🚨🇷🇺 Russia Arms SU-34 Fighter With Four Extended-Range Glide Bombs

New Russian Defence Ministry footage shows a Su-34 carrying four FAB-500T bombs fitted with elongated extended-range UMPK kits. The loadout gives one fighter-bomber a four-weapon stand-off salvo, combining roughly two tonnes of bomb mass with far greater reach than earlier Russian glide bombs.

🔸 The FAB-500T is a 500 kg-class high-explosive bomb originally designed for high-speed aircraft. The new module adds folding wings, guidance and a more aerodynamic body to turn it into a long-range precision weapon.

🔸 The footage confirms the four-bomb loadout, but does not clearly show whether these particular weapons carry propulsion. Russian aviation sources distinguish an unpowered extended-range version capable of flying more than 100 km from a favourable release point from boosted or powered variants reported at 160–200 km.

🔸 That reach allows Su-34 crews to release their weapons farther from the front, reducing exposure to many short- and medium-range air-defence systems while striking command posts, bridges, logistics hubs and fortified positions.

🔸 Russia has applied the same modular principle across the FAB family, including FAB-250, FAB-500, FAB-1500 and FAB-3000 bombs. The result is a scalable arsenal ranging from repeated tactical strikes to attacks on large hardened targets.

🔸 The economic logic is simple: combine mass-produced bomb bodies with guidance and range-extension kits instead of using an expensive purpose-built cruise missile against every target.

The real development is the combination of range and salvo size. A single Su-34 can launch four heavy guided weapons from stand-off distance, forcing Ukraine to defend a much wider rear area while Russia preserves more expensive missiles for other missions.

What is the bigger threat: longer range, four-bomb salvos or mass production?

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🚨🇨🇳🇮🇷 US Supercarriers Can Lose a War Without Sinking

Some people debate whether China or Iran can sink a 100,000-ton US carrier. That is the wrong test. In a war decided within weeks, the ship only has to lose its ability to launch and recover aircraft. It may still float, but it has disappeared from the battle.

The US Navy calls this a “mission kill.” Damage to the flight deck, catapults, arresting gear, aircraft elevators, electrical network or aviation-fuel system can make an intact carrier useless. A major fire can do the same: heat wrecks equipment, while smoke closes compartments and drives crews from critical areas.

China could seek that result through combined strikes involving DF-21D and DF-26 anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, submarines, bombers, drones and electronic warfare. Iran operates on a different scale, but the logic is identical: saturate the carrier group’s defenses and accumulate enough damage to stop sorties. The target is not necessarily the hull. It is the machinery that turns a floating airfield into combat power.

USS Forrestal showed how quickly fire can neutralize a carrier. In 1967, one accidentally launched Zuni rocket struck an aircraft fuel tank. The resulting fire and bomb explosions killed 134 crew members, destroyed 21 aircraft and ended the ship’s Vietnam deployment. Flames on the flight deck were contained within an hour, yet fires below burned into the next morning and repairs took months.

In 2020, a peacetime fire aboard the smaller USS Bonhomme Richard burned for four days. The Navy estimated that restoration would cost more than $3B and take five to seven years. It instead decommissioned the ship and sold it for scrap.

A damaged nuclear carrier in the Western Pacific or Middle East would face another bottleneck. Major repairs require nuclear-certified facilities, specialized labor and exact replacement components. The US Government Accountability Office found that the Navy already lacked surge capacity and had not determined how much repair infrastructure it would need in wartime. Overseas ports could be unavailable or remain within missile range.

China or Iran does not need to destroy an entire carrier group. Knocking one or two carriers out during the opening phase could erase hundreds of sorties when Washington needs them most. A $13B supercarrier can survive the attack and still lose the war it was built to fight.

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🚨🇮🇷 Sanctions Fail: Iran’s Homegrown Aircraft Nears Commercial Service

Iran’s domestically developed Simorgh transport aircraft has entered the certification phase, putting one of the country’s most ambitious aviation projects on course for commercial operations as early as March 2027.

Certification marks the transition from an experimental aircraft to an operational one. Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company, or HESA, is now working with the country’s Civil Aviation Organization to complete the standards, permits and airworthiness documentation required for a Type Certificate or Supplemental Type Certificate.

