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It is, at once, a time of great hope and great despair for anyone who wants U.S.-Iranian relations to improve. On the one hand, delegations from each country met in person last weekend for the first time in a decade, and they negotiated through the night in hopes of forging a lasting peace settlement. The leaders for each country’s team were not diplomats but powerful politicians—U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament—indicating just how seriously the countries are taking negotiations. But on the other hand, tensions between the two countries are extremely high…

The contract marks step towards providing advanced weather information for military use. Credit: BEST-BACKGROUNDS/Shutterstock.com. PlanetiQ has secured a $15m contract with the US Air Force (USAF) to enhance its satellite-based weather data capabilities over the next 48 months.   The agreement under the Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) programme aims to fund the development and launch of a new spacecraft fleet equipped with advanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation, reflectometry, and polarimetric radio occultation technology.  Discover B2B Marketing That Performs Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms. Find out more The project, according to PlanetiQ, focuses on improving GNSS-RO (radio…

UFC lightweight contender Paddy Pimblett has a date for his return to the Octagon. Pimblett, a former Cage Warriors champ from Liverpool, UK, was last seen in action in January, when he suffered a decision loss to Justin Gaethje in a bid for the UFC interim lightweight title. That was definitely a big setback for the Brit — and it left him battered and bruised — but he is now set to get back to the drawing board. Speaking to BBC Sport, Pimblett revealed that the date for his return to action is set. He will fight again at UFC…

Conceptual drawing of Arihant-class submarine. Credit: Gagan11111/commons.wikimedia.org (Creative Commons) The recent commissioning of INS Aridhaman by India is set to advance the Indian Navy’s transition to a continuous at-sea deterrence posture, according to data and analytics firm GlobalData.   INS Aridhaman is the third nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) after INS Arihant and INS Arighat.  Discover B2B Marketing That Performs Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms. Find out more With three Arihant-class nuclear-powered SSBNs now operational and two additional vessels planned, India is moving from a periodical to a more “sustained” sea-based strategic deterrent capability against regional nuclear powers China and Pakistan, GlobalData said.…

By RFE/RL April 17, 2026 US President Donald Trump said the United States and Iran are “very close” to a deal to end the war and that US and Iranian negotiators could meet for a second round of talks this coming weekend. “We’re going to see what happens. But I think we’re very close to making a deal with Iran,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on April 16, repeating the word “close” more than once and adding, “There’s a very good chance we’re going to make a deal.” In an event later in Las Vegas, Trump repeated the…

The Army on Wednesday named its next-generation assault aircraft “Cheyenne II,” putting a formal name on the focal point of an aviation program that has been readily expedited. The name pays homage to the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe — Native American tribes whose members attended the 2026 Army Aviation Warfighting Summit where the new name of the Bell MV-75 tiltrotor aircraft was announced, according to an Army statement. The naming comes as the Army accelerates the aircraft’s development timeline, pushing to field the new platform years ahead of earlier projections. Army officials said the name…

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger with L3Harris VP Mark Farley, and other leaders announcing major solid rocket motor expansion in Orange County. Credit: © L3Harris Technologies, Inc. L3Harris Technologies and the Orange County Board of Supervisors have reached an agreement to expand L3Harris’ solid rocket motor production in Orange County, Virginia.   The company will invest $1.27bn to establish the Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities (VAPF), which is expected to more than double the manufacturing space.  New infrastructure to be built at the Orange County site will support several Department of War (DoW) programmes, L3Harris said.   Key production operations at the new facilities will include mixing, grinding, casting and final assembly of solid rocket motors. …

The defence industry consortium led by Patria, FAMOUS 3 (European Future Highly Mobile Augmented Armoured Systems), is making progress within the budget framework of the European Union’s European Defence Fund (EDF). The European Commission (EC) approved the consortium’s proposal on 15 April 2026 for the third phase of the project. The EU funding for the project is EUR 79 million with a total budget of EUR 115 million. Finland will continue to act as the lead state and Patria as the industrial coordinator. The FAMOUS project is implemented in multiple phases, with the first completed and second phase yielding Patria…

A new, 400,000-acre testing and training facility aims to bring troops and defense firms together so they can innovate at the speed of modern warfare.On Friday, Georgia-based Second Bend Labs announced the public opening of the facility near Moody Air Force Base. It’s designed to appeal to two usually separate groups whose challenges can only be solved together. Soldiers need to test drones and counter-drone equipment against a competent adversary, and drone startups need to see if their stuff works. That requires a new approach to the military test range: a site that civilians can easily access, unlike a military base,…

Modern defence operations increasingly rely on data as a strategic asset, with intelligence feeds, sensor outputs, logistics systems, and coalition command platforms all depending on reliable and secure information exchange. NATO and partner nations are shifting toward digitally integrated, multi-domain operations, making the secure transfer of data across national boundaries more complex. Data-Centric Security (DCS) has emerged as a key architectural approach to meeting this challenge. Rather than focusing primarily on protecting networks or infrastructure, DCS focuses on protecting the data itself. This approach is essential in modern military operations, where data constantly moves between environments, including cloud platforms, mobile…