Author: Michael

DOD

The U.S. military and U.S. Intelligence Community are still trying to sort out the details about three objects that remain unidentified days after they were shot down in different areas within American and Canadian airspace. One organization has remained noticeably absent from much of the official disclosures about the responses to these incidents, the Pentagon’s fledgling All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO. This is both conspicuous and curious since this office was created specifically to focus on issues relating to so-called unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs.

(Alona Nikolaievych/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Despite massive Russian attacks against its power and fuel supply infrastructure, Ukraine claims it has actually increased its fuel reserves to the point of surplus thanks to the influx of imports and an innovative logistics operation using thousands of fuel trucks as mobile storage sites.
Ukraine began receiving large amounts of fuel in January from the U.S.

U.S. Army photo by Training Resource Specialist Charles Rosemond.

A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed earlier today near Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, leaving no survivors. Footage from the scene of the crash, as well as video taken in a residential area near the crash site showing rising black smoke in the distance, can be seen below.

An Unidentified Military Helicopter has reportedly crashed onto a Highway in Huntsville, Alabama sometime within the last hour. pic.twitter.

Ukrainian TV screencap / Courtesy Photo / Google Maps

Ukrainian armed forces shot down several balloons with radar reflectors suspended beneath them that were spotted flying over or near the capital Kyiv on Wednesday, according to officials in that country. This appears to be an emerging Russian tactic that could be used to gather intelligence about Ukraine’s air defense capabilities, baiting them into wasting precious ammunition and other resources, or otherwise distracting or confusing their operators.

An Iranian-made drone is seen in the sky seconds before it fired on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky).

A new report from the Defense Intelligence Agency has confirmed that Russia is using Iranian-made drones in Ukraine after months of reports based on open-source intelligence.
The new unclassified report  “provides a visual comparison of UAVs used by Russian forces in Ukraine and Iranian UAVs used to attack U.S. and partner interests in the Middle East,” according to its summary.

Twitter screengrab

A video that looks like it is right out of a dystopian science fiction movie has surfaced. It shows security camera footage of a small drone eerily floating down an empty city street and entering a building’s front door. An explosion shortly follows. The video highlights how drones optimized for urban environments and capable of maneuvering in tight spaces are becoming an increasing fixture in modern warfare.

A Marine infantryman with 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, burns waste at Patrol Base Atull in Sangin, Afghanistan, on Aug. 6, 2011. (Lance Cpl. Kowshon Ye/U.S. Marine Corps).

Ah, United States Marines, stewards of a martial tradition dating back 248 years and the undefeated world champs when it comes to one-upping someone by having it worse.

Pentagon leaders have a new approach and underlying digital tool — called Pulse — to modernize their performance measurement processes and create sharper accountability to accelerate progress across the vast enterprise they steer.
Under a recent direction from Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, a team within the nascent Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) developed the platform in four-and-a-half months.

Israeli Air Force

In a secretive program in the mid-1990s, Israel briefly got its hands on a small number of Soviet-era MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets, at that time almost certainly the most capable threat aircraft that it was likely to face. While the source of these jets was never officially disclosed, they were put through their paces by the Israeli Air Force, including in dissimilar air combat, and the effort yielded some fascinating insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the MiG-29.
Israel had some significant successes in obtaining previous MiG fighters for study and evaluation.

Looking back — The initial decision not to shoot down the spy balloon highlighted a continuation of Mr. Biden’s soft approach toward Beijing. Now that the balloon has been downed, let’s look at ‘what should have occurred’.