Military Technology News 17 June 2025

Mach 2 Marvels: The Epic Saga of Dassault’s Mirage Fighter Jets

In 1958, the Mirage III became the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in level flight. The Mirage IIIC entered French service by 1961. The Mirage F1 first flew in 1966 and could land about 60 knots slower than the Mirage III. The Mirage 2000 first flew in 1978 and introduced fly-by-wire control with the Snecma M53-P2 engine delivering 64 kN dry and 95 kN with afterburner. The Mirage 4000 first flew in 1979 as a twin-engine “Super Mirage” with canards and a potential load up to 8 tons, but only one prototype was built and it

25 July 2025

F-35 Lightning Strikes in 2025: Upgrades, War Zones, and Global Controversies

In 2025 the F-35 program began full Block 4 modernization, adding more than 75 enhancements, including the APG-85 AESA radar replacing the APG-81 and the TR-3 hardware/software upgrade that enables sensor fusion and open-system architecture. By May 1, 2025 Lockheed Martin had cleared the TR-3 backlog and delivered the last of 72 TR-3-era airframes, reaching roughly 200 F-35s delivered with TR-3 hardware by mid-2025 while full Block 4 software awaited U.S. certification. 2025 was targeted as a record production year with 170–190 total F-35 deliveries planned. Israel’s F-35I Adir jets flew notional Iran strikes in June 2025 with one-way ranges

22 July 2025

Controversies · F-35 · Global Security · Military Technology · NYSE:LMT · Upgrades

Unbreakable Military Signals: The Untold Story of Secure Military Communications

At Bletchley Park in the 1940s, Alan Turing and colleagues decrypted Enigma messages, providing ULTRA intelligence that aided Allied victory. The United States began launching military communications satellites in the 1960s, and by 1982 the second- and third-generation DSCS satellites offered nuclear-hardened, anti-jamming, high-data-rate links worldwide. In 1976, Diffie–Hellman introduced public-key cryptography, and DES was adopted by the United States in the late 1970s. Link-16, a NATO-standard data link, exchanges encrypted sensor data—such as tracks and coordinates—between aircraft, ships, and ground units in real time. Since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, SpaceX Starlink terminals have become a critical backbone

20 July 2025

Communications · Defense · History · Military Technology · Signal Security

Unstoppable “Unjammable” Drones: How Fiber-Optic Technology is Revolutionizing Warfare and Beyond

Fiber-optic drones transmit control commands and live video through a physical fiber tether, making them jam-proof and radio-silent. There are two main categories: Tethered Power Drones (aerial elevators such as AT&T’s Flying COW) that draw power from the ground while carrying a fiber data link, and Fiber-Optic Guided Drones (free-ranging FPVs) that carry a 5–20 km spool of cable for guided missions. Typical fiber spools range from 5 km to 20–30 km, which defines a hard operational range and creates drag and snag risks behind the drone. Russia was the first to deploy fiber-guided FPV drones in combat, with the

16 July 2025

Defense · Drones · Fiber Optics · Innovation · Military Technology · NYSE:T

China’s Secret Weapon Revealed: Inside the 2025 Stealth Carrier That Could Change Everything

China formally unveiled a stealth aircraft carrier program in 2025, highlighted by CCTV footage showing two J-35 prototypes in a Shenyang hangar and Fujian sea-trial progress. The Type 003 Fujian is the first Chinese carrier with electromagnetic catapults (EMALS), configured with three EMALS launchers, displacing about 80,000–85,000 tons and measuring roughly 318 meters. The J-35 stealth fighter is the program’s crown jewel, a twin-engine fifth-generation carrier jet designed for deck operations, with prototypes spotted in 2025 and intended for internal bays and AESA radar. The J-15T upgrade equips a CATOBAR-capable, WS-10 engine-powered variant with reinforced landing gear, a nose refueling

15 July 2025

China Defense · Future Warfare · Global Security · Military Technology · Stealth Carriers

Future Combat Air Systems: The Global Race for Sixth-Generation Fighters

FCAS/SCAF aims to field a “system of systems” including a Next-Generation Fighter (NGF) with remote carrier drones and a combat cloud, targeting 2040 in-service and costs exceeding €100 billion. The United States’ NGAD is a “family of systems” with a manned core fighter plus loyal wingman drones, potentially costing around $300 million per fighter and planned to enter service around 2030–2032. The UK–Italy–Japan Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) was announced in December 2022 and aims for a 2035 operational fighter, with a crewed demonstrator by 2027–2028, a tri-national engine program, and data-link networks delivering 10,000x radar data throughput. Japan’s F-X

9 July 2025

Aerospace · Air Combat · Defense · Fighter Jets · Military Technology

You Won’t Believe China’s New ‘Mosquito Drone’—How Insect-Sized Spies Could Rewrite Warfare (and Your Privacy) Forever

