Government to launch campaign to help people cope with events such as weather emergencies or cyber-attacks
The British public should begin taking “small but important steps” to secure and protect water, power supplies and basic phone signal in case of further severe weather emergencies, national crises or cyber-attacks, Downing Street has said.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told MPs “the risks we face from climate change cannot be underestimated”, and warned of the “significant and prolonged disruption to essential services” extreme weather events could cause.
For the first time in its history, the US military sent explosive-laden drone boats into combat by attacking an Iranian midget submarine and naval port. The unprecedented use of such kamikaze sea drones by the United States comes nearly a decade after Iranian and Houthi forces first demonstrated such weapons.
The US military shared a video showing three “one-way attack surface drones” exploding after approaching an Iranian midget submarine and ship maintenance facility at Iran’s Bandar Abbas Naval Base on the night of July 12. US Central Command, the US military combat command responsible for Middle East operations, described the strikes in a social media post as the “first time American forces have employed sea drones in combat operations.”
The US drone boats were able to “make a low-speed, uncontested approach” to their targets before exploding, according to USNI News, a news service from the nonprofit US Naval Institute. USNI News also identified one of the targets as an Iranian Ghadir-class midget submarine that was out of the water while being suspended from a gantry.
For the first time in its history, the US military sent explosive-laden drone boats into combat by attacking an Iranian midget submarine and naval port. The unprecedented use of such kamikaze sea drones by the United States comes nearly a decade after Iranian and Houthi forces first demonstrated such weapons.
The US military shared a video showing three “one-way attack surface drones” exploding after approaching an Iranian midget submarine and ship maintenance facility at Iran’s Bandar Abbas Naval Base on the night of July 12. US Central Command, the US military combat command responsible for Middle East operations, described the strikes in a social media post as the “first time American forces have employed sea drones in combat operations.”
The US drone boats were able to “make a low-speed, uncontested approach” to their targets before exploding, according to USNI News, a news service from the nonprofit US Naval Institute. USNI News also identified one of the targets as an Iranian Ghadir-class midget submarine that was out of the water while being suspended from a gantry.
Ukrainian drone strikes have forced Russia to completely halt shipping in the Sea of Azov in less than a week, showing once again how a country without traditional naval power can still effectively blockade maritime corridors.
Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces have flown one-way attack drones to target and strike more than 100 Russian tankers and other ships in total, along with posting video evidence showing such drone strikes occurring every night between July 6 and July 14. The campaign has forced Russia to completely shut down the shipping route that flows from Russia’s Don River into the Sea of Azov, and to halt all Kerch Strait shipping transits from the Sea of Azov into the Black Sea, according to Reuters reporting.
The shutdown of such maritime lanes has further isolated the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula by cutting off seaborne delivery of fuel in particular. Crimea had already been experiencing severe fuel rationing and power outages as Ukraine stepped up its mid- and long-range drone strike campaign on Russian energy infrastructure and supply lines, leaving behind damaged oil refineries with billowing black smoke and burned-out trucks littering highways.
The United States Department of War (DOW) released its latest collection of imagery and other materials related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) on Friday.
The fourth official release under what the DOW has dubbed the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE), the latest tranche of files includes several new previously unseen U.S. military videos depicting unidentified aerial objects acquired by the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
“Today, the Department of War is publishing the fourth release of declassified and historical Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) files as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE),” said Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell in a statement.
“The collection continues to be housed on WAR.GOV/UFO, and the Department will release additional files on a rolling basis,” Parnell said.
As with previous releases, the new videos leave much to the imagination; in most cases, they show small blurry objects captured with multi-sensor electro-optical targeting capabilities from fighter aircraft or UAVs, and in some cases, imaging systems on board civilian aircraft. In addition to the new imagery, several historical documents from as early as the 1940s were included with the release, the majority of which were previously made available in past releases by various U.S. government agencies.
Here is a look at a few key takeaways from the latest batch in the Pentagon’s ongoing release of UAP-related materials.
A Deeper Look at the Latest PURSUE UAP File Release
One series of historical NASA images included with the new PURSUE release originates from the 1996 STS-80 mission. The entry on the DOW’s site, “NASA-UAP-D030, STS-80 Unidentified Object Image 1, 1996,” features photographs obtained by astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia at the time, which convey a small triangular or cone-shaped object.
“During STS-80, between November 19 and December 7, 1996, astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Columbia captured a series of three images of an unidentified object in low-Earth orbit. In the first photograph, the object is visible near the center of the frame, to the right of the limb of the Earth,” a caption accompanying one of the images states at the DOW website.
