Drones

Feb. 21 (UPI) — Britain announced it has made a deal with four NATO allies to launch an initiative that would see the five nations manufacture low-cost drones to protect Europe.

The European Group of Five (E5) — Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland — announced on Friday that they will launch the Low-Cost Effectors & Autonomous Platforms initiative, or LEAP, which is “inspired by Ukraine’s battlefield innovation,” the British government said in a press release.

The purpose of the program is to jointly develop low-cost autonomous drones that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization can use to counter Russian provocation in the airspace above NATO-allied nations, Politico reported.

The first focus of LEAP, according to British officials, will be the development of a new surface-to-air weapon that is lightweight and affordable in order to defend against Russia’s drone and missile threats.

“European security is at a pivotal moment,” Luke Pollard, Britian’s Minister for Defense Readiness and Industry, said after the E5 meeting. “The U.K. and our E5 partners are stepping up — investing together in the next generation of air defense and autonomous systems to strengthen NATO’s shield and keep our people safe.”

Over the course of the last year, Russian fighter jets have violated NATO partner’s airspace, including fighter jets over Estonia and drones over Poland, which the E5 countries said has spurred their new plans.

At a meeting Friday in Krakow, Poland, the E5 members met to with NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska to discuss the plans, which she said would be beneficial for Ukraine, which she said needs its allies to step up their support, as well as for all member nations of NATO in Europe.

Britain noted Friday that the new drone initiative comes as it also works with its European allies to develop long-range precision weapons and hypersonic weapons, with plans to spend more than $500 million on those initiatives just this year.

“The stronger each ally becomes, the stronger NATO will be,” Shekerinska said.

Feb. 21 (UPI) — Ukrainian Defense Forces late Friday night struck a Russian missile production facility that manufactures some of Russia’s fastest and deadliest missile systems.

Ukrainian forces used attack drones to strike the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant in Russia’s Udmurt Republic, which produces the advanced missile systems, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

The factory builds the hypersonic Iskander and Oreshnik missile systems.

Ukraine‘s general staff confirmed the strike in a statement released on Saturday.

“On the night of February 21, units of the Missile Forces and Artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out a strike with FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles. A defense industry enterprise — the Votkinsk Plant in the city of Votkinsk — was hit,” the statement said.

“A fire was recorded on the premises of the facility,” it added. “The results are being clarified.”

The Udmart Republic is located about 770 miles east of Moscow and about 1,300 miles northeast of Kyiv.

The Iskander missile is a mobile system that is carried and launched from atop a large military transport and is capable of carrying conventional or nuclear warheads with a range of up to 310 miles for some variants. The missile travels at hypersonic speeds of up to Mach 7.

The Oreshnik missile is a medium-range ballistic missile that can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads at distances of up to 1,000 miles and possibly more than 3,000 miles, while traveling at up to Mach 11, or 8,000 mph.

Ukrainian Defense Forces also targeted the Neftegorsk Gas Processing Plant in the Samara Region of Russia and fuel and lubricants storage facilities in Russian-occupied parts of the Donetsk region.

The extent of damage from those strikes is under assessment.

Sudan’s civil war is shifting into a drone-driven phase, erasing the lines between battlefield and civilian life. As Ramadan begins under famine conditions, how do the people of Sudan mark the holy month in the midst of war?

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Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Sarí el-Khalili and Melanie Marich with Maya Hamadeh, Tuleen Barakat and our guest host, Tamara Khandaker. It was edited by Ney Alvarez. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhemm. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. 

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Feb. 19 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Thursday it is taking note of a swift statement by Kim Yo Jong, a senior North Korean ruling party official, after Seoul expressed regret over recent drone incidents and announced steps to prevent a recurrence.

A ministry official told reporters the government “takes note” that North Korea quickly responded to Seoul’s expression of regret and its preventive measures. The official said the steps announced by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young are intended to protect the safety and peace of both Koreas and that the government will “responsibly” implement them.

The remarks came after Kim said earlier Thursday that North Korea “highly appreciates” Chung’s comments acknowledging what Pyongyang called a South Korean drone provocation, expressing regret again and stating an intention to prevent further incidents.

On Wednesday, Chung said Seoul expressed “deep regret” to the North over drone infiltration incidents during the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration and additional incidents carried out at the civilian level after President Lee Jae-myung took office. Chung also announced measures aimed at preventing a recurrence, including banning drone infiltration into North Korea and strengthening penalties.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260219010005700

Feb. 18 (UPI) — As the Ukraine war nears its fifth year, more than a third of Ukrainian children remain displaced following Russia’s invasion of its neighboring nation.

Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, which has led to the displacement of 2.59 million Ukrainian children, UNICEF reported on Tuesday.

The number of displaced children includes 791,000 who are still inside Ukraine and nearly 1.8 million who are refugees living outside of the country’s borders. Russian forces also have taken many Ukrainian children and relocated them to Russia.

“Millions of children and families have fled their homes in search of safety, with one in three children remaining displaced four years into this relentless war,” said UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia Regina De Dominicis.

“For children in Ukraine, safety is increasingly hard to come by as attacks on civilian areas continue across the country,” De Dominicis said. “In many ways, the war is following these children.”

Many children and their families have been forced to flee their homes several times during the war as Russian forces targeted civilian areas.

A recently published UNICEF survey showed that a third of teen respondents between age 15 and 19 said they moved at least two times due to safety reasons so far during the war.

Bombardments by Russian artillery, attack drones and ballistic missiles have killed or injured more than 3,200 children since the war started.

Each year, the number of dead and injured has increased among Ukraine’s children, according to UNICEF.

“Obligations under international humanitarian law must be upheld, and every possible measure to protect children and the civilian infrastructure they rely on must be taken,” De Dominicis said.

“Every child has the right to grow up in safety, and without exception that right must be respected.”

Many of the support services for the country’s children also have been damaged or destroyed, including more than 1,700 schools and other education facilities, which deprives a third of Ukrainian children from attending school on a full-time basis.

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have deprived millions of Ukrainian children and their families of the power needed to heat their homes and water during the country’s extremely cold winters.

Babies and young children are especially vulnerable to harm due to a lack of electrical power, which could lead to hypothermia and respiratory illnesses.

More than 200 medical facilities also have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine over the past year and many more before then.

The stress of the ongoing war is putting a severe mental strain on Ukraine’s children, who often experience a constant fear of attacks that force them to seek shelter in basements and remain isolated while at home.

