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F-35 program leader Lieutenant General Greg Masiello delivered something of a lite-beer testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, with many questions deferred to a closed session. But the discussion (transcript here) pointed to a big and little-discussed change to air warfare technology – fighter radars so powerful that they can act as high-power microwave (HPM) weapons. And this involves not just the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning but also British Eurofighter Typhoons and the multinational Global Combat Aircraft Program (GCAP).

HPM is not just a type of jamming.

How Long Until Putin Is Presiding Over A Ruined Economy and Country?: Russia is evidently taking advantage of Ukraine’s Patriot interceptor shortage, proving that without the air defenses it needs, Ukraine is still vulnerable to Russian ballistic missiles. Moscow appears to believe that exploiting that shortage right now could be enough to force Kyiv back into a defensive position and reduce its ability to strike back.

Russia continues to push back against ongoing Ukrainian long-range strikes by escalating its ballistic missile campaign, overnight launching one of its largest ballistic missile attacks of the entire war. The strikes, which carried into the morning of Sunday, July 19, saw Russian forces target sites across Ukraine’s capital city with more than 100 drones. The attack poses a great challenge for Kyiv as it seeks the rapid delivery of new Patriot interceptor missiles – the only weapon proven to be capable of reliably intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.

Russia launched 41 missiles and 125 drones against Ukraine overnight into July 19, concentrating most of the missile attack on Kyiv in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called one of the largest ballistic barrages against the capital since the war began. At least one person was killed, and 17 were injured in Kyiv and the surrounding region, according to the Kyiv Independent’s updated account.

U.S. Strikes Iranian Nuclear Site as Tehran Hits Out at Kuwait: The United States launched its eighth consecutive night of strikes against Iran overnight into Sunday, July 19 – this time targeting major military and nuclear sites as well as coastal defenses and missile facilities.

Iranian authorities claim that the United States struck the construction site of a new nuclear power plant in southwestern Iran, although Washington has not confirmed that the facility was deliberately targeted. Meanwhile, Iran launched another wave of missile and drone strikes aimed at U.S.

A third American service member died on Saturday during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone’s ordnance, U.S. Central Command announced Sunday.
U.S. troops were carrying out a controlled detonation of the unexploded ordnance on a downed Iranian attack drone in northern Iraq. CENTCOM did not elaborate on what went wrong, but in the process one American was killed while another suffered minor injuries. The military did not identify the deceased, citing policies to withhold the name until family is notified.
The fatal incident comes a day after two U.S.

Russian soldier in back of vehicle downs a surprise drone ambush at last minute with shotgun. (h/t to our reader)
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Six Coast Guard fast-response cutters are now operating in the western Pacific after more than two decades in the Middle East, in the latest shift of forces to that theater.
Last week the Coast Guard announced that the six Sentinel-class cutters that made up Patrol Forces Southwest Asia are now on the other side of the world, with a mission to “protect the homeland and maritime approaches including Guam and the Pacific Islands.” 
The ships are now operating out of Singapore and Subic Bay in the Philippines, Janes reported.

Iran may be tracking concentrations U.S. troops across the Middle East using a telecommunications vulnerability that security researchers have been screaming about for more than a decade, according to reporting from the Financial Times.
Iranian intel came from a standard practice in the global phone network, first implemented in the 1970s, and a secondary exploit built from the same advertising software that decides which ads follow you around the internet.

Ukraine Says It Destroyed a Russian Tu-95 Bomber 500 Miles Inside Russia: Ukraine says its long-range drones flew roughly 800 kilometers, or 500 miles, into Russia and destroyed a Tu-95 strategic bomber at Engels Air Base. The Security Service of Ukraine said the aircraft suffered critical damage and that its tail section was completely torn off.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the operation in a July 17 statement, saying the Tu-95 had been used to launch missile attacks against Ukraine.