On 20 June 2025 CCTV aired footage from the National University of Defence Technology showing student Liang Hexiang balancing a micro-robot the size of a mosquito between his fingers. The insect-sized drone uses flapping leaf-shaped wings and hair-thin legs to hover, perch and crawl inside buildings for information reconnaissance on the battlefield. Analysts describe the device as part of China’s PLA modernization drive, pushing covert surveillance to a new extreme. Its dimensions are about 1.3 cm long and it weighs less than 0.3 g. It has three carbon-fiber legs with a 0.1 mm diameter that double as landing gear and

24 June 2025

China · Drones · Future Warfare · Military Technology · Privacy

Bunker‑Buster Earthquake: New Satellite Images Expose Fordow’s Ruin—What the Bombs Hit, What Survived, and Why It Matters

Shortly after 02:00 local time on 22 June, seven U.S. B‑2 Spirit bombers dropped 14 MOPs on Fordow with Tomahawks suppressing Iranian SAM sites. Maxar/Planet imagery shows six precisely spaced entry craters along the ridge above the centrifuge halls, forming a textbook double‑tap pattern consistent with the MOP fuse sequence. Damage signatures include collapsed tunnel portals, landslide debris, scorched support buildings, and dust plumes obscuring the cliff face and vent shafts. Fordow is carved 80–100 m inside Kuh‑e‑Fordow mountain, reinforced by concrete and IRGC air‑defence rings, and was designed for 3,000 centrifuges with IR‑6 cascades enriching to 60%. IAEA Director‑General

23 June 2025

Bunker Busters · Iran · Military Technology · NASDAQ:PL · Nuclear Sites · NYSE:MAXR · Satellite Imagery

Stunning Satellite Images Reveal Fordow Nuclear Facility Cratered by U.S. Airstrike

Before the Strike: Trucks and Bulldozers Spotted at Fordow Satellite surveillance captured telltale signs of Iranian preparations at Fordow. On June 19, 2025 a Maxar satellite image shows cargo trucks parked outside the underground entrance of the Fordow complex foxnews.com. The next day (June 20) another image reveals bulldozers and heavy vehicles moving toward the tunnel entrance foxnews.com. These vehicles were clearly visible in the raw imagery – Fox News reports that “trucks and vehicles can be seen at the Fordow site” in pre-strike pictures foxnews.com foxnews.com. Open-source analysts say this “unusual activity” likely indicates that Iran was shuffling equipment

22 June 2025

Airstrikes · Geopolitics · Military Technology · Nuclear Facilities · NYSE:MAXR · Satellite Imagery

Space Showdown: How Military Satellites Are Shaping the Ukraine‑Russia War

SpaceX deployed 5,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine within days of the 2022 invasion, rising to about 15,000 active terminals by June 2022, with Ukraine at one point accounting for roughly 58% of global Starlink traffic. Russia attempted to jam Starlink signals on the battlefield, SpaceX rolled a software update to bypass the jamming, and by 2023–2024 reports noted illicit Starlink terminals in Russian hands that had to be disabled. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a cyberattack against Viasat’s KA-SAT network that crippled thousands of Ukrainian modems and disrupted satellite links across Europe. In August 2022, Ukraine crowdfunded $20 million

20 June 2025

Geopolitics · Military Technology · NASDAQ:PL · NASDAQ:VSAT · NYSE:MAXR · Satellites · Space · Ukraine-Russia War

The Ultimate Global Missile Guide: Secret Weapons and Strategic Arsenals Revealed

The United States fields the LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBM (silo-based) with a ~13,000 km range that carries 1× nuclear RV (W78/W87, ~335 kt) and the UGM-133 Trident II D5 SLBM (submarine-launched) with >12,000 km range capable of up to 8 MIRVs (W76/W88). The U.S. LRHW “Dark Eagle” program develops a long-range hypersonic boost-glide missile with a ~2,775 km range using a 2-stage solid booster and an HGV. Russia fields the RS-28 Sarmat heavy ICBM (silo-based) with 10,000–18,000 km range and Mach 20+ reentry, and it deploys the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle. China’s DF-41 is a mobile, road-mobile ICBM with a

17 June 2025

Defense Strategy · Global Security · Military Technology · Missiles · NYSE:BA · NYSE:LMT · Secret weapons

Unveiling the F-16 Fighting Falcon: The Legendary Jet’s History, Secrets, and Showdown with Modern Fighters

The F-16 began as General Dynamics’ YF-16 in the USAF’s Lightweight Fighter program, with the prototype’s maiden flight in 1974 and the first operational F-16A delivered in 1979. It introduced relaxed static stability and fly-by-wire controls, enabling exceptional agility and the ability to sustain 9 g turns. The cockpit features a frameless bubble canopy for 360-degree visibility and a 30-degree-reclined ejection seat to improve high-G tolerance. More than 4,600 F-16s have been built since 1976, and as of 2025 about 2,084 remain operational across 25 nations. An international NATO consortium—Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway—co-produced early F-16s, assembling 348 jets

17 June 2025

Air Combat · Aviation History · F-16 · Fighter Jets · Military Technology · NYSE:GD

Military Technology News 17 June 2025 - 25 July 2025