A decent twitter thread of what exactly the United States has targeted in Yemen over the past week, using satellite imagery and photograph/video geolocations. Lots of factories, government buildings, industrial facilities, underground military complexes, ammunition depots and bases hit, along with universities and farmland linked to the Ansarallah government/movement (property seized by them). And right at the beginning, before the rest of the Ansarallah leadership likely went into hiding in underground facilities in the mountains, the bombing of their homes, leading to civilian casualties and killings (that I would argue were deliberate).

Twitter thread

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Highly recommended going through the thread to get an idea of what is being targeted. Overall it looks like the United States is trying to degrade Ansarallah's ability to run the country and industry, along with bombing any sources of revenue, along with targeting military facilities.

U.S. Sent Venezuelan Asylum-Seeker To El Salvador Based On Real Madrid Tattoo: Lawyer

also apparently

Government of Canada finalizes investment to support Canadian-Born AI leader, Cohere

https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2025/03/government-of-canada-finalizes-investment-to-support-canadian-born-ai-leader-cohere.html

$240 million dollars lmao

Florida , as much a swingstate as Valmy was a draw , had a Drone Show

Thousands flood Turkiye's streets protesting arrest of Istanbul mayor | The Cradle

The Turkish government has identified hundreds of social media accounts and has detained dozens of people for 'provocative posts' about the mayor's arrest

The Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has recognised the State of Palestine and also welcomed the ambassador.

Mexico also continues support South Africa's case in the ICJ against piSSrael even after the elections.

Brazilian journalists are scouring the new Kennedy files for info about the US role in the 1964 Military Coup. Supporting what Phillip Agee wrote in the 1970s, new info shows that Rio Grande do Sul Gov. Leonel Brizola was one of the most spied on individuals in Latin America.

As Jacob Gorender wrote in "Combate nas Trevas", infighting in the Brazilian left led to inability to form armed resistance during the coup in 1964 - everywhere except Rio Grande do Sul, where governor Leonel Brizola (left) had put together an armed militia. In the end, Brizola never took up arms in 1964, because he waited for authorization from Jango Goulart, which never game. . In "CIA Diary", however former agent Phillip Agee wrote that, at one point in the 1960s, Brizola was the most wanted man in Latin America by the CIA.

Brizola was living in exile in Uruguay when Brazil's Dictator Geisel authorized his assassination. Uruguay, gave him 48 hours to leave and he contacted the White House. Angering the CIA and State Dept, Pres. Carter granted Brizola exile. As the dictatorship fizzled out, Brizola traveled to Germany to form alliances European center-left parties, and formed a new party, PDT. He returned to Brazil, became Governor of Rio and ran for Vice President with Lula in 1998.

• Telesur

The Pentagon today attempted to reassure its international partners in the F-35 program that there is no “kill switch” on the stealth fighter jet

Tesla to recall most Cybertrucks because they’ll fall apart.

Ya Allah take every western leftist on Twitter and give us one Arab AMLO then one Arab Sheinbaum.

I've seen libs stop comparing things to Harry Potter and start comparing real things to Warhammer 40k, so, uh... that's where we are now.

I want to share a short article published a while back (Dec 2024) made by one of the most progressive organizations in my country and the continuation of colonial-era suppression of communism and socialism.

Who is promoting communism?

Many years ago, I wore a Che Guevara T-shirt at a rally near Parliament. A special branch officer approached me and asked whose portrait it was, as he had seen it many times before. I jokingly told him it was an actor. The policeman immediately replied, “No wonderlah, so familiar,” explaining that he had seen it at football matches and in theatres. Indeed, Che Guevara’s image was popularized further by the movie The Motorcycle Diaries. Che has long been a symbol of liberation and resistance. He was killed in Bolivia under orders from the CIA.

Recently, I was baffled to hear about the arrest of a restaurant manager for using food and beverage utensils featuring images of Mao Zedong, the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party. It made me reflect on how I was let off for wearing a T-shirt with the image of another leftist leader. I imagine the police might now be busy Googling Che Guevara. Interestingly, our second Prime Minister, Tun Razak, met Mao in 1974, and the iconic image of their meeting was widely used by the newly minted Barisan Nasional during the 1974 General Election. This was part of their effort to gain the support of Malaysian Chinese voters after losing their two-thirds majority in the 1969 election.

