The concept of defensive weaponry being not purely defensive has been well understood since the ABM treaty, signed in... 1972 between the Soviet Union and United States, over 50 years ago.

New details are emerging with regards to the missions carried out by the US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft deployed to Jordan on October 2024, which returned to RAF Lakenheath yesterday, July 18th 2025. These were the F-15Es equipped with 6 seven shot APKWS laser guided rocket pods for intercepting one way attack drones, for a total of 42 guided rockets per aircraft. The planes show various signs of wear and use, and feature nose art depicting horror movie characters and various interesting kill maks. By all indications they were very busy intercepting one way attack drones from Iran during the 12 day Israel/US-Iran war, but also bombing targets, who or what is unknown (Iran and Yemen are the obvious options).

Source article

Picture of F-15E Strike Eagle with 42 APKWS rockets, for illustrative purposes:

According to the markings, the squadron of 8x F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft:

• Shot down 115 one way attack drones using APKWS laser guided rockets (only 6 aircraft feature kill marks).
• Executed 54 electronic attacks, lightning bolt symbol (likey jamming the guidance systems of one way attack drones, same red colour as APKWS markings)
• Launched 28 JASSM stealth high altitude subsonic cruise missiles. (only 7 aircraft feature kill marks).
• One aircraft conducted 4 high value electronic attacks, possibly against incoming surface to air missiles or radars tracking the aircraft, black lighting bolts.
• Dropped over 100 JDAM guided bombs. (Haven't done an exact count)

A squadron of 8 aircraft taking out around 170 one way attack drones via hard kill (APKWS rockets) and soft kill (jamming) methods is, well, a lot. Especially if these were the drones that managed to make it to Jordan. I think over 1000 drones were fired throughout the entire war, with one impact.

Big question is who were they launching the JASSMs at, they were likely bombing Yemen with JDAMs, did they use JASSMs there too, or were these fired at Iran?

The 42 APKWS laser guided rockets per aircraft loadout has also been put on F-16CJ block 50 aircraft at Shaw Air Force base, in the last few days.

What is APKWS?

India can secure oil even if Russian imports sanctioned, minister says - Reuters, 17 July 2025

India is confident of meeting its oil needs from alternative sources if Russian supplies are hit by secondary sanctions, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday.

India should be able to deal with any problems with Russian imports by seeking supplies from other countries, Puri said. He noted there are many new suppliers coming onto the market such as Guyana and supply from existing producers such as Brazil and Canada.

Additionally, India is increasing exploration and production activities. "I'm not worried at all. If something happens, we'll deal with it," Puri said at an industry event in New Delhi.

"India has diversified the sources of supply and we have gone, I think, from about 27 countries that we used to buy from to about 40 countries now," he said.

Responding to Rutte's comments, India's foreign ministry spokesperson said that securing energy needs was an "overriding priority" for the country, in which it was guided by what was on offer in markets and the "prevailing global circumstances".

"We would particularly caution against any double standards on the matter," spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a regular media briefing.

And from the state owned and run Indian Oil Corp, the largest Indian SOE in this field:

In case Russian supplies are hit, Indian Oil Corp will "go back to the same template (of supplies) as was used pre-Ukraine crisis when Russian supplies to India were below 2%," company Chairman A.S. Sahney told reporters at the event.

India folded almost immediately?

There's nothing really new about the intelligence assessment, it's been known since the attack took place that no attempt was made to bomb or penetrate underground into the Isfahan facility, where only Tomahawk cruise missiles were used to bomb the entrances and exits, entombing it. Whatever is inside there should be intact, if Iran wants to retrieve it. There was excavation work at one of the entrances, but there has been no further attempts to dig out any of the other entrances. At Natanz, only 2 of the GBU-57 MOP 30 000lb bunker buster bombs were used, vs 12 at Fordow. This was mainly contingency in case previous Israeli airstrikes at Natanz didn't have the expected outcome. All above ground infrastructure at Isfahan and Natanz, including the Natanz pilot fuel enrichment plant and Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility, were destroyed or severely damaged by both Israeli and US airstrikes.