Officials expect the process to be completed during the Iranian year beginning in March 2027, although disruptions over the past year could cause a short delay.

Developed from the Iran-140 platform, Simorgh has been redesigned primarily as a cargo aircraft. It features a rear loading ramp and is powered by two 2,500-horsepower turboprop engines. The aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight of 21.5 tons and can carry up to six tons of cargo.

That places Simorgh in the light transport class, suitable for moving equipment and supplies between regional airports, supporting medical missions and strengthening domestic air freight. Its size also makes it useful for routes where deploying a large jet freighter would be inefficient.

The program has already moved through ground tests, its maiden flight and an extended flight-test campaign under the supervision of Iran’s aviation regulator. Reaching certification is the harder industrial step: proving that the aircraft, its systems and its manufacturing process consistently meet operational safety standards.

Simorgh is therefore more than a single aircraft. Iranian knowledge-based companies are participating in subsystem design, component production, testing, technical documentation, standardization and certification. The project is building an aviation ecosystem capable of carrying future aircraft from the drawing board into service.

Western sanctions were intended to deny Iran access to modern aircraft, components and technical support. If Simorgh enters service as planned, Iran will gain not only a new six-ton cargo plane, but something far more difficult to sanction: a domestic chain capable of designing, testing, certifying and manufacturing aircraft.

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🚨🇮🇷🇨🇳 China Gives Iran 400 New Missiles To Hunt U.S. And Israeli Jets

Iran is preparing to receive up to 400 Chinese QW- and FN-series man-portable air-defense systems within weeks in a transfer valued at $60–70M. Hundreds of mobile launch teams would make low-altitude operations over Iran far more dangerous for U.S. and Israeli aircraft.

🔸 The QW-12 uses a dual-band infrared seeker designed to distinguish real targets from countermeasures. During a public test in 2022, the missile ignored eight decoy flares before striking its target.

🔸 The FN-16 adds another modern infrared-guided weapon against low-flying aircraft, helicopters, drones and cruise missiles, strengthening the short-range layer of Iran’s air-defense network.

🔸 MANPADS do not require large fixed radar sites. Small teams can disperse around air bases, missile facilities, ports, energy infrastructure and likely approach routes, fire from concealment and relocate immediately afterward.

🔸 Their infrared guidance also gives attacking aircraft little warning before launch. Stealth may reduce radar detection, but it cannot remove the heat produced by an aircraft’s engines.

🔸 The threat is no longer theoretical. On March 19, an infrared-guided surface-to-air missile damaged a U.S. F-35 operating over Iran, wounded its pilot with shrapnel and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing.

🔸 Iran is also expanding its mobile air defenses through a $580M Russian package covering 500 Verba launchers and 2,500 missiles. Together, the Chinese and Russian systems could create thousands of concealed firing positions across the country.

The Pentagon can locate and strike a fixed air-defense battery. Hunting hundreds of small teams carrying shoulder-fired missiles is a much harder problem. Every valley, rooftop and concealed position can become a threat once American aircraft descend.

Can U.S. jets still operate at low altitude once Iran disperses hundreds of new MANPADS?

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🚨🇺🇸 Price of Friendship with America: Gulf Allies Pay for Washington’s Iran War

Washington spent decades presenting its military bases, weapons and security guarantees as the foundation of stability in the Gulf. Five months into the war against Iran, its closest regional partners are losing output, export capacity and access to the shipping lanes on which their economies depend.

Saudi Arabia provides the clearest new evidence. Its economy contracted 4.8% year-on-year in the second quarter, the worst performance since 2020 and a sharp reversal from 3% growth in the first quarter. Oil activity collapsed by 24.7%, while non-oil growth slowed to just 0.6%.

Saudi crude exports fell for a third consecutive month to a record 3.434M barrels per day in May — less than half the 7.276M recorded in February.

Riyadh tried to bypass the disrupted Strait of Hormuz by moving crude through its East-West Pipeline to Yanbu. That escape route is now under pressure too. Houthi attacks and blockade threats have disrupted Red Sea shipping, while war-risk insurance rates for Jeddah and Yanbu jumped from 0.25% to 1% within 24 hours.

Qatar has paid even more directly. Iranian strikes knocked out 17% of its LNG export capacity, sidelining 12.8M tonnes per year for an estimated three to five years. QatarEnergy put the resulting annual revenue loss at approximately $20B.