The recent raid in Klang reportedly involved police seizing five white ceramic bowls with Chinese inscriptions and images of Mao Zedong and his associates. This comes barely two weeks after the government lost a lawsuit over the seizure of 172 Swatch watches from 11 shopping malls in May 2023. At that time, the watches were accused of promoting LGBTQ themes. The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the Ministry of Home Affairs must return the rainbow-themed watches, finding the seizure to be illegal.

Do the authorities not realize that the internet and social media are the primary tools for people to learn about ideologies? Ironically, by drawing attention to Mao, they may spark curiosity among young people who might now Google him and learn more.

Similarly, in 2011, police arrested 31 PSM activists, accusing them of “waging war against the King” because they allegedly sought to resurrect communism in Malaysia. Among the items seized were T-shirts featuring the names of Rashid Maidin and Suriani Abdullah, both associated with the MCP (Malayan Communist Party). However, the real reason for the crackdown was PSM’s “Udah La Tu, Bersaralah BN” campaign, a roadshow launched on June 24, 2011, as part of the buildup to the Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9, 2011.

All 31 PSM members were eventually released. However, six leaders were later detained under the Emergency Ordinance (EO) for being “movers” of Bersih 2.0, not for any communist activities. Interestingly, the government’s 37 affidavits in reply to the detainees’ habeas corpus application did not mention communism, socialism, or Chin Peng at all.

Fortunately, PSM pursued a civil suit against 82 individuals for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment of the EO6. In 2013, the six detainees were awarded RM201,000 in damages through an out-of-court settlement.

The lesson here seems clear: the shop owner in the recent case may similarly file a civil suit and potentially walk away richer. The Attorney General might charge them with something other than promoting communism, but in doing so, they could inadvertently publicize Mao to those who were previously unaware of him.

And yes, more taxpayers’ money and police resources wasted.

Amtrak CEO abruptly resigns from the nation’s passenger railroad

Georgetown scholar detained over American wife’s Palestinian ties, lawyer says

::: spoiler Article ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A Georgetown University researcher who is married to a Palestinian American was detained by immigration agents who told him his visa had been revoked, prompting another high-profile legal fight over deportation proceedings against foreign-born visa holders authorized to live in the U.S.

Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University and citizen of India, was arrested Monday night outside of his Virginia home by officers who identified themselves as Department of Homeland Security agents, according to a legal filing by Suri’s lawyer.

Hassan Ahmad, Suri’s Virginia-based attorney, wrote in a court filing that Suri was targeted because of his wife’s “identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.”

Suri was later taken to a detention facility in Louisiana, according to a government website. His lawyers are seeking his immediate release and to halt deportation proceedings through their habeas motion filed Tuesday against the Trump administration.

“The Trump Administration has openly expressed its intention to weaponize immigration law to punish noncitizens whose views are deemed critical of U.S. policy as it relates to Israel,” Suri’s attorney wrote.

Suri’s detention more than 1,000 miles (about 1,600 kilometers) away from his family and attorney is “plainly intended as retaliation and punishment for Mr. Suri’s protected speech,” his attorney added.

The deportation effort comes amid legal fights over cases involving a Columbia University international affairs graduate student and a doctor from Lebanon.

Suri was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and determined to be deportable by the Secretary of State’s office, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter. Suri’s case was first reported by Politico.

The filing by Suri’s lawyer said that federal authorities have provided no evidence that he’s committed any crimes and that his detention violates his free speech and due process rights. Suri, who has no criminal record, holds a visa authorizing him to be in the U.S. as a visiting scholar, and his wife is a U.S. citizen, according to the motion.

His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an messages seeking further comment Thursday.

Suri’s lawyers say he’s currently teaching a course at Georgetown and hopes to become a university professor. A Georgetown webpage identifies Suri as a postdoctoral fellow at Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the university. The university said his areas of interest include religion, violence and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. The bio said that he earned a doctorate in India while studying efforts to introduce democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, and he has traveled extensively in conflict zones in several countries.

