Indonesia has reportedly confirmed that it will not proceed with co-producing the KF-21 Boramae fighter jet with South Korea. The decision comes after years of mounting difficulties for Indonesia in paying its dues amid sustained fiscal constraints. Indonesia would no longer co-produce South Korea’s KF-21 fighter jet, and would instead procure the aircraft from Seoul, […]
The post Indonesia…
Pakistan carried out air and ground strikes overnight in eastern Afghanistan, targeting militants it blames for a deadly attack in Karachi, which killed at least three Pakistani troops. Is Islamabad inspired by the Indian playbook of cross-border strikes to punish terrorists? Going back to 2015, the Indian military broke decades of strategic restraint by launching […]
The post Pakistan Adopts…
China has been secretly recruiting former Western military pilots to improve its fighter pilot training. According to a new report, this includes former Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots, some of whom previously trained at the US Navy’s Top Gun school. Several former British RAF and Royal Navy pilots — some with “Top Gun”-level expertise — […]
The post Ex-RAF Pilots Who Worked on F-35 Stealth Fighter…
OPED By Ambassador (R) Raghu Gururaj As leaders gathered at the G7 in France last week, Russia was advancing a different map of the world in Kazan. The Greater Eurasian Partnership seeks to connect ASEAN, the SCO, and the EAEU into a continental network resilient to Western influence, suggesting that the next phase of global […]
The post Russia Sidelines India & BRICS — Accelerates “Greater…
Despite being killed by US-Israeli strikes, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had constructed an underground facility under central Tehran, including a blast-resistant room and escape tunnels to protect the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to architectural plans obtained by Iran International. Plans show that the IRGC spent roughly a decade building an underground compound…
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy issued a stark warning that U.S. military bases across the region will “experience hell in these days.” The threat followed American strikes on the southern Iranian coastal area of Sirik, with Tehran insisting that Washington’s attacks would do nothing to challenge its dominance over the critical maritime chokepoint. […]
The post “‘They Will…
Iran’s Shahed-class drones have gained great attention in recent wars due to their low cost and their ability to saturate cutting-edge air defense systems. Their deployment by Russia against Ukraine and by Iran and their proxies has highlighted the effectiveness of massed, low-cost unmanned strike systems. The Shahed-class drones first made a notable impact when […]
The post Iran’s Shahed Drone…
Are Civi-Military relations in the United States under increasing strain? This is a question that seems to be haunting the strategic elites in the US, with President Trump and his Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, continuing their sacking spree of top military generals and commanders. The latest to get a pink slip from Heseth is General Chris […]
The post U.S. Sacks 20+ Generals & Admirals in 15…
Air-to-air missiles (AAMs) are fundamental to air dominance. They have served as the primary weapons in aerial combat since their combat debut during the Vietnam War. For decades, the United States maintained a clear technological lead in air-to-air missile development. Not only did the U.S. introduce the world’s first operational guided AAMs, but it was […]
The post 70 Years After Sidewinder —…
The F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) has confirmed that the US Marine Corps (USMC) has accepted six F-35 fighters without their designated AN/APG-85 radars. The Commander of the F-35 JPO, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Masiello, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this week that the service has accepted the six radarless F-35s, without […]
The post F-35 “That Can Fly But Can’t See”:…
Commercial negotiations for the GE F414 engine, selected to power India’s Tejas Mk-2 and the initial variants of AMCA, have hit a serious roadblock. Despite an earlier agreement on technology transfer, GE Aerospace has sharply escalated its price demands — nearly tripling the per-unit cost. Initial estimates had put the cost of each F414 engine […]
The post F414 “Trap”: After 3X Price Hike, Why…
Turkey’s “indigenous” KAAN fighter jet will join India’s AMCA, South Korea’s KF-21, and Sweden’s Gripen to rely on American engines for their aircraft. The Trump administration is expediting the sale of dozens of jet engines to Turkey, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, despite reservations from some US lawmakers, according to a recent Reuters report. […]
The post Turkey’s KAAN Joins India’s…
Taiwan’s opposition-controlled parliament on Friday blocked debate on a government proposal to spend NT$210 billion ($6.6 billion) on domestically produced drones for the island’s defense against China. President Lai Ching-te’s government has been at loggerheads for months with the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) over how much to spend on improving the […]
The post Taiwan…
Stealth technology has transformed modern air warfare, providing the United States with a sustained operational advantage for over four decades. From its Cold War beginnings to its development of platforms, such as the F-117, B-2, F-22, and F-35, stealth has evolved into a system-of-systems capability that combines advanced engineering, mission planning, and operational expertise. However,…
With the trilateral FCAS (Future Combat Air System) sixth-generation fighter program scrapped, Lockheed Martin and US lawmakers are once again pitching the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter to Spain, a country that has repeatedly shown interest in the jet over the past years, only to back out in the end. A bipartisan delegation from the […]
