Defense Tech

Trump slaps new tariffs on drones, including from some key U.S. allies – National globalnews.ca
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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will impose tariffs on imports of drones and their components, including from some key U.S. allies, with the Trump administration saying the country was “too reliant” on foreign sources of drones.

A proclamation signed by Trump imposes a 100% ad valorem tariff on drones of a certain size or with certain capabilities that are particularly sensitive for national security purposes, the White House said, adding that a tariff of 25% will be imposed on drones that are smaller in size.

A 15% tariff will be imposed on drones and components from the European Union, Japan, Liechtenstein, South Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan, and a 10% ad valorem tariff will be imposed on drones from the UK, the White House added.

Trump has made tariffs a central pillar of his foreign and trade policies despite legal setbacks and criticism from some analysts.

China’s New Missile Can Target Planes Flying Near US: Report www.ndtv.com
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Beijing:

China has developed hypersonic glide vehicles that can launch air-to-air weapons targeting high-value targets such as command-and-control aircraft thousands of miles away, Bloomberg reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The new addition to Beijing’s arsenal comes at a time when the US is struggling with supplies of crucial air defence missiles and long-range strike weapons following the six months of war with Iran.

It can be a threat to aircraft such as aerial refueling tankers, airborne early-warning and control jets and flying command posts, including the US Air Force’s E-4B Nightwatch.

The Chinese military has also added air-to-air capabilities to some hypersonic cruise missiles and built anti-ship capabilities into several types of missiles, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

China is the only country publicly known to operate and develop hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) capable of launching air-to-air missiles. The developments mark a significant expansion of the country’s efforts to use its growing missile arsenal — largest in the world at more than 3,150 ballistic weapons — for a wide range of military missions, sources said.

China’s New Missile Can Target Planes Flying Near US: Report www.ndtv.com
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EXCERPT:

Beijing:

China has developed hypersonic glide vehicles that can launch air-to-air weapons targeting high-value targets such as command-and-control aircraft thousands of miles away, Bloomberg reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The new addition to Beijing’s arsenal comes at a time when the US is struggling with supplies of crucial air defence missiles and long-range strike weapons following the six months of war with Iran.

It can be a threat to aircraft such as aerial refueling tankers, airborne early-warning and control jets and flying command posts, including the US Air Force’s E-4B Nightwatch.

The Chinese military has also added air-to-air capabilities to some hypersonic cruise missiles and built anti-ship capabilities into several types of missiles, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.

China is the only country publicly known to operate and develop hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) capable of launching air-to-air missiles. The developments mark a significant expansion of the country’s efforts to use its growing missile arsenal — largest in the world at more than 3,150 ballistic weapons — for a wide range of military missions, sources said.

Army tests ‘Hammer of the Gods’ system overseas for first time www.foxnews.com
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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The U.S. Army on Sunday revealed it has tested a new warfare system overseas designed to covertly scramble the navigation signals used by enemy precision weapons, making it harder for adversaries to accurately strike targets from long distances while avoiding detection.

The electronic system, dubbed “Hammer of the Gods,” was tested at sea off the U.S. West Coast for the first time in mid-July as part of the Project Convergence Capstone 6 (PC-C6) experiment.

While land-based versions have been demonstrated over the past two years, the exercise marked the official debut of the maritime variant, the Army said.

The portable signal disruptor can reportedly blind enemy to several precision-guided weapons such as long-range artillery, guided missiles and cruise missiles.

The Hammer of the Gods was tested overseas for the first time in mid-July. (U.S. Army)

The radio signals specifically jam positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) signals, including GPS data, that precision weapons rely on to navigate accurately.

Without reliable PNT data, weapon accuracy drops sharply, increasing the likelihood of delayed missions and missed targets.

The system also creates a resilient communications network that allows friendly forces to stay connected despite heavy electronic jamming.