It is unclear what the object in the photograph may be, although it is worth noting that several observations of allegedly unusual phenomena occurred during STS-80, which included the imagery captured of grainy luminous shapes from the spacecraft’s backward-facing cameras. The most common interpretation of these objects is that they were ice particles outgassed from the spacecraft, whose highly reflective surfaces could produce the optical effects captured from the space shuttle’s cameras, especially in such low-light conditions.
DOW-UAP-PR030, Unresolved UAP Report, Middle East, 2023: In this video, “Two areas of contrast transit the sensor field-of-view. The first enters the field-of-view from the bottom right and exits from the top edge of the frame. The second, relatively smaller area of contrast enters from the top and exits the bottom of the frame.”
The unusual shape of the object first seen entering the frame from the bottom of the screen could potentially be the result of a sensor artifact, similar to past videos released by the DOW, where the starlike appearance of refraction spikes emanating from an object (as also seen in this example from the most recent release) had been misinterpreted by some as being the literal shape of the alleged UAP.
DOW-UAP-PR108, Unresolved UAP Report, Western United States, 2020: This footage, reportedly collected over the Western United States in 2020, is notable (if for no other reason) due to its similarity to the famous “Tic Tac” imagery from 2004, captured by F/A-18 pilot Chad Underwood off the Baja California coast. Apart from that superficial similarity in appearance, the footage—like others from recent PURSUE releases—provides little additional context, and it is unclear what the object (seen below) may be.
Still frame from the DOW’s “DOW-UAP-PR108, Unresolved UAP Report, Western United States, 2020” video, included in the most recent PURSUE release number four (Image Credit: DOW).
Several other examples of imagery included with the fourth PURSUE release depict objects apparently engaging in flight at high speeds, such as an object appearing in “DOW-UAP-PR112, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2019” where the observer reportedly described the object in question as exhibiting “flight characteristics unlike anything [the observer] had seen in 28 years for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.”
Other objects appearing in videos included with the newest release, such as the UAP in “DOW-UAP-PR116, Unresolved UAP Report, Atlantic Ocean, 2020,” include descriptions from the observer that note an object with a “darker, maroonish color, approximately 12-15 feet in height” that was “travel[ing] with the wind,” did not “maneuver or change direction,” and appearing similar to a “large, somewhat deformed balloon.”
Still frame from video of an object included with the latest PURSUE 04 release, which appears most consistent with a balloon or cluster of similar inflatable objects (Image Credit: DOW).
We would have to agree with the witnesses’ assessment in the case: the flight dynamics of the object in the accompanying video (seen above) are indeed very consistent with an inflatable object, albeit possessing an odd shape (it is also possible this object may be a cluster of smaller balloons). The same can be said of other examples in the new releases, where, in some instances, dangling payloads beneath what are obviously balloons are clearly discernible in the purported “UAP” videos.
Clarity Remains Elusive, but More Releases to Follow
To date, none of the videos or other documentation made available at the DOW website as part of its PURSUE releases provides clear examples of any objects attributable to unknown aircraft, or objects exhibiting unusual or advanced technologies.
In his statement on Friday, Parnell said the DOW and its agency partners “are actively working on the next release of UAP files,” which can be expected to appear on the DOW website in the coming weeks. In the meantime, all of the existing four releases of UAP imagery and documentation can be found on the DOW’s PURSUE page.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached atmicah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
The US military has lost dozens of Reaper drones collectively worth more than $1 billion while carrying out surveillance and attack missions over Iran. Now the Pentagon is seeking large numbers of cheaper drones that can perform such missions despite the expectation that many will be lost in combat.
In a call for industry pitches, the Defense Innovation Unit’s notice described the US military’s current reliance on drones and crewed aircraft, each costing more than $30 million, as being “unsustainable against adversaries utilizing layered defenses enabled by increasingly low-cost antiaircraft capabilities.” It envisions deploying more “cost-effective” drones to “overwhelm enemy air defenses even while experiencing numerous [drone] losses.”
That is, in practice, what Ukraine’s military has been demonstrating with its long- and mid-range strike campaign against Russian supply lines, oil refineries, and various energy or industrial targets within Russia or occupied Ukraine. The Ukrainian campaign has been overwhelming Russia’s overstretched air defense capabilities by launching hundreds of relatively inexpensive drones and missiles on a daily basis to attack targets far behind the frontlines, while continuing to damage or destroy Russia’s most sophisticated air defense systems.
Did you know that the space shuttle once launched the Statue of Liberty into space?
