Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Patrick McHenry, who served as acting speaker of the House during Republicans' bruising leadership fight this year, is expected to announce on Tuesday that he will not seek re-election, multiple media outlets reported.

A novel missile-like air vehicle called Roadrunner, with high degrees of modularity and autonomy, and that can be readily reused, has been unveiled by US defense contractor Anduril. There is already a version, the Roadrunner-M, with a high-explosive warhead that can be used as a low-cost loitering anti-air interceptor with the ability to return home for refueling and reuse if it isn't expended in the course of its mission. This is just one potential application for this twin-jet-powered platform that boasts high subsonic speed and takes off and lands vertically. Anduril formally announced Roadrunner and Roadrunner-M today, but the company's...

Israel has begun using laser beams, otherwise known as “directed energy” weapons, to shoot down rockets fired from Gaza. The news comes after reports that Lockheed Martin and Israel’s Rafael have been developing Iron Beam, a laser defense system that can be mounted on ships and planes. This week, Israel began using the directed energy weapons, Iron Sting, which is part of the larger Iron Beam laser defense system. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system is well known, with a 90% rate effectiveness rate. However, each Iron Dome battery can cost $100 million, and each interceptor costs between $40,000 and...

Thursday night’s Bengals-Ravens game was briefly delayed by a drone flying over M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, and now the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. The FAA confirmed to BaltimoreBanner.com that it is looking into the matter. Finding the drone operator likely won’t be easy, but in cases where the FAA is able to identify illegal drone usage, the operators can face legal consequences. Thursday night’s Bengals-Ravens game was briefly delayed by a drone flying over M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, and now the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. The FAA confirmed to BaltimoreBanner.com that it is looking into the...

More recently, the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war have demonstrated the effectiveness of UASs. In those conflicts, unmanned systems have been used at a scale and sophistication far beyond those of any previous conventional war. UASs and loitering munitions (LMs) proved crucial to Azerbaijan’s victory. Ukraine’s Turkish-built Bayraktar drones grabbed headlines early in the 2022 invasion when they destroyed Russian vehicles with precision munitions.2 Russian Lancet-3 LMs have likewise been documented destroying high-value Ukrainian targets such as surface-to-air missile systems and howitzers.3In addition to purpose-built systems, Ukrainian volunteer groups have used commercially purchased and custom-built unmanned aerial...

More than 60 Russian soldiers may have been killed or wounded by friendly fire as they made a hasty retreat from the village of Opytne, in the Donetsk region, Russian sources have said. The chaotic withdrawal was mistaken for a rapid Ukrainian advance across an open field by a Russian drone operator who ordered an artillery strike. Pro-Kremlin military bloggers initially said that the 200 Russian troops were retreating to “more favourable positions”, as Ukrainian forces gradually overcame their defences around the village, which is less than two miles north of Donetsk airport. But one source with knowledge of the...

A powerful explosion rocked a building just 150 feet from a military situation room frequently used by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Rostov-on-Don Thursday. The blast, which the Kremlin said was from shooting down an airstrike, tore apart facades, smashed windows in three buildings and damaged several parked cars next to the headquarters of the Russian Southern Military District, according to the Independent, citing the state-owned RIA news agency. One person was injured, according to regional Governor Vasily Golubev. Video footage of the early morning attack showed a massive fireball rising into the sky in a developed area of the...

Romanian authorities have launched an investigation after admitting they may have found debris from a Russian drone inside their borders Romania has admitted it has found possible drone debris on its territory two days after Ukraine said a Russian drone had detonated on the NATO member's land. Romanian officials had earlier denied reports of drones falling inside the country and said Russian attacks in neighbouring Ukraine did not cause a direct threat. Romania’s Defence Minister Angel Tîlvăr has been to the area and said an investigation was needed after debris was discovered in an area of the Danube that forms...

Ukraine on Monday accused Russia of hitting NATO member Romania with kamikaze drones – which Bucharest “categorically” denied despite apparent photographic proof. The Iranian-made “Shahed” drones, aimed at the Ukrainian port of Izmail on the Danube River, fell across the banks and detonated on the Romanian side, Ukraine’s foreign ministry claimed while sharing images of a giant fire from the attack. “According to Ukraine’s state border guard service, last night, during a massive Russian attack near the port of Izmail, Russian ‘Shakheds’ [sic] fell and detonated on the territory of Romania,” the ministry’s spokesman, Oleg Nikolenko, wrote on Facebook. “This...

Toll Aviation has signed a deal to bring a new AI-based uncrewed aerial system (UAS) to Australia. V-BAT, made by US-based company Shield AI, is a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAS that its manufacturer says can meet “a broad array of civil and defence mission requirements” through its capacity for multi-mission payload sets.

