TEL AVIV: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, still trying to form a new government, said Israel must increase its defense spending by “many billions immediately and then many billions every year” as the threat from Iran “has intensified in recent weeks. Israel, he said yesterday, faces a significantly growing threat from Iran. The Israeli military recently attacked… Keep reading →

“Last year 78 percent of the IAF’s operational flight hours were performed by UAS. This year the number jumped and is 80 percent,” Lt. Col. S. told me at the Tel-Nof Air Force base, where the largest Israeli drone, the Heron-TP flies from. Breaking Defense was granted exclusive access to the White Eagle squadron there.

An IDF team has been taking test flights aboard Lockheed Martin’s new CH-53K in Maryland, but Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook is in the running too — and both programs could use a boost against their American critics.

The Negev can fire over 700 rounds a minute in full-auto — a bit less than the M249 — or, it can be switched to semi-auto for highly accurate single shots. It already comes in 5.56mm and 7.62mm variants, and IWI says it could be easily reconfigured to take different calibers.

Israeli intelligence has been following the shipments from Iran, watching Iranian operatives from the time they crossed to border and, at the right moment, attacked them. Cargo unloaded from Iranian cargo planes in Syria that landed in Damascus was destroyed only minutes after leaving the airport.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak: “In North Korea, we saw war threats that ended in hugs, a dead end in negotiations, hugs again, and then the story repeats all over again. The same could happen with Iran.”

Israel initially jammed all communications between the drone operators and their weapons and then bombed the facility on the night of Aug. 24, Israeli sources say.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee about the agreement, and told lawmakers that Israel participates in intelligence and other areas where it can offer capabilities and advantages.

The first demonstration of Carmel was held Aug. 4 before the Ministry of Defense Director General, the IDF Deputy Chief of General Staff, commander of the Ground Forces, the head of the Directorate of Defense Research and Development, and other senior defense officials.

New reports emerge of Israeli strikes in Iraq, as a prominent Senator (and Trump ally) pushes a new security pact between Washington and Jerusalem.