About a fourth of Ukrainian youth between age 15 and 19 say they are losing hope for the country’s future.

UNICEF officials said they are working with local and national authorities to support Ukrainian children and provide them and their families with safe water, healthcare, food, educational support, mental health services and similar needs.

Feb. 18 (UPI) — U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff early Wednesday reported “meaningful progress” in tri-lateral U.S.-Russian-Ukraine talks in Switzerland on ending the war.

Crediting U.S. President Donald Trump‘s “success in bringing both sides of this war together” to enable the progress to be made in the U.S.-moderated talks in Geneva, Witkoff provided no details of what had been achieved.

“Both parties agreed to update their respective leaders and continue working towards a deal,” he wrote X.

The accounts of Russia and Ukraine of Tuesday’s talks, which lasted six hours, were less positive with Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reporting they were “very tense” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said they were “difficult” and accused Moscow of playing for time.

“Yesterday’s meetings were indeed difficult, and we can state that Russia is trying to drag out the negotiations, which could already have moved to the final stage. We are grateful to the American side for their attention to detail and patience in talks with the current Russian representatives,” said Zelensky in a post on X.

A source in the Russian delegation told TASS that all sides had, however, agreed to continue the talks on Wednesday.

The negotiations are being held against the backdrop of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, with no sign of any let up in hostilities.

At least two people were killed and 25 injured in strikes across five eastern, southern and central Ukrainian provinces overnight after Russian forces launched 126 drones and one ballistic missile, according to a Ukrainian Air Force update on social media.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said one person was injured in the city of Cheboksary, 440 miles east of Moscow, after Ukraine launched a large-scale airborne assault into Russian territory overnight using attack drones. The defense ministry said air defenses downed 43 of the drones.

Two previous rounds of talks, in Abu Dhabi in January and earlier this month, were unable to gain traction in overcoming the main stumbling blocks of Russia’s demand that Ukraine cede territory and Ukraine’s insistence on cast-iron Western security guarantees.

The negotiations are based on a heavily revised version of a 28-point plan, first drawn up by Witkoff’s team and Russian officials in November, under which Ukraine would give up Luhansk and Donetsk, including areas its forces still control, in exchange for security guarantees.

Kyiv has ruled out giving up territory it still occupies but the Americans are pushing a compromise solution that would see those areas become a demilitarized “special economic” buffer zone.

However, the security guarantees remain the potentially most intractable issue with Moscow adamant they cannot involve Western boots on the ground — something Ukraine believes must be permissable for any guarantee to be credible.

Feb. 17 (UPI) — Oil prices climbed on Tuesday as Iran partially closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping path, to conduct military drills.

Fars, an Iranian news agency, cited “security precautions” as the reason for the closure, with no indication of when the Strait of Hormuz will fully open again.

About 13 million barrels of crude oil were transported through the strait each day in 2025, making up about 31% of oil shipments by sea. It is the main seaborne export route for Middle Eastern oil shipping to Asia.

Iranian naval forces began the drill “Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz,” on Monday.

The drill involves deploying drones capable of striking aerial and maritime targets and is “focused on enhancing operational readiness, strengthening deterrence, and reinforcing multilayered defense,” Fars reported.

Tuesday is the first time that Tehran has closed any part of the Strait of Hormuz since President Donald Trump threatened military action against Iran in response to the killings of protesters.

The United States has posted warships on the Indian Ocean as Trump attempts to negotiate with Iran to scale back its nuclear program.

The United States and Iran held a second round of negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday. Trump was not present for those negotiations but said he would participate “indirectly.”

The AH-64 Apache attack helicopter has evolved into a counter-drone platform in recent years — something we have been following closely. While the Israeli Air Force had pioneered this role for the AH-64 for years, the U.S. Army has now formally codified it and added new capabilities in the process. Now, as we had suggested some time ago, the Apache is getting proximity-fuzed 30mm cannon shells for its chin-mounted M230 cannon that will add to its drone-killing arsenal, giving it a cheaper and more plentiful engagement option than some of the alternatives.

Apaches live-fire tested the 30x113mm XM1225 Aviation Proximity Explosive (APEX) ammo last December, according to a recent Army release. The trials occurred at the service’s sprawling Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) in southern Arizona. Multiple test engagements occurred against various types of drone targets.

The specialized APEX ammunition works by detonating only when it is close to an object, then it explodes in a spray of shrapnel. This is critical to shooting down drones as they are small, independently moving targets, and the Apache’s monocle-targeted chin gun isn’t exactly a sniper rifle in terms of precision. At the same time, the rounds could also be used against targets on the surface — including personnel, soft-skinned vehicles, and small boats, for instance — offering unique area effects compared to the Apache’s standard impact-detonating, high-explosive ammunition.

(Short video) M230 chain gun follows the head movement of AH-64 Apache gunner

AH-64 Apache attack helicopter taking out Iraqi trucks and artillery with its 30mm cannon

Variants of the M230 cannon, the prime contractor for which is now Northrop Grumman, have already become an increasingly popular choice for dealing with lower-end drone threats from the ground. The light-weight M230LF version, designated the M914 in Army service, has found its way onto counter-drone vehicles. This includes the Sgt. Stout Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) system based on the 8×8 Stryker light armored vehicle. The Army has been separately pursuing self-destructing and other kinds of proximity-fuzed 30mm ammunition for use with the M914. The new APEX ammo offers improved performance that can plug-and-play with the Apache/M230 combo. The other rounds for use in ground-based systems have never been cleared for use on the Apache to our knowledge.

The M230LF Bushmaster Chain Gun | XM914

An official Army release on the XM1225’s successful testing reads, in part:

“Developed and managed by Product Manager Medium Caliber Ammunition (PdM MCA) from Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, the XM1225 APEX cartridge is designed to counter modern threats, including UAS, exposed personnel, and small boats, without requiring modifications to the Apache’s M230 Area Weapon System or fire control system. The XM1225 has undergone extensive safety testing to ensure reliable performance, making it a safe and effective addition to the Apache’s arsenal. This innovative design ensures seamless integration into existing platforms while delivering enhanced lethality and operational flexibility.

…The primary objective was to evaluate the XM1225 cartridge’s accuracy and compare its performance to the legacy M789 High Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP) cartridge under identical conditions. A secondary objective was to collect data on mixed loads of XM1225 and M789 rounds against both ground and UAS targets.

