Israeli sources said the Saudis had no clue something might happen. “It seems that the Americans were also in the dark, which is very worrying. A greater cause for worry, is if Washington knew and did not share the data in time with the Saudis” one source said.

“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.

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.

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.

The Iranian seizure of a British tanker in the Persian Gulf sends a new jolt of tension through the Middle East as complications arise on multiple fronts.

AUSA: The Marines want their Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle to carry a scout drone that can look for threats and target them with loitering strike missiles or drones. Now General Dynamics Land Systems and drone maker AeroVironment are teaming up to offer the same built-in drone for future Army vehicles. The two companies announced here today that they’ve… Keep reading →

For a while, Turkey and Israel were the unexpected couple, the increasingly Muslim state buying the Jewish state’s weapons and Israel offering Turkey a potentially strategic gas and oil pipeline. Today, Israel is reaching out to NATO and Turkish-Israeli relations are increasingly tense.

  The iconic weapon of the post-911 era, the Predator, is being retired today. I asked Rick Whittle, who quite simply wrote the book on the subject, to tell our readers why Predator matters both as a weapon and as a concept. See what the man who fired the Predator’s first Hellfire missile — and… Keep reading →

AUSA: With the Army increasingly anxious about Russian drones, helicopters, and fighters, it’s racing to revive the Short-Range Air Defense (SHORAD) forces it largely disbanded after the Cold War. BAE Systems, which makes the heavily armed M2 Bradley troop carrier, is offering a Bradley variant festooned with radars, jamming antennas to shut down drones, anti-aircraft missiles, and… Keep reading →

Drones are designed and bought by the four services, as well as DARPA and, we suspect, an intelligence agency or two. There’s duplication of effort and requirements overlap and that means wasted money and time. Many moons ago in 1993, when drones were just becoming a thing in the US military, some visionaries created the… Keep reading →