The post U.S. Renews Push for F-35 Stealth Fighters to…
Turkish media outlets critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed outrage on Thursday after NATO rejected their requests to cover the alliance’s summit in Ankara, saying the decision followed recommendations from the Turkish government. Among those whose requests were rejected were the Cumhuriyet newspaper, the Halk TV channel, the independent online news site T24, and […]
The post…
Facing a sharp rise in Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes, Russia is reportedly extracting cutting-edge air defense systems from across the country and deploying them to strategic locations, including the capital Moscow and the Kerch Bridge. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address on June 24 that Russia is turning Moscow into a fortified air-defense […]
The post Russia…
Ever since the beginning of the Ukraine war, drones have become an absolute necessity for military planners and strategists worldwide. According to former top Ukrainian general Valerii Zaluzhnyi, First-Person-View (FPV) drones were responsible for 80% of Russian battlefield casualties. Ukrainian drones now have a range of over 2,500 km, allowing Kyiv to strike Russian targets […]
The post…
The Chinese military seems to be practicing blowing up full-scale replicas of the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the backbone of American naval power projection in the region. A structure resembling a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer has been spotted at Ruoqiang Test Range in China’s Taklamakan Desert, located in the far-western Xinjiang region. […]
The post…
In mid-1988, as Soviet tanks began withdrawing from Afghanistan and crossing to the north side of the Amu Darya (River), a mustached Afghan man was in Moscow training for a space mission. In August 1988, Afghan fighter pilot Abdul Ahad Momand, who had flown bombing missions against the Mujahideen, became the first Afghan in space. […]
The post 1st Afghan in Space, Who Recited Quran in Orbit,…
OPED By Ambassador (R) Raghu Gururaj The reported decision by the Trump administration to revert the US Indo-Pacific Command to its earlier Pacific Command nomenclature has sparked debate about the future of the Indo-Pacific concept itself. For two decades, India’s strategic importance has grown alongside China’s rise and the emergence of the Indo-Pacific. But if […]
The post “India Out, China…
In a bid to calm jittery Gulf allies, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed on Wednesday that Washington remains fully committed to their security despite the newly signed US-Iran memorandum of understanding. Rubio is seeking to reassure close US allies about the memorandum of understanding with Tehran, which […]
The post U.S. Pledges Gulf Security as Rubio…
Finnish Air Force F-35A Lightning II jets have trained alongside U.S. F-22 Raptors from the Virginia Air National Guard in a rare joint stealth fighter exercise at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas. Two Virginia Air National Guard F-22 Raptors from the 192nd Fighter Wing of the 149th Fighter Squadron arrived at Ebbing Air […]
The post F-22 vs F-35 in Action: U.S. Raptors Train with…
For months, U.S. aviation experts and intelligence officials have been debating a pressing question: How did Iran manage to detect and strike a U.S. F-35 Lightning II fighter, the first time the stealth jet has ever been hit in its nearly decade-long combat history? Although the F-35 managed to land at a friendly airbase in […]
The post F-15E Shootdown: Iran’s Product 358 Faces Scrutiny as…
In addition to conducting “grey zone” activities against Taiwan, China is believed to be waging a parallel war that centers on economic coercion. Both methods, however, share a single objective: to conquer the self-governing island state. China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has openly vowed to occupy it, with force if necessary. It regularly […]
The post “Raise, Trap & Kill”: China…
In a potential first, Ukraine appears to have used the AGM-188A Rusty Dagger — a new low-cost, long-range precision munition — to strike Russia’s Voronezh Semiconductor Plant, a key facility producing electronics for Iskander ballistic missiles, Kh-101 cruise missiles, and Pantsir air defense systems. The General Staff for Ukraine’s Armed Forces announced in a statement […]
The post U.S. Rusty…
While the implementation of the recent 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the United States and Iran remains a work in progress, the fact that pledges of $300 billion for Iran’s reconstruction do not earmark funds for environmental remediation has not impressed ecologists and environmentalists around the world. There is a powerful school of thought […]
The post “Black Rain Over…
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo has ruled out any US military operations targeting organized crime inside his country, saying Guatemala’s constitution explicitly prohibits joint military actions with foreign forces. Speaking to AFP on Monday, Arévalo stated that while he welcomes international cooperation, “the constitution does not allow the operation or conduct of joint military…
During the recent G7 summit in France, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told US President Donald Trump that “Indians also lost their lives” in the Iran War, highlighting the far-reaching ramifications of the regional conflict in the Middle East. Modi was highlighting the death of three Indian sailors in US air strikes when they were […]
The post India’s Middle East Woes Continue: Qatar Blast…
After the intense 39-day US-Iran war, Gulf countries, including the UAE, got a reality check. Despite the deployment of expensive air defense systems like THAAD and Patriot, many drones and missiles managed to evade the defense shield. The UAE, which bore the brunt of the attacks, even more than Israel, is reportedly looking to plug […]
The post Despite Patriot & THAAD, UAE Eyes India’s …
