Free Republic

Ukraine is testing an AI-assisted laser system designed to destroy Shahed drones and protect key infrastructure. Image of the Ukrainian Tryzub laser system. Military NYI Ukraine’s Celebra Tech is edging closer to deploying its Tryzub anti-drone laser weapon in Ukraine, the company reports. According to Celebra, the system is now entering its final testing phase before battlefield deployment. Colloquially called “Trident,” the system has been designed to give Ukrainian forces a cheap and rapid deployable counter to massed Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations. This could be game-changing, as Russia has made use of large...

The Ardal ground robot had a specific mission: cross open ground, reach the Novoselivka village bridge in Donetsk, and lay an anti-tank mine before Russian forces could use it. It was a basic operation for Ukraine’s elite K-2 Brigade, based four miles away. But when they saw three Russian soldiers on their screen, they did not hesitate to change the objective, detonating the mine and taking the enemy – and the robot – with it. The loss of hardware was not a difficult call. Ukraine is on course to make 25,000 unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in the first half of...

A spokesman for Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) condemned the United States on Friday for conducting what U.S. Central Command referred to as “self-defense strikes” to protect American assets in the region, claiming that it had responded and caused “significant damage.” Central Command (CENTCOM), the wing of the American armed forces responsible for operations in the Middle East, revealed on Thursday that it had “intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes,” destroying the Iranian assets used in the attack. CENTCOM described a flurry of “missiles, drones, and small boats approaching American naval assets and attacking, but...

Nearly $870,000 worth of industrial drones capable of dispersing large amounts of liquid chemicals were stolen from a New Jersey company in what could become a "nightmare scenario," according to a new report. Fifteen Ceres Air C31 drones were stolen from CAC International in Harrison, N.J., on March 24, according to The High Side Substack. The drones were allegedly stolen by a delivery driver who duped the company, the report said. The New Jersey State Police recovered the drones on Monday, the agency said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "On April 27th, the New Jersey State Police Cargo...

Fifteen agricultural spray drones were stolen from a New Jersey location last month in what the FBI is treating as a sophisticated, possibly coordinated theft, according to reporting by national security journalists Jack Murphy and Sean D. Naylor at The High Side. The case is unsolved. Retired FBI agent Steve Lazarus told the outlet the bureau is “freaked out for a good reason,” warning that the machines are “industrial sprayers designed to carry and disperse significant amounts of liquid quickly and with precision.”

Someone stole 15 giant agricultural drones in New Jersey — and experts fear a “nightmare scenario” if they end up in the hands of terrorists. The fleet of Ceres Air C31 drones, which are about the size of an ATV, were ripped off March 24 by a bogus delivery driver who duped shipping and logistics company CAC International in Harrison, according to The High Side substack. The four-armed flyers can carry and spray up to 40 gallons of liquid chemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, and unleash the payload over a 15-acre span in just seven minutes. The Ceres Air...

According to the report, air defense activity, including sounds of explosions and anti-aircraft fire, was heard in several districts of the city. Iranian media described the response as intercepting incoming threats. Iran’s state-run Mehr News Agency reported Thursday evening that Iranian air defense systems were actively engaging what it described as “hostile targets” in parts of the capital, Tehran. What We Know So Far Mehr News and other semi-official outlets (including Nour News) confirmed the activation of air defenses. Eyewitness videos circulating on social media show flashes in the night sky, plumes of smoke, and what appears to be ground-based...

The U.S. military, which has been responding to Iran’s loitering drone attacks, has finally adopted Ukraine’s air defense technology. As low-cost drones continued to damage high-value military assets, it is interpreted that the U.S. has deployed Ukraine’s combat-proven response system at key Middle Eastern bases. On the 22nd, Reuters reported, citing multiple sources, that the U.S. has deployed Ukraine’s command and control platform at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, a key military asset in the Middle East, to defend against Iranian drones.… Ukrainian military officers are reported to have visited the base over recent weeks to train U.S. forces...

“A glamorous Iranian woman living a lavish life in Los Angeles was arrested for allegedly trafficking deadly drones and bombs for Tehran. Shamim Mafi, 44, was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night and charged with allegedly brokering the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition to be sold to Sudan, the US Attorney for the Central District of California said on Sunday. Mafi left Iran in 2013 and became a permanent US resident in 2016 under the Obama administration, officials stated. The Woodland Hills resident allegedly used Atlas International Business,...

