The Navy's new refueling drone completed its first test flight over the weekend. The MQ-25A Stingray is the Navy's first carrier-based unmanned aircraft. Right now, there are no unmanned refueling aircraft in service, but the Navy said the Stingray is expected to enter service in 2027.

Built by Boeing, the Stingray costs about $209 million per unit. The Navy invested about $16 billion in the system. After years of delays in the Stingray's development, this test flight gets the Navy closer to using it in military operations.

The Navy says the drone will be a valuable tool to extend the reach of crewed fighters and aircraft.

• The Navy and Boeing conducted the first test flight of the MQ-25A Stingray over the weekend.
• The Stingray is a drone designed for air-to-air refueling.
• The drone will eventually extend the range of crewed aircraft and free up aircraft for combat.

A new US Navy carrier-based drone for refueling aircraft has begun flight testing with the first flight of a production-representative aircraft, the service announced, marking a key step toward bringing uncrewed systems into the refueling role.

The Navy says that the MQ-25A Stingray is the first operational carrier-based uncrewed aircraft system. Made by Boeing, the Stingray's first test flight moves it closer to aircraft carrier operations and the refueling mission expected to extend the reach of crewed aircraft. The Stingray's timeline to service has been repeatedly delayed.

The Navy and Boeing announced the first test flight on Monday. The April 25 test was not the first-ever flight of the MQ-25 concept, but it was the first test of a production-representative aircraft as the Navy starts up formal flight testing ahead of eventual service.

Over the weekend, the MQ-25A flew for approximately two hours at Boeing's facility in Illinois and was controlled by Navy and Boeing air vehicle pilots via a ground control system. During the flight, the Stingray conducted several maneuvers and tests and demonstrated flight controls and navigation.

"Today's successful flight builds on years of learning from our MQ-25A T1 prototype and represents a major maturation of the program," Dan Gillian, vice president and general manager of Boeing Air Dominance, said, per a press release.

The sea service's Stingray is a planned uncrewed replacement for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet's air-to-air refueling role within carrier air wings. The Navy has said the drone's job will help extend the operational range of aircraft and free them up to focus on combat and surveillance roles.

The MQ-25 can carry up to 15,000 pounds of fuel and could help the Navy rethink the ranges of its aircraft carriers and fighters as China's growing arsenal of anti-ship missiles threatens US naval forces.

"The MQ-25A is not just an aircraft," Rear Adm. Tony Rossi, head of the program executive office for unmanned aviation and strike weapons, said, per the Navy's press release.

He said that "it's the first step in integrating unmanned aerial refueling onto the carrier deck, directly enabling our manned fighters to fly further and faster. This capability is vital to the future of naval aviation."

The Navy began work on the MQ-25 in 2016, selected Boeing for production in 2018, and the Navy and Boeing flew a test asset for the first time the following year. The most recent flight test is the first for the MQ-25A, a production-design aircraft different from the earlier MQ-25 T1 test asset.

The MQ-25 T1 test drone previously showed off its refueling capabilities in 2021, flying in front of an F/A-18 and getting as close as 20 feet to the aircraft before extending the hose and drogue to plug into the fighter to transfer the fuel.

The service has navigated several delays and cost increases to the Stingray, which was originally supposed to be operational in 2024 but is now set to enter into service later this decade.

• Twelve defense companies have been picked for initial work on space-based interceptors for the US' Golden Dome.
• These interceptors are the costliest and most complex parts of Golden Dome.
• Officials and analysts are questioning whether interceptors are feasible at scale.

The Department of Defense has picked a dozen companies to develop space-based interceptors for Golden Dome, moving forward amid concerns the technology might be too expensive to field.

Golden Dome is the Trump administration's proposed missile defense system to counter threats from foes like Russia and China. The design includes space-based missile interceptors, but military leaders and analysts have raised concerns about the cost.

Last week, Space Force's Space Systems Command said 12 defense companies had been selected in late 2025 and earlier this year for Other Transaction Authority agreements, early-stage research and prototype work with fewer regulatory constraints.

The combined award value is up to $3.2 billion, and the industry partners selected include big names like Anduril, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman, along with firms such as Booz Allen Hamilton and Turion Space Corp.

These companies will work on prototypes for Golden Dome's space-based missile interceptors, armed low-Earth orbit satellites designed to counter ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missiles across multiple phases of flight, the Space Force said.

Col. Bryon McClain, the Space Force program executive officer for space combat power, said in a release on the selection that "adversary capabilities are advancing rapidly, and our acquisition strategies must move even faster to counter the growing speed and maneuverability of modern missile threats."

"With the commitment and collaboration of these industry partners, the Space Force will demonstrate an initial capability in 2028."

But other officials have questioned whether these capabilities will be affordable. Earlier this month, Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, director for the Golden Dome program, acknowledged that satellites built to shoot down enemy missiles might never be feasible.

"What we do not know today is: 'Can I do it at scale and can I do it affordably? That's going to be the huge challenge for boost-phase intercept," Guetlein told the House Armed Services Strategic Forces committee.

"I will tell you because we are so focused on affordability. If we cannot do it affordably, we will not go into production," the head of Space Force added.

Space-based interceptors aren't necessarily the only game in town though, he indicated, telling Congress that "if boost-phase intercept from space is not affordable and scalable, we will not produce it because we have other options to get after it."

Golden Dome's current estimated price tag sits at $185 billion, about $10 billion more than President Donald Trump first estimated when discussing Golden Dome's total cost last May.

The Congressional Budget Office has put the projected total at anywhere between $161 billion and half a trillion dollars for launching and operating a full constellation of space-based interceptors for 20 years.

The cost projections vary depending on the number of interceptors the US deploys. Analysts have suggested that space-based interceptors may not fit within the program's cost and requirements given the mission. When Trump issued an executive order to build Golden Dome in January 2025, the order said it must counter "ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries."

Per an American Enterprise Institute paper from September 2025 by senior fellow Todd Harrison, a simulated Golden Dome architecture that best fits those requirements is estimated to cost $3.6 trillion over 20 years. In contrast, AEI's simulated designs that better fit the Trump administration's budget don't provide the defensive capabilities being promised, "creating a multi-trillion-dollar gap between rhetoric and reality," the paper said.

"The more threats Golden Dome is designed to counter, and the broader its coverage, capacity, and resilience, the higher the cost. Even small shifts in objectives can produce outsized changes in cost, and the largest cost driver by far is space-based interceptors," Harrison wrote.

Golden Dome also presents a shift toward further weaponizing space. Experts say that while the US sees Golden Dome as necessary, it could accelerate an arms race. That could include systems designed to target the interceptors, missiles that evade defenses, or larger missile arsenals to overwhelm the system.

Some US officials have pointed to China and Russia's existing counterspace capabilities as evidence that space is already contested. China and Russia have both criticized the Golden Dome plan as a potential catalyst for a space arms race while simultaneously advancing their respective missile and anti-space programs.

• A Ukrainian robot maker says long wars may favor cheap, scalable ground systems, not top-of-the-line armor.
• Expensive tanks and armor are limited and slow to replace, while robots can scale fast.
• Using attritable ground robots for some missions could reduce the strain on traditional vehicle stocks.

Ukraine's experience shows Western militaries how major yearslong conflicts can deplete tanks and armored vehicles and why warfighting robots might matter more in the long run, a Ukrainian ground robot maker told Business Insider.

In a long, high-cost conflict, the number of vehicles needed for tasks ranging from combat to logistics could make relying on expensive armored vehicles like tanks unsustainable, Oleg Fedoryshyn, the director of R&D at Ukrainian robotic systems maker DevDroid, said.

These systems are expensive and slower to produce, making it difficult to replace heavy losses, Fedoryshyn said. However, robots, he said, are "quite cheap" and significantly easier to produce and replace if they're destroyed.