Initial results were highly successful, with the XM1225 meeting all accuracy requirements and demonstrating exceptional effectiveness against both ground and UAS targets. The proximity-fuzed capability of the XM1225 allows it to detonate near the target, creating a larger lethal radius and significantly improving its ability to neutralize airborne and dispersed threats. This capability positions the Apache to dominate the battlefield in both air-to-ground and air-to-air engagements, providing warfighters with a critical edge in modern combat scenarios.”

A key feature of the APEX ammunition is that it requires little additional training for Apache crews to successfully employ it as it acts very similarly, ballistically, to the M789 high-explosive dual-purpose (HEDP) rounds already fielded. Those shells use an impact/grazing fuze to command detonation.

A major issue with using any gun for counter-drone work from the air is that standard high-explosive or incendiary cannon rounds simply keep traveling until they hit something, then they explode. This makes any horizontal or upward aspect shots very problematic, as the rounds can fly many miles before hitting the ground. Anyone or anything in that unpredictable zone would not fare well. Even high-deflection shots are risky, especially considering the size of the drones. Not only will most rounds miss and still hit somewhere below, but the aircraft can easily fly into the drone itself, as judging its distance and keeping track of it in the air is problematic. So, having self-destructing rounds, and even better, proximity fuzed ones that do the same, is key.

U.S Soldiers reload the 30mm rounds in an Apache

As it sits now, the AH-64 has modified AGM-114 missiles that use the Longbow Radar to prosecute aerial targets. Laser-guided Hellfires are potentially another option. Regardless, any Hellfire costs well into the six-digit realm. Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) laser-guided rockets are a lower-cost option, having a low-to-mid five-digit price tag. It isn’t clear if the AH-64 has been cleared to use air-to-air optimized Fixed Wing, Air Launched, Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Ordnance (FALCO) versions of the APKWS II, which also use a proximity fuze for going after aerial targets, yet.

So, giving AH-64s the gun option, and in a far more reliable and safer manner via a proximity fuzed round, would be a huge boon for crews tasked with the counter-drone mission. Apaches can carry a whopping 1,200 rounds of 30mm ammunition, and they can be reloaded with more very quickly at forward austere locales on the ground.

So as it sits now, it likely won’t be too long before the AH-64 has a new arrow in its anti-drone quiver.

Contact the author: Tyler@twz.com

North Korea appears to have entered the stage of designating leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter Ju-ae as the successor, the spy agency was quoted as saying by lawmakers Thursday, marking a stepped-up assessment from its earlier evaluation of her as the “most likely successor.”

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) cited signs of Ju-ae expressing her views on certain state policies as one of the grounds for its latest assessment during a closed-door briefing to the parliamentary intelligence committee, Reps. Park Sun-won and Lee Seong-kweun told reporters.

“As Kim Ju-ae has shown her presence at various events, including the founding anniversary of the Korean People’s Army and her visit to the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, and signs have been detected of her voicing her opinion on certain state policies, the NIS believes she has now entered the stage of being designated as successor,” Lee said.

Lee said the latest assessment marked a step forward from the agency’s previous views when it described Ju-ae as being “trained” to become a successor, to now assessing her as being at the stage of “successor designation.”

The NIS also said it will keep close tabs on whether she attends the North’s key party congress late this month.

In January 2024, the NIS assessed Ju-ae, believed to be born in 2013, as the North’s “most likely successor” in its first evaluation of her possible succession in the reclusive regime.

Earlier in January, Ju-ae paid tribute at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the Kim family’s mausoleum, for the first time, together with her parents amid growing speculation about her potential succession.

If Ju-ae appears at the party congress or is awarded with an official title at the event, speculation about her being groomed as Kim’s successor will likely gain traction.

Meanwhile, on talks between the United States and North Korea, the NIS noted, “There is a possibility that North Korea could respond to dialogue with the U.S. if certain conditions are met.

“North Korea has expressed dissatisfaction with the U.S. over the South Korea-U.S. fact sheet or the deployment of U.S. strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula, but it has not ruled out the possibility of talks with the U.S. and has refrained from criticizing President Donald Trump,” the spy agency said.

The NIS also noted that the North has refrained from firing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) apparently to avoid provoking Trump, who is sensitive to such missile launches.

Around 10,000 North Korean combat troops and 1,000 engineer troops are currently deployed in the front-line Kursk region of Russia to support Moscow’s war with Ukraine, the spy agency said, with an estimated 6,000 North Korean soldiers killed or injured.

Some 1,100 combat and engineer troops that returned to the North last December could be dispatched again, it added.

“Despite suffering 6,000 casualties, the North Korean military has achieved the results of acquiring modern combat tactics and data in the battlefield, as well as upgrading its weapons systems with technical assistance from Russia,” the NIS said.

The agency also noted that Pyongyang has established a new department on unmanned aerial vehicles and is accelerating efforts to set up a system capable of developing and mass-producing drones.

As for inter-Korean relations, the NIS said North Korea is continuing to maintain its rhetoric of defining the two Koreas as “two hostile states,” adding that it has recently given guidelines to its officials and overseas missions to avoid engagement with South Korea.

On North Korea’s ties with China, the agency said they have “not gained momentum yet.”

“Although trade between North Korea and China reached US$3 billion last year, the highest in six years, this is only half the level before the imposition of sanctions,” it said.

Meanwhile, the intelligence committee discussed the issue of repatriating two North Korean soldiers held by Ukrainian forces.

The government is making every effort to assist their defection to South Korea as they have expressed their willingness to defect to the South, the NIS said.

WASHINGTON — The sudden and surprising airspace closure over El Paso, Texas, stemmed from the Pentagon’s plans to test a laser for use in shooting down drones used by Mexican drug cartels, according to three people familiar with the situation who were granted anonymity to share sensitive details.

That caused friction with the Federal Aviation Administration, which wanted to ensure commercial air safety and the two agencies sought to coordinate, according to two of the people.

Despite a meeting scheduled later this month to discuss the issue, the Pentagon wanted to go ahead and test it, prompting the FAA to shutter the airspace. The laser was used at some point, one of the people said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier that a response to an incursion by Mexican cartel drones had led to the airspace closure and that the threat had been neutralized. Drone incursions are not uncommon along the southern border.

Officials at the White House, FAA and Department of Transportation did not respond immediately Wednesday to request for comment about the dispute. The Pentagon said it had nothing to add to its statement that largely mirrored Duffy’s comment.

