Israel aims to build its own stealth fighter jets in 10 years

Good news! I bet Israel can do it faster!

Caveat: I did not have the time to read the article.

Israel aims to build its own stealth fighter jets in 10 years | The Jerusalem Post "A senior Israeli official says the country is ready to develop homegrown stealth jets and unmanned combat aircraft as part of a push to reduce reliance on US aid"

Researcher proposes a way to detect nuclear weapons in space

Good news! However, this proposed detection system seems to be very slow and works only in close proximity of a satellite containing a nuclear weapon.

"In 2024, a U.S. government official warned that Russia could be developing a new satellite designed to carry nuclear weapons into space. The statement followed the launch of a suspicious Russian satellite into low-Earth orbit in 2022, just a few weeks before the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A nuclear detonation in low-Earth orbit — the region about 100 miles to 1,200 miles above Earth’s surface — would release trillions of highly energetic electrons that would destroy many of the satellites in space, disrupting telecommunications networks, GPS, space-based internet, and more.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans the placement of nuclear weapons in space, but there’s currently no way to verify satellites don’t contain nuclear weapons. In fact, no verification methods have even been proposed in unclassified, peer-reviewed literature. ...

In the paper, Danagoulian calculates that a sensor system the size of a large encyclopedia could detect a nuclear weapon with 99 percent accuracy if it orbited within 4,000 meters of the suspect satellite for about a week. He also estimates that the detection time could be cut to a matter of hours if multiple satellite sensors were used or the sensor satellite was able to get within 1,000 meters of the suspect satellite. ..."

From the abstract:

"The Outer Space Treaty (OST) was opened to signatures in 1967 and, since then, 117 countries, including China, the USA and Russia, have become part of it. Among other stipulations, the treaty bans the placement of nuclear weapons in outer space.

Recently, the US government has raised worries that Russia is testing nuclear-armed anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) components, with the possibility that it will place a nuclear weapon in space.

Such a device, if detonated, would destroy most of the satellites in the low Earth orbit. This danger is compounded by the lack of a verification mechanism for the OST.

No methodologies of verification have been proposed in the open peer-reviewed literature.

Here a concept and feasibility study is presented for verifying a satellite’s compliance to the OST by observing the neutrons induced by spallation from the approximately GeV protons in the inner Van Allen radiation belts.

The calculations show that a 9U-CubeSat-sized detection platform can identify a thermonuclear weapon from a distance of 4 km in approximately one week of observation. This conceptual study will stimulate and inform future research and development of verification platforms for the OST."

MIT researcher proposes a way to detect nuclear weapons in space | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology "The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans nuclear weapons in space, but there’s currently no way to verify that satellites aren’t carrying them."

Detection schemes could deter putting nuclear warheads in space

Verification of the Outer Space Treaty with cosmic protons (no public access)

Verification of the Outer Space Treaty with Cosmic Protons (preprint, open access)

Turkey rolls out intercontinental missile with purported 6,000km range

What is the Osman sultan Erdogan up to?

"The Turkish Ministry of Defense took the opportunity at the SAHA defense expo to reveal a new intercontinental missile with the a reported range of 6,000km (approximately 3,700 miles).

The large missile, dubbed Yildirimhan, was unveiled at the show on Tuesday, with state media outlet Anadolu reporting that in addition to the extremely long range (far enough to reach across Europe and deep into eastern Asia), it can reach up to Mach 25 on the power of four rocket engines. ..."

Turkey rolls out intercontinental missile with purported 6,000km range - Breaking Defense "The ICBM would add a "crucial layer of deterrence" to Turkey's military arsenal, a defense analyst told Breaking Defense."

The Yildirimhan long-range missile makes its debut at SAHA 2026 on May 6

China is developing an edge in satellite independent navigation

Serious stuff! Can the West keep up with China?

"A critical gap is emerging. China is publishing aggressively on satellite-independent navigation—bee-style path integration, salmon-like magnetic sensing and bio-hybrid drones. Yet the United States and its allies remain focused on satellite resilience rather than replacement.