Officials in the US and allied militaries have raised concerns that in a prolonged war — particularly against a near-peer adversary like Russia or China — stockpiles of key munitions, including air defense and precision weapons, could be strained. Likewise, vehicle inventories, especially in the age of cheap drone strikes, could suffer heavy attrition in a protracted conflict.

Fedoryshyn's comments align with broader warnings from Western officials that Ukraine's war has highlighted the need for large volumes of cheaper, attritable systems, essentially inexpensive and expendable mass that militaries can fall back on when more traditional assets are damaged or destroyed.

Ukraine has underscored how a war like its fight against Russia's invasion can demand both sophisticated systems and large numbers of expendable ones.

Ukraine fields masses of cheap weaponry. Many of its low-cost drones fail to reach their targets or have a significant impact, but they are deployed at such a scale that they can still eliminate far more expensive systems. High losses are expected — and generally acceptable — because they are cheap and quick to replace.

Ukraine has a growing fleet of ground robots that are used to evacuate injured soldiers, carry weaponry and heavy goods, lay and remove mines, and attack Russian positions with weaponry. These are also expendable. As Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said this month, the focus is on making cheap and effective systems that Ukraine can scale quickly.

Some Western military leaders have also argued the need to manage costs. US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said last year, as the service reevaluated the Robotic Combat Vehicle program, that "we can't sustain a couple-million-dollar piece of equipment that can be taken out with an $800 drone and munition."

The war has highlighted how vulnerable tanks and armored vehicles can be to artillery and cheap drones. Drones costing hundreds of dollars destroyed tanks worth millions. Tanks have adapted with new armor and tactics but remain at risk.

Ground robots are not a perfect replacement for tanks and armored vehicles, and Western militaries likely wouldn't want to entirely replace those traditional assets. Those vehicles have more power to get over tough terrain, provide far more protection for important assets that need to be brought across the battlefield, and can conduct far larger and more impactful attacks.

But ground robots can take over some roles and keep humans safer in the process. They can attack positions with explosives or mounted weapons such as machine guns and grenade launchers. They can also deliver to the front lines.

The latter use is one in which Ukraine is investing heavily. Fedorov said recently that Ukraine's goal is to use ground robots for 100% of front-line logistics missions.

Tanks have seen mixed performance in Ukraine and reduced use after heavy losses. Ukraine is still making and getting some armored vehicles from partner countries and has requested more tanks, but it is increasingly placing far more emphasis on other types of weaponry.

Constant drone surveillance, limited air cover, and limited numbers of tanks have made Ukraine's armored operations more difficult. The more advanced Western militaries might struggle less, but these factors could still pose a challenge, especially if they find themselves in a protracted slog.

Ukraine is betting big on its robots. Fedorov announced last week that Ukraine will contract 25,000 new robots in the first half of this year, which is double what it contracted for all of last year.

Fedoryshyn said that his company is able to quickly make updates and repairs to its robots, including by having teams that stay near the front lines to quickly fix damaged systems or make rapid upgrades to them. That allows for same-day repairs and even recovery of damaged robots from the battlefield.

• Ukraine's battlefield robot fleet is rapidly growing and is being updated quickly.
• One maker told Business Insider it can make remote fixes in minutes and has staff always near the front.
• It said it is always updating capabilities to stay on top, and the West must learn from that speed.

Ukraine is updating its battlefield robots rapidly and remotely like smartphones.

The use of robots is surging on Ukraine's battlefields, replacing troops in roles from logistics to combat. But the war is changing so fast that, without constant upgrades, the robots can lose their effectiveness.

Oleg Fedoryshyn, director of R&D at Ukrainian robotic systems maker DevDroid, told Business Insider that the company designs its products so that they can be updated as easily as possible, "like mobile phones or operating systems.

"We can update it remotely, and we add some new features, we fix some bugs," he said, sharing that the firm updates the software used by its robots every few weeks and can make remote fixes within minutes, critical amid wartime urgency.

Working to stay relevant

It can design a new update, test it with a brigade, and roll it out across all deployed systems within a week, Fedoryshyn said. The company builds a range of combat robots, along with components that let units mount weapons like grenade launchers and machine guns.

There are limits to remote upgrades, just as there are with smartphones. The technological evolution still requires hardware updates from time to time, a bigger ask, but a necessity to keep up with the pace of change in combat.

They typically do a major modification about every six months, delivering new capabilities, such as more than doubling the distance the robot can travel.

To expedite some processes, the company deploys teams near the front line to fix damaged systems or make rapid hardware upgrades. That allows for same-day turnaround, and teams can even help evacuate disabled robots from the battlefield.

Fedoryshyn compared it to " a warranty, like when you buy a new car," and said it allows soldiers to stay focused on operations.

When the company works on a broken system, it analyzes what failed and whether upgrades are needed: "We think how to do it better."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been marked by rapid technological change, with battlefield tech constantly evolving. Ukrainian soldiers say equipment can become outdated within weeks or months.

Soldiers often adapt gear in unexpected ways, feeding back into rapid redesigns. DevDroid says it has 24/7 support chats with every unit using its systems. At 3:30 a.m., a unit can ask for help and get a response, Fedoryshyn said.

The idea to arm robots with anti-tank RPGs, now a feature that's being rolled out, first came from soldier feedback, which accelerates the iterative development process.

Lessons in speed

NATO officials have warned that Western industry and militaries need to learn from Ukraine's speed. Adm. Pierre Vandier, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, for instance, previously told Business Insider that the alliance needs Ukraine's "adaptation DNA."

The UK's armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, warned last year that Western military processes are "outdated." In Ukraine, drone tech "iterates every two to three weeks on the front line," he said, arguing that NATO must rethink how it procures weapons.

The speed of innovation has pushed defense manufacturers to design systems that are easier to update, including making them more modular and software-driven. Fedoryshyn said that was key because "it's quite easy to update software, but it's hard to update some hardware."

It's something the US Army increasingly views as critical. Leaders at its new drone school previously told Business Insider that they primarily want to work with companies that make plug-and-play gear that can be updated easily.

Maj. Wolf Amacker, who leads the Army's Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Tactics Branch at the Aviation Center of Excellence, said that when it comes to defense manufacturers, "if whatever they're building isn't modular with other industry partners to work together, then I'm going to go with another industry partner that is."

Robots are a growing part of Ukraine's military. Their usage has surged, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying they carried out more than 22,000 frontline missions in three months.

Ukraine has plans to go much further. Its defense minister this week revealed plans to contract 25,000 new robots in the first half of this year, which is double last year's total, and said that the country's goal is to eventually have 100% of front-line logistics carried out by robots.

• Prosecutors say Gannon Van Dyke used military secrets to make trades on Polymarket.
• Kalshi says he tried to open an account on its platform but was blocked.
• Van Dyke, a master sergeant at Fort Bragg, was indicted on multiple felonies.

The Army Special Forces soldier indicted on charges that he used military secrets to win over $400,000 in Polymarket trades was blocked from opening an account on rival prediction market platform, Kalshi.

Elisabeth Diana, head of communications for Kalshi, told Business Insider that Gannon Van Dyke did not make it past the verification and know-your-customer process but declined to provide more details. Reuters, citing an unnamed source, had earlier reported that Van Dyke tried but failed to gain access to Kalshi.

Van Dyke, a 38-year-old master sergeant assigned to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, was charged with wire fraud and other felonies for placing more than $33,000 in trades related to US action in Venezuela, prosecutors said.

The career soldier was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and used classified information to make his bets, the indictment alleges.

Van Dyke is being prosecuted in New York, but made his first appearance in federal court in North Carolina on Friday. The court docket states that the government did not seek to detain him, and he was released on $250,000 bond.