In fact, there were two "Lady Liberties" on board Discovery when it lifted off on its fourth flight in April 1985. To be fair, each statue was only 15 inches tall (38.1 centimeters), but they were also each made of copper that was removed from the full-size statue during its then-still-ongoing restoration.
After the weeklong STS-51D mission was over, one of the space-flown statues was placed on display, and the other was melted down to create copper seals, which were then sold to the public by the Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Centennial Commission.
Artist’s concept of Golden Dome Constellation (Credit: Wikideas1/Wikimedia/CC 0)
Welcome to this edition of The Intelligence Brief… This week, the Pentagon announced a major milestone in the development of President Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system after successfully testing a next-generation directed-energy weapon capable of intercepting drones and cruise missiles. In our analysis, we’ll be looking at 1) what the Pentagon revealed about the new directed-energy technology, 2) how the Golden Dome aims to defend against ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missile threats, 3) why the program has drawn comparisons to Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” initiative, and 4) the growing debate over what could become one of the most expensive defense projects in U.S. history.
“With Golden Dome, the War Department will defend our homeland more powerfully than ever before. Golden Dome is real, powerful, and on track.”
– U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth
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Golden Dome Advances with Deployment of New Counter-Missile Capability
This week, it was revealed that the Pentagon has made significant strides with the development of its proposed Golden Dome missile defense system, with tests involving a next-generation directed-energy weapon.
Capable of destroying incoming drones and cruise missiles, the weapon has been characterized as a major step toward strengthening America’s future air and missile defense capabilities.
Planned as a multi-layer missile defense system that aims to be operational by the end of President Trump’s term, the Golden Dome aspires to be capable of spotting and destroying a range of missile threats, including ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles.
With the deployment of the new directed-energy weapon this week, the Pentagon has now implemented the first use of next-generation technology that U.S. officials say will lead the way in redefining America’s future air and missile defenses.
The Pentagon’s New Directed-Energy Weapon
In a statement, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called the recent test a “first milestone test” for the Golden Dome system.
“Cutting edge directed energy was harnessed and the Dynamic Defense Autonomous Defeat (DDAD) system flawlessly and autonomously cued, targeted, and eliminated a multitude of incoming threats,” Hegseth’s statement read. “This test was executed on schedule — and dynamically defeated every threat.”
Hegesth, who said he was present for the demonstration, “watched our elite warfighters integrate with next-generation technology to stop incoming drones and cruise missiles dead in their tracks,” crediting the advancement to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, a sweeping legislative package put forward in an effort to solidify the permanence of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, along with enacting various other Trump administration priorities.
Hegseth said the legislation provided “the funding to deliver on the ultimate shield to protect America,” and builds on the efforts of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
Few Technical Details Available
While the Pentagon did not provide technical details about the new system, Hegseth refers to the new weapon as “cutting edge directed energy” technology.
For several years, the Pentagon has been developing directed-energy systems for use in the interception of unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles, with Israel previously reporting operational use of prototype laser capabilities as well.
America’s Golden Dome is partly inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome, although the U.S. counterpart’s design will aim to defend America against longer-range missile attacks—a key element which has encouraged comparisons to Reagan’s SDI.
Unprecedented Expense
The project also carries a large price tag. Presently, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the initiative could cost as much as $1.2 trillion—an amount nearing the total requested $1.5 trillion defense budget for fiscal year 2027, making it one of the most expensive defense initiatives in U.S. history.
The high cost of the initiative is also impacted by the recent costs associated with the U.S. conflict with Iran, which, by some estimates, could exceed $200 billion. Additionally, a recent controversial memorandum of understanding aiming to halt the conflict agrees to supply $300 billion to Iran, which, as noted by some analysts, is an amount that exceeds the current Iranian defense budget by well over a dozen times.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 47-50-1 to block a war powers resolution led by Sen. Tim Kaine that sought to limit President Trump’s authority to conduct military operations against Iran.
Although the measure narrowly advanced in an earlier procedural vote, a surprise upset resulted in a loss of support after Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy and Rand Paul changed their positions. The latest vote came just hours after a heated exchange between Trump and Cassidy, during which Cassidy challenged the president over the duration and objectives of the conflict with Iran.
Many have expressed concerns over the unprecedented U.S. defense spending under the current administration, including U.S. Senator Merkley (D-Oregon), Ranking Member of the U.S. Committee on the Budget, who rebuked a recent addition that asks Congress to spend an additional $88 billion in the form of a supplemental request.
“Padding the pockets of their defense contractor friends does nothing to help Americans get ahead,” Merkley said on Wednesday.
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