Free Republic

Air Base 201 in Niger was the U.S. Air Force's largest construction project in history: a massive drone center that cost American taxpayers $280 million. Thanks to a change in the Nigerien leadership, Americans may have to give up that investment for good. Niger's new nationalist government, which took power in a coup d'etat last year, has been trying to get rid of foreign military presence in the country. Over the weekend, Nigerien Col. Amadou Abdramane ordered U.S. troops out of Air Base 201, declaring on television that "the American presence in the territory of the Republic of Niger is...

Ukraine launched several drones at the Slavyansk oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region, sparking a brief fire at the site and resulting in one person dying of a heart attack, local officials said on Sunday. "The drones were neutralised, but a fire broke out as a result of the fall of one of the devices," the operational headquarters of the region in southern Russia said on the Telegram messaging app. The fire was extinguished and there were no casualties as a result of the fire itself, the administration said. Preliminary information indicated, however, one person had died of a heart...

Langley Air Force Base, located in one of the most strategic areas of the country, across the Chesapeake Bay from the sprawling Naval Station Norfolk and the open Atlantic, was at the epicenter of waves of mysterious drone incursions that occurred throughout December. The War Zone has been investigating these incidents and the response to them for months. We know that they were so troubling and persistent that they prompted bringing in advanced assets from around the U.S. government, including one of NASA's WB-57F high-flying research planes. Now the U.S. Air Force has confirmed to us that they did indeed...

More than 1,000 drones per month are crossing into US airspace near the border with Mexico, a top general told lawmakers Thursday. The number of unmanned drone incursions is “alarming” and presents a “growing” potential threat to national security, Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of North American Defense Command and US Northern Command, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “The number of incursions was something that was alarming to me as I took command last month,” Guillot said in response to a question from Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC). “I don’t know the actual number – I...

A fleet of Ukrainian drones has targeted Russia, causing explosions and fires at fuel refineries, cutting electricity supplies and reaching Moscow and beyond, according to reports from Russian authorities. -snip- Russian fuel facilities in Oryol and Nizhny Novgorod regions were on fire on Tuesday after drone attacks, local governors and media said. Air defence systems reacted to 25 drones launched by Ukraine over several Russian regions, RIA state news reported, citing Russia’s defence ministry. It was not immediately clear whether all the drones were destroyed. “In the morning, the Kstovo industrial zone, a fuel and energy complex facility, was attacked...

March 9, 2024 Release Number 20240309 – 02 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TAMPA, Fla. – Following further engagements through the morning, U.S. and Coalition forces downed a total of at least 28 uncrewed aerial vehicles between 4:00 a.m. and 8:20 a.m. (Sanaa time) on March 9. No U.S. or Coalition Navy vessels were damaged in the attack and there were also no reports by commercial ships of damage.

In just a few hours, Luis Wenus, an engineer and entrepreneur, converted a $115 (£89.99) drone into the basis of a deadly weapon. Using AI facial recognition the drone was programmed to recognise individuals and race towards them at full speed. ... In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, Mr Wenus and his engineer colleague, demonstrated how a commercial drone can be programmed to chase down targets. In the post, Mr Wenus writes: 'I thought it would be fun to build a drone that chases you around as a game.' The drone uses an AI 'object detection model' to...

“When I said that electronic warfare will soon not be able to prevent FPV drones from flying over the battlefield, I was not joking. Several extraordinary solutions have already been invented that reduce the efforts of radio electronics engineers to zero. Ukrainian channels publish photographs of a drone(presumably Russian drone) that was controlled via a fiber optic cable. Such a guidance system is not afraid of any interference, and the camera produces the most beautiful image without the slightest delay. So it’s time to equip armored vehicles with means of physically destroying drones. Whether it will be a small-caliber air...

Comparing Russia's actions in Ukraine to the militant Hamas group's attacks on Israel on October 7, Erdan said his country knows "exactly how it feels to be aggressively invaded, (and) to have our towns and cities attacked" as he took aim at the "paralyzed" UN for not condemning the massacre that preceded the war in Gaza.

Omer Sharar had just received the first delivery of his new GPS anti-jamming technology when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7. Since then he and his team at InfiniDome, a start-up based in Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, have been working around the clock to prevent the Israeli army's mini-drones from being intercepted by cheap and simple jamming in Gaza. Israel -- one of the world's main exporters of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- has for years waged a drone war along its borders, allowing it to monitor or target its enemies remotely with large, sophisticated airborne platforms. During...