He is represented by federal public defenders, who did not respond to a request for comment. He also did not respond to a call from Business Insider.

Polymarket did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the vetting Van Dyke underwent when he signed up for an account. The company said that it tipped off the feds to Van Dyke's trades.

In a statement on X, CEO Shayne Coplan said, "Noise aside, the reality is we work proactively with all relevant authorities on any suspicious activity on our marketplace. We flagged this, referred it, and cooperated throughout the process. This happens constantly behind the scenes, despite what many are led to believe."

Critics have raised alarms about the potential of insider trading on prediction markets and fretted about the possibility that the markets or the current events that fuel them could be manipulated for profit. Kalshi bans insider trading, and Polymarket bans trades based on confidential information.

Kalshi earlier this week said it suspended three political candidates for trading on their own elections as the platform moves to crack down on insider trading.

Asked about the Van Dyke case by reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, President Donald Trump said he wasn't a big fan of prediction markets.

"The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino," Trump, who once owned several casinos, said. "I don't like it, conceptually, but it is what it is."

Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets, has defended the businesses, at one point calling them "valuable to society."

The commission filed a civil complaint against Van Dyke in federal court on Thursday.

• US Air Force A-10 Warthogs were part of the rescue operation for downed airmen in Iran.
• The A-10s were in a "Sandy" role supporting search and rescue.
• The Air Force has pushed for the retirement of its A-10 fleet, deeming them obsolete.

US Air Force A-10 Warthogs, decades-old attack aircraft the service has been pushing into retirement, were part of the risky rescue missions to retrieve downed American airmen in Iran.

The Warthogs flew in their "Sandy" roles, supporting search and rescue while engaging in close-in battles at low altitudes. The rescue marks the latest involvement of the A-10 in the US war in Iran despite the Air Force's plans to imminently shelve its remaining fleet.

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shared details on the aircraft used in the mission during a Monday briefing on the rescue of the pilot and weapon systems officer after an F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran last week.

Caine said that a task force including A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, commonly called Warthogs, "audaciously penetrated enemy territory in broad daylight" to rescue the F-15E pilot. "This was an incredibly dangerous mission," he added, sharing the task force faced Iranian fire while locating and retrieving the downed pilot.

In the operation, the A-10s, along with other aircraft, including drones, flew in so-called "Sandy" roles, "violently suppressing and engaging the enemy in a close-in gunfight" to draw attention away from the rescue activities, as well as keep the enemy at bay.

During the engagement, one A-10 aircraft was hit by enemy fire. The pilot flew it into friendly airspace but determined that they wouldn't be able to land it. The pilot ejected as the plane went down. They were recovered safely.

"A 'Sandy' has one mission: get to the survivor, bring the rescue force forward, and put themselves between that survivor on the ground and the enemy," Caine said.

The "Sandy" role originated during the Vietnam War as the call sign for A-1 Skyraiders leading combat search-and-rescue missions. These aircraft located downed airmen, coordinated rescue efforts, and suppressed enemy fire to protect helicopters.

As the A-1 retired, the Sandy role — a mission, not a platform — passed to aircraft like the A-10 Warthog.

These “Sandy" aircraft are part of the larger CSAR package, which includes HH-60 helicopters and highly trained rescue personnel, HC-130 refueling tankers, fighter escorts, and intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance assets.

"The A-10 force and the rescue force did a fantastic job," Caine said Monday. Earlier in the war, the top general highlighted the involvement of Warthogs in hunting down Iranian fast-attack boats in the Strait of Hormuz.

The A-10's days are, however, numbered. The Air Force is planning the aircraft's retirement, though it has run into roadblocks. Congressional intervention has repeatedly thrown the attack plane a lifeline and prevented the service from fully retiring the entire fleet. There are over 160 Warthogs in service.

Pushing for the retirement of the fleet, Air Force leadership has previously argued that "the aircraft does not deter or survive against our pacing challenge," a reference to China. The service has been looking into whether F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters can fulfill the A-10's missions, such as close-air support. Supporters of the A-10 argue no other aircraft can currently fulfill its missions.

The A-10 was introduced in the 1970s and intended to be a tank-killer capable of blunting a Soviet armored assault. It can carry rockets, missiles, and bombs, but is best known for its 30mm GAU-8 Avenger seven-barrel Gatling-style autocannon.

A US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II was shot down in Iran while attempting to rescue crew members from the downed F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jet. According to US officials, the pilot safely ejected over friendly territory and was unharmed.

Known as the Warthog, the A-10 has been in service since 1977… but the Air Force has been pushing to retire it from service, deeming the aircraft obsolete.

• The US Army's Bavaria base hosts over 16,000 troops ready for instant deployment.
• Its origins date back to pre-World War I. Later, it became a major training hub for the German Wehrmacht.
• Today, US troops train in trenches — rain or shine — honing skills for potential conflicts with Russia.

Just a couple of hours north of Munich, the US Army runs its largest training site outside the United States. Once a Nazi artillery training ground, the sprawling base is now home to more than 16,000 troops kept ready to fight at a moment's notice.

Soldiers train in trenches and with armored Stryker combat vehicles to maintain constant combat readiness "so they can answer America's call in an instant," said Hermes Acevedo, who was the command sergeant major and senior enlisted advisor to the garrison commander at US Army Garrison Bavaria when Business Insider's Graham Flanagan visited last April.

That readiness serves as deterrence. From Bavaria, troops can reach the Czech Republic within about an hour and Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, in roughly 18 hours by road. "By us being ready, by us being here in this location, [it] kind of sends a signal," Acevedo said.

He didn't name a specific adversary, but soldiers in the trenches know who they're preparing for.

As Russia's war in Ukraine continues, the US Army's presence in Germany is crucial. These soldiers could be the first ones in the fight, defending NATO's eastern flank.

From Nazi training ground to NATO backbone

US Army Garrison Bavaria's origins date back to pre-World War I, when the Royal Bavarian Army developed a training area for its own artillery forces.

That role expanded under Adolf Hitler, when the Third Reich used the same grounds as a major training hub for the German Wehrmacht — Nazi's unified armed forces.

At the end of World War II, US forces took control of the area. Today, it anchors US and NATO operations in Europe.

The installation spans four main areas, including Tower Barracks and Rose Barracks. It houses the 7th Army Training Command — which sets standards for US Army Europe and Africa — and the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, a forward-positioned ground force.

"We're not going to deploy to an incident in Europe," Acevedo said. "We are already here."

Training for a potential war with Russia

Troops can leave their barracks and reach live training ranges in less than two minutes, Acevedo said. Once there, they train in all conditions — snow, rain, heat, and cold — to build what he described as instinctive responses.

"It's all about readiness," Acevedo said.

The base also runs an opposing force, or OPFOR, that mimics enemy tactics. "We're basically supposed to act like Russians," Spc. Aaron Jude said, noting they study the war in Ukraine sometimes through open-source material like social media.

OPFOR units use AK-style rifles and train in trench warfare, reflecting the realities of the conflict.

"That's what's so awesome about this unit," said Staff Sgt. Daniel Johnson, an OPFOR soldier. "Not only are we being able to train to our standards, but we're also training to Russia's standards. Honestly, to me, that's like a really good way to understand our adversaries."

Sensors across the training area collect data, allowing commanders to analyze performance and refine strategy. That constant feedback loop is central to the base's role, allowing it to test equipment and decision-making under pressure.

A self-contained military ecosystem

The installation is designed to support both troops and their families. It includes more than 3,400 housing units, K—12 schools, childcare centers, and recreational facilities. Many families live both on and off base, integrated into nearby communities.

Acevedo said that these support systems help ease one of the biggest challenges for troops arriving from the US: uncertainty.