The FAA had originally announced a 10-day closure of the airspace, confusing travelers at the airport in the border city with a population of nearly 700,000 people. The order was lifted a few hours later. No Mexican airspace was closed.

Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA and the Defense Department “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.” Duffy said normal flights were resuming Wednesday morning. He did not say how many drones were involved or what specifically was done to disable them.

Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district includes El Paso, said neither her office, the city of El Paso nor airport operations received advance notice. She said she believed the shutdown was not based on Mexican cartel drones in U.S. airspace, saying that “is not what we in Congress have been told.”

Pentagon officials declined to comment on Escobar’s remarks and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office referred questions to the FAA.

“I believe the FAA owes the community and the country an explanation as to why this happened so suddenly and abruptly and was lifted so suddenly and abruptly,” Escobar said during a news conference. The shutdown had been expected to create significant disruptions given the duration and the size of the metropolitan area around El Paso.

“The information coming from the federal government does not add up,” Escobar said.

Cross-border drone activity is not new

Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district covers an area that stretches for about 800 miles along Texas’ border with Mexico, said cartel drone sightings are common.

“For any of us who live and work along the border, daily drone incursions by criminal organizations is everyday life for us. It’s a Wednesday for us,” Gonzales said.

Asked about the drone explanation provided by U.S. officials, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had “no information about the use of drones on the border.” She noted that if U.S. authorities have more information they should contact Mexico’s government.

Steven Willoughby, the deputy director of the counter-drone program at the Department of Homeland Security, told lawmakers in July that cartels are using drones nearly every day to transport drugs across the border and surveil Border Patrol agents.

More than 27,000 drones were detected within 1,600 feet of the southern border in the last six months of 2024, he testified, mostly at night. Homeland Security has said agents have seized thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl and other drugs in recent years that cartels were trying to fly across the border using drones.

Mexican officials head to Washington

El Paso is hub of cross-border commerce alongside Ciudad Juárez. The Mexican city is home to about 1.5 million people, and some of its residents are accustomed to taking advantage of facilities including airports on both sides of the border. That easy access to the U.S. has also made Juarez, like other border cities, attractive to Mexico’s drug cartels seeking to safeguard their smuggling routes for drugs and migrants headed north and cash and guns moving to the south.

El Paso International Airport said in an Instagram post after the closure was announced that all flights to and from the airport would be grounded through Feb. 20, including commercial, cargo and general aviation flights. Local newscasts showed stranded travelers with luggage lining up at airline ticket counters and car rental desks at the El Paso airport hours after flights were grounded.

The airport posted later Wednesday morning that its operations had resumed and encouraged travelers to contact their airlines for the most up-to-date flight information.

Mexican defense and navy secretaries planned to meet with Northern Command officials in Washington on Wednesday in a meeting scheduled to be attended by representatives of several other countries, Sheinbaum said during a news conference. Sheinbaum said the Mexican officials would “listen” in the meeting and that her government would look into “the exact causes” of the closure.

‘This was a major and unnecessary disruption’

El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson said at a news conference that he didn’t hear about the closure until after the alert was issued and he called the failure to communicate that to the city unacceptable.

“Decisions made without notice and coordination puts lives at risk and creates unnecessary danger and confusion,” Johnson said. “This was a major and unnecessary disruption, one that has not occurred since 9/11.”

The airport describes itself as the gateway to west Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico. Southwest, United, American and Delta all operate flights there, among others.

A similar 10-day temporary flight restriction for special security reasons remained in place Wednesday morning around Santa Teresa, N.M., which is about 15 miles northwest of the El Paso airport. FAA officials did not immediately explain why that restriction remained in place.

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, a Democrat, said in a statement: “Keeping our communities informed and safe is critical. I’m demanding answers from the FAA and the administration about why the airspace was closed in the first place without notifying appropriate officials, leaving travelers to deal with unnecessary chaos.”

Shutdown and restart creates confusion for travelers

The airspace closure upset travel plans on both sides of the border.

María Aracelia was pushing two roller suitcases across the pedestrian bridge from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso on Wednesday morning. She had a round-trip flight to Illinois scheduled for the afternoon.

After receiving a text at 4 a.m. telling her about the 10-day closure, she scrambled to try to find other options, even how to get to another airport. Then came a notification that the El Paso airport had reopened.

“This is stressful and there isn’t time to make so many changes, especially if you need to get back for work,” Aracelia said.

Kim, Finley, Jalonick and Lee write for the Associated Press. Lee reported from El Paso, Texas. AP writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; Josh Funk in Omaha; Darlene Superville, Mike Balsamo and Konstantin Toropin in Washington; Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H.; María Verza in Mexico City, and Christian Torres Chávez in Ciudad Juarez contributed to this report.

Feb. 11 (UPI) — Local officials said a Russian drone strike on Ukraine‘s northeastern Kharkiv region killed three toddlers and their father, and injured their pregnant mother Wednesday.

The family was spending its first night in their new home in Bohodukhiv when it was struck during a drone and missile attack, regional leader Oleh Synegubov announced, the BBC reported.

The attack killed 2-year-old twins Ivan and Vladislav, their 1-year-old sister, Myroslava, and their father, Gryhoriy, 34.

The family’s 35-year-old injured mother, Olha, was 35 weeks pregnant and sustained burns and head injuries as the home was completely destroyed, local officials said.

Bohodukhiv Mayor Volodymyr Belyi called the aerial attack a “crime that is beyond human comprehension,” as reported by CNN.

“We lost the most precious thing we had — our future,” Belyi added.

The family recently evacuated the town of Zolochiv, which is located near the Russian border, due to ongoing shelling and sought refuge in Bohodukhiv, which is located 38 miles west of Kharkiv.

The attack shows that Russia has no intention of ending the war that it started by invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“Each Russian strike undermines confidence in everything that is being done diplomatically to end this war,” Zelensky said in a statement.

He said Russia deployed 129 attack drones during the overnight hours that struck Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Zaporizhzhia.

The aerial attacks carried into the daytime hours on Wednesday and included a strike on a medical vehicle that was carrying five healthcare professionals and civilians. One woman died in that attack.

Russian forces also launched two ballistic missiles that targeted the area near Lviv on Wednesday afternoon, but Ukrainian aerial defenses intercepted and destroyed them.

