for moving ahead with its plan to axe the E-11As.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Airbus has pulled the wraps off the U760 Ravenstorm, a combat drone designed to operate alongside fighter aircraft in air-to-air combat, strike missions, and electronic warfare roles. The new uncrewed aircraft is part of a revamped drone portfolio from the company, which also includes a Europeanized version of the stealthy XQ-58A Valkyrie, a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) platform, various tactical solutions, counter-drone systems, as well as the U145 uncrewed helicopter that you can read more about here.

The timing of the announcement — and the unveiling of the Ravenstorm, in particular — is especially notable given the recent collapse of the Franco-German-led plan to build a crewed New Generation Fighter (NGF) aircraft, as part of the broader, pan-European Future Combat Air System (FCAS) initiative. You can read more about this development here.

On the eve of the ILA Berlin airshow, starting in the German capital tomorrow, Airbus showcased what it describes as “Europe’s most versatile drone portfolio.” The various products have been newly assigned a “U” prefix for uncrewed systems. This reflects the company’s policy of prefixing with an “A” for crewed fixed-wing aircraft, and an “H” for crewed helicopters.

“Whatever uncrewed or ‘drone’ capability our customers need to strengthen sovereign air power, we deliver,” said Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, in a company press release. “Our portfolio ranges from rapid-response drone interceptors and various tactical drones, autonomous cargo helicopters to uncrewed fighter aircraft UCCAs (uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft) operating co-operatively with crewed fighter jets.”

“On the other side of the spectrum we have the Eurodrone, our very high payload and very long endurance ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance) platform,” Schoellhorn continued. “Airbus provides the entire envelope of uncrewed capabilities required for modern multi-domain warfare. All our systems come with open architectures and a European mission system compatible with the wider European and international defence ecosystem.”

The most significant new arrival in the “U”-product line is the Ravenstorm combat drone, or U760.

A 1:1 model of the Ravenstorm will be on display at ILA. The drone is approximately 43 feet long and has a wingspan of 33 feet. In terms of rough size and general appearance, the drone strongly recalls General Atomics’ YFQ-42A ‘fighter drone’ prototype, now flying under the first phase of the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. Like the U.S. drone, the Ravenstorm features a swept, mid-wing configuration optimized for stealth and maneuverability. It also has the same twin-tail configuration. Like the YFQ-42, the Ravenstorm has a dorsal inlet, although this is closer to that which appeared on the EADS Barracuda demonstrator that flew for the first time 20 years ago. The drone is clearly optimized with low-observable (stealthy) characteristics, although the inlet is notably large and lacks the trapezoidal shape found on the YFQ-42.

At the same time, it should be noted that, when it comes to combat drones in general, many of them take on a relatively familiar form driven by similar requirements.

Airbus describes the Ravenstorm as “the next evolution” in its “roadmap towards a scalable family of uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft.” It is not clear how many related designs might be planned, and in what kinds of sizes they may come, but the company has highlighted the kinds of missions they will be expected to fly. These include air-to-surface strikes using precision-guided munitions, air-to-air defense with long and medium-range air-to-air missiles, and electronic warfare for suppressing enemy air defenses. Further offensive counter-air missions will involve UCCAs providing non-kinetic jamming.

Ravenstorm will be available in the early 2030s, according to the manufacturer, which is, interestingly, offering the new design alongside a version of the XQ-58. In Airbus parlance, the Valkyrie is designated U740 and combines the Kratos-designed airframe with Airbus’ proprietary Multiplatform Autonomous Reconfigurable and Secure (MARS) Mission System.

For the U740, Airbus provides a notably precise planned date of service entry: 2029, with the German Air Force. This would appear to reflect a specific Luftwaffe requirement for a drone in this class, although it remains unclear if the Valkyrie has been formally selected by the German military. Airbus furthermore expects the U740 to be used in operational experimentation teamed with the Luftwaffe’s Eurofighter combat jet, including demonstrating initial air-to-ground capabilities.

Returning to MARS, this is Airbus’ sovereign mission system, consisting of an AI-supported software core to enable platform autonomy. The system is scalable so that it can be used across the entire Airbus drone portfolio. It is also planned for use on the U950 Eurodrone — the new designation for the Eurodrone MALE platform. This twin-turboprop drone is now in development for missions including ISTAR, early warning, and anti-submarine warfare, and is planned to make its first flight in 2029.