This silent edge matters. Swarms of Chinese aircraft, missiles and autonomous vessels guided without satellite signals would erode allied electromagnetic-warfare dominance and weaken deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. If left unaddressed, it risks becoming the decisive asymmetry of the next decade.

Chinese research institutes and military universities are producing a steady stream of papers on bio-inspired navigation. Tests with drone aircraft and uncrewed submarines are verifying:

—Path integration (tracking distance and direction), as used by ants;

—Geomagnetic sensing (detecting variations in the earth’s magnetic field); and

—Optic flow (observing visible objects’ movement relative to a camera) and motion sensing, by which insects work out their position.

Quantum compass prototypes, exploiting atomic spin properties, are also under development.

Laboratories linked to the Chinese armed forces have demonstrated autonomous drones navigating without satellite signals, and Chinese patents describe bio-hybrid systems that fuse magnetic and visual cues. The sheer volume of publications signals that China is preparing to fight in environments in which satellite navigation signals are jammed. Western forces would struggle in those circumstances. ..."

China is developing an edge in satellite independent navigation | The Strategist

As US ramps up munitions production, South Korea and Australia want in

Another reminder that we may live in the most dangerous times since the end of the Cold War if not World War II!

What is all this massive rearmament and new arms race going on in Western countries for? Will this increase trigger happiness or feelings of superiority?

Did not heavy rearmament lead to World War I? What did we learn?

One severe mistake or miscalculation could trigger World War IV (World War III is already going on in the Ukraine).

The world would be a much better and more peaceful place without e.g. Putin the Terrible, Xi Jinping, and the Supreme Leader in Iran.

"South Korea and Australia are offering to relieve Washington’s strained defense supplier network, as U.S. defense planners grapple with bottlenecks in munitions production.

One partial solution is for overseas-based arms manufacturers to set up shop in the United States – something that Hanwha Aerospace from South Korea is proposing – and another is for American companies to build manufacturing facilities offshore. ..."

As US ramps up munitions production, South Korea and Australia want in

China builds advanced satellite power system for particle beam and other space weapons

This does not sound good! Is the arms race between China and the US heating up more?

"... In a peer-reviewed study published in the Chinese-language journal Advanced Small Satellite Technology last month, a team led by senior engineer Su Zhenhua with DFH Satellite Co, Ltd, China’s largest satellite manufacturer, revealed an unprecedented space-based power system prototype that achieves both high power and precision. ...

Their device delivers 2.6 megawatts (MW) of pulsed power while maintaining pulse synchronisation accuracy of just 0.63 microseconds in ground tests.

“Existing pulsed power supplies typically have an output power of less than 1 megawatt and synchronisation control accuracy worse than 1 millisecond, with limits in current control precision and conversion efficiency as well ...

The team said higher performance was urgently needed because “devices like electromagnetic jamming warfare simulators and particle beam systems demand extremely high instantaneous power – often requiring megawatt-level energy to be released with microsecond or even nanosecond precision”. ..."

China builds advanced satellite power system for particle beam and other space weapons | South China Morning Post

China’s updated sixth-generation fighter jets put US on notice for air supremacy

The arms race between the US and China is heating up! How will it end?

Maybe these are just Potemkin aircrafts? 😊

China’s updated sixth-generation fighter jets put US on notice for air supremacy | South China Morning Post

How Ukraine’s Autonomous Killer Drones Defeat Electronic Warfare

Very recommendable! About the latest arms race drones versus countermeasures!

When will Putin the Terrible invade the Baltic States that export latest arms to the Ukraine. He must be fuming about this every day!

Caveat: I did not read the entire, long article.

"After the Estonian startup KrattWorks dispatched the first batch of its Ghost Dragon ISR quadcopters to Ukraine in mid-2022, the company’s officers thought they might have six months or so before they’d need to reconceive the drones in response to new battlefield realities. The 46-centimeter-wide flier was far more robust than the hobbyist-grade UAVs that came to define the early days of the drone war against Russia. But within a scant three months, the Estonian team realized their painstakingly fine-tuned device had already become obsolete.