Russia had paused the aerial attacks for a week amid extremely cold weather, but Monday’s resumption killed a 10-year-old boy and a 41-year-old woman in Bohodukhiv.

The town has been targeted every day so far this week as Russian forces seek to damage energy and transport infrastructure with drones and ballistic missiles.

The strikes caused Ukrainian officials to declare a state of emergency due to the effect on local energy sources.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are without power and lack heat and running water during the frigid winter weather.

Russia’s resumption of attacks comes as Ukrainian and Russian officials are considering meeting in Washington, D.C., to further discuss a potential cease-fire and plan for peace.

Feb. 11 (UPI) — The Federal Aviation Administration ended what was initially announced as a 10-day suspension of all flights over El Paso, Texas on Wednesday, hours after closing the airspace.

The FAA stopped all incoming and outgoing flights over El Paso late Tuesday night, citing “special security reasons.” It warned that deadly force may be used against aircraft entering the airspace if they pose an “imminent security threat.”

The closure was triggered by military operations from Biggs Army Airfield in Fort Bliss, about seven miles away from El Paso.

CBS reported that Mexican cartel drones breached U.S. airspace, causing the Department of Defense to disable the drones.

“There is no threat to commercial aviation,” the FAA posted on social media. “All flights will resume as normal.”

When the airspace was closed, the FAA said that it was being classified as “national defense airspace.” The closure also halted medevac helicopters from flying.

“Just pass it on to everybody else, at 6:30 for the next 10 days, we’re all at a ground stop,” an air traffic controller informed pilots in audio recorded on LiveATC.net.

Some travelers received notifications from airlines about changes to their flights and offerings of travel waivers before the closure was lifted.

El Paso is home to the El Paso International Airport, which saw about 3.5 million travelers through the first 11 months of last year. The city has a population of about 700,000.

The unification ministry on Wednesday rejected media criticism that it maintains a “submissive” stance toward North Korea after Unification Minister Chung Dong-young made back-to-back remarks expressing regrets over actions that strained ties with the regime.

“Some are portraying the government’s peace efforts as a submissive stance toward the North … but the government is seeking to create conditions for inter-Korean trust in pursuit of peaceful coexistence,” the ministry said in a press release.

The media criticism came after Chung expressed regret the previous day over the alleged privately led drone dispatch to North Korea in recent months and Seoul’s 2016 shutdown of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

“We need the courage to acknowledge the wrongs we have committed, and in that perspective, the drone dispatch was a clear wrongdoing,” the ministry said, adding that such past missteps must be overcome.

The Lee Jae Myung administration has repeatedly extended overtures for dialogue to Pyongyang since taking office last June, although Pyongyang has remained unresponsive.

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The entire U.S. military is now pushing to acquire hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new drones, especially smaller types, in the coming years, spurred on by new direction from the Pentagon. In turn, a demand for new containerized launchers capable of rapidly deploying and, if need be, recovering those uncrewed aerial systems has now emerged. On several occasions in the past, TWZ has called attention to the value of exactly these kinds of launch capabilities, for use on land and at sea, especially for employing fully networked swarms.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) laid out broad requirements for what it referred to as a Containerized Autonomous Drone Delivery System (CADDS). DIU’s central focus is on leveraging new and improved commercial-off-the-shelf technologies to help meet U.S. military needs.

“The Department of War (DoW) faces a robotic mass challenge: current methods for deploying and sustaining unmanned aerial systems (UAS) rely on direct human interaction to launch, recover, and refit each system,” the CADDS notice explains. “This 1:1 operator-to-aircraft model limits deployment speed and scale while exposing operators to unnecessary risks.”

The “problem” to solve then is that “the DoW requires the ability to deploy large quantities of UAS rapidly, while minimizing the risk and burden to human operators executing kinetic and non-kinetic UAS operations in contested environments,” it adds.

To that end, “DOW seeks innovative solutions that enable the storage, rapid deployment, and management of multi-agent systems to provide either persistent UAS coverage over extended periods or massed effects within a single geographic region and time,” per DIU. It needs to be “employable from land and maritime platforms, in both day and night conditions, and during inclement weather.”

These have to be “designs [that] can be transported by military or commercial vehicles (land, sea, air)” and that “can be quickly positioned and made operational with minimal handling or setup.” They also have to be able to provide “automated functions for drone storage, launching, recovering, and refitting within the containerized platform; the intent is for the system to exist in a dormant state for a period of time and launch UAS upon command.”

DIU does not name any particular drones that the CADDS has to be able to accommodate or say how many UASs a single launcher should be able to hold. The notice does say the system will need to support “homogeneous and heterogeneous mixes of Government-directed UAS.”

The launch system also has to be capable of being set up and broken back down in a time frame measured in minutes and have a small operational footprint. “Ideally, the system should require a crew of no more than 2 personnel,” per DIU.

When it comes to the “autonomous” element of the launch system, DIU says it needs to support “both operator-on-the-loop and operator-in-the-loop decision-making processes.”

The market space for containerized launchers for various payloads, and for use on land and at sea, has been steadily growing globally in recent years. There has already been a further trend in the development of such systems for launching loitering munitions and other uncrewed aerial systems, or the adaptation of existing designs to be able to do so.

As one example, in the past year or so, Northrop Grumman has begun touting the ability of what it is currently calling the Modular Payload System (MPS) to launch drones, as seen in the computer-generated video below. TWZ was first to report on the development of that system all the way back in 2018, when it was being presented solely as a way to surface-launch variants of the AGM-88 anti-radiation missile. MPS is also now being pitched as a launcher for the Advanced Reactive Strike Missile (AReS), a surface-to-surface missile derived from the AGM-88G Advanced Anti-radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) and its Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW) cousin.

Modular Payload System: Launching from Land or Sea

Last year, another concept for a containerized launcher capable of holding up to 48 drones at once also emerged from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan. Back in 2024, Germany’s Rheinmetall and UVision in Israel had also unveiled two very similar designs, specifically for launching members of the latter company’s Hero series of loitering munitions.

This is just a small selection of the designs that have been seen to date. Firms in China have been particularly active in this regard, and developments in that country have often also been tied to work on swarming capabilities.

中国电科陆空协同固定翼无人机“蜂群”系统

中国电科大规模无人机蜂群任务全流程试验

Container-like launchers for uncrewed aerial systems, often mounted on trucks, have already been in service in many countries for years. This includes Iran, where they are used to launch Shahed-type kamikaze drones, as can be seen in the video below.