The university said in a statement Thursday that Suri is an Indian national who was “duly granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention,” the school said. “We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”

The U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement detainee locator website lists Suri as being in the custody of immigration officials at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana.

Separately, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was detained earlier this month over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. And Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported over the weekend despite having a U.S. visa

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This dude who dresses like Sun Yat Sen thinks the strong solidarity for Palestine among Chinese youth will produce meaningful long term changes in government policy back in the direction of Mao-era direct support, rather than post-Deng diplomatic support. I hope he's right! He also wrote a much more in depth piece on the subject.

On the last session of the outgoing portuguese parliament that has been dissolved (elections in may) they invited some ukranian deputies and government people so our beautiful MPs could have their last chance at giving them a long standing ovation, every single party did so except for the communists who remained seated (or maybe left I don't remember), as there is nothing to celebrate about a ukranian government that bans leftist opposition parties, including the ukranian communist party.

Take note that the assembly didn't have time to approve a motion introduced by the communist party to have an urgent debate about housing (after a government minister recently said that "it's not the government's task to resolve the housing crisis") but had time to glaze up some ukranians

The communists also voted against one of those anti-government "support human rights and democracy in georgia against russian aggression" motions, it's the 2nd time the liberal party introduced a motion like that at this point.

https://x.com/caitoz/status/1902489385200972142

Where did that take you? Back to me :IMPERIALIST-MONETARY-FUND:

Argentina’s Lower House grants blind approval to Milei IMF deal

The government has not given any information about the amount or conditions of the new loan

Argentina’s Lower House has approved President Javier Milei’s executive order allowing the administration to seal a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the 23rd the country has made to date. The decree was approved with 129 votes in favor, 108 against, and six abstentions, after a heated debate Wednesday afternoon.

The decree Milei sent last week does not contain any details of the new deal, meaning deputies voted without knowing how much money the lender will disburse or whether the nation will be required to change its monetary policy as a condition of the loan. Opposition deputy Aldo Leiva stopped during the vote to ask Lower House President Martín Menem how much the deal would be for.

“The time is up,” Menem replied.

Deputies from the ruling La Libertad Avanza coalition and the PRO, Unión Cívica Radical, Coalición Cívica, and Innovación Federal parties voted in favor of the decree, while the Peronist Unión por la Patria opposition and smaller left-wing parties opposed it. The Encuentro Federal bloc was divided.

After the vote, several Peronist deputies remained in their seats, blasting Menem over the lack of transparency regarding the deal’s contents.

Finance Secretary Pablo Quirno said on Tuesday that the deal would be a 10-year Extended Fund Facility with an interest rate of 5.63%. The IMF defines an Extended Fund Facility as providing “financial assistance to countries facing serious medium-term balance of payments problems because of structural weaknesses that require time to address.”

It adds: “To help countries implement medium-term structural reforms, the EFF offers longer program engagement and a longer repayment period.”

Quirno said the loan would be used to pay Treasury’s debt to the Central Bank.

All other details, including the loan’s value and disbursement schedule, have yet to be decided, he added.

A ‘serious violation’ of the constitution

Presidential decrees can only be overturned if the upper and lower houses both vote against them, meaning the senate cannot overturn today’s result. However, the decree is likely to face legal challenges, since critics argue that approving an IMF deal this way violates Argentina’s laws and constitution.

A 2021 law requires all new debt with the IMF to go through Congress. Conversely, emergency decrees such as the one Milei issued are law the moment the government issues them and can be only repealed if both houses vote against them.

Constitutional lawyer Daniel Sabsay told the Herald it was a “serious violation” of the constitution, article 75 of which gives the legislative branch the power to negotiate foreign debt. “Issuing [the decree] as a closed book makes deliberation impossible, which is the fundamental activity Congress carries out when it discusses bills,” Sabsay said.

Milei and other officials have repeatedly said that the new agreement does not need to go through Congress because it is not “new debt,” since the funds will be used to pay back the Central Bank. Former economy minister Martín Guzmán, the author of the 2021 law, contested that claim, saying the Fund “is not a charity,” and that the new debt will be used for capital flight and financial speculation.