As for Airbus’s two-track approach to UCCAs — U740 Valkyrie and U760 Ravenstorm — the thinking behind the two offerings, also of broadly similar sizes, likely reflects different cost points. The Valkyrie was designed from the ground up as a lower-cost aircraft and is runway-independent in its original form (since then, Kratos has announced a version with wheeled landing gear and there also exists the ability to launch the Valkyrie from a wheeled launch trolley, if required). Meanwhile, the Ravenstorm appears to be a more capable and costly platform, making it a closer match to Increment 1, the first phase of the U.S. Air Force’s CCA program.

It could be that the company has already identified specific national or service requirements (such as the Valkyrie for the Luftwaffe) that it aims to capitalize on. There could also be a plan to use the Valkyrie more for operational experimentation of the UCCA concept before focusing more on the fully sovereign Ravenstorm, including potentially scaling it up or incorporating other significant airframe changes — like higher performance, larger payload, improved low-observable characteristics.

Also unclear is the status of Airbus’s stealthy Wingman, a CCA-like concept that was unveiled at the last ILA Berlin airshow in 2024. This was also presented in the form of a 1:1 model, with a length of 51 feet and a wingspan of 39 feet. The drone was planned to be powered by the same Eurojet EJ200 turbofan as the Eurofighter, providing a proven powerplant and useful commonality.

At the time, Airbus noted that the German Air Force had “expressed a clear need” for a drone that would be able to operate in conjunction with crewed fighters before the arrival in service of the NGF, which was then slated for some time in the 2040s.

Whether the Wingman has now been abandoned entirely is unclear, but the Luftwaffe still has a requirement for an uncrewed companion that can work alongside its forthcoming Eurofighter EK electronic warfare jets. This is a role for which Airbus is earmarking the Ravenstorm, in particular, although it should be noted that the U.S. Marine Corps is also focusing heavily on the electronic warfare mission for the Valkyrie drone.

All of these Airbus efforts are being informed by experience testing the Barracuda, work on which began in 2003, initially as a ‘black program.’ After six test campaigns, the Barracuda was retired.

The company will also be leveraging prior work from the Airbus Low Observable UAV Testbed (LOUT) program. A stealthy demonstrator, LOUT was not flown but was run by the company in strict secrecy until finally it was publicly disclosed in 2019, as you can read about here.

Undoubtedly, the significance of Airbus’s new-look drone roster, and above all the appearance of the U760 Ravenstorm alongside the U740 Valkyrie, is greater now that the FCAS program’s crewed New Generation Fighter is seemingly defunct.

It was always anticipated that the NGF would be operated as part of a wider ecosystem that also included CCA-like drones — what Airbus now refers to as UCCAs. Indeed, there were already efforts in place to start integrating combat drones with crewed fourth-generation-plus fighters like the Eurofighter and Rafale. Now that FCAS, or at least the NGF component of it, has been thwarted, Ravenstorm and Valkyrie offer a glimpse of where Europe’s combat aviation ambitions may be headed instead.

Collaborative combat aircraft like these emerged as a higher-mass, force-multiplying capability for current and future crewed fighters. In the interim, at least, the demise of the NGF means that these kinds of combat drones could be in even greater demand within Europe, where there is already a pressing need for larger tactical air combat fleets, while resources are limited. At the same time, CCA-like drones promise to make existing fourth- and fifth-generation fighters even more potent, further driving demand both in Europe and elsewhere.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

England players are set to use high-tech palm-cooling devices in the United States to help combat the heat during the World Cup.

The expected hot and humid conditions during the tournament will be a crucial factor with studies showing that at least a third of the games during the World Cup will be played in temperatures higher than 26C.

On Tuesday, temperatures reached 32C during England’s opening training session in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The use of palm-cooling equipment is becoming popular among professional athletes, with Manchester United known to use the technology.

Research shows that cooling the palms can significantly lower core body temperature which can prove vital for in-game recovery and ultimately enhance performance.

It is understood England will use them in training sessions and during the planned water breaks during World Cup matches.

When asked about the importance of acclimatising, Jordan Henderson said that this first week was being used to “build capacity to the conditions”, adding “the warm-up games will be good for that”.

The Brentford midfielder praised the “team behind the team” for the “top level research” that has been done on “cool down and recovery”.

“Hopefully that can give us a little edge when we get into the tournament,” he added.

England play friendly matches against New Zealand on Saturday, 6 June (21:00 BST) and Costa Rica on Wednesday, 10 June (21:00).

Thomas Tuchel’s side start their World Cup campaign against Croatia on Wednesday, 17 June (21:00) before playing Ghana on 23 June (21:00) and Panama on 27 June (22:00).

Here’s TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG), using publicly available open-source information. Given the carrier picture is largely unchanged compared to last week, this week’s tracker highlights the big-deck amphibious fleet.