The First Waves of Amphibious Assault Will Be Unmanned warontherocks.com
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In the Pacific War, the U.S. Navy’s underwater demolition teams prepared the way for U.S. and allied amphibious landings on enemy-held islands. Through beach reconnaissance, obstacle breaching, mine clearance, and other missions, these teams paved paths for the first waves of amphibious assaults conducted by naval task forces and subsequent landings by marines and soldiers throughout the island hopping campaign 

These critical first steps of an amphibious operation were incredibly risky in World War II. And the underwater demolition teams, which were the predecessors of the Navy SEALs, were understandably proud of their work. The Marine Corps prided itself on being first to hit the beach. And when marines did hit the beach, they often arrived to find signs left by the underwater demolitions team saying, “Welcome Marines.” 

Precision strike weapons make such operations more perilous than ever. There may never be an American servicemember preparing or landing with the first wave of an opposed amphibious assault again. And it may be robots welcoming marines and soldiers to the beach in these future fights.  

Russian AI-assisted Geran UAV swarms manage to overload Ukrainian air defenses by 400% – Military & Defense tass.com
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MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. Swarms of Russian-made Geran attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) outfitted with artificial Intelligence algorithms managed to ‘overload’ Ukrainian air defenses by 400%, according to an article published in the Russian Defense Ministry’s magazine Military Thought and obtained by TASS.

“Geran-2 autonomous swarm groups with AI algorithms for role distribution (reconnaissance, decoy targets, strike). In February 2026, cases were registered when a swarm of 20-30 UAVs overloaded Ukrainian air defenses by 300-400%,” says the article titled: ‘Ways of Increasing the Effectiveness of Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Through the Use of Artificial Intelligence.’

Today the technical implementation of artificial intelligence technologies in UAV control systems “has reached a level allowing for their mass use, which boosts the effectiveness of operations by 40-60% while considerably reducing losses among personnel,” the authors of the article say.

Further development is linked with swarm technologies – “the highest form of implementing AI in UAVs,” they say.

China Explores Elevating Cognitive Effects into Its Vision of Warfare warontherocks.com
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In March 2025, China’s military researchers published a concept describing how to rapidly capture and subdue the city of Taipei. Distributed in restricted military channels, this approach argues Beijing can achieve victory “by blocking the city’s ability to receive external assistance, restricting its ability to enable operations, breaking its operational system, collapsing cognitive cohesion, and eliminating its ability to recover.” Its objective is to break the Taiwan people’s will to fight.

While this concept is not yet doctrine, it is an important and rarely seen example of how China’s military strategy and research inform the way it plans to fight a war over Taiwan. The authors’ framework operationalizes China’s new military strategy of “national total war,” referring to whole-of-nation mobilization, and “cognitive domain operations,” referring to influencing the mental space where people and organizations make decisions. Details on both remain sparse, particularly in the context of how they may support the Chinese military’s primary mission of capturing Taiwan.

“All-domain megacity incapacitation warfare” (大型城市全域失能战) describes in remarkable detail how China’s military might capture Taipei by integrating military firepower with cognitive effects. An article from the March 2025 edition of Military Art, China’s leading internal journal on military theory, proposes this idea. The Central Military Commission oversees and approves this journal, and its official circulation is limited to restricted military channels. Because the journal is closely held within China’s military, the article’s authors have liberty to speak in specifics and without varnish as they inject their concept into China’s internal debate on how to plan a war on Taiwan.

Ghost Guns: What They Are, and Why They Are an Issue Now - The New ...

Researchers embed digital ‘fingerprints’ into 3D printed parts — tech may make future ghost guns more traceable – Tom’s Hardware
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Netanel Raviv and a team at the McKelvey School of Engineering (part of Washington University in St. Louis) are continuing to develop a way to embed traceable digital ‘fingerprints’ into 3D-printed objects.

Initially reported by 3D Printing Industry, the markers are designed in a way to be detectable, even if the printed object has been broken, because they can be identified with just a fragment of the object. Depending on the fingerprint, information such as what printer was used and when the object was created can be embedded in the print.

One of the biggest practical use cases for this development is, of course, forensics. Traceable fingerprints are crucial for helping law enforcement track ghost gun manufacturing operations. We reported on a similar approach just a few months ago in which police were able to identify markers left behind when printing.