Guzmán also said that one of the rules of the IMF’s exceptional credits is “broad political support.” “What the government itself recognizes is that they do not have it and that is why they are not going to Congress. Therefore, the legitimacy of this debt will be questioned,” Guzmán told Revista Crisis.

Peronist senators Juliana Di Tullio, José Mayans, and Anabel Sagasti wrote a letter to the IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and other senior officials on Tuesday, expressing their opposition to the deal. Like Sabsay, they argued that passing the deal by decree would violate the Constitution and the 2021 law. They said the contents of the agreement would be “covered by a mantle of secrecy that is incomprehensible unless [the conditions] are of such seriousness that they imply the handover of strategic assets of the Argentine Nation or establish austerity measures even more brutal than those the Milei government is implementing today.”

Pensioners protest

The decree was passed while a large protest took place outside Congress. Every Wednesday, retirees protest against austerity measures. Pensions account for 30% of the Milei administration’s cuts, according to a report by the Center of Argentina Political Economy (CEPA) think tank.

The minimum monthly state pension in Argentina is currently AR$349,122 (US$321 at the official rate, US$284 at the MEP rate), a figure which includes an AR$70,000 monthly “bonus.” It falls far short of the basic basket for older adults, which is currently AR$1.2 million, according to the country’s ombuds office. Protests the previous Wednesday reached breaking point after football fans joined in. A police crackdown left 672 people injured, making it the most violent protest since the country’s catastrophic 2001 economic crisis, according to the Comisión Provincial por la Memoria human rights nonprofit.

Photojournalist Pablo Grillo was shot in the head with a tear gas canister, and remains in hospital in critical condition. Oscar, 71, a retired dentist at the march, told the Herald: “I have always participated in demonstrations since I was very young. In 50-odd years, I have never seen such indiscriminate shooting of rubber bullets and gas.”

After the vote, the President’s Office celebrated in a post on X.

“This agreement will guarantee a public credit operation for the National Treasury to pay existing debt with the Central Bank and implies a reduction of the total public debt,” the post said.

“The government will not rest for a minute until the disinflation process is definitive and the liberation of exchange restrictions is a reality, because that is what we have been elected to do.”

We are fucked, so fucking fucked. We might be the most fucked nation of all the fucked up nations that were fucked up by the fucking IMF my fucking god end this fucking nightmare

Fortunately the protest went on without serious incidents. A bunch of undercover cops tried to start shit up but they were ratted out by protesters and thrown away. A bunch of wannabe cops belonging to the libertarians (dressed as cops) also walked among the prosters to intimidate, but were all kicked out. The good thing here is that protesters are getting used to having undercover pigs among them and finding out who is who.

You don't have the cards' - How to play poker against Trump https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cx2g1dwk27do

Greenpeace must pay hundreds of millions over Dakota Access Pipeline protests, rules jury

RIP protesting anything. Time for a new form of struggle?

PDF JFK files - State Dept. Squashing investigation into Israeli nuclear program.

I'm usually yapping about Lebanese government formations and Iraqi shia cults here, but this time I want other nerds to yap here. What's going on in Zambia or Zimbabwe or Mozambique or Angola or Botswana or Malawi or any African nation that isn't under French financial strangulation like the ones in West Africa? How are their economies doing? Native corruption or European shenanigans? Are the Chinese cooking anything there? Are they producing anything interesting? Any cultural output that is interesting? How does an average day look in Maputo or Lusaka or Luanda or anywhere? I only hear about these nations whenever their football team is playing in the AFCON, but I literally haven't read anything interesting about these countries in a long time.

I'm quite bothered by burned teslas ngl. This is what crosses threshold for property destruction in america? not making bombs, or selling oxycodone, or closing factories, or shipping bombs for genocide, it's fucking doge closing usaid. I dunno how to interpret it, is it opportunity vs premediation? Batshit civic religion?