That environment is part of what keeps the base functioning at scale. Soldiers can focus on training and missions, while families have access to services designed to mirror life in the US.

The result is a well-oiled rapid-response war machine that turns a historically significant site into a modern military hub, readying troops for a hard fight.

• Anduril president Matthew Steckman said that defense tech companies have to "create a monopoly."
• There are only one or two programs in each category that are big enough to sustain a business, Steckman said.
• "If you capture them, you have a business, and if you don't, you have no business," he said on "20VC."

Defense tech is winner-takes-all, according to Andruil's president.

Anduril has quickly become a market leader, spawning a venture capital frenzy. The industry is also notoriously competitive, with companies duking it out for lucrative government contracts.

On the "20VC" podcast, President and Chief Business Officer Matthew Steckman described the company's strategy. They'd need to win in key product categories, he said — and maybe monopolize them.

Every defense product category has one big or two big programs, Steckman said. He used the example of small drones, for which there are "very few" programs that would create enough revenue to maintain a business.

"If you capture them, you have a business, and if you don't, you have no business," Steckman said of these programs.

Defense tech companies must shoot for the moon, he said. It's this "addressable market question" that most companies in the sector get wrong, he said.

"You have to create a monopoly," Steckman said. "We knew that."

Anduril's strategy, then, was to create strong underlying technology that could keep them competitive in multiple markets. The company calls this Lattice, the tech that consumes data, interprets it, and then manipulates robots around it, he said.

Those technologies apply to 20 different markets, Steckman said, each "different parts of the defense apparatus."

It's clearly paid off. The company is reportedly raising its next round at a valuation of $60 billion. Some venture capitalists with FOMO are paying premiums for their shares. One compared it to buying Taylor Swift tickets.

Want to work there? Your best way in might be winning a drone-racing competition. In April, the company will reward one winner with a job and a $500,000 check.

After Steckman posited his theory of monopolization in defense tech, host Harry Stebbings asked: Why, then, are there so many drone companies?

"There will definitely be one winner," Steckman said. "The challenge for investors is actually figuring out which one it is."

Business Insider got exclusive access to see how the US Army's Germany-based 2nd Cavalry Regiment is training for a possible war with Russia.

A group of soldiers known as OPFOR pretends to be the enemy, practicing the same style of trench warfare that has become commonplace in the Russia-Ukraine war.

An Army platoon must traverse mountainous terrain before finding the OPFOR's trench and attacking it.

• Russia has equipped its cheap "Molniya" strike drones with more battery power and better cameras.
• The modifications allow Russia to use these drones for a new purpose — battlefield reconnaissance.
• Moscow doesn't need to rely too heavily on its more expensive reconnaissance drones.

Russia has boosted the range and vision of its fixed-wing Molniya drones, turning cheap, crude aircraft into more capable platforms that can now scout as well as strike in Ukraine.

The upgrades let Moscow lean more on the Molniya ("lightning" in Russian) for battlefield reconnaissance, replacing the pricier surveillance drones like the Supercam and Orlan-10.

Russia has been equipping some of its Molniyas with additional batteries to extend their range, a high-definition camera, and a mesh modem for better communications, Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukraine's defense ministry, told Business Insider.

The Molniyas have historically been considered one-way attack drones that carry a warhead and explode on impact. They have been adapted for other missions, though, including carrying smaller first-person-view (FPV) quadcopters, resembling a mothership.

Beskrestnov, a prominent Ukrainian drone warfare expert, said Russia began operating newly modified Molniyas around two months ago and has increasingly used them for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) purposes since then.

The Molniya ISR variant lacks a warhead and is instead equipped with advanced surveillance electronics, including a microcomputer and a rotating camera with a 10-fold optical zoom, according to a US military weapons information portal.

The modified Molniyas are significantly cheaper than the more traditional fixed-wing Supercam S-350 or the Zala Z-16, well-known Russian reconnaissance drones estimated to cost up to $100,000 apiece. The inexpensive Molniyas are made of light materials such as plywood, foam, and aluminum.

Beskrestnov said that Russia can obtain 10-15 Molniyas for the same price. The saturation of Ukrainian interceptor drones over the battlefield has pushed Moscow to opt for cheaper, more expendable assets for reconnaissance and targeting.

He speculated that this shift is driven by increased Ukrainian interceptor activity.

Dimko Zhluktenko, a soldier in Ukraine's 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment, said the modified Molniya drones are relatively easy to manufacture, giving Russia an ideal price for reconnaissance missions. He called these efforts "the war of scale" in a social media post earlier this month.

Neither Russia's defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to a request for comment on the Molniya ISR developments.

Russia and Ukraine have been constantly modifying their drones during the war to try to gain an advantage before the other side either catches up with the technology or develops a defensive countermeasure.

One of the biggest changes is a shift from radio links — easily jammed — to fiber-optic cables that are largely immune to the electronic warfare saturating the battlefield.

These fiber-optic cables have primarily been used to operate smaller FPV drones. However, Russia has begun using them with larger, fixed-wing platforms such as the Molniya.

Russia and Ukraine have taken their innovations a step further with unusual armaments, in some cases equipping drones with air-to-air or surface-to-air missiles to hunt down aircraft.

• Buyers have been willing to pay a premium of up to 40% to buy Anduril shares.
• The steep markup reflects a two-tiered class for accessing stock in the hottest startups.
• Data from Caplight highlights a supply imbalance, with buyer demand surging to 97% while sellers' demand is at 3%.

Anduril hasn't even finalized its next funding round, and investors are already eager to pay up like it's a sold-out concert. As marquee venture firms Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz line up to back the defense tech startup at a reported $60 billion valuation, others shut out of the deal are scrambling to buy shares on secondary markets at steep premiums.

"Demand is so significant that buyers who have FOMO are willing to pay huge premiums for access," said Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge Global, a private marketplace exchange for shares of private companies like Anduril. "The company hates when this happens, but it happens."

The frenzy around investing in Anduril reflects the growing divide in private markets: access to the hottest startups is split between the VC firms that get in at a certain price and everyone else, forced to pay up on the sidelines. Anthropic has also seen a premium for secondary shares, though not as significant, said Rodriques.

Those investors shut out of the company's fundraising round are forced to buy via secondary markets, with existing stock in the company being sold by current or former employees or early investors. The rush for shares reminds Rodriques of buying tickets to see Taylor Swift on Stubhub when her concert sells out in minutes.

"It's scalping," he said.

Interested buyers have been willing to pay a premium of up to 40% above the $60 billion valuation to buy Anduril shares, according to Rodriques and Greg Martin, managing director and co-founder at Rainmaker Securities, another private marketplace exchange. The deals are not yet finalized because a willing seller and the company's blessing are still required.

"The magnitude of the premium is unusual," said Martin. "Usually we see premiums in the 5% to 15% range."

Anduril declined to comment for this story. Cofounders Palmer Luckey and Matt Grimm have loudly railed against unauthorized sales of the company's shares, publicly calling out some firms as "frauds."

"If I were an investor looking at this 'opportunity,' I'd run for the hills," Grimm posted in December. "Secondary markets are rife with fraud and bad actors, and it pains me to see these bottom feeders profiting off Anduril's growth while fleecing retail investors through unreasonable or opaque fee structures."

The founders have tightly controlled Andruil's stock, requiring would-be sellers to offer the company a first right of refusal to buy back those shares or assign the sale to a buyer of Andruil's choosing. The limited supply is a major reason shares have been among the hardest to obtain for any startup since last year, driving investor "frenzy."

Data from Caplight highlights a massive supply imbalance in the secondary market for Anduril stock, with buyer demand surging to 97% of total volume compared to just 3% from willing sellers—a stark shift from a 69-to-31 split in February.

