USA Deploys Drone Speedboats Against Iran

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/27/u-s-unleashes-uncrewed-sea-drone-speedboats-iran/

U.S. Unleashes Uncrewed Sea-Drone Speedboats Against Iran — A New Era in Naval Warfare

The United States has for the first time deployed autonomous, uncrewed drone speedboats in active combat operations against Iran, introducing a low-cost, asymmetric naval capability that officials say has already logged hundreds of hours patrolling key waterways under Operation Epic Fury.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed to Reuters on Thursday that the vessels — known as Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, or GARC — have been deployed for maritime patrols as part of the campaign.

“U.S. forces continue to employ unmanned systems in the Middle East region, including surface drone assets like the GARC,” Hawkins told the outlet, adding that the platform has “successfully logged over 450 underway hours and more than 2,200 nautical miles during maritime patrols in support of Operation Epic Fury.”

The deployment marks the first acknowledged use of uncrewed surface vessels by the United States in an active conflict, underscoring a broader shift toward autonomous systems designed to operate at a fraction of the cost of traditional naval platforms while expanding surveillance and strike capabilities.

The vessels, built by Maryland-based BlackSea Technologies, are designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, but can also support mine countermeasures, communications relay, anti-submarine warfare, and the deployment of aerial and underwater drones.

Each craft can reach speeds exceeding 40 knots and carry payloads of up to 1,000 pounds, according to manufacturer specifications, offering a flexible platform capable of supporting a wide range of maritime operations at an estimated cost of roughly $250,000 per vessel — a fraction of the roughly $2 billion price tag of a U.S. Navy destroyer.

Officials have not indicated that the drone boats have been used in offensive strike roles, though their design allows for adaptation into expendable, one-way attack systems increasingly seen in modern conflicts.

The Navy has maintained a growing unmanned presence in the region for years, including through its Bahrain-based Task Force 59 under the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which focuses on integrating autonomous platforms and artificial intelligence into maritime operations.

The use of such systems comes as the United States and its allies confront Iran’s escalating campaign against commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, where Tehran has effectively choked off normal traffic through missile attacks, drone strikes, and explicit threats against ships tied to countries it considers aligned with the United States and Israel.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Friday that ships traveling “to and from” ports belonging to countries it described as supporters of the “Zionist-American enemies” would no longer be permitted to cross the strait, regardless of destination or shipping corridor used.

The deployment also reflects lessons drawn from recent conflicts, including Ukraine’s use of explosive-laden drone boats against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, demonstrating how low-cost, hard-to-intercept systems can reshape naval warfare in contested waters.

The development comes as the United States weighs additional military options in the region, including the potential deployment of up to 10,000 additional ground troops, while continuing operations aimed at degrading Iran’s military capabilities and restoring freedom of navigation through the strait.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly rebuked European allies for declining to contribute military resources to efforts to reopen the waterway as the conflict expands and pressure mounts to break Iran’s grip on the chokepoint.

The GARC deployment marks the first acknowledged use of this class of uncrewed surface vessel in an active conflict.

U.S. strikes have already destroyed 92 percent of Iran’s largest naval vessels, according to U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper, further shifting the maritime balance as autonomous systems take on a more prominent operational role.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/27/u-s-unleashes-uncrewed-sea-drone-speedboats-iran/

The vessels can be used for both surveillance or kamikaze strikes.

Uncrewed vessels have risen ​to prominence in recent years after Ukraine used explosive‑laden speedboats to inflict significant damage on Russia’s ⁠Black Sea Fleet.

    In the Gulf of Aqaba

“The GARC is an emerging capability and part of a fleet of surface drones operated by US 5th Fleet to enhance ​awareness of what’s happening in regional waters.”

    The Strait of Hormuz

Israel Attacks Iranian Nuclear Facility

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-891437

Israel strikes Iranian nuclear development facilities

The IDF attack on the heavy water reactor comes after the military called for residents of nearby Arak to evacuate ahead of imminent strikes on regime military infrastructure.

Israel attacked Iran’s Khandab heavy water reactor in Arak, as well as the uranium enrichment facility at Ardakan, the IDF confirmed.

The enrichment facility produced yellowcake, a concentrated uranium powder used in the early stages of nuclear fuel production.