Баражуючий іранський боєприпас «Shahed 136»

However, many of these systems are focused squarely on the launch aspect and lack the recovery and refit capabilities that DIU has outlined for CADDS. Chinese drone firm DJI and others in the commercial space are increasingly offering container-like ‘docks,’ but which are often designed to accommodate just one uncrewed aerial system at a time.

What is particularly interesting here is how many of the stated CADDS requirements actually sound very similar, at least in very broad strokes, to a containerized system capable of launching, recovering, and recharging thousands of small, electrically-powered quadcopter-type drones at the touch of a button that the Chinese company DAMODA rolled out last year. That launcher, dubbed the Automated Drone Swarm Container System, is for drone light shows for entertainment purposes rather than military use.

Behind the Scenes of DAMODA Automated Drone Swarm Container System.✨

China just dropped a new level of drone swarm tech | One-click auto-deploy of thousands | by DAMODA

Still, as we previously wrote:

It is worth reiterating that DAMODA’s Automated Drone Swarm Container System, at least as it exists now, is clearly designed for entertainment industry use first and foremost. Though the company’s drone light show routines are certainly visually impressive and often go viral on social media, they are pre-scripted and conducted in a very localized fashion. What the company is offering is not a drone swarm capable of performing various military-minded tasks in a highly autonomous manner at appreciable ranges from its launch point.

At the same time, large-scale drone light shows put on by DAMODA (and a growing number of other companies), do highlight, on a broad level, the already highly problematic threats posed by swarms. The new Automated Drone Swarm Container System underscores the additional danger of these same threats hiding in plain sight. The steady proliferation of advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, especially when it comes to dynamic targeting, will only create additional challenges, as TWZ has explored in detail in this past feature.

This is not theoretical, either. As mentioned, in June [2025], Ukrainian forces launched multiple drone attacks on airbases across Russia with the help of covert launchers loaded on the back of unassuming civilian tractor-trailer trucks. This entire effort was dubbed Operation Spiderweb and took months of planning.

Even in an overt operational context, readily deployable containerized systems capable of acting as hubs for drone operations across a broad area with limited manpower requirements could offer a major boost in capability and capacity. Ships, trucks, and aircraft, which could themselves be uncrewed, could be used to bring them to and from forward locations, even in remote areas. If they can support a “heterogeneous mix” of uncrewed aerial systems, a single container could be used to support a wide array of mission requirements, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, electronic warfare, kinetic strikes, and/or communications signal relay.

An inherent benefit of a drone swarm, in general, is that each individual component does not have to be configured to perform all of the desired tasks. This creates additional flexibility and resilience to threats, since the loss of any particular drone does not necessarily preclude the swarm from continuing its assigned missions. There are tangential design and cost benefits for the drones themselves, since they can be configured to carry only the systems required for their particular mission demands.

Army Aviation Launches Autonomous Pack Hunters

TWZ previously laid out a detailed case for the many benefits that could come along with loading containers packed with swarms of drones onto U.S. Navy ships. Many of those arguments are just as relevant when talking about systems designed to be employed on land. Containerized systems are often readily adaptable to both ground-based and maritime applications, to begin with.

Drone swarms are only set to become more capable as advancements in autonomy, especially automated target recognition, continue to progress, driven by parallel developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning, as you can read more about here. Future highly autonomous swarms will be able to execute various mission sets even more efficiently and in ways that compound challenges for defenders. Massed drone attacks with limited autonomy already have an inherent capacity to just overwhelm enemy defenses. In turn, electronic warfare systems and high-power microwave directed energy weapons have steadily emerged as some of the most capable options available to tackle swarms, but have their own limitations. Even powerful microwave systems have very short ranges and are directional in nature, and electronic warfare systems may simply not work at all against autonomous drones.

In terms of what DIU is now looking at for CADDS, the stated requirements are broad. It remains to be seen what options might be submitted, let alone considered for actual operational U.S. military use.

Still, DIU has laid out a real emerging capability gap amid the current push to field various tiers of drones to a degree never before seen across America’s armed forces, which counterinsurgency launch systems look well-positioned to fill.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Preble used its High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) system to down four drones in a demonstration last year, Lockheed Martin has shared. Earlier this month, the Navy’s top officer said his goal is for directed energy weapons to become the go-to choice for warship crews when it comes to defending against close-in threats. However, the service has continued to face significant hurdles in fielding operational laser weapon systems.

“Speaking of amazing technology, we successfully used a shipboard laser system, Lockheed Martin’s HELIOS, to knock an incoming UAV [uncrewed aerial vehicle] right out of the sky,” the company’s CEO Jim Taiclet said during a quarterly earnings call last week. “The HELIOS weapon system successfully neutralized four drone threats in a U.S. Navy-operated counter-UAS [uncrewed aerial systems] demonstration at sea, showcasing an opportunity to eliminate drone attacks using lasers, and saving U.S. and allied air defense missiles for more advanced threats.”

TWZ reached out to Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for HELIOS, for more information and was directed to comments from Navy Vice Adm. Brendan McLane at the Surface Navy Association’s (SNA) annual symposium in January. McLane is the commander of Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. As the Navy’s top surface warfare officer, he is also often referred to by the title SWOBOSS.

“The Surface Navy has a rare opportunity with leadership aligned on delivering lethality, capability, and capacity at speed. As an enterprise, we must continue to think big as we develop the future platforms within the world. We must lay the foundations for the systems on those ships now so that they deliver on their promise to the American people,” McLane had said at the SNA conference. “Continued iteration with USS Preble’s HELIOS laser weapons system is another example of this. Last fall, successful at-sea testing paved the way for future laser weapons systems. We need to continue on this path. I am committed to advancing laser technology to the fleet. The dream of a laser on every ship can become a real one.”

TWZ has also reached out to the Navy for more information.

HELIOS, which also carries the designation Mk 5 Mod 0, is a 60-kilowatt-class laser directed energy weapon designed to be powerful enough to destroy or at least damage certain targets, such as drones or small boats. As its name indicates, it has a secondary function as a ‘dazzler’ to blind optical sensors and seekers, which could also be damaged or destroyed in the process. In the past, Lockheed Martin has talked about potentially scaling HELIOS’ power rating up to 150 kilowatts.

HELIOS has been integrated on Preble since 2022, and is currently the only Navy ship equipped with the system. Several other Arleigh Burke class destroyers have received lower-powered Optical Dazzling Interdictor (ODIN) laser systems. The Navy has installed more experimental high-energy laser directed energy weapons on other ships in the past.

