British soldiers have successfully trialed a new radio frequency directed energy weapon (RFDEW) designed to take out incoming attacks involving large numbers of drones, the U.K. government has said.

Why It Matters

The world has watched on as the rapid pace of drone development quickly came to define the war in Ukraine, changing how modern militaries would fight wars going forward.

As drone technologies matures, so too do counter-drone systems and techniques designed to knock uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) from the skies.

Almost two-thirds of the arms imported by European members of Nato over the past five years were produced by the US, according to new research that underlined the continent’s deep reliance on American-made weapons. 

Arms imports by the European nations more than doubled between 2020 and 2024 compared with the previous five years, as the region responded to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). The US supplied 64 per cent of these arms, up from 52 per cent between 2015-19.

Tucker Carlson claimed on a recent video podcast that Ukraine’s military has been selling U.S.-provided weaponry to buyers on the black market, emphasizing repeatedly that he knew this “for a fact.” Some of these U.S.-provided arms, Carlson asserted, have ended up in the hands of drug cartels operating near the U.S.-Mexican border. 

The U.S. on Thursday promised to speed up weapons shipments to Europe, a move that some countries in Europe and elsewhere have pressed for years as critical for their own defense rebuilds. 

Arriving for a day of meetings at NATO headquarters in Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “the United States is committed to expediting the process of ensuring that our allies get what they need when they need it,” through future Foreign Military Sales — a U.S. program to facilitate arms purchases by foreign governments.

The United States says it has no idea what the Israeli prime minister is talking about.

The Biden administration on Tuesday rejected Benjamin Netanyahu's accusation that Washington had been "withholding weapons and ammunitions" from its close ally over the "past few months." The Israeli leader implied that this was hampering his military's ongoing offensive in Gaza, now focused on the southern city of Rafah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged President Biden's administration to renew its plan to deliver weapons to Israel on Tuesday.

Netanyahu's office released a statement Tuesday calling it "inconceivable" that the U.S. has been withholding military aid. The statement comes after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with top Israeli officials last week, including Netanyahu. The Biden administration has grown increasingly critical of Israel's handling of the war in Gaza.

The White House on Wednesday denied reports in US and Israeli media that it had canceled high-level talks between American and Israeli security officials in Washington, DC.

According to Axios and several Hebrew outlets, the meeting was canceled after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video on social media berating the Biden administration for supposed holdups in the supply of arms to Israel.

Munitions made in the United States were used in the deadly Israeli strike on a displacement camp in Rafah on Sunday, a CNN analysis of video from the scene and a review by explosive weapons experts has found.

At least 45 people were killed and more than 200 others injured after a fire broke out following the Israeli military’s strike on the outskirts of Gaza’s southernmost city, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian medics.

The Biden administration is pushing forward with a new $1 billion weapons package for Israel just weeks after the White House paused a shipment of large bombs to protest Israel’s offensive in southern Gaza.

The Biden administration notified Congress on Tuesday that it was moving forward with more than $1 billion in new weapons deals for Israel, U.S. and congressional officials said, a massive arms package less than a week after the White House paused a shipment of bombs over a planned Israeli assault on Rafah.

The latest weapons package includes the potential transfer of $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, the officials said. There are still additional steps before the weapons would be approved and delivered.