Military Technology News 13 June 2025 - 23 June 2025

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

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

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