It puts me roughly in the same bafflement as gore vidal meeting kissinger and just thinking of quips

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2025/03/19/trump-eliminate-education-department-order/82235735007/ Exclusive: Trump to sign order Thursday aimed at eliminating Education Department

GOLDMAN: “.. we expect hiring in the healthcare, education, and government sectors to slow to about 15k jobs/month in the second half of the year (vs. about 100k jobs/month now). .. We now expect overall payroll growth to slow to 115k jobs/month by the end of the year.” https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/post/3lkqos3pul222?ref_src=embed

That is an apocalyptic slowdown

The Brazilian government has not responded to Israel's request for the appointment of an ambassador to Brazil, made in January. Israel will only be represented by a chargé d'affaires, downgrading the diplomatic relationship between the two countries. The crisis intensified when Netanyahu reacted negatively to Brazil's comparison between the systematic attacks on civilians in Gaza and the Holocaust. In response, Netanyahu summoned the Brazilian ambassador for a public reprimand.

President Lula da Silva retaliated and withdrew his diplomat from Tel Aviv. Now, once again, the Brazilian government is criticizing the recent Israeli attacks and calling for the withdrawal of troops from Gaza. The delay in approving a new Israeli diplomat reinforces the diplomatic estrangement. The current Israeli ambassador will leave his post soon, and the future of the relationship between the countries remains uncertain.

• Telegram

Curse you Vincent Bevins, I can’t look at a mass protest without thinking about horizontal organization and the lack of a communist party!

Re: Turkey (what’s hexbear opinion on the use of the word Türkiye?)

https://t.me/enemywatch/32410

Nixon’s vice president asked Saudis for money to fight US ‘Zionists’. Spiro Agnew, in letter to crown prince, said ‘Zionists orchestrated organized attack on me’ as ‘I’d never agree to continuance of unfair and disastrous favoring of Israel’ The late US Vice President Spiro Agnew requested money in 1980 from Saudi Arabia to “continue to fight” against American Zionists.

Agnew, who served for three years under Richard Nixon before resigning in 1973 in a corruption scandal from his time as the governor of Maryland in the 1960s, wrote to Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, then crown prince of Saudi Arabia, saying “I need desperately your financial support,” MSNBC reported Thursday.

“You highness is already familiar with the unrelenting Zionist efforts to destroy me,” Agnew wrote, adding that Elliot Richardson, who was attorney general when Agnew was vice president, “attacked” him because Agnew “could not be trusted to act properly in the Middle East.”

The reason, he also wrote, “was that the Zionists in the United States knew that I would never agree to the continuance of the unfair and disastrous favoring of Israel and they had to get me out of office there so that I would not succeed Nixon.” Since 1974, “The Zionists have orchestrated a well-organized attack on me” through lawsuits, Agnew said, “to bleed me of my resources to continue my effort to inform the American people of their control of the media and other influential sectors of American society.”

Agnew, who died in 1996, resigned amid revelations that he had engaged in corruption while governor and did not contest his conviction. But in his letter to the prince, he said the Zionists “framed” him. He spoke out frequently about what he called the “Zionist influences in the US.”

He stated that he would use the funds to "continue my effort to inform the American people of their (i.e., Zionists') control of the media and other influential sectors of American society." He also congratulated the crown prince on his call for jihad against Israel, whose declaration of Jerusalem as its capital he characterized as "the final provocation". A month later he thanked the crown prince for giving him "the resources to continue the battle against the Zionist community here in the U.S.". Agnew's anti-Zionist views seemed to have developed after leaving office—as vice president, he expressed admiration for Israel and was friendly with his Jewish staff members.

With the resumption of US intelligence sharing to Ukraine, Ukrainian F-16s have resumed frontline operations. One was spotted in the Sumy region.

Video of F-16 in Sumy

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For more information on their mission, why US intelligence sharing is vital to carrying it out, loadout, etc, I made a comment on that here.

There are also rumours circulating on Russian telegram channels that a Ukrainian F-16 was shot down over Sumy, using an innovative method. I'll comment further if there is any confirmation of this.

Israel’s Defense Minister Katz:

Residents of Gaza, this is your final warning. The first Sinwar destroyed Gaza, and the second Sinwar will bring upon it total ruin. The Israeli Air Force's attack against Hamas terrorists was only the first step. What follows will be far harsher, and you will bear the full cost.

Evacuation of the population from combat zones will soon resume. If all Israeli hostages are not released and Hamas is not kicked out of Gaza, Israel will act with force you have not known before.

