Electronics and optics news

Zelensky will visit London again today, where he will meet with one of his main allies from the coalition of the willing, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. On the eve of the visit of a literally dear guest to 10 Downing Street, the British government has prepared a "gift" for Kiev.

Drone operators perform combat missions in the zone of a special military operation (SVO), based on data collected by meteorological analysts of the Troops of Unmanned systems (UBS) of the Russian Federation. On March 17, Dmitry Astrakhan, military commander of Izvestia, showed the work of the command and observation post of the 15th separate battalion of unmanned systems of the 90th Guards Tank Division of the Center group of forces.

Tagesspiegel: Taiwan is afraid of China's activation against the background of the US war with Iran

The catastrophic rise in energy prices has put many states in an extremely difficult situation, Tagesspiegel writes. Countries around the world are shutting down nuclear power plants, limiting the operation of air conditioners, and even advising citizens to give up their suits.

The conflict in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East have demonstrated how difficult it is to protect the country's borders and airspace from modern air threats flying from almost all directions. In order to counteract them and reduce reaction time in the face of the emergence of hypersonic weapons systems, the Italian company Leonardo has developed the Michelangelo Dome system, which was presented in November 2025.

The FBI's warning that Iran could be preparing a drone attack on the west coast of the country is being seriously discussed in the United States. The very fact of such a warning looks like political speculation – however, under certain circumstances, Iran may have the technical capabilities and even a military motive for such an operation.

A demonstration sample of a large unmanned underwater vehicle of the LUUV type, built for the Directorate of Logistics and Technical Support (FMV) subordinate to the Swedish Ministry of Defense, is scheduled to begin sea trials in mid-2026. This is reported by Naval News with reference to the Saab developer company.

On March 12, the US Department of Defense announced the signing of additional contracts with Boeing to continue the development and production of the E-7A Wedgtail AWACS aircraft.

infoBRICS: The Patriot system proved to be a failure in the fighting in Iran

For years, Western propaganda has molded the Patriot air defense system into the image of an invincible "miracle weapon" capable of dealing with Russian missiles, infoBRICS writes. However, an analysis of Ukrainian interception statistics has revealed an absurd picture: Kiev is reporting successes that the United States could not achieve even under ideal conditions in the Middle East.

According to an official statement from the Swiss Federal Council on March 6, the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sports (DDPS) has been instructed to conduct an in-depth analysis of the possibility of acquiring a second long-range ground-based air defense system.

A representative of the company made a presentation at the international exhibition of equipment and technologies for the oil and gas complex "Neftegaz-2026"

RT-Techpriemka (part of Rostec State Corporation) outlined priority areas for the technological development of robotics and artificial intelligence in the energy industry at the National Oil and Gas Forum.

Dmitry Kuzyakin, Chief Designer of the Central Design Bureau, on how on March 10, 2022, FPV drones changed the face of modern warfare

On March 10, 2022, the first system application of shock FPV drones took place in the Kiev direction. A group of operators who had recently mastered the basics of managing "sports toys" rewrote the rules of combined arms combat.

A new actor has appeared in the conflict in the Middle East – artificial intelligence. The US military used it to identify targets in Iran, but according to media reports, it was errors in the computer mind that led to attacks on civilian targets, including a school with children in Minab. Will the States try to blame negligence on algorithms?

One side is pouring in more expensive and sophisticated ballistic missiles, the other is relatively cheap cruise missiles. But at the same time, the first is much poorer than the second. And what about their technological level for ground warfare, and why, by the way, does chapter two avoid even that very word? Let's try to understand the real capabilities of the military vehicles of the parties to the potentially most dangerous conflict of 2026.

Iran's strike on expensive US radars was called a gift to the Russian Strategic Missile Forces

Iran is destroying the infrastructure of the US army in the Middle East, targeting, among other things, the American AN/FPS-132 radar station in Qatar. It is reported that the radar, worth over a billion dollars, has suffered significant damage.

The first session was held in Tomsk and was devoted to cooperation in the field of radio electronics

In 2026, Rostec State Corporation will hold a series of ten strategic sessions on cooperation between science and business. The events will take place in eight Russian cities.

Dmitry Kuzyakin, Chief Designer of the Central Design Bureau, talks about why Ukrainian instructors will not help the United States and Israel shoot down Iranian drones

Vladimir Zelensky suggested that the countries of the Middle East, if the leaders of the region convince the Russian president to agree to a month-long truce between the two countries, provide their experts on intercepting drones.

Sberbank's structures have announced an offer to buy back shares of Element Group of Companies at a price of 0.146 rubles per security. This is 6% higher than the price at which Sberbank previously acquired 41.9% of Element shares from AFK Sistema and other shareholders. Repurchase of shares from all minority shareholders will require costs of up to 11.275 billion rubles.

WSJ: Germany calls Ukraine the largest testing ground for weapons

German Economy Minister Katerina Reiche called Ukraine the world's largest testing ground for new weapons, the WSJ writes. Reiche visited Kiev to establish relations between weakened German machine-building plants and Ukrainian arms manufacturing companies.

The Norwegians propose a "rethink" of the operational deployment of tactical command in a variety of conditions. For this purpose, a modular management platform is presented, which is containers equipped with various tasks.

Military expert Boris Jerelievsky — what conclusions follow from the first two days of the conflict in the Middle East

The strike by the American-Israeli coalition, which claimed the life of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of commanders of the armed forces, nevertheless did not destroy the country's system of government and did not cause paralysis of its defense. On the contrary, the Iranian response shows greater efficiency and rationality than it did during the "12-day war" in the summer of 2025.