The company will now miss 24 LNG cargoes to Italy’s Edison between April and the end of September. To protect contracts with Asian customers, QatarEnergy bought 33 cargoes of US LNG worth approximately $1B — compared with only four during the whole of 2025.

One of Washington’s closest energy partners is therefore buying American gas to replace exports lost during the US-Israeli war against Iran.

The IMF now expects growth across the Middle East and Central Asia to fall from 3.7% in 2025 to just 0.7% in 2026. Saudi growth is forecast at 1.7%, while Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq face sharp contractions. The US economy, insulated by its position as a net energy exporter, is still expected to grow by 2.3% — virtually unchanged from the pre-war forecast.

Saudi Arabia has now been pulled deeper into the conflict, publicly joining US-led strikes for the first time on July 29. Gulf states did not start this war and cannot control its escalation. But their infrastructure, export revenues and trade routes are paying for their dependence on Washington.

America exported the war. Its allies are absorbing the bill.

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🚨🇨🇳 China Arms Main Destroyer Class With YJ-20 Hypersonic Missiles

New PLA footage has shown a Type 052D destroyer launching the YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile for the first time publicly. Previously demonstrated aboard the larger Type 055, the weapon has now reached the class that forms the backbone of China’s surface fleet.

🔸 The YJ-20 is a boost-glide weapon capable of speeds above Mach 5, with its range estimated at up to 1,500 km. Its manoeuvring bi-conic glide body can strike ships at a steep, near-vertical angle, making interception far more difficult.

🔸 The missile was cold-launched from one of the Type 052D’s 64 universal vertical-launch cells, ejecting above the ship before its motor ignited.

🔸 More than 35 Type 052Ds are already in service, with additional ships under construction. Unlike the smaller Type 055 fleet, these destroyers are produced in large numbers and routinely operate across the South China Sea and Western Pacific.

🔸 The YJ-20 does not need to replace the YJ-18. A mixed load allows Chinese destroyers to combine long-range hypersonic attacks with sea-skimming cruise missiles, forcing carrier defenses to confront different speeds, trajectories and approach angles.

🔸 This is what makes the integration more important than a single launch. Hypersonic anti-ship firepower can now spread beyond China’s largest destroyers to a far more numerous class, creating more launch platforms and attack directions.

🔸 The Pentagon’s leaked Overmatch brief found that American warships such as the Gerald R. Ford were often destroyed in Taiwan war games. Giving China’s primary destroyer class a hypersonic carrier-killer makes those scenarios even harder for the U.S. Navy.

The threat is no longer one rare missile aboard a handful of large warships. It is China’s mass-produced destroyer fleet gaining the ability to attack U.S. carrier groups from extreme range.

What threatens U.S. carriers more: the YJ-20’s speed or the number of ships that can launch it?

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🚨🇨🇳🇯🇵 China’s Humanoid Robots Move Into Japan’s Airports

Chinese-made humanoid robots have entered a three-year trial at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, where JAL Ground Service and GMO AI & Robotics are testing whether the machines can take over some of aviation’s most labor-intensive work.

This is not yet a commercial deployment. The first phase maps airport workflows and identifies tasks the robots can perform safely. Later stages will simulate actual ground operations, with baggage and cargo handling, cabin cleaning and eventually the operation of ground-support equipment among the intended uses.

The humanoid form is central to the experiment. Airports were built around human bodies: handles, controls, loading equipment and narrow working spaces all assume human reach and movement. A human-shaped machine could operate in that environment without forcing airlines to rebuild aircraft or airport facilities around fixed automation.

JAL Ground Service defines operational requirements and evaluates safety. GMO supplies robots produced by China’s Unitree and develops and optimizes their motion programs for the airport environment.

In June, GMO became Unitree’s authorized distributor in Japan. The Japanese company will provide implementation support, software development, maintenance, operations and secure communications alongside equipment sales. The wider GMO group can also offer rentals and leasing.

That division points to a new Asian robotics business model. China supplies increasingly affordable, mass-produced platforms. Local partners adapt the same hardware to individual workplaces, write task-specific movements and keep the robots operating after installation.