If demand for Anduril shares is so high, the obvious question is: Why doesn't the company raise its share price to avoid leaving money on the table?

To explain, Rodriques went back to the analogy of a Taylor Swift concert or Nike shoes. Just because some people are willing to pay more does not mean the company wants to set its prices so high.

"It's the same reason Nike doesn't sell sneakers for $2000 if there's a secondary market for a hard-to-get sneaker," Rodriques said. "It's not in their best interest to charge their customers $2000 for a pair of shoes."

Similarly, Anduril would prefer to raise capital from its chosen VCs.

"The company has gotten to a $60 billion valuation by doing a very detailed and thorough job of working with some of the best investors in the world," he said.

• A Ukrainian corps has released a video of its troops using exoskeletons on the battlefield.
• Two soldiers can be seen loading artillery shells on a Howitzer with the help of the tech.
• The 7th Air Assault Corps said they reduce physical load by 30% and help troops move faster.

Ukrainian forces say they're testing exoskeletons in battle for the first time, deploying them in logistics and combat positions on the Pokrovsk front.

The 7th Air Assault Corps posted a video on Friday of its 147th Separate Artillery Brigade demonstrating the new tech.

The exoskeletons are designed to be buckled at the waist and legs, with the apparatus wrapping behind the user's back and weaving toward the front of their knees. It also features two actuators at the hip that serve as hinges.

Each exoskeleton, the corps said, is meant to reduce the load on leg muscles by 30%, helping troops move at up to 12 mph for about 10 miles.

Clips showed two soldiers using the exoskeletons to carry and load artillery shells on a French CAESAR self-propelled Howitzer.

"Every day, artillerymen endure heavy physical loads. They carry 15 to 30 shells daily, each weighing 50 kg," said Colonel Vitalii Serdiuk, the corps' deputy commander, in a statement attached to the video.

The exoskeleton appears to be foldable, allowing it to fit inside a briefcase; the corps said the device itself weighs about 4.4 pounds.

Captions on the video said the exoskeletons are equipped with artificial intelligence that adapts in real time to the load on the soldier's legs and spine, allowing them to function in 10 different modes.

The 7th Air Assault Corps said this was the first time that any Ukrainian unit had trialed such technology in combat, and that the exoskeletons it received were test samples.

The US has also been designing its own exoskeletons, such as the Army's SABER, a soft, wearable exosuit that is strapped to the back and around each leg to reduce spinal strain.

Another example is Lockheed Martin's ONYX, a lower-body exoskeleton with knee actuators that wraps around the legs, but it hasn't been made standard-issue for the US military.

• Cheap drones, missiles, and mines make chokepoints like Hormuz harder for the US to secure quickly.
• The US Navy could need weeks or months to fully secure shipping lanes.
• Even limited transit disruptions can spike oil prices and rattle global markets.

The "load-bearing assumption" among some investors that US Navy warships can easily keep vital chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz open in times of conflict is slowly crumbling, steadily driving oil prices higher, a leading energy consultant said this week.

Robert McNally, a former Bush administration energy advisor and president of Rapidan Energy Group, told Business Insider on Wednesday that the market situation could worsen as US efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which handles 20% of the world's oil flows, drag on and as the potential scale of the looming energy crisis hits investors.

There is a "belief that something like this either can't happen, which was the belief before, or can't go on for long," McNally said, but as time goes on, "the remaining reservoir of just disbelief" that an essential energy chokepoint could be restricted for this long "is going to drain away," pushing prices higher in "the world's, by far, largest energy disruption in history."

To militarily secure the oil route for tanker movement, US forces will first need to substantially degrade Iran's missile, drone, and mine threats, the oil consultant and a military analyst said. That campaign could take weeks or months — long enough to significantly drive up oil prices and rattle global markets.

Surging prices and bleak predictions

The US has already been at war with Iran for weeks now. Over a dozen foreign oil tankers have been struck amid the fighting, and Brent crude prices have been climbing, jumping recently to over $100 per barrel, up from about $70 just before the conflict began, briefly surging toward $120 in the latest spike before edging back down. Year to date, oil prices have risen 78%, largely driven by disruptions created by the Iran war.

McNally predicted bleaker market outcomes if the war continues or if the conflict's combatants — the US, Israel, and Iran — target the so-called "crown jewels" of the global energy system, escalating the crisis rather than reining it in.

Israeli strikes on the South Pars Gas Field in Iran on Wednesday and Tehran's retaliatory strike on Qatar's LNG gas facility have set the stage for that kind of tit-for-tat escalation, even as President Donald Trump attempts to manage the increasingly volatile situation via his social media accounts.

Despite growing market concerns, the US Navy hasn't stepped in to escort oil tankers the way it has in past periods of conflict and tension in the Middle East. Trump administration officials have said that escorts might be an option when it's "militarily possible."

"It takes a while to secure a strait. Iran has a lot of asymmetric layered capabilities," McNally said, pointing to "potent" weaponry ranging from coastal defense missiles to mines to mini-submarines. An escorting warship accompanies a tanker to protect it from threats like missiles, small boats, and even attack drones that Iran can use with little notice in the strait or on the approaches to it.

Escort missions come only "after you pummel Iran for weeks," he said.

US Central Command, which oversees American operations in the Middle East, said on Tuesday that US forces had dropped 5,000-pound bunker busters against hardened anti-ship cruise missile targets along the Iranian shoreline. And on Thursday, the command released video footage of strikes on Iranian naval targets that "threaten international shipping in and near the Strait of Hormuz."

US armed forces have so far sunk over 120 Iranian naval vessels while also targeting naval drone facilities, storage centers for sea mines, and torpedo production sites. Additionally, A-10 attack aircraft are in the fight, gunning for Iranian fast boats.

The US military is "zeroed in on dismantling Iran's decades-old threat to the free flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz," CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said on Monday.

"And we're not done," he said.

A process, not a quick fix

Assumptions that the US can quickly and easily secure vital sea lanes have been shaped by past conflicts where American naval power restored order relatively quickly.

During the Tanker War in the 1980s, US-led escorts helped keep oil flowing despite attacks in the Gulf between Iran and Iraq, and in later conflicts, the US military demonstrated the ability to rapidly overwhelm adversaries.

Those experiences, McNally said, have reinforced a broader expectation in certain markets and policy circles that any disruption to key chokepoints would be short-lived and manageable. That assumption is now colliding with very different threats.

"The weapons proliferation has just dramatically expanded," Bryan Clark, a retired US Navy officer and a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, told Business Insider on Wednesday.

"You can sort of hang on forever by just using Shahed drones and little drone attack boats," he said, adding that "drones are going to be the biggest threat."

In heavily constricted waterways, like the Strait of Hormuz, which is just 21 nautical miles across at its narrowest point, state and non-state actors can "basically create an ambush situation where you can target shipping," he said.

An Iranian anti-ship cruise missile could hit a tanker in the strait within seconds, giving warship crews very little time to react. And that is only one potential threat.

The Houthis, an Iran-backed militant group in Yemen, seized on that exact opportunity in recent years, targeting both military and commercial vessels around the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

To forcefully curb the Houthi threat, the US launched Operation Rough Rider in March 2025. That effort took 52 days and more than $1 billion to get the rebels to stand down — and shipping still hasn't fully recovered, as many commercial shipping companies have opted for higher prices and longer transit times rather than face the elevated security risks.

The current situation carries greater complexities. Iran has a much deeper arsenal than its proxies, and it has leverage as long as it is willing and able to fight. There are no alternative routes to the Strait of Hormuz for oil tankers loaded with crude oil or LNG.

Launching a naval escort mission in the Strait of Hormuz "would pretty much take up all of our deployed forces in that region," Clark said. Without allied support, which isn't coming together, "it's going to take at least a dozen destroyers to do the escort mission."