Preble successfully downed at least one drone using HELIOS in a previous test in 2024. That milestone was disclosed in an annual report from the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) released in January 2025.

A multi-target scenario is a logical evolution in the demonstration of HELIOS’ capabilities. The Navy’s experiences during operations in and around the Red Sea in the past few years have underscored the challenges defenders face at sea and on land when responding to large volume drone attacks. Uncrewed aerial systems layered in with other threats like anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles present even more complexities. The potential for traditional air defense capabilities to be overwhelmed is real. The level of complexity will only increase as artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven capabilities, including automated targeting and fully networked swarming, keep proliferating globally.

Laser directed energy weapons like HELIOS offer functionally unlimited magazine depth, as long as there is sufficient power and cooling capacity. As Lockheed Martin’s Taiclet noted last week, lasers also offer a way to conserve traditional surface-to-air missiles for use against targets that they might be better optimized against. That is particularly valuable for ships operating in areas where opportunities for rearming may be extremely limited and/or force them to leave their assigned station for an extended period of time.

This all presents cost benefits, too. As an example, the latest versions of the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), used for point defense on many Navy ships, each cost around $1 million.

USS Porter Conducts SeaRAM Test Fire

Many warships across the Navy are also equipped with Mk 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon Systems armed with six-barreled 20mm M61 Vulcan rotary cannons, but the ammunition for those weapons is not unlimited, either. Each Phalanx has enough ammunition to fire for a total of around 30 seconds, at most, at the lower of two rate-of-fire settings, before needing to be reloaded. Many ships across the Navy also have a mixture of other guns, including 5-inch or 57mm main guns, as well as 25mm or 30mm automatic cannons, all of which can also be used against close-in threats.

Phalanx CIWS Close-in Weapon System In Action – US Navy’s Deadly Autocannon

There are still significant questions about the demonstration last fall, including how rapidly the USS Preble was able to shift HELIOS from one target to another and how long it took each one to be effectively neutralized. The proximity of the drones to the ship and what kinds of profiles they were flying are also unknown.

A single laser can only engage one target at once. As the beam gets further away from the source, its power also drops, just as a result of it having to propagate through the atmosphere. This can be further compounded by the weather and other environmental factors like smoke and dust. More power is then needed to produce suitable effects at appreciable distances. Adaptive optics are used to help overcome atmospheric distortion to a degree. Altogether, laser directed energy weapons generally remain relatively short-range systems.

In addition, laser directed energy weapons, especially sensitive optics, present inherent reliability challenges for use in real-world military operations. Shipboard use adds rough sea states and saltwater exposure to the equation. There is also the matter of needing to keep everything properly cooled, which creates additional power generation and other demands.

Despite the hurdles, the U.S. Navy, as well as other navies globally, have continued to pursue laser directed energy weapons, as well as high-power microwaves, because of the capabilities they promise to offer in the face of an ever-expanding drone and missile threat ecosystem. HELIOS and ODIN both feature prominently in the design of the Navy’s future Trump class “battleships.” There has been talk already about the potential for expanding that directed energy arsenal to include lasers with megawatt-class power ratings.

“You know, we have continuous electron beam, free electron lasers today that can scale to megawatt-plus, gigawatt-plus [power ratings],” Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations, told TWZ and other outlets at the Surface Navy Association’s (SNA) annual symposium last month. “I’m telling you that I don’t think a one-megawatt laser is beyond what should be on that battery [on the Trump class].”

Beyond the Trump class, “this is my goal, if it’s in line of sight of a ship, that the first solution that we’re using is directed energy,” Caudle also said. “Point defense needs to shift to directed energy. It has an infinite magazine.”

“What that does for me is it improves my loadout optimization, so that my loadout, my payload volume is optimized for offensive weapons,” the Navy’s top officer added. Furthermore, “as you increase power, the actual ability to actually engage and keep power on target, and the effectiveness of a laser just goes up.”

Challenges to the Navy’s directed energy future clearly still remain. In speaking last month, Caudle was optimistic for the future, but he has been open about difficulties in the past. At the SNA symposium in 2025, the admiral, then head of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said he was “embarrassed” at the state of his service’s directed energy weapon developments.

“I am not content with the pace of directed energy weapons,” Vice Adm. McLane had also said back in 2024. “We must deliver on this promise that this technology gives us.”

This is reflective of broader difficulties that all branches have faced in the development and fielding of laser directed energy weapons, in particular, for use in the air and on the ground, as well as at sea, as you can read more about here.

What we do know is that the Navy continues to use the USS Preble to prove out the HELIOS system, including with the recently disclosed demonstration of its drone-zapping capabilities last fall.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Feb. 2 (UPI) — A Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region has killed at least 12 miners and injured eight more, according to officials who are accusing the Kremlin of attacking unarmed civilians.

DTEK Group, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said a Russian drone struck a bus transporting staff from its Dnipropetrovsk mine, resulting in at least 20 casualties.

“The bus was hit as it was taking miners home after their shift,” the company said in a statement.

The strike was part of a large-scale Russian assault on DTEK’s mining facilities in the region, the company said as it extended its condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed.

Maxim Teimchenko, CEO of DTEK, accused Russia of conducting “an unprovoked terrorist attack on a purely civilian target.”

“This attack marks the single largest loss of life of DTEK employees since russia’s full-scale invasion and is one of the darkest days in our history,” he said.

“Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

Serhii Berskresnov, a Ukraine Defense Ministry adviser, identified the weapon used in the attack on Telegram as an Iran-made Shahed drone.

Using a MESH radio modem, the drone pilot deliberately attacked the bus after spotting it on the road, he said.

The drone struck near the bus, with its blast wave forcing the driver to lose control and crash into a fence, he said, adding that as the injured were exiting the vehicle, a second Shahed drone struck.

“The operators operating from the territory of Russia 100% saw and identified the target as civilian, saw they were not military and made a conscious decision to attack,” he said.

“This is yet another act of terrorism. I have no words.”

Russia has been widely accused of committing war crimes in its nearly 3-year-old war in Ukraine. From indiscriminate attacks on civilians to executions, torture and forced deportations, Russia has been repeatedly denounced for alleged war crimes that it denies.