Much of America’s fleet of nine amphibious assault ships is hard at work as the U.S. opts to replace the Iwo Jima ARG in Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) with a “sub-optimized” Littoral Combat Force (LCF). The LCF appears to be the first deployment that embodies the Navy’s new more flexible deployment strategy, which could have wider impacts across the fleet in the future. “It’s the way to have force multiplication, to punch bigger than yourself, and that’s done through tailored offsets,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said at SNA earlier this year about the new tailored deployments concept. “That whole thing builds a way to present forces to allow me to do more with less.”

The 24th MEU, operating under the designation LCF-24, deployed to SOUTHCOM and replaced the Iwo Jima ARG. “Distinct from a standard Amphibious Ready Group/MEU deployment, LCF-24 is a purpose-built MAGTF engineered for distributed operations,” SOUTHCOM explained in a statement. The Marine Air-Ground Task Force, with more than 1,300 Marines and Sailors, will operate from both shore-based nodes and aboard Fort Lauderdale, and is certified to “execute a wide array of mission essential tasks, including but not limited to Quick Reaction Force operations such as embassy reinforcement and the tactical recovery of aircraft [and] personnel, while standing ready to support disaster relief activities.”

For thieves looking to strip Los Angeles for parts, copper has become a fast-moving currency.

The problem has become so persistent that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is now asking for its own armed police force to protect vulnerable utility equipment, street lighting and critical infrastructure, insisting that the department’s contracted and unarmed security guards aren’t cutting it.

“They lack the authority to detain or arrest suspects, intervene in crimes in progress, conduct searches, or carry firearms for enforcement purposes,” according to a May 21 report from the city agency. “Delays hinder timely intervention, reduce investigative effectiveness, and contribute to repeat victimization of LADWP facilities.”

Under DWP’s current “observe and report” security model, an officer who sees someone cutting a fence or stripping copper from a transformer has little authority apart from yelling a warning or making a 911 call, according to the department report.

The proposal asks for 20 to 50 sworn officers to start, hired over a five-year period, along with support staff. If approved, the force would give the agency’s officers the authority to carry a firearm, make arrests and investigate thefts. The plan was scheduled to be discussed Thursday by the City Council.

The push comes as citywide service requests for streetlight repairs have surged over the last several years.

L.A.’s historic streetlights outside the Bureau of Street Lighting near Virgil Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

The city logged 14,328 electronic streetlight service requests in 2018, according to data from the Bureau of Street Lighting. Requests have tripled since then, reaching an all-time high of 46,079 in 2024, the last full year of available data.

Mayor Karen Bass’ office said in March that copper thefts are a leading cause of streetlight outages. Repairs have been backlogged for months.

Prices for the metal are at an all-time high, driven by major supply disruptions in Indonesia and Chile, and soaring demand from artificial intelligence data centers and electric grid infrastructure. Thieves typically exchange the metal for cash at recycling centers, where it can fetch up to $5.30 per pound. The City Council last year approved a program offering up to $5,000 for information in metal and wire theft cases.

Theft losses alone exceed $1 million annually, according to DWP.

Establishing a new police force would require changing the city charter, meaning voters will have a say come the November midterm elections. Authorities will also need to obtain state legislative approval for the plan.

Officials said rolling out the police department would cost $9.7 million over three years, plus up to $6 million annually to pay for staffing. They maintain those costs are less than the $46 million combined DWP spends each year on private security contractors and unarmed staff security.

On Hill Street in downtown L.A., streetlights have been targeted by thieves and vandals.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Any cost overflows would be paid for by DWP customers.

Timothy O’Connor, executive director for the Los Angeles Office of Public Accountability, a spending watchdog, said his office is not convinced that the agency could minimize long-term cost creep, or that the new force would offset enough costs to justify the program. The proposed force of a few dozen officers, he said, would be too small to get the job done.

“Theft losses at DWP are real and are increasing. However, eliminating these losses is not enough to offset the proposed costs,” he said. “Furthermore, DWP will be unable to fully eliminate theft given the diffuse nature of the DWP system.”

But O’Connor also said the department is faced with real security risks like those posed by drone attacks or terrorism threats, which he said “appear to justify the proposal at some level.”

In February, a man shot himself after he drove his car through the perimeter fence of a power substation while carrying explosives and several firearms. Dubbing the incident an attempted terrorist attack, officials said the episode could have caused catastrophic infrastructure damage.

David Levitus, executive director of the advocacy group LA Forward, said he was surprised to learn of the proposal so late in Los Angeles’ ongoing charter reform process, which his organization has monitored closely.