The value therefore does not end with the hardware sale. Software, integration, rentals, maintenance and long-term operations can generate continuing revenue for the Japanese company around a Chinese machine.

The next test is whether the model can be repeated. GMO’s technicians will need the training, spare parts and software access required to solve routine failures locally. If every serious problem must still be referred to Unitree in Hangzhou, local customer service will remain dependent on the Chinese manufacturer’s engineering expertise.

A second commercial contract will reveal more than the Haneda demonstration. If GMO can transfer what it learns to another airport without rebuilding the entire project, it will have created a scalable service business around Chinese robotics.

Japan has long been associated with humanoid robotics. At Haneda, the core platform is Chinese, while Japanese companies are building the operational layer around it. In that sense, China is no longer just exporting machines but providing the hardware foundation for new robotics businesses across Asia.

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🚨🇨🇳 China Just Overtook Germany in the Industry That Builds Industry

China has become the world’s largest exporter of metalworking machine tools, displacing Germany from a position long associated with European industrial power.

Machine tools are not another category of consumer goods. Lathes, milling machines, machining centers and presses cut and shape the components used in cars, aircraft, turbines, factory equipment and weapons. They are the “machines that make machines” — the productive foundation beneath almost every advanced industry.

Data compiled by Italian industry association UCIMU show how quickly the balance changed. China’s share of global metalworking machine tool exports jumped from 8% in 2016 to 23% in 2025. Europe’s share fell from 52% to 46% over the same period.

German industry figures tell the same story. Chinese machine tool exports rose 13% to a record €8.6B in 2025, while German exports fell 10% to €7B. China also produced about €30B worth of machine tools — 37% of global output. Germany accounted for 12% and the US 9%.

China built this scale through the huge demand generated by its own automotive, electronics, semiconductor, aerospace and defense industries. Machine tools have now been designated a critical core technology in Beijing’s new five-year plan. After expanding at home, Chinese manufacturers are moving aggressively into overseas markets once dominated by Europe.

European producers are demanding protection. UCIMU wants Chinese machinery subjected to the same technical and safety standards as European equipment, while Italy, France, Spain and two other EU states have called for stronger trade defenses. Italy’s own machine tool exports to China plunged from €316M in 2016 to €110M in 2025.

The reversal goes far beyond the loss of another export market. Europe once supplied much of the equipment that allowed China to build its industrial base. China is now selling that productive capacity to the rest of the world — and eroding European strength in the sector that equips automotive plants, aircraft factories, energy projects and arms production.

Tariffs may slow Chinese imports. They cannot quickly recreate lost scale, supplier networks or domestic demand. Germany has not merely lost first place in another ranking. China has overtaken it in the industry that determines who can build the industries of the future.

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🚨🇺🇸 US Stealth Fleet Grows — Combat Readiness Falls

The Pentagon is replacing hundreds of older fighters with F-35s and preparing to introduce the F-47 and F/A-XX. Its own budget analysts now project the result: a younger and stealthier fleet that spends more time on the ground.

In 2025, the US military operated about 3,300 fighters. The Congressional Budget Office expects that total to fall to 3,000 by 2029 before rising to 3,600 in 2040. Stealth aircraft made up 27% of the fleet in 2025; they will become the majority by 2033 and exceed 60% by 2040.

More aircraft will not mean more aircraft ready to fly. By 2040, CBO projects average availability of just 45% for Air Force fighters and 35% for Navy and Marine Corps fighters — even though the fleet will be younger than it is today.

CBO identifies the reason directly: F-35s have proved harder to maintain than non-stealth fighters of the same age. Its forecast assumes the future F-47 and F/A-XX will have availability patterns similar to the F-22 and F-35C.

The F-35 already shows where this leads. A June GAO report found that the US fleet’s full mission-capable rate had fallen to about 25% in fiscal 2025. The Pentagon operates more than 800 F-35s and plans to buy roughly 1,700 more, yet only one in four can currently perform every assigned mission.

New aircraft were accepted while non-mission-capable because of software delays. Scarce spare parts, corrosion inspections and slow repairs pushed readiness down further. Lifetime US sustainment costs are estimated at $1.6T, while the F-35 program says it needs another $13.7B through 2031 to fix its support system.