Rapid advances in jamming and spoofing—the only efficient defense against drone attacks—set the team on an unceasing marathon of innovation. Its latest technology is a neural-network-driven optical navigation system, which allows the drone to continue its mission even when all radio and satellite-navigation links are jammed. It began tests in Ukraine in December, part of a trend toward jam-resistant, autonomous UAVs (uncrewed aerial vehicles). The new fliers herald yet another phase in the unending struggle that pits drones against the jamming and spoofing of electronic warfare, which aims to sever links between drones and their operators. There are now tens of thousands of jammers straddling the front lines of the war, defending against drones that are not just killing soldiers but also destroying armored vehicles, other drones, industrial infrastructure, and even tanks. ...

Just as machine guns and tanks defined the First World War, drones have become emblematic of Ukraine’s struggle against Russia. ..."

Ukraine’s Autonomous Killer Drones Defeat Electronic Warfare - IEEE Spectrum "Killer drones spot landmarks as they fly to their targets"

Government hackers are leading the use of attributed zero-day exploits in 2024, Google says

Bad news!

"Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) tracked 75 zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in the wild in 2024, a decrease from the number we identified in 2023 (98 vulnerabilities), but still an increase from 2022 (63 vulnerabilities).

We divided the reviewed vulnerabilities into two main categories: end-user platforms and products (e.g., mobile devices, operating systems, and browsers) and enterprise-focused technologies, such as security software and appliances. ...

Key Takeaways

• Zero-day exploitation continues to grow gradually. The 75 zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in 2024 follow a pattern that has emerged over the past four years. ...
• Enterprise-focused technology targeting continues to expand. GTIG continued to observe an increase in adversary exploitation of enterprise-specific technologies throughout 2024. In 2023, 37% of zero-day vulnerabilities targeted enterprise products. This jumped to 44% in 2024, primarily fueled by the increased exploitation of security and networking software and appliances.
• Attackers are increasing their focus on security and networking products. Zero-day vulnerabilities in security software and appliances were a high-value target in 2024. We identified 20 security and networking vulnerabilities, which was over 60% of all zero-day exploitation of enterprise technologies. ...
• Actors conducting cyber espionage still lead attributed zero-day exploitation. Between government-backed groups and customers of commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs), actors conducting cyber espionage operations accounted for over 50% of the vulnerabilities we could attribute in 2024. People's Republic of China (PRC)-backed groups exploited five zero-days, and customers of CSVs exploited eight, continuing their collective leading role in zero-day exploitation. For the first year ever, we also attributed the exploitation of the same volume of 2024 zero-days (five) to North Korean actors mixing espionage and financially motivated operations as we did to PRC-backed groups.

..."

Government hackers are leading the use of attributed zero-days, Google says | TechCrunch

Hello 0-Days, My Old Friend: A 2024 Zero-Day Exploitation Analysis

Figure 4: 2024 attributed zero-day exploitation

China’s New Supercarrier Surpasses America’s Largest with Molly Gambhir

Concerning! The arms race goes on!

Google removes pledge to not use AI for weapons from website

Good news! When common sense prevails over naive ideology!

Why let the enemies of open societies or rogue states exclusively use AI for such purposes!

"Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. The change was first spotted by Bloomberg. The company appears to have updated its public AI principles page, erasing a section titled “applications we will not pursue,” which was still included as recently as last week.

Asked for comment, the company pointed TechCrunch to a new blog post on “responsible AI.” It notes, in part, “we believe that companies, governments, and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.” ..."

Google removes pledge to not use AI for weapons from website | TechCrunch

Turkey joins drone-carrier operations club with first takeoff and landing from Turkish ship

The next arms race! Goodbye aircraft carriers! Welcome drone carriers! Just kidding!

"Turkish firm Baykar’s unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) Bayraktar TB3 performed its first successful flight test to take off and land on the Turkish ship TCG Anadolu, a short runway vessel, the firm said Tuesday in a statement. ..."

Turkey joins drone-carrier operations club with first takeoff and landing from Turkish ship - Breaking Defense "“The flight, conducted at the convergence of the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, lasted for 46 minutes before the aircraft successfully landed back on the same short runway, without the need for any landing support equipment,” defense firm Baykar said in a statement"

Bayraktar TB3 prepares to take off from Turkish ship TCG Anadolu.