“The fact that this is being dumped in late May — what’s the rush?” Levitus said. “I think we really need to be wary of creating new police departments in general, but especially without a clear case and clear constraints and accountability mechanisms.”

Shield AI revealed a revised planform configuration and new details about its extremely ambitious X-BAT jet-powered autonomous stealth ‘fighter’ drone at April’s Sea-Air-Space 2026 convention, as detailed by TWZ. At the event, I was able to speak at length with Armor Harris, the chief designer of X-BAT, who was keen to discuss the status of the project. You can read TWZ’s original deep dive exclusive interview with Harris that was published when X-BAT first emerged from the shadows last October here.

The tail-sitting X-BAT, designed to take off vertically and land the same way, is planned to start vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) testing before the end of this year. Harris explained how it is designed to fly combat missions under the control of the company’s Hivemind artificial intelligence “pilot” and how Shield AI has designed-in payload bays that are roughly the same size as those found on the F-35, which will enable it to carry many of the same weapons as the stealthy crewed fighter.

The X-BAT concept is aimed to disrupt not just the budding advanced autonomous drone marketplace, but parts of the fighter market too. So much hangs on the VTOL element that the airframe is designed around, so to say that a lot is riding on those tests is an understatement.

Here is the full interview from the show floor at Sea-Air-Space:

Meet The Man Behind The X-BAT Autonomous VTOL Fighter Drone

The U.S. Marine Corps is working toward adding an active protection system (APS) capability to its fleet of 8×8 wheeled Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV). APSs on the market today are generally designed to defeat incoming anti-tank guided missiles and other infantry anti-armor weapons. However, many of them also have the inherent ability to down incoming drones or are being modified to address this ever-growing threat, something TWZ previously explored in a detailed feature. The Marines are already exploring additional options to improve the ACV’s defenses against uncrewed aerial attackers, as well as other upgrades to the vehicles.

Chris Melkonian, the Marine Corps’ current Program Manager for Advanced Amphibious Assault (PM AAA), talked today about APS for the ACV fleet and other plans for those vehicles at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition, at which TWZ is in attendance.

The Marines currently field two ACV variants, the baseline personnel carrier type (ACV-P) and a version optimized for command and control tasks (ACV-C). The service is in the process of acquiring two more variants, one armed with a turreted 30mm cannon (ACV-30) and a recovery vehicle version fitted with a crane and other specialized features (ACV-R). The Corps is presently targeting 2028 for reaching initial operational capability with the ACV-30 and the ACV-R.

The Marines view the entire ACV family as central to its ability to conduct amphibious operations, as well as for providing additional lethality and other support to forces once ashore. At present, the service is planning to acquire a total fleet of 608 ACVs, consisting of 389 ACV-Ps, 33 ACV-Cs, 152 ACV-30s, and 34 ACV-Rs. Prime contractor BAE Systems has also proposed additional variants, including ones configured for electronic warfare or dedicated to the counter-drone role.

In 2018, the Corps announced it had selected the ACV as the replacement for its Cold War-era tracked Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV) family. The service announced the formal retirement of the AAV last fall.

There are already “things that we’re doing today to make the ACV family vehicles even more capable,” Melkonian said at Modern Day Marine. “The analogy I use is the ACV that Marines are using today is not the ACV that they’re going to use in the future.”

This includes an “active protection system,” he added. “We’re working with the vendor to mature that capability. We’re going to move that right into production.”

Recently released budget documents also say that the Marines are asking for $28.35 million in Fiscal Year 2027 for “Ancillary Equipment” for the ACV fleet, which “is primarily attributed to the procurement of Special Mission Kits for the Active Protective System (APS).” Those same documents further note that the “funding provides APS production kits, integration kits, installation labor, countermeasures, and spares for 21 ACV-P vehicles and will add a new defensive capability to existing vehicles.”

However, neither Melkonian nor the budget documents have said what specific type of APS the ACVs are now in line to get, or when. TWZ has reached out to the service for more information.

This is certainly not the U.S. military’s first foray into APSs for armored vehicles. The U.S. Army previously integrated the Israeli-designed and combat-proven Trophy APS onto a portion of its M1 Abrams tanks.

TROPHY is the world’s ONLY operational APS (Previous Version – Updated Video Available)

That service is also now in the process of adding another Israeli-developed APS, Iron Fist, onto at least some of its Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The Army’s version of Iron Fist, now designated as the XM251, is also set to be fitted to next-generation M1E3 tanks and a planned replacement for the Bradley family, tentatively designated the XM30.

There are other APS designs on the market today that the Marines could have chosen for integration onto the ACV, as well.