Later a missile struck the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran.

"Heavy water is a unique material used to operate nuclear reactors, such as the Arak reactor, which was originally designed to have weapons-grade plutonium production capabilities," the IDF said. "These materials can also be used as a neutron source for nuclear weapons."

The facility was also a "significant economic asset" for the Iranian regime and generated tens of millions of dollars for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization.

The Islamic Republic deliberately avoided a mandate to convert the reactor so that it would not be capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.

The attack came after the IDF had called for residents of the northwestern Iranian city of Arak to evacuate ahead of imminent strikes on nearby regime military infrastructure.

The heavy water reactor is located a short distance northwest of the municipality of Arak.

The call for evacuation was posted on the IDF's Persian-language X/Twitter account, and included graphics illustrating the targeted areas and evacuation routes.

The post further called for those in the nearby Khairabad industrial zone to evacuate.

Soon thereafter, the IDF announced that it had begun simultaneous attacks on regime infrastructure in three areas of Iran.

Ardakan is a city in Iran's Yazd province, a central site for producing missiles and sea mines.

"This plant is the only one of its kind in Iran, where raw materials mined from the earth undergo mechanical and chemical processing so that they can later be used as raw materials for uranium enrichment," the IDF said after the attack, adding "The strikes targeted the main infrastructure used for the unique production processes."

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-891437

Man's Oldest Friend

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-891207

Man's oldest friend: Dogs have been around for over 15,000 years, genetic study shows

The dog, descended from an ancient wolf population separate from modern wolves, was the first animal domesticated by people, with animals such as goats, sheep, cattle and cats coming later.

Dogs have been loyal companions to people since we made them our first domesticated animals, descending long ago from gray wolves - though precisely when, where and why have remained unanswered. New genetic research now is offering valuable insight, including identifying the earliest-known dog, dating to 15,800 years ago.

This dog, known from bones found at the Pinarbasi rock shelter site in Turkey used by ancient human hunter-gatherers, is about 5,000 years older than the previous earliest-known, genetically confirmed canine, the researchers said.

The date of the Pinarbasi dog and several others almost as old identified at other sites in Europe shows that dogs already were widely distributed and an integral part of human culture millennia before the advent of agriculture, they said.

The new findings were presented in two scientific papers published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

William Marsh, a postdoctoral researcher in the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute in London who was co-lead author of one of the studies, said the DNA evidence suggests dogs were present in various locales in western Eurasia by 18,000 years ago and already were quite different genetically from wolves.

"We putatively predict that dog and wolf populations diverged a lot earlier, likely before the last glacial maximum (of the Ice Age), so before 24,000 years ago. Although saying that, there is still a great degree of uncertainty," Marsh said.

Valued by hunter-gatherers 

The dog, descended from an ancient wolf population separate from modern wolves, was the first animal domesticated by people, with animals such as goats, sheep, cattle and cats coming later.

"Dogs have been by our side as humans underwent major lifestyle transitions and complex societies emerged," said geneticist Anders Bergström of the University of East Anglia in England, lead author of the other study.

"I think it's also interesting that, unlike most other domesticated animals, dogs do not always have very clearly defined roles or purposes for humans. Perhaps their primary role is often just to provide companionship," Bergström said.

Bergström and his team performed a large-scale search for the early dogs of Europe, using a new method to differentiate genetically between wolves and dogs among 216 ancient remains ranging from 46,000 to 2,000 years old from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. This was the largest study of such remains to date.

The researchers managed to identify 46 dogs and 95 wolves. Because the skeletons of dogs and wolves were so similar in the early stages of canine domestication, genetic studies are needed to distinguish between them in ancient remains.

The oldest of the dogs identified by Bergström's team was one dating to 14,200 years ago from Switzerland's Kesslerloch Cave site. The oldest of the European dogs identified in this study were found to have shared an origin with dogs in Asia and the rest of the world, showing that these various canine populations did not arise from separate domestication events.

The Pinarbasi dog, identified in the study Marsh worked on, showed how much dogs were valued by the hunter-gatherers who kept them.

"At Pinarbasi, we have both human and dog burials, with dogs buried alongside humans," Marsh said.

There also was evidence that the people at Pinarbasi fed their dogs fish.