"They would be all tied up doing that," he said.

Israel, waging war against Iran alongside the US military, has a small surface fleet. US European allies have balked at entering the conflict, though some have deployed ships to defend their assets in the region. Some allies have shown support in condemnations of Iran, but for a potential escort mission, the US could be forced to go it alone, relying on a mix of combat air patrols and naval power.

Clark warned that the mission could go on for months because the Iranians "can hold out for a long time, given the number of weapons they've squirreled away." The Pentagon has acknowledged the challenge of weaponry buried over decades.

As cheap weapons like Shahed drones lower the barrier to entry for precision strike for countries like Iran and aggressive non-state actors like the Houthis, McNally said that it looks like oil disruption is increasingly becoming a tool of coercion in modern conflict. These vessels are being targeted, not merely caught in the crossfire, and that will demand shifts in strategic-level thinking.

Even without a full shutdown of important chokepoints, any disruption alone can shake global markets. In energy markets, delays and uncertainty can trigger price spikes. That's leverage for malign actors, even those limited in conventional military might.

McNally said that "folks will be watching very closely how successful we will be in the coming weeks in suppressing that."

• A Pentagon official recently demonstrated how a Palantir tool can be used to support strikes.
• Cameron Staley, the Pentagon's chief digital and AI officer, praised Palantir's Project Maven.
• According to multiple reports, the US military has relied on Maven to help carry out its war with Iran.

A top Pentagon official provided a rare look inside how the military uses Palantir's Project Maven to carry out strikes.

Once you detect something you want to target, "this is what we do," Cameron Stanley, the Department of Defense's chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, said during a presentation at Palantir's AIPCon 9.

"Left click, right click, left click," he said.

Palantir posted a video of Stanley's demonstration over the weekend showing how the system could use satellite imagery alongside multiple data feeds, including a flight-tracking system.

Using the system, he highlighted how the list of potential targets could be narrowed to a specific car in the parking lot.

In another part of the demo, Stanley showed how artificial intelligence is used to identify "what the best asset" is to carry out the strike. For the demonstration, it was a mounted .50-caliber M2 Browning machine gun on a Stryker armored fighting vehicle.

"We've gone from identifying the target, to now coming up with a course of action, to now actioning that target all within one system," Stanley said. "This is revolutionary."

We were having this done in about eight or nine systems, where humans were literally moving detections left and right in order to get to a desire end state, in this case actually closing a kill chain," he said, pointing to combat footage of a strike.

"When we started this, it literally took hours to do what you just saw," he said of the process of going from detection to targeting to decision-making to engagement. "We've been able to reduce that time significantly."

Palantir CEO Alex Karp and his deputies are somewhat cagey about exactly what Project Maven entails, given its classified uses. Citing information "in the papers," Karp said that his company has provided the US and its allies an advantage on the battlefield.

"The fact that you can now target more precisely, more accurately, more quickly, and that, meaning America, can do all these, organize the total power of our fleet and all of our resources, and bring it to bear against our adversaries and enemies has shifted the way in which war is fought," Karp told CNBC on the sidelines of the conference. "And I have read that Palantir's Project Maven is the core backbone of that."

The Army's Commander and Staff Guide to Data Literacy says that Maven is part of "the cutting-edge capabilities" troops rely on "to assist in targeting and executing strikes."

"While MSS can greatly enable the decision-making process, staff members will need to have a cursory understanding of how these emerging systems function to fully appreciate their capabilities and limitations," the guide reads, referring to the Maven Smart System.

The MSS has been an integral part of the US's War in Iran, The Washington Post recently reported. Anthropic's Claude is embedded in the system, a topic of major discussion after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved to effectively blacklist the AI startup after it refused to give the Pentagon unfettered access to its AI models.

Business Insider has not independently confirmed Maven's use in Operation Epic Fury nor the integration of Anthropic's models into Maven's systems. Spokespersons for the Pentagon and Anthropic did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

President Donald Trump ordered all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's products within six months. Anthropic has sued the Pentagon, the Executive Office of the President, and a host of other federal agencies to block Hegseth and Trump's directives.

Initially overseen by Google, Palantir took over Project Maven, part of the software company's highly successful partnerships with the US and allied governments. Karp boasted last year that Palantir's products are so popular that he doesn't have time for US allies who hassle the company with endless meeting requests.

"I'm telling governments all over the world, look, we're not showing up to do this sales call for Maven," Karp told podcaster Molly O'Shea in November 2025. "You know it works. We know it works. Show up to my office and explain how you're going to make this easy for us, because we don't have huge bandwidth."

• Russia has clawed back about 10% of its 2026 oil trade deficit this month, Zelenskyy said.
• Two weeks of war in the Middle East earned Moscow about $10 billion, he said, citing Ukrainian intel.
• The Trump administration is also easing sanctions on Russian oil for about 4 weeks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia had earned $10 billion in two weeks of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

That's about 10% of what Moscow has lost in the oil trade so far this year, he said in a post on X.

Zelenskyy wrote that Ukrainian intelligence reports indicated that global oil sanctions and Kyiv's strikes on Russian energy infrastructure had pushed Moscow's deficit for 2026 to over $100 billion.

"Now we see they have made around 10 billion over two weeks of the war in the Middle East," Zelenskyy wrote. "This is really dangerous. It gives Putin more confidence that he can continue the war."

"The situation around Iran brings him more money," Zelenskyy added of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin.

His remarks come as oil prices skyrocketed in the weeks after the US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28. Both have heavily bombed Iran's oil infrastructure, which produces crude primarily for Asian markets, while Tehran's retaliatory strikes have also damaged energy facilities in the Middle East.

More critically, Tehran is effectively stalling traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for about a fifth of the world's oil, with a string of attacks on commercial ships plying the waterway.

Russia, meanwhile, stands to gain from rising oil prices as one of the world's largest exporters, though its dominance has been partially stymied by Western sanctions to punish and inhibit its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Trump administration also announced on Friday that it was temporarily easing those sanctions to relieve the global oil supply, allowing trade of Russian crude for roughly four weeks.

In his post, Zelenskyy also warned that easing sanctions would be "helpful" to Putin.

Oil and gas are crucial pillars of the Russian economy, even as it faces global sanctions, and much of the government's revenue comes from taxing these industries.

In January and February, for example, Moscow said it earned about $$10.2 billion in both months from oil and gas revenue, down 47% year-on-year when accounting for currency swings. Its total revenues for the same period were about $58.7 billion, its finance ministry said.

• Western militaries need to study one Ukrainian operation in particular for drone warfare lessons.
• Officials say Operation Spiderweb, which struck dozens of Russian jets, offers key lessons.
• The US Army's drone course director told Business Insider it's "the one event that I teach to the students."

Western militaries are investing heavily in drone warfare after seeing their impact in Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion. And while it isn't necessary to absorb every lesson, current and former military officials say one major operation is worth studying closely.

Maj. Rachel Martin, director of the US Army's Unmanned Advanced Lethality Course designed to accelerate training on small drone warfare, told Business Insider that the 2025 Operation Spiderweb is "the one event that I teach to the students."

Offensive potential

In the operation, Ukraine smuggled drones into Russia, drove them to positions close to Russian airfields, and launched them at strategically valuable aircraft. The Ukrainian drones hit 41 Russian warplanes and caused an estimated $7 billion in damage.

The strikes showed how arsenals of small, cheap drones can destroy high-value military assets far from the front — and how difficult they are to defend against.

The operation was complex and took roughly a year and a half of planning, but, Martin said, it showed "that a small amount of money could be spent to destroy something at the strategic level," in this case, bombers and other high-dollar aircraft.

It cost Russia billions of dollars when it "is already hurting financially from being in a prolonged war."