Chinese firms lead US firms in remote sensing satellite systems

More on the global arms race between superpowers!

"A new assessment of global commercial remote sensing satellite systems shows that Chinese firms are edging out US commercial firms in capabilities across a broad range of sensor technologies.

The study produced a “Top 3” ranking of the world’s best commercial space-based remote sensing systems in 2024 framed as a mock Olympic Games. China grabbed the “gold medal” in five areas; the US in four. One company each from Finland and South Korea also nabbed gold. ..."

"Four leading institutions—the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Taylor Geospatial Institute, Taylor Geospatial Engine, and the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation—collaborated to produce a “Top 3” ranking of the world’s best commercial space-based remote sensing systems.  ..."

Going for the gold: Chinese firms lead US firms in remote sensing 'Olympics' - Breaking Defense ""The stakes are high. Should any one country dominate the commercial remote sensing market, not only could it gain economic advantages, but it would also control the information narrative about the entire planet, from the environment to natural resources to human conflict," the report concluded."

Gold Rush: The 2024 Commercial Remote Sensing Global Rankings (Link to PDF)

Researchers thwart resistant bacteria's strategy of one particular bacterium

Good news! A welcome antidote to the deafening and long ongoing hysteria about antimicrobial resistance (AMR)! 

Human ingenuity beats any bug (eventually)! It is an arms race, bugs can not win!

Now that we have also AI at our disposal, bugs have no chance anymore! We should actually feel sorry for bacteria! Caution: satire!

"... One such bacterium is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is naturally found in soil and water, but also hospitals, nursing homes and similar institutions for persons with weakened immune systems are home for strains of this bacterium. ...

Now, at team of researchers from Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Department of Clinical Microbiology, University of Southern Denmark, have discovered a weakness in P. aeruginosa with the potential to become the target for a new way to attack it. ..."

"The team discovered a mechanism, that reduces the formation of biofilm on the surface of P. Aeruginosa. The formation of sticky, slimy biofilm is a powerful tool used by bacteria to protect themselves against antibiotics – a trick also used by P. Aeruginosa.

- This biofilm can be so thick and gooey that antibiotic cannot penetrate the cell surface and reach its target inside the cell ...

- Maybe one day, we could pharmacologically stimulate this mechanism to reduce biofilm development on the surface of P. Aeruginosa. ...
Specifically, the researchers worked with three newly discovered genes in a lab-grown strain of P. aeruginosa. When they overexpressed these genes, they saw a strong reduction of biofilm. ..."

From the abstract:

"Bacteriophages (hereafter “phages”) are ubiquitous predators of bacteria in the natural world, but interest is growing in their development into antibacterial therapy as complement or replacement for antibiotics. However, bacteria have evolved a huge variety of antiphage defense systems allowing them to resist phage lysis to a greater or lesser extent. In addition to dedicated phage defense systems, some aspects of the general stress response also impact phage susceptibility, but the details of this are not well known. In order to elucidate these factors in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we used the laboratory-conditioned strain PAO1 as host for phage infection experiments as it is naturally poor in dedicated phage defense systems. Screening by transposon insertion sequencing indicated that the uncharacterized operon PA3040-PA3042 was potentially associated with resistance to lytic phages. However, we found that its primary role appeared to be in regulating biofilm formation, particularly in a clinical isolate of P. aeruginosa in which it also altered tobramycin resistance. Its expression was highly growth-phase dependent and responsive to phage infection and cell envelope stress. Our results suggest that this operon may be a cryptic but important locus for P. aeruginosa stress tolerance."

Researchers thwart resistant bacteria's strategy

Researchers thwart resistant bacteria’s strategy (original news release) Bacteria are experts at evolving resistance to antibiotics. One resistance strategy is to cover their cell walls in sticky and gooey biofilm that antibiotics cannot penetrate. A new discovery could put a stop to this strategy.

The uncharacterized PA3040-3042 operon is part of the cell envelope stress response and a tobramycin resistance determinant in a clinical isolate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (open access)

Fig 2 Overexpression of the PA3040-PA3042 operon inhibits biofilm formation without affecting growth rate

Clare Kirkpatrick, the senior researcher

Skynode S: Auterion autonomy kit lets attack drones fly through jamming

The drones arms race is already in full swing!