The U.S. military recently published photos of Marines in a unit headed to the Middle East equipped with an advanced optic designed to help them shoot down small drones. The April 4 photos show members of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, using a smart scope optic mounted on their M4 carbines as part of training against small drones. Roughly 2,500 Marines in the unit are currently embarked on the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, which deployed in March to support operations in the Middle East. When the photos were taken, the Marines were aboard a ship in the Pacific...

Kuwait's interior ministry reported "severe material damage" at several vital facilities of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and the energy and water resources ministry after an Iranian drone attack on Wednesday. The ministry said fires broke out in some of the attacked sites, which it said include oil facilities and three power stations and water desalination plants.

Traumatic brain injuries are quickly emerging as the signature wound of the U.S. war with Iran so far, echoing a pattern of post-9/11 wars... More than 200 U.S. troops have so far been wounded in the war, and at least 140 of those were TBI-related injuries... It’s a surge being driven by Iran’s reliance on one-way attack drones and the concussive blasts they deliver in strikes against American troops in countries across the Middle East, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Symptoms of TBI can be subtle at first but often linger for years, or even a lifetime, ranging...

Ebrahim Zolfaqari said ​Iran targeted satellite equipment and ⁠munitions ⁠on the ⁠island with ​drones, adding that U.S. forces ​had relocated ⁠there from Arifjan camp after that base was repeatedly struck ⁠by Iran.Bubiyan island is the largest of ⁠Kuwait's coastal islands chain, located in the northwest of the [Persian]Gulf.

Operation Epic Fury marks a turning point in the art of war. The key to 20th-century battles was air power. In the past, space and cyber activities have traditionally played supporting roles as so-called force multipliers. But this is no longer the case. In this conflict they have become mainstream, carving out new fronts for the wars of the future. The use of space is no longer something that is just nice to have, because everything from comms to intel to navigation uses space and cyber assets. Along with the National Reconnaissance Office, which manages US spy satellites, the US...

Reports of multiple unauthorized drones over Barksdale Air Force Base and Fort McNair should alarm every American. Up until now, no threat has been identified. If this were happening overseas, we’d call it pre-operational surveillance. That’s how I was trained. At home, we’re still calling it, "mystery." It’s only a matter of time until a credible threat presents itself. What’s most alarming is that we cannot definitively answer who is flying these drones. all it’s going to take is one single drone to slip through our defenses and kill an American, to cause massive strategic damage to our country. I’ve...

Multiple sources have claimed that the Chinese government is suspiciously repositioning its military assets, signaling possible future activity around Taiwan. The reports come from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, which tracks Chinese military might and defense systems. The China Airpower Tracker reportedly showed lines of typically retired Chinese fighter jets, which have drawn suspicion from experts. The J-6 fighter (also known as the Shenyang J-6) was first developed in the late 1950s. China retired the line of jets in the late 1990s, but now, experts say, China is retrofitting the old fighters to serve as unmanned craft and staging...

This NATO war game went horribly wrong. Ukraine’s drone warfare exposed NATO weaknesses during a major Estonia war game, and the results were brutal. In this video, I break down how just 10 Ukrainian operators simulated the destruction of two NATO battalions, and what that reveals about outdated doctrine and the future of warfare. In May of 2025, NATO ran a major "military exercise" called Hedgehog in Estonia, involving over 16,000 troops from 12 NATO countries. This "wargame" highlighted the critical role of a Ukrainian-Estonian OPFOR unit, leveraging advanced "drones" and the expertise of "Ukraine soldiers" to simulate a mechanized...

Not an entertainer or talk show celebrity, Postol has banks of lecture slides showing nuke-war damage, missiles & drones in eye-glazing technical detail. Take-away: if a cheap but accurate drone hits your apartment even with a reinforced safe-room, the building will collapse, so you'd better huddle in a shelter. But the destruction of radars means you have no warning. Your life is completely disrupted. While U.S. Defense Industries (Lockheed-Martin, General Dynamics,TRW, etc.) have been getting fat pedalling us decades of useless, expensive whiz-bang systems that never worked but make fantastic Congressional pork: lean-mean Ukrainians, Russians, Chinese & Iranians have been...

Support Free Republic join me in supporting FR as the deadline approaches... "Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves... Iran says it attacked an anti-drone depot in the United Arab Emirates operated by Ukrainians defending an American base... Your host self-identifying as a great hypocrite with a song about hypocrisy penned... A clue about what Epstein was up to with all his international contacts in the story of French diplomat Fabrice Aidan now being investigated by French authorities......

HUGE SENTENCE IN FLORIDA: @AGJamesUthmeier announces 81 YEARS for Mario Crawford, who used drones to smuggle drugs, weapons & cell phones into state prisons Officials warn contraband is no longer just coming through the gates, it’s coming over the fences