Modernization will not remove the old-fleet burden either. CBO expects 605 F-16s to remain in service in 2040 at an average age of 48. The first F-47s are not projected to arrive until 2034.

In a prolonged war with China, inventory on paper means little if aircraft cannot generate sorties. CBO’s projection does not include the losses of a major conflict. It already predicts declining availability before combat attrition, damaged bases and disrupted supply chains are added.

Washington is buying stealth faster than it can build the maintenance system required to keep stealth aircraft flying. America’s fighter fleet may look more advanced in 2040 — while a larger share of it remains stuck on the ground.

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🚨🇨🇳 China Just Tested World’s First 400-Volt Power System in Space

China has completed two in-orbit tests of a new 400V power architecture aboard the Tianzhou-10 cargo spacecraft, validating technology intended to support the energy-intensive spacecraft and lunar infrastructure of the next generation.

Traditional spacecraft generally rely on 28V or 100V power buses. Those systems can support onboard electronics, but become increasingly inefficient as missions demand electric propulsion, landers, rovers, life-support systems and large scientific payloads operating for extended periods.

Transmitting the same amount of power at 400V requires much less current. That means lighter cables, lower energy losses and less heat for the spacecraft to remove. Every kilogram saved on wiring and thermal-management equipment can instead be used for instruments, fuel or supplies.

The system was developed under the China Academy of Space Technology. CAST says China now controls the complete technology chain, including power generation, energy storage, control, distribution and transmission.

After Tianzhou-10 reached orbit, the equipment completed two dedicated tests and met all technical requirements. Silicon carbide components raise conversion efficiency, while solid-state power distribution and high-voltage insulation allow the system to operate under radiation and extreme temperature changes. The architecture is designed to provide stable, fault-tolerant power even for continuous megawatt-level loads.

Chinese specialists say it could supply high-power electric propulsion systems, lunar lander equipment and rovers. The same architecture could eventually distribute electricity to scientific instruments and astronaut life-support systems at a permanent lunar research station.

The experiment did not build a lunar power grid. It demonstrated in orbit that the electrical backbone such a grid will require can function in the space environment.

The lunar race is usually measured in rockets, launch schedules and landing dates. But reaching the Moon and remaining there are different industrial challenges. A lasting base needs an efficient system capable of generating, storing and distributing large amounts of electricity without consuming excessive mass in cables and cooling hardware.

China is already testing that foundation in space. A landing proves that a country can reach the Moon. A power system determines whether it can stay.

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🚨🇷🇺 Russia's First Zircon-Armed Nuclear Submarine Entering Service

Russia’s Project 885M nuclear submarine Perm is expected to complete trials and join the Navy before the end of 2026. It will be Russia’s first multipurpose nuclear submarine built from the outset to carry Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles as standard armament.

🔸 The Yasen-M combines the concealment and endurance of a nuclear-powered attack submarine with Russia’s most advanced naval strike weapons. Its arsenal includes Zircon, Kalibr and Oniks missiles for attacks against warships and targets deep inland.

🔸 The submarine has a submerged displacement of around 13,800 tonnes, reaches 31 knots underwater, can dive to 520 metres and remain at sea for up to 100 days.

🔸 Zircon reaches speeds of around Mach 9 and can strike sea and land targets at ranges exceeding 1,000 km. Its speed leaves defending forces only minutes to detect the launch, identify the target and attempt an interception.

🔸 The missile has already been successfully launched from beneath the surface, but Perm turns that tested capability into the standard armament of an operational submarine rather than a launch from an adapted trial platform.

🔸 Surface ships carrying hypersonic missiles can be tracked by satellites, aircraft and patrol vessels. A Yasen-M can remain hidden beneath the ocean, change its firing position and attack from an unexpected direction.

🔸 The same submarine can hunt carrier groups and other major warships while holding naval bases, ports, command centres and infrastructure on land at risk.

Finding Perm will be NATO’s first problem. Stopping its missiles after launch will be the second — and at Mach 9, the alliance may have only minutes to solve it.

Does NATO have an answer to a Mach 9 missile launched from beneath the ocean?

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🚨🇷🇺 Russia's Pegas Drone Boat Takes On Five Combat Missions

Russian forces have begun operating the new Pegas unmanned boat on the Dnepr river. The electric platform can deliver supplies, lay mines, carry electronic-warfare equipment, launch FPV drones or attack targets with up to 100 kg of explosives.