Seeing that kind of low-cost attack destroying assets that could take years to replace, she said, "was a big eye-opening experience for the world." It highlighted not only what was possible with attack drones on offense, but also critical vulnerabilities.

Defensive realizations

The Ukrainian operation sparked a realization in the West about the need for significantly more protection at air bases, especially those hosting essential mission tools, such as nuclear deterrence elements.

Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, the deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration for the US Air Force, said of the operation last year that "disruptive" technologies like the drones seen in the Ukraine war "will have big implications not just for our bomber force or our nuclear force but really any critical infrastructure."

"We have counter-drone capabilities at these bases. Do we need to continue to modernize? Do we need to accelerate?" he said. "Yeah, absolutely, all that."

The majority of the most strategic US air assets are based inside the continental US. American airpower also depends heavily on warplanes stationed at air bases around the world. Defending against drones has proven challenging at both home and abroad, as the Tower 22 disaster and a number of domestic incidents have highlighted.

European air bases have likewise grappled with the challenge of drones, making the lessons of Operation Spiderweb particularly poignant.

Retired Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, who spent 36 years in the British Royal Air Force and served as its director of joint warfare, said last month that Operation Spiderweb holds key lessons that NATO allies need to learn.

When it comes to modern drone warfare, the West has more to learn from operations like Spiderweb than from day-to-day front-line drone fighting, he said at the UK think tank Chatham House. The West doesn't necessarily need to engage in heavy quadcopter warfare at the front when it has artillery and substantial airpower.

"The lessons that we need to learn are more from Operation Spiderweb, where Ukraine employed these drones in a much more sophisticated way and really did start to take out some significant targets," Bagwell said. That operation had a high-level strategic effect on a stronger adversary for a comparatively lower cost. It's asymmetric warfare that the West can't ignore.

Picking up lessons from the war

The US is using drone warfare in ways beyond what Spiderweb demonstrated, drawing on other lessons from the war. In its war with Iran that started last month, it has used drones to attack Iranian targets, including the new one-way attack LUCAS drones.

It's also still employing traditional drone tactics, using platforms like the uncrewed strike and reconnaissance drone MQ-9 Reaper.

The Army's new drone course is just one of the many ways that it is advancing its drone warfare capabilities, along with other moves like plans to buy at least a million drones in the next two or so years. Allies across NATO are taking similar steps.

Martin said their power is undeniable, and the course itself was created because the Army could see that it was behind in small drone warfare and needed to fix that. But the US is not in the same existential fight that Ukraine is, nor is it facing the same weapons shortages.

Drones have kept Ukraine in the fight against Russia even as other weapons ran out. They haven't been decisive, though, indicating that deep stocks of traditional and advanced weaponry still matter.

The US Army course teaches soldiers that drones aren't always the right weapon.

Bagwell also cautioned against leaning too heavily on drones. He said that drones have been "hugely useful" for Ukraine, but "these have not won the war for either side."

He said that Ukraine has "had to adapt and fight the way they can only fight, and I applaud them for what they have done. But there is a question for us in the West as to whether that is the way we want to fight."

• The US Air Force deployed F-15E Strike Eagles during Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
• The fighter jets are designed for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat in all weather, day or night.
• Kuwait mistakenly shot down three F-15E Strike Eagles in a "friendly fire" incident, CENTCOM said.

F-15E Strike Eagles, fighter jets designed for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, are usually a dominating force in the skies.

When three F-15E Strike Eagles were mistakenly shot down by Kuwait during Operation Epic Fury, it brought renewed attention to one of the Air Force's fastest, most versatile aircraft.

Here's a closer look at the F-15E Strike Eagle, an advanced aircraft the US is using to destroy Iran's missile arsenal and drone bases from the skies above Iran.

The F-15E Strike Eagle has been in service in the US Air Force for nearly 40 years.

The first F-15A model flew in 1972, and the first F-15Es were produced in 1988, according to the US Air Force.

It's the fastest crewed aircraft in the US Air Force.

The air-to-air and air-to-ground attack aircraft can fly at 1,875 miles per hour, or 2.5 times the speed of sound.

The F-15E Strike Eagle's high thrust-to-weight ratio enables it to accelerate during vertical climb.

The high thrust-to-weight ratio also allows the F-15E Strike Eagle to execute tight turns without sacrificing speed. It has two Pratt & Whitney F100 engines, each producing over 23,000 pounds of thrust.

Another distinguishing capability is the plane's head-up display, which projects flight and tactical information directly on the windscreen.

Pilots can track and attack targets, check the status of weapons, and see other tactical and flight information without taking their eyes off the windscreen.

The fighter jet also includes a low-altitude navigation and targeting infrared for night (LANTIRN) system.

The LANTIRN system allows the planes to fly in any weather and attack ground targets at low altitudes. The system consists of two pods, a navigation pod and a targeting pod, mounted under the plane.

F-15E Strike Eagles can carry both nuclear and conventional weapons.

Its armament includes an internally mounted 20-millimeter gun with 500 rounds of ammunition, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, and AIM-120 AMRAAMs, an acronym for the radar-guided Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles.

The F-15 also regularly carries ground attack weapons like the Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, a kit that adapts an unguided munition into a "smart" bomb with fins and GPS guidance.

F-15E Strike Eagles are flown by a pilot and a weapons systems officer.

The weapon system officer sits directly behind the pilot, and closely manages the plane's sensors and weapons.

Two variants of the F-15 are single-seaters: the F-15A and F-15C.

The planes can fly 2,400 miles without refueling, and can be refueled in flight.

F-15E Strike Eagles have a fuel capacity of 35,550 pounds.

The fighter jets can be refueled in flight by KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft, which Boeing developed from its "Dash 80" prototype in the 1950s.

KC-135s were also deployed to Israel as part of Operation Epic Fury. One crashed in western Iraq on Thursday, killing six US service members. United States Central Command said the circumstances of the crash were under investigation, but it "was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire."

Each F-15E cost $31.1 million to produce in 1998, according to US Air Force figures. That would be around $62.3 million when adjusted for inflation.

Newer F-15 models cost around $100 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The newest version of the aircraft is the F-15EX Eagle II, which features more advanced controls and upgraded engines.

On March 1, Kuwait's air defenses mistakenly shot down three American F-15Es during Operation Epic Fury in what US Central Command described as a "friendly fire incident."

All six crew members ejected safely. The incident is under investigation.

"Kuwait has acknowledged this incident, and we are grateful for the efforts of the Kuwaiti defense forces and their support in this ongoing operation," CENTCOM said.

• The US military has stepped up its efforts to target Iran's mines, drone boats, and torpedoes.
• This comes after US officials said American strikes destroyed dozens of Iranian ships.
• These tactical efforts reflect an effort to curb Iran's ability to attack the Strait of Hormuz.

The US military is broadly targeting Iran's naval combat capabilities, expanding strikes beyond just warships to mines, drone boats, and torpedoes, the admiral overseeing the Middle East operations said on Monday.

Adm. Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, reiterated in a video statement that eliminating Iran's "naval threats" is one of three military objectives of the American strike campaign, which just surpassed the two-week mark.

Cooper shared imagery showing the aftermath of recent US airstrikes on military sites, among which were a naval drone storage facility and buildings used to produce light- and heavy-weight torpedoes.

The US also hit more than 90 military targets on Kharg Island off the coast of Iran over the weekend, destroying storage bunkers for naval mines, among other targets, Cooper said.

Kharg Island is located roughly 300 miles from the strategic Strait of Hormuz and is the centerpiece of Iran's vast oil sector, handling 90% of its crude exports.

President Donald Trump said last week that the US military operation spared Iranian oil infrastructure at Kharg Island, although he threatened to reconsider if Iran decides to interfere with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a small body of water between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman that serves as one of the world's most important naval choke points.

