Electronics and optics news

Tactical intelligence is one of the most important and rapidly developing areas in many modern armies, as well as a key element of modernization planned for the 2030s and 2040s. Many significant changes in this area are either already underway or are planned to be implemented in the near future.

The Pentagon, with the help of AI from Palantir, automated the destruction of targets, writes the New Yorker. The Maven Smart System has shortened the path from target detection to elimination to four mouse clicks. Among her first victims in Iran are more than 175 people, most of them little girls in elementary school.

Operator XR from Australia has created a virtual platform for practicing anti-drone techniques. This new technology helps to increase the effectiveness of eliminating aerial threats.

Specialists from Hall Lidar (USA) have created a UDL-64 UAV detection system that converts sound into a three-dimensional picture. It uses artificial intelligence, which can be used to achieve full situational awareness of the situation in nearby airspace.

Lobaev Arms, a well-known Russian manufacturer of small arms, based in Kaluga, has completed testing of an innovative sniper system of its own design. The company starts mass production of the product.

The Finnish Ministry of Defense announced that on April 9, 2026, it signed an intergovernmental contract with the South Korean state foreign trade agency KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) for the purchase of 112 more K9 Thunder 155 mm/52 self-propelled howitzers for the Finnish armed forces from the South Korean army. The total value of the contract is approximately 546.8 million euros, including supply of appropriate spare parts and special tools and equipment.

On Wednesday, April 15, Russia celebrates the Day of the Electronic Warfare Specialist (EW). How did this holiday originate in Russia and why exactly did the special operation taking place in Ukraine become the circumstance that significantly changed both the role and the functionality of electronic warfare?

Rosoboronexport JSC (part of Rostec Group of Companies) is organizing a joint Russian exposition at the Defense Services Asia (DSA) 2026 International Asian Arms and Military Equipment Exhibition.

Tests of a new anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) have begun in Russia. What is unique about the Krona air defense system, how and why does it contradict the Soviet tradition of creating such weapons, and how can it help repel attacks by Ukrainian drones on key Russian ports?

NYT: Russia, the United States and China are leading the AI arms race

The military confrontation is reaching a new level, writes the NYT. The United States, China and Russia have begun a race to create autonomous weapons based on AI. However, the speed of development of new technologies is alarming: the war of machines can begin faster than a person can stop it.

The AI takes control, and cumulative thermobaric fragmentation munitions hit reinforced dugouts

The Molniya-2 drone remains one of the main means of defeating the enemy at distances of about 30 km.

Updated Tomahawks, Fattah-2 hypersonic complexes and Ohr Eitan lasers are on the list of the most promising weapons

Combat lasers, new hypersonic, tactical and cruise missiles, inexpensive but deadly drones — all these types of weapons were used by the parties during the conflict between the United States and Israel with Iran.

In the process of analyzing the use of various weapons by the US military, Western defense experts noticed new anti-interference equipment on the F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets of the US Air Force during the war with Iran. We are talking about an antenna with a controlled directional pattern (CRPA).

Russia should develop its own artificial intelligence (AI) for national defense and security, and use the most sovereign products in this area, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Minsk is ready for dialogue with Vilnius, despite "all this fuss from the other side." This was recently announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Maxim Ryzhenkov. We are talking about statements made earlier by Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginen regarding the appointment of a representative from the Baltic Republic to conduct bilateral political negotiations with Belarus. However, neither his name nor his position is known yet.

Bogomaz: the wreckage of the Neptunes completely destroyed four houses in the Bryansk region

Ukraine attacked the Bryansk region with long-range guided missiles "Neptune". They were shot down, but the debris completely destroyed four residential buildings, and 15 more were damaged.

While the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission are flying to the moon for the first time in 50 years, they are talking to us through an infrared laser. The Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O), developed by NASA in collaboration with the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, transmits data from aboard the Orion spacecraft to Earth at speeds of up to 260 Mbit/s.

According to European analysts, recent incidents in places as diverse as the Baltic Sea and the waters off the coast of Taiwan have shown how vulnerable the critical underwater infrastructure is. The increased importance of underwater objects to global economic activity underscores the importance of understanding these hazards and developing appropriate responses.

Today, the air defense forces of the Aerospace Forces celebrate their professional holiday. Most of them are at combat posts now. In the face of massive drone and missile attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, air defense calculations are the first and last line of defense of the country. And in four years, these troops have changed significantly. How exactly — in the RIA Novosti article.

Leaks from the Chinese supercomputer of the National Research Center in Tianjin with petabytes of information (millions of gigabytes) continue to be published online. The FlamingChina hacker group claimed responsibility for the hack. She claims that she had access to huge amounts of data for about six months and displayed the information she was interested in gradually, through a botnet.