As missile and drone attacks intensify across the Middle East, U.S. forces are leaning heavily on air defense systems like the Patriot missile battery to intercept incoming threats. The Patriot system is widely used to defend against incoming missiles and drones using radar and interceptor missiles — such as the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, interceptor — to engage incoming threats. The system has become a key tool for protecting bases and infrastructure from aerial attacks, but at a high cost. PAC-3 interceptor missiles cost millions of dollars each, making them especially expensive when used against cheaper threats like drones. The tradeoff has put new focus on how the system is used in practice. Here’s how it works from detection to interception. DetectionA radar sweeps the sky, scanning for anything out of place. Within a Patriot battery, that radar is designed to track aircraft, missiles and drones across a wide swath of the horizon to build a picture of the airspace in real time. When an object appears in the airspace, the system locks in and begins calculating its speed, altitude and trajectory as it moves. Using that data, the system works to identify the object and discern if it…

Compact self-defense is the name of the game with the latest blade out of TOPS Knives’s Idaho Falls workshop. The Upswarm‘s unique blade shape actually emerged from a sharpening test. TOPS is a company well-known for tapping into the knifemaking talent of its entire team, not just the folks with “designer” in their job description. Case in point, the Upswarm is the brainchild of Eric Moony, who is a grinder at TOPS. Evidently Mooney was inspired by the way paper used in cutting tests would curl after being sliced to draw up a compact trailing point blade with a significant amount of curve relative to its 3-inch length. The half ring functions like a karambit finger ring in many ways. The design screams “tactical,” and in fact the Upswarm is one of those TOPS models that can be ordered with a sharpened swedge if your locale permits the ownership of such pieces. Blade steel is 1095 carbon steel – the flagship workhorse recipe over at TOPS HQ, with a long, long history of reliability attested to by many different makers. It’s offered here with either a full DLC coating, or a camo finish for those truly dedicated to the tactical…

An unidentified outbreak, likely bacterial, has killed two people and sickened 11 others in the United Kingdom. One student who died was a University of Kent student. The outbreak is thought to be linked to a party held in Canterbury that some of the students who became sick attended, according to the BBC. Multiple invasive meningococcal disease cases near the school were reported to the U.K. health officials. As of Sunday, two of the individuals have died. One of them was a student, a university spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE. From Friday, March 13th, to Sunday, March 15th, 13 different cases of individuals with “signs and symptoms of meningitis and septicemia” at the University of Kent were reported to the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the organization said in a statement shared with PEOPLE. A spokesperson for the University of Kent told PEOPLE on Sunday, “We are deeply saddened to confirm that one student from the University of Kent has died following a case of invasive meningitis. Our thoughts are with the student’s family, friends and the wider university community at this extremely difficult time.” The spokesperson continued, “The safety of our students and staff remains our highest priority. We are working…

Watch full video on YouTube

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Former San Jose State University volleyball star Brooke Slusser has been banned from TikTok after posting several videos discussing her alleged experience sharing a team and apartment with a transgender teammate. “I’m pretty mad about it,” Slusser told Fox News Digital. Slusser’s account is gone from the platform, and she has provided screenshots to Fox News Digital showing the notification of her banishment and an unsuccessful appeal. The notifications cite violations of “community guidelines.””We ask that all users follow our Community Guidelines to help us maintain a safe, respectful TikTok community,” the notification read.  Fox News Digital has reached out to TikTok for comment. TikTok previously banned the activist sportswear brand XX-XY Athletics, which Slusser is signed with, after it posted an advertisement video advocating for the protection of women and girls’ sports from biological male trans athletes.TikTok was previously owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, before finalizing a $14 billion deal to shift its U.S. operations to a new entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, to avoid a federal ban. However, ByteDance still owns approximately 20% of the company. Slusser has been the target of a viral left-wing hate campaign on TikTok and X over…