This study identified five dogs dating to between 15,800 and 14,300 years ago, including canine remains from Gough's Cave near Cheddar in England.

"At Gough's Cave, we have butchering and processing of humans after death that included cannibalism, as a funerary behavior akin to burial. Similar post-mortem modification, albeit not definitively for consumption, was found on the dog remains," Marsh said.

The Pinarbasi and Gough's Cave dogs were found to be more closely related to the ancestors of present-day European and Middle Eastern breeds such as boxers and salukis than to Arctic breeds like Siberian huskies.

Beyond companionship, the ancient dogs may have helped people hunt or perhaps served as watchdogs, sort of Ice Age alarm systems, according to the researchers. Unlike the many exotic dog breeds around today, these early dogs still likely closely resembled the wolves from which they descended, they said.

"The questions of when, where and why people domesticated dogs still remain largely unanswered," Bergström said. "We think it probably happened somewhere in Asia, but more precisely remains to be determined."

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-891207

IDF strikes Iranian Navy in Caspian Sea

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424243

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424538

An Israeli strike at the Bandar Anzali port on the Caspian Sea targeted infrastructure used to transfer Shahed drones and ammunition between Russia and Iran.

Israel carried out a rare and unprecedented airstrike last week on Iran's Bandar Anzali port on the Caspian Sea. The strike targeted an area hundreds of kilometers beyond the IDF's typical operational range, in a region long viewed as a secure "backyard" for both Iran and Russia.

The attack hit strategic infrastructure at the port used for transferring weapons, ammunition, and Shahed drones between Iran and Russia. In recent years, the Caspian Sea has emerged as a vital supply route for Moscow in its war against Ukraine and for Tehran in arming its regional proxies across the Middle East.

Security officials noted that, in addition to causing significant physical damage, the operation aimed to expose the vulnerabilities of Iran's maritime and air defenses, even in remote locations far from the influence of the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf.

The strike will compel Iran and Russia to shift to alternative smuggling routes that are longer, more costly, and more exposed to disruption.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424538

The Israeli Air Force, guided by naval intelligence and the Intelligence Directorate, struck major infrastructure belonging to the Iranian Navy.

During the strikes, dozens of vessels anchored in the port sustained direct hits. Among the major targets that were destroyed were missile ships, support vessels, and guard ships. The missile ships that were targeted were equipped with aerial surveillance systems and additional anti-submarine missiles. Additionally, the IAF destroyed a port command center from which Iranian Navy forces controlled naval operations in the Caspian Sea, as well as central infrastructure used for vessel repair and maintenance.

This strike was conducted with close cooperation between the commander of the Israeli Air Force and the commander of the Israeli Navy from within the Israeli Air Force command center. The IDF has dubbed it one of the most significant strikes conducted since the start of Operation Roaring Lion.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424243

Iran Launches Missiles at Tel Aviv

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15673625/Iran-launches-missile-strikes-Israel-day-Trump-declared-good-constructive-peace-talks.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/vertical-galleries/article-15673981/Iran-launches-strikes-Tel-Aviv-day-Trumps-peace-talks.html

Iran launches strikes on Tel Aviv

Iran sent multiple waves of missiles towards Israel. The missiles triggered air raid sirens in parts of Israel, including Tel Aviv where blasts from interceptions were heard. 

In one attack, homes in northern Israel were damaged by falling debris following an interception. 

Israeli police said six people had been injured. 

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They said a munition carrying some 100 kilograms of explosives hit the city, causing widespread damage to buildings and vehicles.

Iran also hit Eilat in southern Israel, as well as the cities of Dimona and Yeruham. Residents in the Jerusalem area last night reported hearing loud explosions. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue strikes in 'both Lebanon and Iran'.

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'We are smashing the missile programme and the nuclear programme, and we continue to deal severe blows to Hezbollah,' he said.

'Just a few days ago, we eliminated two more nuclear scientists - and we are still active.'