A sharp rise in drone attacks targeting Russian territory is likely to intensify, analysts say, with Kyiv appearing increasingly determined to bring the destruction, instability and unpredictability of war — albeit a fraction of what it is experiencing itself — home to Russia. Russia has seen a sharp rise in unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, carrying out assaults on western, central and southern Russian regions as well as the capital Moscow and Russian-occupied Crimea in recent weeks. While Ukraine is continuing a counteroffensive on its own soil to regain Russian-occupied territory in the south and east of the country, and...

Ukrainian drones attacked more targets in Russia late on Wednesday, a night after drones struck at least six regions deep within Russia in one of the broadest volleys yet of Kyiv's campaign to turn the tables on Moscow. One of the drone strikes, targeting an airfield far from Ukraine's borders, destroyed military transport planes on the ground. (snip) The previous night, Russian officials described attacks on Bryansk and five other regions, including Moscow region, and Pskov in the north, where four military transport planes were damaged in a huge blaze at an airfield. The Russian foreign ministry said the attacks...

On Tuesday, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Defense Ministry unveiled a drone mirroring the United States’ MQ-9 Reaper drone, claiming that the aircraft can stay airborne for 24 hours and has the range to reach the country’s sworn enemy, Israel. The Islamic Republic’s state-run IRNA news agency published a photograph of the newly unveiled Mohajer-10 drone showcased at the Defense Industry Day conference. “Any improvement in Iranian offensive capabilities is troubling to me because they have no rational control of their radical elements,” said Steve Bucci, a former Pentagon official and visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Truluck Center for...

A new drone which flies almost silently without wings or propellers has raised questions about how many supposed UFO sightings might actually be man-made craft. The Silent Ventus drone, made by Florida-based start-up Undefined Technologies, uses ion propulsion, with electrodes ionizing the air to generate thrust, and flies incredibly quietly. It can also hover in the air against winds - a feature of many UFO sightings by military personnel. The hi-tech drones may possibly explain sightings such as the famous 'Tic Tac' drone sighting, where pilots spotted a craft resembling the breath mint performing impossible maneuvers during a training mission...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that he would be open to using drone strikes against Mexican drug cartels if he’s elected president. “We will absolutely reserve the right if they’re invading our country and killing our people,” DeSantis said when a voter asked whether he would be willing to use drones against the cartels. Asked later by NBC News to clarify, DeSantis said: “I said I would use whatever force we need to defend the country. “We’d be willing to lean in against them, and we reserve the right to defend our country,” he added. DeSantis has been leaning...

Just as wildfire season gets underway, homeowners insurance is becoming more and more scarce. Some companies aren't writing any new policies, while others are dropping longtime customers. Among them is an East Bay man who was told he lost his insurance -- based on photos taken by a drone over his property. It came as a shock. At first, he was told he'd lost his insurance because "drone photos" taken over his property showed hazards in his yard. But the company would not show him the pictures. Later he was told there was no drone, just aerial photos. He felt...

Ukraine said it had carried out a sea drone attack on a Russian naval base, as dramatic videos appeared to show a damaged Russian warship listing heavily in the Black Sea early Friday. Social media images showed the ship being towed near the Novorossiysk naval base, despite earlier claims by the Russian defense ministry that the attack had been repelled. A Ukrainian source told CNN that a sea drone with 450 kilograms of TNT had attacked the ship and claimed there were about 100 Russian servicemen aboard. “A big navy ship Olenogorsky Gornyak was hit,” the source told CNN. “As...

Ukraine's defense ministry signed an agreement with Turkish drone magnate Baykar Makina to build a service center for the repair and maintenance of drones in Ukraine, a ministry official said on Monday. Ukraine is seeking to boost domestic production of drones to build an "Army of Drones" in its fight against Russian forces who invaded the country in February 2022. "The creation of a service center will be a significant contribution to strengthening Ukraine's defense capabilities and will help bring our victory closer," the ministry's state secretary Kostiantyn Vashchenko said in a statement. Ukrainian producers have sharply increased domestic drone...

Russia says Ukraine targeted Moscow with drones on Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks that have brought the Ukraine war to Russia’s capital. The Russian Defense Ministry said three drones were intercepted but a business and shopping development in the west of the capital was hit. The fifth and sixth floor of a 50-story building were damaged, and no casualties were reported, state news agency TASS reported. Videos showed debris as well as emergency services at the scene. A spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force said the latest drone attacks on Moscow were aimed at impacting Russians who, since...

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s prized bridge — the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Russia and the Crimean Peninsula — was forced to shut down Saturday following a Ukrainian drone strike on a nearby ammunition depot, Russian-backed authorities said. Ukraine said that its army had destroyed an oil depot along with Russian military warehouses in Russian-occupied Crimea with the strike. Video on social media showed a plume of thick black smoke rising from the site of the attack. Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed governor of the peninsula, confirmed a drone hit the ammunition depot, which prompted an evacuation order for everyone within a...