Iran could reume operations at the underground site in Isfahan immediately if they wanted to for example, digging out a bunch of entrances is not difficult.

Or Israel tried to assassinate him, who knows.

"Large mobile convoy with air support is able rush forward quickly to obliterate Iraq's army." without taking into account the two things that actually made it successful.

Also, the US Air Force and Navy invested a ton of money, assets and resources into how to suppress and destroy air defences after taking enormous losses in Vietnam, even building hundreds of specialised aircraft designed just for that mission. The US also invested heavily into stealth aircraft and precision guided munitions. The Soviet Union, and by extension Russia didn't do this (because it was never essential to their military doctrine and it's extremely expensive), which is why over three years into the Ukraine war and despite decimating the Ukrainian Air Force aircraft at the start of the conflict, Russian aircraft rarely cross the line of contact into Ukrainian controlled skies/territory.

It's more than that according to Al Mayadeen, here's the link to their post

• Syria's transitional president Ahmad al-Sharaa left the Syrian capital Damascus with his family

• A military contingent enters the radio and television building in a surprise move to take over control of the television

• Assassination of 3 senior figures in the Syrian transitional administration, including Defence Minister Marhaf Abu Qusra

Al Mayadeen reporting on Syria so take it with a large grain of salt.

I don't think the primary plan was to go for a war of attrition. In my opinion the primary plan was to quickly enter Ukraine, encircle their capital city, and then Ukraine capitulates and signs the ceasefire/surrender document. The supply lines to Kyiv/Kiev, Kherson city, etc, were in no ways sustainable. Russia did not expect Ukraine to fight back (and a lot of this initial fight back from Ukraine was with minimal western military support), and that's where the initial invasion plan did not work. Russia is in a war of attrition now because that's the option available to them that has the greatest chance of succeeding, where Russia has the greatest advantages over Ukraine in manpower, stocks of equipment, self sufficient industry, etc.

The T-14 Armata tank fell into a lot of the traps military designs do, which is that it was designed to fight the "previous war". It took the lessons learnt from the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan/Global War on Terror, and applied them. Unfortunately, those lessons are irrelevant on the battlefield in Ukraine. There were also several serious problems with it, from the engine design to the planned optics. I think that Russia should scrap the project, which they've probably already done. Tanks need a rethink given what we've seen in Ukraine.

Think this is coming out now after the photos of his swollen ankles went viral.

Top Gear still highly influential for young people, most of whom weren't even alive when the Clarkson - Hammond - May trio were making the best episodes. 16 year olds were born in 2009, and the Top Gear phenomenon they weren't around for is almost as popular as the Mr Beast slop they grew up with. Wow.

The figures actually seem pretty tight, young people look open-ended to me and will require some very serious work. The left can not just expect them to fall in with us when figures like Clarkson and Tate have their ear.

Imagine if some left leaning figures could make a TV show/streaming thing anywhere near as good, we'd blow YouTube slop out of the water according to these metrics.

The photos of the skeletons are quite graphic, as a warning for those who haven't seen them.

This neonazi mayor didn't only post it to his telegram, but public twitter account too.

The situation in Syria is complex and deteriorating.

An agreement brokered by the United States last night is in place, which has led to Al Jolani/HTS official forces withdrawing from Suwayda and south of Damascus, and Israel ceasing airstrikes on HTS forces. However, this is not the end, as sectarian violence between the Bedouin and Druze is escalating, with reports of massacres on both sides, Druze factions "taking revenge" and sectarian violence against the Druze continuing, despite HTS withdrawal. Armed groups seperate from HTS, part of various tribes/clans or factions, could still go towards Suwayda, and the Druze would be vastly outnumbered. It's unknown what the Israeli response would be, or the response by other groups such as ISIS, who have carried out massacres in the region before.

Israel has begun airstrikes against Bedouin groups, according to Israeli sources