"We're also zeroed in on dismantling Iran's decades-old threat to the free flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz," Cooper said Monday. "Through a combination of air, land, and maritime capabilities, we have successfully destroyed over 100 Iranian naval vessels, and we aren't done."

The US military said last week that it had damaged or destroyed more than 60 Iranian ships and 30 minelayers since the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28. Satellite imagery obtained by Business Insider shows several destroyed vessels in Iran's ports in the early days of the war.

US forces have used MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to sink multiple Iranian ships, including a submarine, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Friday.

The expansion of airstrikes beyond warships reflects the Trump administration's efforts to restrict Iran's ability to threaten the Strait of Hormuz and other waterways, where the Iranians are more likely to fight with covert, asymmetrical capabilities than traditional surface combatants.

American and Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of people and wounded thousands more in Iran, while Tehran's missile and drone attacks have killed dozens in Israel and the Gulf states, according to local health ministries, officials, and media reports.

Meanwhile, at least 13 US service members have been killed, with at least 140 wounded, since the start of combat operations against Iran. The most recent losses were the six crew members who died after their KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq on Thursday.

• A US Navy destroyer used an SM-3 interceptor to down an Iranian ballistic missile on Friday.
• It's the third time in two weeks that a Navy destroyer used the SM-3 to defend NATO airspace.
• SM-3s are among are top missile interceptors, but they come with a hefty price tag.

US Navy destroyers operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea have been launching SM-3s — among America's most high-end interceptors — to defend NATO airspace against incoming Iranian ballistic missiles.

On Friday, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Oscar Austin fired at least one SM-3, or Standard Missile-3, interceptor to bring down an Iranian ballistic missile in Turkish airspace, a defense official told Business Insider.

It marked the third time since February 28, when the US and Israel started striking Iran, that a Navy destroyer has used an SM-3 to down an Iranian missile in Turkish airspace, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military developments.

Turkey's national defense ministry said earlier that NATO air and missile defense assets deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean intercepted the Iranian missile. There were no casualties or injuries, although debris fell in the southern city of Gaziantep.

Turkey hosts several important bases for American and NATO forces, including Incirlik and Konya air bases, and an Iranian strike against those facilities could trigger a significant escalation in a war that has already spread across the Middle East.

The Oscar Austin is one of three American destroyers currently positioned in the Eastern Mediterranean. The use of SM-3 interceptors comes amid broader air defense operations across the Middle East. The US and its allies in the region have shot down thousands of Iranian missiles and drones since the start of Operation Epic Fury less than two weeks ago.

The SM-3 uses a kinetic kill vehicle to destroy short- to intermediate-range missiles during the midcourse phase of flight. It can engage targets in space, unlike the Navy's other interceptors, and is outfitted on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers.

There are multiple variants of the SM-3, manufactured by US defense giant RTX and, for the latest variant, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

US destroyers first used their SM-3s in combat in April 2024 to defend Israel from an Iranian missile attack, and the US Navy fired them again several months later in October after another barrage from Tehran.

These interceptor missiles don't come cheap, though. The SM-3 Block IB variant, for instance, is estimated to cost roughly $10 million on the low end, while the newer Block IIA costs around $28 million.

It's unclear how many SM-3s the Navy has expended during combat in the Middle East. Air defense doctrine can call for firing at least two interceptors for each incoming missile, so the bill for the latest engagements above Turkey could already be substantial.

Navy leadership has warned in recent years that the US has been firing its SM-3s at an alarming rate. Service officials have warned that they need a lot more of these interceptors to counter threats in the Pacific, such as China and its theater ballistic missiles.

• US forces used ATACMS to sink Iranian warships during Operation Epic Fury, the top US general said.
• Gen. Dan Caine announced that US artillery has helped to render the Iranian navy ineffective.
• ATACMS provide substantial striking power to ground forces.

The top US general revealed Friday that American troops involved in Operation Epic Fury have used a ballistic missile system to sink Iranian warships, including a submarine, offering some insight into the targets US artillery is engaging in this war.

Artillery soldiers and Marines are "sinking ships, destroying depots, and launching Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS," and "Precision Strike Missiles, or PrSMs," Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a Friday press briefing.

"From outside Iran, our Army and Marine artillerymen are hitting sites that Iran relies on to project power beyond their borders," he said.

"In just the first 13 days of this operation, our artillery forces have made history," Caine said.

"They fired the first precision strike missiles ever used in combat, reaching deep into enemy territory," he said. "They've used Army ATACMS to sink multiple ships, including a submarine."

US forces are "continuing to destroy the Iranian Navy to ensure freedom of navigation. He said that the US military is targeting mine-laying vessels and the ability to target commercial vessels.

"In less than two weeks, we've rendered the Iranian Navy combat ineffective and continue to attack naval vessels, including all of their Soleimani-class warships, which were armed with anti-ship missiles and anti-aircraft weapons," Caine said.

Other naval targets sunk include Iran's new purpose-built drone carrier.

Army Tactical Missile Systems are typically used to target land-based targets, such as enemy air defense systems and logistics hubs.

Each missile costs upward of $1 million, depending on the range and type of warhead. ATACMS missiles can hit targets out to as far as about 200 miles away and are fired using the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or M240 Multiple Launch Rocket System launchers. The HIMARS can also fire PrSMs and much shorter-range guided rockets.

The Lockheed Martin-built ATACMS is guided by GPS and inertial navigation that tracks its flight toward a designated target, and hence cannot be used to accurately fire on moving targets. For this reason, it's likely that the ships destroyed were pierside or moored.

The ATACMS augments the strike power of Army and Marine Corps artillery, allowing land force commanders to hit critical targets without relying on air or naval forces to deliver the strike. The system was designed during the Cold War and first used in combat in the 1991 Gulf War.

The Ukrainians have also used their limited supply of US-provided ATACMS to hit Russian military facilities. With these weapons in short supply, Ukraine has since developed its own domestically built capabilities.

US forces have attacked over 6,000 targets in Iran, Caine said on Friday. As the US and Israel have established air supremacy over Iran, allowing bombers and fighters to fly overhead, they've shifted to munitions like gravity bombs, which are much cheaper to produce and more plentiful in the US arsenal than missiles.

• A KC-135 refueling aircraft "went down" in Iraq, the US military announced Thursday evening.
• A second unidentified aircraft was involved but landed safely.
• All six crew members were killed in the crash, the military said Friday.

The US military said on Friday that all six crew members were killed after their KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq on Thursday.

The deaths mark the US Air Force's first losses since the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28.

Seven other US service members have been killed in action during the war, with at least 140 others injured. Many of them have returned to duty; some, however, were more seriously wounded.

CENTCOM said it is investigating the KC-135 incident, which occurred at roughly 2 p.m. ET on Thursday in western Iraq. It said that the "loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire."

"The identities of the service members are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified," the military said.

The US first acknowledged on Thursday that it had lost a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting the combat operations against Iran. A second aircraft involved in the incident landed safely.

This crash marks the fourth American aircraft loss since the start of Epic Fury, the Pentagon's name for US operations against Iran, nearly two weeks ago.

Just days into the war, CENTCOM announced that three US F-15E Strike Eagles were downed by friendly fire over Kuwait. The aircraft were lost, but all six aircrew members ejected safely.

The KC-135 Stratotanker is an Air Force asset that supports the broader joint force by refueling other aircraft — including fighter jets, bombers, and cargo aircraft — in notoriously complex midair refueling operations.

It is essentially a flying gas station that executes fuel transfers at high speed with aircraft in proximity.

March 13, 2026 — This story has been updated with the latest information from US Central Command, which has revealed the loss of all crew members.