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have been central to the war in Ukraine. Some analysts claim that drones have reshaped war, yielding not just tactical-level effects, but shaping operational and strategic outcomes as well. It’s important to distinguish between these different levels of war. The tactical level of war refers to battlefield actions, such as patrols or raids. The operational level of war characterizes a military’s synchronization of tactical actions to achieve broader military objectives, such as destroying components of an adversary’s army. The strategic level of war relates to the way these military objectives combine to secure political aims,...

The Ukrainian military's Group 13 unit claims to have sunk another Russian landing ship, adding to a growing tally of losses for the Black Sea Fleet. On Wednesday morning, the group released a video appearing to show its suicide drone boats approaching a vessel near shore. The ship - identified by Group 13 as the Caesar Kunikov - has the distinctive open foredeck and tall deckhouse of a Ropucha-class landing vessel. In succession, multiple drones appeared to approach the vessel's hull and detonate, with the explosions captured on camera by subsequent inbound drone boats. The video ends with the vessel...

A fire at an oil depot in Russia's Kursk Region following a Ukrainian drone attack... "Nevertheless, apparently, everything is possible in present-day America" Russian President Vladimir Putin commenting on the notion that Tucker Carlson will be arrested... A mayor in the UK kicked out of the Conservative Party following a complaint about Anti-Semitic comments... In Kansas City shots fired at the Super Bowl victory celebration...one person killed a disc jockey for a local radio station...21 others hurt...between the ages of six and 15... Drivers who carry people and make deliveries on strike today over low pay... "rude name calling"...reaction Republican...

Author's note: See the update at the bottom of this story that describes changes made to our original report. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The pilot of a U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier II has reportedly intercepted multiple Houthi drones during the militants’ sustained anti-shipping campaign that’s been focused on the Red Sea, along with barrages of drones sent to strike Israel. It isn't clear how many, if any, of the drones Harriers have shot down. Until now, we had heard accounts of U.S. and allied warships bringing down Houthi drones and missiles, as well as aerial kills by U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets...

Russian forces in occupied Ukraine are using Starlink terminals produced by Elon Musk's SpaceX for satellite internet in what is beginning to look like their "systemic" application, Kyiv's main military intelligence agency said on Sunday. "Cases of the Russian occupiers' use of the given devices have been registered. It is beginning to take on a systemic nature," the Ukrainian defense ministry's Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) quoted spokesman Andriy Yusov as saying. In a statement, the agency said the terminals were being used by units like Russia's 83rd Air Assault Brigade, which is fighting near the embattled towns of Klishchiivka...

Ukraine has added a branch to its armed forces dedicated to drones, a sign of the growing importance of uncrewed aerial vehicles to modern warfare. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the creation of the Unmanned Systems Forces in a video message addressed to his country Tuesday. He said the new branch would improve coordination, planning and logistics as the country continues its war with Russia. “Drones — unmanned systems — have proven their effectiveness in battles on land, in the sky and at sea. Ukraine has truly changed the security situation in the Black Sea with the help of drones,”...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Three American service members were killed and “many” were wounded in a drone strike in Jordan, President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday. He attributed the attack to Iran-backed militia groups. They were the first U.S. fatalities in months of strikes against American forces across the Middle East by Iranian-backed militias amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, increasing the risk of escalation. U.S. officials were still working to conclusively identify the precise group responsible for the attack, but have assessed that one of several Iranian-backed groups are responsible. Biden said the United States “will hold...

Moscow and Tehran will strengthen their security partnership and team up to counter sanctions imposed by the West, a key architect of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has said. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council, announced closer cooperation between the allies after a meeting with the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Akbar Ahmadian. Ties between Tehran and Moscow have deepened since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Iran supplying Russian forces with Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which have wreaked havoc on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and at least two dozen were injured in a drone attack overnight on a U.S. outpost in Jordan, officials tell CNN. This is the first time U.S. forces have been killed by enemy fire in the Middle East since the beginning of the Gaza war

Ukrainian drones attacked a Rosneft-owned oil refinery in southern Russia in the latest such strike on Russian energy infrastructure, a Ukrainian source said on Thursday. Local officials in Russia said there was a fire overnight at the export-oriented unit in the town of Tuapse, but it was extinguished. "The vacuum unit was on fire. According to preliminary information, there were neither casualties nor injured," Sergei Boiko, the head of Tuapse district, said on Telegram. Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, has not commented. The Ukrainian source said the SBU security service hit the refinery with drones and would continue attacking facilities...