Ukraine: Shooting Down Drones with a Rifle from Soviet-Era Open Cockpit Yak-52
September 2nd, 2026Via: The War Zone:
The interception process involves the crew waiting close to their Yak-52 while awaiting the order to scramble. Once a Russian drone is spotted on air defense sensors, the Yak is normally airborne within 15 minutes.
With no radar and apparently no other onboard sensors, the Yak-52 crew relies on radio commands from the ground to get close to the drone. From the open rear cockpit, the gunner then gets the drone in their sights, wielding a handheld gun. Typically, engagements are made from a distance of 200 to 300 feet.
USS Abraham Lincoln Covered in Rust and Algae After 286 Days At Sea
September 2nd, 2026Via: The War Zone:
The U.S. Navy’s supercarrier USS Abraham Lincoln is now in Thailand for a much-deserved and highly publicized liberty port call. The carrier had gone 286 days without making such a stop, with much of that time spent executing grueling combat operations against Iran. The ship has been run very hard, relying on at times a rickety conveyor of sea replenishments to continue operating for months on end, and it has the scars to show for it. The Lincoln looks very much worse for wear, with so-called “running rust” and algae caked all along the sides of the hull, as well as around the edges of the flight deck and sponsons on either side.
Bloomberg Agri Index Posts Biggest Monthly Jump Since Arab Spring Riots As Food-Crisis Risks Mount
September 2nd, 2026Via: ZeroHedge:
The Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index (BCOMAGSP) posted its largest monthly gain since the chaotic days of the Arab Spring riots and is nearing a breakout above its 2023 highs, signaling a broad-based acceleration in agricultural commodity prices. The upside momentum comes as Wall Street increasingly warns that a perfect storm of factors, from El Niño and higher fertilizer and diesel prices to disruptions in the Black Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, could push the global food system toward another crisis.
Strong Solar Storm Caused GPS Readings to Suddenly Veer Off by 33 Feet
September 1st, 2026Via: Futurism:
As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team of scientists found that global navigation satellite systems experienced “significant positioning errors” of over 33 feet during the superstorm, “large enough to disrupt precision agriculture and autonomous transportation industries” across the continental United States.
That’s enough risk to warrant a careful study on these types of events can impact human activity on Earth.
“The results underscore the importance of accurate understanding of various space weather phenomena to enhance our predictive capabilities through coordinated observations and physics?based modeling and ultimately reducing disruptions to RF applications during space weather events,” the paper reads.
Enterprises Building Their Own AI Infrastructure, Buying Up Apple Hardware
August 31st, 2026Commentary on Kimi K3 back in July:
Trillion dollar valuations on U.S. AI companies… while Chinese companies are running knowledge distillation operations and then releasing competitive models for free…
Hmm.
While nobody is claiming that Kimi K3 is better, overall, than top proprietary systems, companies can potentially run it in their own data centers. If companies are spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per month on Anthropic/OpenAI/etc. they will definitely be looking at this.
While I have no idea if enterprises are ramping up their buildouts to run Kimi K3, this news about Apple seems to indicate that some enterprises are going to be spending less on services from Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceXAI/Grok.
Trillion dollar valuations while losing billions per month?
Launching the thinking machines into space?
Maybe running the free Chinese thing privately in your own datacenter makes more sense.
Apple happens to make good hardware for this purpose.
Via: MacRumors:
Apple’s unusually timed announcement of new Mac mini and Mac Studio models this week was driven by unexpectedly strong enterprise appetite for AI hardware, according to The Information.
Apple normally releases new Mac models in the autumn, closer to October or November, making this week’s announcement unusually early, falling just before the anticipated arrival of new iPhone models. The Information says that the AI-driven boom in ?Mac Studio? and ?Mac mini? sales is behind the early launch.
Apple noticeably promoted the ability to link multiple Mac Studios together into a single, more capable system for running large frontier AI models, a feature aimed at business and developer customers rather than everyday consumers.
Britain: White People Not Allowed to Apply for MI5 Internship
August 31st, 2026Via: Modernity News:
Britain’s domestic intelligence service is once again telling White university students they are not wanted.
For the 2027 Summer Intelligence Internship, MI5 has confined applications to people from a “black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority background” who also come from a “socially or economically disadvantaged background.”
White British candidates — including those from the poorest homes — cannot even submit an application. The agency calls this a response to “underrepresentation.” Critics call it what it is: racial exclusion.
U.S. Looks To Revive ‘Prize Courts’ For Iranian Oil Seizures
August 29th, 2026Via: ZeroHedge:
The US government is exploring an unusual legal route for dealing with Iranian oil and ships captured as part of its blockade: bringing back a wartime maritime system that has barely been used for generations, according to Bloomberg.
The Justice Department, working with the Pentagon, is preparing to use prize law, which historically allowed courts to decide whether vessels and cargo captured during armed conflict could legally become property of the United States. The mechanism was once commonplace in naval warfare but largely disappeared from American practice after the 19th century and has been dormant since World War II.
Similar, But Different: U.S. To Take Majority Stake In Over 65BN Barrels Of Venezuela Reserves
How Marine Rifle Squads Plan To Fight Future Wars Dominated By Drones
August 28th, 2026Trillions of dollars went up in smoke on just the F-35 boondoggle as ground forces were left totally vulnerable to unsophisticated, inexpensive and devastating attacks.
While nobody goes to prison for wasting trillions of dollars, a solution for whatever ails .mil is available for the low, low price of…
Via: The War Zone:
The ubiquity of drones on the battlefield has devastated both Russian and Ukrainian forces, which are each using these weapons to create an ever-growing no-go zone. Bargeron acknowledged that providing protection from drones for smaller Marine units presents a major challenge.
“The ability for our lowest echelon units – squad, platoon, company – to defend themselves against one-way attack systems is really maybe one of the biggest holes in our swing, and so we’re working hard on that,” the general admitted.
…
In addition, Bargeron said the Marines will also rely on a system called “Home Alone,” which a spokesman for the service told us “is a Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System (CsUAS) that is a semi-fixed site GBAD solution that supports our layered defense structure.” The Marines declined to provide any details about how that system works, citing its classified nature.
For protection at the squad level, “the GCE 2040 integrates both active and passive measures to ensure organic protection,” a Marine official told us. “A key component of this is the Organic Counter-small UAS, or O-CsUAS, initiative. This program has fielded dismounted kits directly to the squads. These kits provide Marines with the ability to actively and passively detect drone threats and to defeat them using both kinetic and non-kinetic means.”
Battle Damage Assessment of Iranian Attacks on U.S. Assets in Jordan
August 28th, 2026Via: Daily Mail:
President Trump Signs Executive Order to Create U.S. Space Academy
August 28th, 2026Via: NASA:
To strengthen the nation’s space workforce and develop the next generation of space leaders, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order on Friday to establish the nation’s first U.S. Space Academy.
The order highlights how space is a critical domain for American national security, economic growth, scientific discovery, and technological innovation. The proposed academy would focus technical education with leadership development, discipline, and a commitment to public service, helping ultimately advance U.S. interests in space.
“Given the rapid growth of the U.S. Space Force and commercial space industry, and the expansion of our ambitions to the Moon and far beyond the Moon, it’s clear we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, and civil operators,” said President Trump. “That’s why I will sign an Executive Order to begin the process of creating a new a national academy called the U.S. Space Academy.”
More: Trump signs order creating new Space Academy akin to West Point, location to be determined