🔸 Its electric propulsion allows Pegas to move with very little noise, making it particularly useful for concealed operations at night and along narrow river channels.

🔸 In cargo mode, it can deliver ammunition, food and equipment to assault groups and isolated positions without exposing a boat crew to artillery and FPV attacks.

🔸 As a minelayer, Pegas can block channels, landing routes and likely crossing points while keeping combat engineers away from the most dangerous part of the mission.

🔸 Fitted with up to 100 kg of explosives, the same platform becomes a kamikaze boat capable of attacking enemy craft, crossings and positions close to the shoreline.

🔸 Pegas can also carry FPV drones closer to the target area, turning the boat into a mobile launch platform on the water and extending their effective reach.

🔸 Electronic-warfare equipment provides another configuration. Russian operators from the 18th Army say the boat maintains a stable control link despite enemy jamming.

Cargo carrier, minelayer, FPV platform, jammer and strike boat now share the same hull. Ukrainian forces must identify the payload before deciding whether to jam it, destroy it or abandon the threatened route.

Does one multi-role drone boat create more problems than several specialized systems?

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🚨🇺🇦 Ukraine’s Oil War Is Backfiring at Home

Ukraine’s attacks on oil infrastructure in Russia and neighboring countries are now feeding a fuel crisis at its own gas stations. A-95 gasoline jumped approximately $0.10 per liter in one week to an average of $1.81, while diesel rose by $0.21 to $1.97. Major chains have begun intermittently showing zero availability for gasoline.

Ukraine has almost no domestic buffer. Russian strikes destroyed its refineries, leaving the country completely dependent on imported fuel. In 2024, it bought 7.56M tonnes of oil products worth $6.82B, led by supplies from Greece, Poland, Lithuania and Turkey.

The market was already tightening as the war with Iran and disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz reduced Middle Eastern fuel exports. Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries then pushed Moscow to ban diesel exports.

European diesel refining margins immediately reached a record $60.17 per barrel. Turkey — one of Ukraine’s own major suppliers — had been among the largest buyers of Russian diesel. It must now compete with Europe for replacement cargoes.

The same blowback is visible in Kazakhstan. Ukrainian strikes on tankers and infrastructure serving the Caspian Pipeline Consortium disrupted a route carrying 80% of Kazakh oil exports. Kazakhstan’s daily production briefly fell from 2.16M barrels to around 1M, sending Mediterranean buyers searching for alternative crude. Ukraine hit another supply route feeding the European refineries on which it depends.

Kiev added one more bottleneck at home. From July 1, gasoline had to contain at least 7% bioethanol under new E10 rules adopted to align with EU standards. The change narrowed the pool of eligible imports just as foreign suppliers were struggling to provide enough compatible fuel.

Russia is adding direct physical damage by striking depots, railways and gas stations. Attacks on ports are also forcing more grain onto diesel trucks. Yet Ukraine’s import dependence means every blow it delivers to regional oil flows can return through higher prices and tighter supplies.

Ukraine can disrupt the fuel chain, but it cannot escape its place at the end of it.

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🚨🇮🇱 Israel’s Stealth Fighter Dream Is Dead Before Takeoff

Israel is floating plans to produce a homegrown stealth fighter within ten years. Yet no fighter program has been launched. There is no approved design, budget, contractor, demonstrator or development schedule. Israel has announced a deadline for an aircraft that does not exist even on paper.

A fifth-generation fighter requires an entire industrial ecosystem: a stealth-optimized airframe, an afterburning engine, internal weapons bays, radar-absorbent materials, sensor fusion, mission software, testing facilities and a production line capable of manufacturing all of them consistently.

Israel does not possess that ecosystem. It cannot even produce the engine such an aircraft would require. Importing one from the US or Europe would leave the project dependent on foreign approval before the first prototype entered flight testing. An imported engine would solve only one problem while leaving the rest of the aircraft to be developed from scratch.

Israel’s previous attempt ended before reaching production. The Lavi was a less complex fourth-generation fighter, yet Washington financed more than 90% of its development, American companies supplied approximately 40% of its systems and Pratt & Whitney provided the engine.

