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CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Japan’s new electronic-warfare aircraft, converted from a Kawasaki C-2 tactical cargo hauler, took to the sky for its maiden flight this week.The EC-2 plane, ridiculed by judgy aviation enthusiasts for its bumpy body, took off from Gifu Air Base on March 17, checking a key box in the envisioned plan of fielding the aircraft for operations in March 2027.The Japan Air Self-Defense Force – or JASDF for short – stated, “We’ll continue working toward its introduction to improve capabilities in the electromagnetic domain, and to strengthen the cross-domain operations capabilities.”When deemed ready the aircraft will be…

On February 28, 2026, Iran suffered coordinated missile attacks from Israel and the United States. The breakdown of diplomatic negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program was followed by heavy bombing of civilian infrastructure and military sites. The assault on Teheran victimized a girl’s school (with more than 170 casualties) as well as the highest echelon of the Islamic Republic’s administration – including its Supreme Leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was in office since the Cold War, in 1989. This event provided the apex to a 3-year long war of mutual attrition between the regional powers, ignited by unprecedented missile…

A pair of U.S. Navy counter-mine vessels that are homeported in Bahrain arrived in Singapore this week, according to a U.S. Fifth Fleet spokesperson.The Independence-class littoral combat ships USS Santa Barbara and USS Tulsa entered the U.S. Seventh Fleet area of responsibility earlier in the week, the spokesperson said, stopping first in Malaysia for a port call.Each ship is equipped with a mine countermeasures mission package designed to detect and destroy naval mines.“Tulsa and Santa Barbara are conducting scheduled maintenance and logistics stop in Singapore,” the spokesperson said. The two nations, according to the spokesperson, have an agreement to allow…

Real American Freestyle will celebrate its one-year anniversary by returning to Cleveland for RAF12 on Saturday, August 22, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, with the event streaming live exclusively on FOX Nation as part of the league’s extended broadcast partnership. RAF is positioning its twelfth event as a homecoming, bringing the league back to the arena where it staged its first full-scale fight-night show and introduced its unscripted professional freestyle format to a national audience. Branded as “wrestling’s new main stage,” RAF has built its concept around Olympic-caliber freestyle wrestling contested under USA Wrestling rules, presented with production values that mirror…

Russia’s battlefield endurance in Ukraine is determined not by the size of Soviet‑era stockpiles but by a temporary industrial window—a period when production plus imports outpaces daily shell consumption. In 2025 Russian factories churned out about seven million artillery, mortar, tank and rocket rounds, excluding guided multiple-launch rocket system and loitering munitions—roughly nineteen thousand rounds per day—while open‑source estimates put Russian expenditure at ten to fifteen thousand rounds per day. As long as production and imports meet or exceed consumption, Moscow can sustain the war and rebuild reserves. When throughput falls below usage, the window closes and operational tempo shrinks.…

The leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and Canada issued a joint statement on the Strait of Hormuz. They expressed their readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait. As things stand today however, such a task appears to be rather difficult. The joint statement reads: We condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces.  […] We express our readiness…

The Trump administration is once again looking for employees to sound the alarm on diversity initiatives happening within their agencies, continuing a year-long crackdown on policies and practices it said interfere with the civil service’s merit system. The Interior Department issued a memorandum to staff on Wednesday reminding employees that they should report any suspected diversity, equity and inclusion activities, providing multiple channels for doing so and informing the workforce that such reporting represented protected whistleblower activity. Rachel Borra, Interior’s chief human capital officer, highlighted several examples of “DEI-related discrimination,” noting there is “no reverse discrimination exception” to civil rights laws. Any…

A Rapid Sentry air defence system undergoing a test fire exercise. Credit: RAF The RAF has highlighted Rapid Sentry; a short-range air defence system aimed at defeating drone threats It fires the Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM/Martlet), made by Thales, with a range of up to 8km for small, fast targets Rapid Sentry may use Saab’s Giraffe 1X radar, 11 of which were ordered by the UK in 2023 The ongoing air combat operations in the Middle East and the threat posed by Iranian drones has brought into focus the need for air defence systems. Now, a hitherto little-known UK capability,…

A Royal Norwegian Air Force F-35A. Credit: Lockheed Martin Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace has signed an agreement with US defence prime Lockheed Martin with an expected value of NOK 2bn ($208.6m) for deliveries of components to the F-35 fighter programme. Detailed in an 18 March release from Kongsberg, the agreement extends the company’s ongoing production of F-35 components through to 2030, supporting all three variants of the F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter. Discover B2B Marketing That Performs Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms. Find out more The deliveries to production Lots…

Iran Press TV Wednesday, 18 March 2026 9:48 AM Penetrating the highly-advanced Israeli missile systems stationed across the occupied territories, Iranian missiles have inflicted heavy damage upon Tel Aviv, killing two settlers and wounding tens of others in the process. Hebrew news outlets reported that since the early hours of Wednesday, Tel Aviv and its surrounding areas have been struck by Iranian missiles at least twice, while Israeli missile systems have been unable to intercept the incoming projectiles. According to the news outlets, Iran’s massive missile and drone attacks resulted in the loss of electricity and evacuation of thousands of…