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) — The war on Iran has not delayed shipments of weapons to Taiwan or changed U.S. policy toward the island, officials from President Donald Trump’s administration told members of Congress on Tuesday, despite the demands of the intense air campaign.“Have we delayed moving things to Taiwan? We haven’t,” Stanley Brown, principal deputy assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, told a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.The U.S. and Israel began airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28, a campaign that has raised concerns among some U.S. officials that the U.S. defense industry would be unable to keep up with demand and could be forced to slow shipments to buyers such as Taiwan, which faces steadily rising military pressure from China.There was already a multi-billion-dollar backlog of U.S. arms shipments to Taiwan before the Iran war started. Brown said the administration was looking at ways to expedite shipments, without providing specifics.Trip to China postponedSeveral members of the House committee raised concerns about the island during the hearing, which took place on the day Trump said he was postponing a highly anticipated trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.Taiwan was one of the issues…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A former top advisor to War Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was ousted amid a high-profile leak investigation, has been hired to work under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, according to a source familiar with the move.Dan Caldwell’s return to a sensitive intelligence role comes less than a year after he was publicly accused of leaking classified information — allegations that have never been publicly substantiated — and as the Trump administration navigates an escalating war with Iran. The hiring also places a prominent advocate of a more restrained U.S. foreign policy inside the intelligence apparatus at a moment of growing internal tension. PENTAGON PROBE INTO SECRET SIGNAL CHATS ON HOUTHI STRIKES SET TO DROP THURSDAY AS HEGSETH FACES SCRUTINYEarlier Tuesday, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned, citing opposition to the Iran war and arguing Tehran, Iran, did not pose an imminent threat to the United States — a rare public break from within the administration.A source familiar with the move described Caldwell’s new position as an “administrative role,” focused on internal management and coordination rather than directly shaping intelligence assessments or national security policy. However, the Office of the Director of National…

The U.S. Navy is taking steps toward remedying ongoing maintenance delays by enlisting the help of artificial intelligence and robotic systems, the service announced. The sea service reached an agreement with the Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics, the company confirmed Tuesday, to deploy tech capable of streamlining repairs and reducing maintenance delays for a surface fleet that continues to be stretched thin.The contract will begin as a 5-year, $54 million indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity deal that will soon see Gecko begin work on 18 ships assigned to the Navy’s U.S. Pacific Fleet. To expedite what has in recent years become a headache for naval readiness, Gecko uses drones, wall-climbing robots and fixed sensors to gather data on components, decks, welds and hulls. That information, paired with AI tools, is used to identify current and potential structural issues that may remain hidden to the naked eye. “A single robotic evaluation and digital rendering of a flight deck eliminated over three months of potential maintenance delay days,” the company release stated about one such procedure. These measures have expedited maintenance “up to 50 times faster and more accurately than manual methods,” the company added. “Readiness isn’t just a metric, it’s all that matters,” Jake…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! A former Trump administration official said the U.S. may be on the verge of a breakthrough in Cuba, as President Donald Trump ramps up “maximum pressure” on the island’s communist regime.”I think where we could actually end up in the next couple of weeks is, for the first time in 70 years, we could have an opportunity for the Cuban people to actually experience freedom brought to them by Donald J. Trump,” former White House NSC chief of staff Alex Gray said Tuesday.Appearing on “America’s Newsroom,” Gray contrasted Trump’s “maximum pressure” approach to the policies of previous administrations he says “strengthened the regime” and lengthened its tenure for another decade.FLORIDA LAUNCHES PROBE AFTER CUBA KILLS 4 ABOARD US-FLAGGED SPEEDBOAT NEAR KEYS “I think the ideal situation is that President Trump is able to do what his predecessors were not able to, which is to get Cuba to change its behavior long term and change its regime, and I think that the president is looking at the same set of facts that previous American presidents looked at, and they didn’t do anything with it,” Gray told Dana Perino.”Barack Obama looked at an opportunity…

The U.S. Marine Corps is hosting celebrations to honor the Harrier aircraft and its service members as it reaches its end of service life. The Harrier Sundown celebration will “honor the legacy of the aircraft and the Marines who served with it,” according to a Tuesday Marine Administrative message. The sundown celebration will be hosted by the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, from June 1 to 4, the memo states.The AV-8B Harrier II+ will reach the end of its planned service life in fiscal year 2026, per the message. The last flight was flown by Marine Attack Squadron VMA 231 and its official deactivation is set for September.The message says that the Corps will continue the Tactical Aircraft Transition Plan, which means switching to an all-fifth generation tactical air fleet to modernize their aviation capabilities. The plan increases fleet squadrons to 12 primary aircrafts.The squadron is transitioning to a F-35B Lightning II aircraft, and the Corps is expecting to have a full fifth generation fleet in their tactical aircraft by 2030.The sundown week will include events hosted by the 2nd MAW units, local governments and businesses and the Marine Corps Aviation…