Author: Michael

Photo by YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images

On a day when Ukrainian officials say the Black Sea port city of Odesa was hit by a wave of Iranian-made Shahed drones, the Pentagon announced a $2.6 billion arms package that includes new drone defenses.
The latest package, which includes $500 million in Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) funding and $2.1 billion under DoD’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funding, “includes important capabilities for air defense and to counter Russian unmanned aerial systems,” a senior U.S.

Autonomous technology’s growth portends a promising future for aerial combat. Airbus has proved that its A310 MRTT aircraft can independently steer and control drones in flight, paving the path for unmanned aircraft to refuel themselves.
With the use Auto’Mate technology
UpNext, a subsidiary of Airbus, has created Auto’Mate, a system that employs artificial intelligence and machine learning to enable the autonomous operation of drones. DT-25 drones were steered and maneuvered during two six-hour test flights by an A310 equipped with an aerial refueling system and Auto’Mate technology.

U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy has released footage recorded during an exercise where SM-2 surface-to-air missiles were used to intercept a GQM-163 Coyote supersonic sea-skimming target. The GQM-163 rapidly accelerates right off its launch stand and rips across the screen at impressive velocity as it heads out for its mock attack on the nearby surface combatants.  
Information released along with the video, which was recorded by an infrared camera, states that the overall exercise took place in the Atlantic Ocean right off NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on March 27.

A machine that glides through the darkness of space like a stealthy hunter, the X-37B stands as a symbol of the rising tension between global superpowers.
Against the backdrop of a growing rivalry between the United States and China, this experimental American space plane becomes a key player in a war plot of cosmic proportions.
The space race intensifies.
The threat to US supremacy in space is evident in China’s growing space power.

Billy Waugh’s career became the stuff of legend. U.S. Army file photo (left) and Nick Stubbs/U.S. Air Force (right).

William “Billy” Waugh, a famed Army Special Forces soldier and later CIA operative, passed away today, at the age of 93. 
Born on December 1, 1929, in Bastrop, Texas, Waugh was drawn to the military at an early age. When he was just 15, he came across two Marines and was inspired to enlist immediately. Deciding to travel to California, where he believed the minimum enlistment age was 16, he was stopped by a police officer in New Mexico and returned to Texas.

The Dutch Ministry of Defense’s media office released a statement announcing the acquisition of many weapons and equipment samples, including artillery systems for the army and long-range weaponry for the navy and aircraft. For instance, the F-35 is equipped with JASSM-ERs, while frigates and submarines use Tomahawk missiles.

SFC Eugene Ashley Jr., a Green Beret, earned the Medal of Honor during one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War.
The post How a Green Beret achieved immortality during one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War first appeared on Sandboxx.
The post How a Green Beret achieved immortality during one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War appeared first on Sandboxx.

Joseph Trevithick

Northrop Grumman has unveiled a new long-range, fast-flying maritime strike missile concept that features an air-breathing propulsion system. This comes after a recent announcement that the company had partnered with Raytheon to develop a very similar-sounding missile as part of a project that will feed into future variants of the U.S. Army’s Precision Strike Missile.
A mockup of Northrop Grumman’s new missile is on display at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space conference and exhibition just outside Washington, D.C., which opened yesterday.

The Space Force first debuted its prototype dress uniform in September 2021. (U.S. Air Force photos).

More than a year and a half after the Space Force debuted its brand-new service dress uniform to comparisons to the Galactic Empire from Star Wars, the outfit’s much-maligned baggy pants have undergone “a lot of refinement,” a service spokesperson said on Tuesday. 
But despite the recent completion of the service’s final fit test for the new dress uniform in late March, officials are far from finished getting the new pants ready for prime time, the spokesperson said.

A disabled veteran with prosthetic legs looks on during the archery competition at the inaugural Valor Games Far West on June 11, 2013 in Foster City, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images).

Veterans groups are venting their frustration over a Washington Post editorial that calls on Congress to more closely scrutinize veterans’ disability benefits claims as a way to cut costs.