The International Criminal Court has formally opened a war crimes and crimes against humanity investigation into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has issued arrest warrants for Russian officials, including its authoritarian president, Vladimir Putin.

The strike was one of numerous Russian attacks across Ukraine on Sunday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stating on X that people throughout the country were without heat and electricity. Railway infrastructure was hit in the Sumy region, he said.

During the month of January, Russia launched more than 6,000 attack drones, 5,550 guided aerial bombs and 158 missiles at Ukraine, Zelensky said.

“Virtually all of it targeted the energy sector, the railways and our infrastructure — everything that sustains normal life.”

On Saturday, Russia bombed a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia, injuring six people, according to Prime Minister Yulia Svydenko.

“This is the nature of Russia’s war,” she said.

The attacks occurred during a cold February that has seen the temperatures drop well below freezing, according to the country’s hydrometeorological center.

The strikes come despite U.S. President Donald Trump stating last week that Putin promised him that Russia would refrain from hitting Ukraine for a week.

“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to that,” he said during a cabinet meeting without making clear which towns, cities and regions that the Russian leader had agreed not to attack.

“We’re very happy that they did it.”

Trump has been pushing since before he returned to office to end the war, which he vowed to do during his first 24 hours back in the White House.

Zelensky confirmed Sunday that dates for the next trilateral meetings for a cease-fire between the United States and Russia have been set for Wednesday and Thursday in Abu Dhabi.

“Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” he said.

Lockheed Martin has offered a very rare confirmation of the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone‘s operational exploits, in this case, in support of the recent mission to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

“This is what you can expect from Lockheed Martin: continued significant investment to advance technology development and produce proven major weapon systems at ever greater scale. We build on this momentum with a powerful start to 2026,” CEO Jim Taiclet said during a quarterly earnings call this morning. “Lockheed Martin products, once again, proved critical to the U.S. military’s most demanding missions. The recent Operation Absolute Resolve [in Venezuela] included F-35 and F-22 fighter jets, RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drones, and Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters, which helped ensure mission success while bringing the men and women of our armed forces home safely.”

After the conclusion of Operation Absolute Resolve on January 3, video footage had emerged showing at least one, and possibly two, RQ-170s arriving at the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico. This was a major hub for aircraft employed in the operation and had already offered very strong evidence of the Sentinel’s involvement.

The U.S. military subsequently confirmed that F-35s, F-22s, and Black Hawks – the latter belonging to the U.S. Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Night Stalkers – among many other types of aircraft had taken part in the operation. While mention was also made of the use of drones, the RQ-170 was not explicitly named.

A now-deleted post in December 2025 from Air Forces Southern (AFSOUTH) on X, which included a picture of an individual wearing a name patch with an RQ-170 silhouette and the sleeve insignia of the 432nd Wing, had prompted earlier questions about whether the drones were operating in the region. The only units known to fly Sentinel are the 30th and 44th Reconnaissance Squadrons, both of which are assigned to the 432nd Wing at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. A total of between 20 and 30 RQ-170s are said to be in the Air Force’s inventory.

The exact role the RQ-170 played in Operation Absolute Resolve remains unclear, and Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet offered no further details. TWZ has previously detailed how the mission and the lead-up to it are exactly what the Sentinel was designed for. As we wrote:

“RQ-170s would have provided a valuable way to discreetly track Maduro’s movements and otherwise establish his ‘patterns of life,’ as well as those of the forces guarding him, for an extended period of time in the lead-up to the actual launch of the operation to capture him. During the mission itself, having one of the drones orbiting overhead would have provided an indispensable source of real-time information, including to help spot threats that might unexpectedly appear. Those same feeds would also have given senior leaders, including President Donald Trump, a way to watch the operation as it happened.”

…

“With all this in mind, RQ-170s could also have surveilled Venezuelan military bases and other sites that U.S. forces struck as part of the operation overnight, and helped with post-strike assessments. The Air Force has disclosed having at least conducted tests in the past of the Sentinel in the bomb damage assessment role in combination with B-2 bombers.”

Since then, it has also emerged that the U.S. military planning for the mission included preparations to destroy three airfields in the country if it appeared that fighters belonging to the Venezuelan Air Force were attempting to scramble and intercept the raiding force. That threat did not materialize, and none of those facilities were ultimately struck, but it would have been necessary to closely monitor them to be sure.

Substations were also targeted to cut power to the Fuerte Tiuna (Fort Tiuna), a sprawling military base in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, housing Maduro’s fortress-like compound.

Multiple Venezuelan air defense assets were also struck at various locations in the country during the operation. TWZ has also highlighted previously how suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD) would have been a key mission for the F-22s and F-35s in the force package. U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers, and likely at least one U.S. Air Force EC-130H Compass Call aircraft, also contributed electronic warfare support to this mission and other aspects of the operation.

The RQ-170’s participation in Operation Absolute Resolve adds to the still relatively limited publicly available information (and even less that is officially confirmed) about the use of these drones over the years. The U.S. Air Force only officially acknowledged the Sentinel’s existence in 2009, two years after it was first spotted in Afghanistan and had been dubbed the “Beast of Kandahar.”

RQ-170s were used to monitor aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, something that was thrust into the public eye after one of the drones went down in that country in 2011, a major intelligence loss. RQ-170s likely also played a role in relation to the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last year, where they could have provided direct overhead coverage and intelligence for post-mission bomb damage assessments.

Sentinels are understood to have surveilled Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan in the lead-up to the raid that led to his death, which also occurred in 2011. This, as well as operations over Iran, are prime examples of the Sentinel’s ability to persistently surveil key sites even in denied areas. The preparations for and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve also followed a playbook with direct parallels, as well as notable differences, to the Bin Laden mission.

The stealthy RQ-170s have also deployed to South Korea in the past, from where they likely conducted flights at least very near to North Korean airspace. The drones have also been at least deployed elsewhere in the Pacific, as well.

Between 2022 and 2023, Sentinels may have flown missions in the Black Sea region, gathering intelligence on Russian forces on the heavily-defended occupied Crimean Peninsula. A satellite image available through Apple Maps showing an RQ-170 at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy has lent some further credence to those reports. Sigonella has been and continues to be a hub for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance flights over the Black Sea. It is unclear when the image was taken, but it looks to be from a relevant timeframe based on the visible state of construction elsewhere at the base.

Though much still remains to be learned, the remarks today from Lockheed Martin CEO Taiclet have added a small, but notable addition to the story of the RQ-170.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com