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/vertical-galleries/article-15673981/Iran-launches-strikes-Tel-Aviv-day-Trumps-peace-talks.html

Israeli firefighters work to put out a fire following strikes on Tel Aviv

The front of a building in Tel Aviv destroyed by missile strikes

A vehicle is seen in flames next to a building which was hit by an Iranian missile

Rocket trails were seen in the sky above the Israeli coastal city of Netanya

A piece of debris lies on a destroyed car at the site following Iranian missile barrages in central Israel

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15673625/Iran-launches-missile-strikes-Israel-day-Trump-declared-good-constructive-peace-talks.html

Jabotinsky Principles

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424396

Jabotinsky’s words of many years ago are still relevant today.

For weeks now in Israel our civilians have been under vicious attack. We see rockets falling in Arad and Dimona with many injured. We hear reports of cars being hit in Tel Aviv and the North is under bombardment. We face a brutal enemy devoted to our destruction.

And since PM Netanyahu and many in this government look to Zionist icon Ze'ev Jabotinsky as our role model and ideologue, it is incumbent upon them to realize that were he here, Jabotinsky would remind them that during two thousand years of exile, the Jewish nation lost the habit of concentrating its willpower on an all important task, lost the habit of acting in unison as a people, and often became accustomed to weakness. He would encourage them to fight until victory.

Jabotinsky’s words of many years ago are still relevant today:

“We were not created in order to teach morals and manners to our enemies. Let them learn these things for themselves. We want to hit back at anybody who harms us. Whoever does not repay a blow by a blow is also incapable of repaying a good deed in kind."

“'The Latin proverb says “of two evils choose the lesser.' When we are in a position where - through no fault of our own - physical force dominates, only one question can be asked: what is worse? To continue watching Jews being killed while the conviction grows that our lives are cheap, and among the whole world that we are spineless?…the blackest of all characteristics is the tradition of the cheapness of Jewish blood, on the shedding of which there is no prohibition and for which you do not pay."

The Jew “is everywhere in reach; he can be pointed out at any street corner; and he can be insulted or assaulted with only the minimum of risk, or with none at all. ..one permanent assignment that is entrusted to each of us, old and young, men and women, educated and ignorant, as a group and as individuals; this assignment is the defense of our people’s honor. …"

“It is always aimed at us, and we must respond. We must end this abuse of ourselves, at all costs. And it is very easy. They spit in our faces without fear, ‘in passing’, for no reason - not because our insulters are blessed with courage and want to pick a fight with us, but because this pleasure is so cheap for them: they will spit at us and go on their way, and nothing will happen. We must accustom them to the thought that from now on this pleasure will come at a hefty cost. A new commandment must enter our hearts: that even where there is only one Jew, the word ‘Zhid’ must not be heard without response.

"Wise people will come and try to dissuade us - but it is not our purpose to win in every single incident. Our objective - to create about us the belief that a slur on our national feelings is no longer what it once was, a small diversion free of cost - but will rather, with an absolute certainty and a mathematical precision, result in a sharp and unpleasant confrontation."

Jabotinsky would have reminded us not to fall for what he termed "racial weakness" regarding what he saw as a psychological byproduct of the Diaspora: the tendency of Jewish people to harbor internal bitterness (resentment) without the external action (revenge) necessary to restore national honor.

To Jabotinsky, this was not a biological trait but a "galut" (exile) mentality-a spiritual and psychological deformation caused by centuries of being a defenseless minority. He argued that this state of mind was easily exploited by enemies who did not fear Jewish retaliation. Jabotinsky believed that feeling wronged without acting to right that wrong was corrosive to the national soul. He viewed pure resentment as a "slave's emotion"-impotent and hidden.

Jabotinsky’s adoption of the name Ze’ev ("Wolf") symbolized a rejection of this perceived weakness. He wanted to replace the "submissive" Jewish image with one of ferocity and proactive defense. Jabotinsky reminded us that if a nation is insulted or attacked, it must respond with strength. To "resent" in silence was a violation of Hadar and invited further exploitation because it signaled that Jewish blood and honor were "cheap." And let them all condemn us - as Jabotinsky taught us the world will ignore us as long as the Jewish response is limited to "protests and tears" rather than military or physical resistance.

And so we thank and admire PM Netanyahu and this government and as we approach nightfall in the Middle East urge our nation’s leaders to continue on this path.

Ze’ev Jabotinsky would say “Silence is despicable!" - let the world know Israel will not compromise on the right to live!

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/424396