After seven years of work, the program had produced only prototypes. Costs continued to rise until the Israeli cabinet canceled it in 1987 and returned to buying US-made F-16s.

A stealth fighter would be vastly harder and more expensive. The F-35 required decades of development, an international supply chain and tens of billions of dollars before becoming operational. South Korea’s KF-21 and Turkey’s KAAN have already consumed years of work and billions in funding, while both still rely on US engines.

Israel proposes to start later, spend less and produce a more demanding aircraft within a single decade. Its own record offers no reason to believe it can succeed.

Its actual procurement decisions point in the opposite direction. Israel has approved additional F-35 and F-15IA squadrons from the United States. The latest batch of 25 F-35s alone costs $3B and is financed entirely through American military aid. Those purchases will define the Israeli fighter fleet long after the promised domestic aircraft is supposed to appear.

At most, Israel could unveil a mock-up, technology demonstrator or stealth drone and present it as progress. None would amount to a combat-ready fifth-generation fighter produced in meaningful numbers.

The Lavi failed with American money, components and an American engine. A far more complex successor now exists without funding, infrastructure or even a formal program.

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🚨🇨🇳 China Turns One Truck Into Mobile 648-Drone Base

China’s DAMODA has packed the infrastructure for a 648-drone swarm into a truck-mounted automated container. Twelve racks carry 54 quadcopters each; at one command they extend along telescopic rails, launch the aircraft in sequence and receive them again after landing.

🔸 Multiple containers can operate together, allowing the system to scale from hundreds of drones to several thousand without constructing a permanent launch site.

🔸 DAMODA’s latest vehicle-mounted platform uses hydraulic automatic decoupling, auto-positioning and one-click deployment, sharply reducing the personnel and preparation time required to move a large swarm between locations.

🔸 Returning drones land on their assigned racks and connect to automatic charging equipment, preparing the fleet for repeated launches without manually collecting and repositioning hundreds of aircraft.

🔸 DAMODA’s swarm platforms use RTK positioning with BDS, GPS and GLONASS support. The company’s systems have already coordinated formations of more than 11,000 drones from centralized ground-control equipment.

🔸 Today these quadcopters carry lights. The same ground architecture could support reconnaissance drones, decoys, electronic-warfare platforms or attack aircraft designed to launch from standardized racks.

🔸 The military value lies in combining transport, storage, mass launch, coordinated control, recovery and recharging on one mobile chassis. Each truck can become a temporary drone base and relocate before enemy forces organize a response.

China has already solved the logistics problem that normally slows mass drone deployment. Converting the concept from entertainment to combat would require different aircraft, but the mobile swarm infrastructure is already operating.

Which battlefield role would make a 648-drone truck most dangerous: decoys, reconnaissance, electronic warfare or attack?

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🚨🇨🇳 China's AI Turns Days Of Air-War Planning Into Minutes

China has revealed details of an intelligent planning system already used by the PLA Air Force to organize large-scale air operations. It can turn hundreds of targets and dozens of formations into a coordinated attack plan within minutes — work that previously took military staffs several days.

🔸 Developed by a team led by senior engineer Deng Jianping, the system uses intelligent algorithms to screen targets, allocate firepower, connect attack chains and calculate the timing of successive strike waves.

🔸 During full-process testing, it completed the planning work three times faster than required while exceeding the coordination-accuracy target by 20%.

🔸 The decisive field test came in 2022 at a high-altitude training area. More than 100 tactical units executed a coordinated strike with timing accurate to a single second.

🔸 Synchronization allows different weapons to reach radars, airfields, missile batteries and command posts almost simultaneously, denying the defender time to warn other units, relocate assets or reorganize the surviving network.

🔸 The system also compresses the gap between intelligence and attack. New targets can be added, weapons reassigned and strike sequences rebuilt within minutes instead of forcing planners to repeat a days-long process.

🔸 In a conflict around Taiwan, China could use the software to coordinate aircraft, drones, missiles and electronic-warfare assets against airfields, radar stations, air defenses, communications nodes and headquarters in one opening assault.

More than 100 dispersed tactical units can now be organized to hit different targets at the same second. Taiwan’s defenses would have to detect, identify and engage the entire attack before the first damaged radar or command centre drops out of the network.

Which targets would China hit first: airfields, radars, missile batteries or command centres?

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