As noted, APSs available today are generally designed to neutralize anti-tank guided missiles and other infantry anti-armor weapons. They typically achieve this through the use of ‘hard-kill’ projectiles designed to destroy targets either using an explosive warhead or via the sheer force of impact. Hard-kill APSs use a mixture of sensors, which can include small-form-factor radars and electro-optical/infrared cameras, to cue those interceptors to engage incoming threats.

From when the Marines first announced the selection of BAE’s ACV back in 2018, TWZ has noted that an APS could provide the vehicles with a valuable extra layer of defense against anti-armor missiles and rockets. More capable infantry anti-armor weapons continue to be developed and proliferate globally. Those threats present additional challenges in beach landing scenarios for amphibious vehicles like the ACV, which move much more slowly in the water than they do on land.

The threat that drones pose, and to armored vehicles in particular, which TWZ has been sounding the alarm on for years, has also now been fully rammed into the public consciousness. This is thanks largely to the stark visuals of tanks and other vehicles being attacked by uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) that emerge on a daily basis now from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

A Ukrainian drone from the 79th Air Assault Brigade drops a 40mm HEDP grenade on a Russian UR-77 Meteorit, causing a catastrophic payload explosion. pic.twitter.com/SsaQCKXsNL

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) August 14, 2023

Drones are an ever-more common and still evolving threat across a growing number of conflict zones worldwide. First-person view (FPV) type kamikaze drones controlled via fiber optic cable have become a particular point of concern, since they are impervious to radio frequency jamming. In turn, this has already prompted the development of a variety of active and passive countermeasures for armored and unarmored vehicles. We will come back to this in a moment.

TWZ has previously laid out a detailed case specifically for using hard-kill APSs to provide added counter-drone defense for armored vehicles. The Israeli firms behind Trophy and Iron Fist have both now notably demonstrated the ability of their respective systems to defeat uncrewed aerial threats in certain envelopes, as can be seen in the videos below. It should be noted that Trophy, Iron Fist, and other hard-kill APSs have a limited number of engagement opportunities and are not really intended to defeat large volumes of threats simultaneously, such as drones attacking in swarms.

Trophy® APS – The land maneuver enabler

Iron Fist APS | Active Protection System for Armored Vehicles

When it comes to the APS capability now planned for Marine ACVs, “that is not going to be the end-all, be-all,” Melkonian, the Marine Corps’ Program Manager, said today. “We’re constantly looking at what the next generation of APS is and how we can get that onto the platform in a lightweight form factor.”

Melkonian also highlighted other potential counter-drone and more general survivability upgrades that could be on the horizon for ACV. This could include the integration of directed energy weapons and some form of added overhead protection. Top-down attacks on vehicles where the armor is typically thinnest can be very threatening, in general.

As an aside, the Army has already been working to acquire hundreds of Top Attack Protection (TAP) add-on armor systems for installation on its M1 Abrams tanks and other armored vehicles. This reflects an expanding global trend in the integration of so-called ‘cope cage’ type armor around the turrets and other areas of armored and unarmored vehicles, primarily to protect against drone attacks. The first cope cages appeared on Russian tanks in the lead-up to the all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This kind of armor does present tradeoffs, including the potential to interfere with other capabilities, such as APSs.

Improved “situational awareness, that’s kind of a gateway to counter-UAS, in terms of the ability to sense your environment,” Melkonian also noted today while talking about other possible upgrades for the ACV. “Take all that video on board and then be able to feed that into [a] counter-UAS system.”

Melkonian highlighted several other areas of interest where the Marines are looking to improve the ACV’s capabilities. His list included things like reducing the vehicle’s signatures to make it harder for enemies to spot, improving its mobility while in the water, and upgrades to just help keep everything inside dry.

“Marines operate in very humid, very difficult environments,” he explained. “The ability to dehumidify the vehicles is a critical enabler, being able to improve the maintenance strategy and keeping [sic] those components running for as long as they need to.”

Broadly speaking, the Marines are interested in new “lightweight solutions, advanced technology, and anything that’s going to be marinized. It must be marinized,” he added. “I can’t tell you how many solutions have been picked, and that’s one of the first questions we ask, and sometimes the solutions are designed for a marinized environment, sometimes they’re not. Marines go where no one else goes, and we’ve got to be able to make sure that our capabilities can support their needs.”

The core marinization requirement will apply to the APS integration just like any other upgrades for Marine ACVs.

Altogether, the addition of active protection systems looks to be just one important upgrade for the Marine Corps’ ACV fleet now on the horizon.

Eric Tegler contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com