"... Ukraine losing thousands of drones a week to electronic warfare. ...

But now Auterion, a US-Swiss firm that works for the US, Britain, Holland and Ukraine, with production lines in Texas and Kyiv, says they’ve solved a big part of that problem. The company’s Skynode S upgrade kit, announced Thursday but already combat tested in Ukraine, is meant to make small drones smart enough to perform some crucial functions on their own. ..."

Skynode S: Auterion autonomy kit lets attack drones fly through jamming - Breaking Defense Just announced on Thursday but already quietly combat-tested in Ukraine, the palm-sized Skynode S card makes small drones much less dependent on an uninterrupted wireless link to a human remote controller.

India to add $5 billion aircraft carrier to fleet to counter China

The arms race in Asia between India and China is on!

US to Build Nuclear Bomb 24 Times More Powerful Than Hiroshima Bomb with Palki Sharma

Recommendable. Concerning. MAD, MADDER ... (Hint: MAD = Mutually Assured Destruction)

China’s lead in advanced sensors is overwhelming

Recommendable! Concerning! The arms race goes on!

Lest not forget the many important civilian applications (some of them are mentioned in the article below)!

"China’s research in several advanced sensor technologies vital to military navigation and targeting is overwhelmingly ahead of the three AUKUS partners, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

Even if the three team up with likeminded Indo-Pacific countries Japan and South Korea, they do not match the Chinese output in high-impact research. ...

The tracker has now measured the amount of high-impact research by country across 64 technologies. China maintains its overall dominance, leading in 53 technologies against 11 for the US. This article focuses on advanced sensors.  ...

Although North America has the largest share of the $200 billion remote sensor market with 41%, the tracker indicates China’s strong future trajectory through its huge share of papers in the top 10% of highly cited publications, especially in inertial navigation systems (44%), photonic sensors (43.7%), multispectral and hyperspectral imaging sensors (48.9%) and sonar sensors (49.4%).

The advanced sensor technologies included in the tracker are used for sensing, timing and navigation. They are comprised of devices with extremely sensitive detection capabilities for magnetic and gravitational fields, light and radio waves, and measuring time with atomic precision. The seven technologies are atomic clocks, inertial navigation systems, gravitational force sensors, magnetic field sensors, multispectral and hyperspectral imaging sensors, satellite positioning and navigation, and radar. ...
Seven of the 10 advanced sensor technologies are led by two China-based institutions, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Wuhan University. CAS is the world’s largest research organisation, with over 100 institutes and three universities under its umbrella. In our tech tracker, Wuhan University distinguishes itself as the top institution in inertial navigation systems, satellite positioning and navigation and multispectral and hyperspectral imaging. ..."

ASPI’s critical tech tracker updates: China’s lead in advanced sensors is overwhelming | The Strategist

Is Russia transferring captured Western weapons from Ukraine to Iran?

The enemy of my enemy is my friend or so they say according to an ancient  proverb!

"An unidentified high-ranking Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander told Newsweek that Israel is concerned about Russia transferring Western weapons captured in Ukraine to Iran. Iran will likely attempt to reverse engineer the Western weapons systems to upgrade its own conventional capabilities or develop new ones to use in future conflicts."

Iran Update, June 15, 2023 | Critical Threats

A shoulder-fired french missile that can travel over three times the speed of sound is making a comeback after 11 years

Good news, but too slow!

"French defense and technology giant Thales is manufacturing the Starstreak for the first time in 11 years as Ukraine uses it to help repel Russian attacks. It is the latest example of how Ukraine’s demand for weapons, combined with Western governments’ increased military spending, is reviving once inactive production lines. The relaunch could take more than a year, Thales said, underlining how the complexity of manufacturing weapons and industrywide supply-chain issues slow down Western rearmament in the face of rising geopolitical tensions. The British-commissioned Starstreak was designed in the 1980s during the Cold War before entering service the following decade."

A shoulder-fired missile that can travel over three times the speed of sound is making a comeback.