Take the advice of the U.S. President: return the hostages and kick out Hamas, and new options will open up for you—including relocation to other parts of the world for those who choose. The alternative is destruction and total devastation.

"Ethnically cleanse yourselves or we'll genocide you."

The only way to more directly admit that you intend to commit genocide is to literally say "I intend to commit genocide".

https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1jf3jr9/ua_pov_the_white_house_declares_that_trump_seeks/

Trump wants ownership of Ukraine's nuclear power plants, lmao.

Ukraine is going to end up as a giant fully-foreign-owned AI slop farm at this rate.

Trump Seeks Russian Support For War On Iran | Moon of Alabama

this post verified free of brainworms by real hexbear fedayeen ✅

Nora Barrows-Friedman just said on the latest Tankie Therapy that zionist quadcopter drones swarmed a mosque on Ramadan and started killing people inside a few days ago. does anyone know more about this I have not been firehosing twitter horrors

Turkish authorities detain Istanbul mayor on ‘terrorism, corruption’ charges | The Cradle

Ekrem Imamoglu, a popular opposition figure, was poised to run in his party’s presidential primary in the coming days

Approximately eight hours after Trump and Putin's talks resulted in a 30-day halt on strikes against energy facilities between Russia and Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck an oil reservoir near Kavkazskaya Prior to the attack, Russian forces intercepted several of their own drones aimed at Ukrainian energy facilities immediately after the agreement was reached.

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Food is starting to run out in Gaza as Israel resumes bombing raids. “My son cries all night from hunger, and I have nothing to give him,” says one resident. The ceasefire has been broken and Israel has suspended the entry of food and medicine.

• Telegram

More than 1,000 US meatpackers have lost their export registrations to China, affecting big companies like Tyson and Cargill. The expiration could cause losses of up to US$ 5 billion and further damage US producers. The Chinese government has not renewed the registrations, despite repeated requests from the US. The US Department of Agriculture warns that this could violate the “Phase 1” agreement, which requires China to update its list of suppliers within 20 days of receiving information from the USDA.

The US exported US$ 2.5 billion in meat to China last year, making it the country's third largest supplier. The suspension of sales would affect producers of chicken feet and pork offal, products that are little consumed domestically.

• Telegram

Terrorists back in Gaza

I hope to see many of them soon, through a backup camera

The first footage has been released, Xcancel mirror of the US Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps using APKWS laser guided rockets to shoot down Ansarallah (known as the Houthis in western media) drones and cruise missiles. I was talking a few days ago about how this was already happening, but now it's confirmed by video footage from CENTCOM themselves.

What is APKWS? To put it simply, APKWS is a conversion kit that turns unguided Hydra-70 rockets (of which 5 million exist) into laser guided short range missiles. Similar to how a Paveway kit turns an unguided bomb into a laser guided bomb, or a JDAM kit turns an unguided bomb into a GPS guided bomb, APKWS turns unguided rockets into guided missiles. APKWS was first designed only to be used against ground targets, but the Ukrainians, when firing them from their VAMPIRE ground and sea based launch systems, proved that it can be used successfully against cruise missiles and drones, and as a result the US military is doing the same, and even planning modifications to APKWS to make it even more effective against air targets, such as adding infrared terminal guidance.

Ukrainian VAMPIRE system taking out Russian cruise missiles and drones

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Why is this significant? For two reasons: cost and magazine size. APKWS is very cheap, the guidance section only costs $15 000, and the warheads and rocket motors, of which millions are currently in US stockpiles, only cost a few thousand dollars each, for a total cost of between $20 000 - $25 000 per missile/guided rocket. In comparison, an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile launched from US fighter aircraft costs upwards of $400 000 each, and the ship launched SM series of interceptors cost anywhere from $2 -$9 million, depending on the model. So this is a very significant cost saving for the US, the APKWS guided rockets might even be cheaper than the drones and cruise missiles they shoot down.

The second is magazine size. While a fighter aircraft can only carry a handful of sidewinders and other air to air missiles at a time, it can carry dozens of APKWS rockets at a time, as these rockets can be fitted on seven shot rocket pods, which only take up one hardpoint each. This F/A-18 has 14 APKWS guided rockets on one wing (two 7 shot launchers), for a total of 28 guided rockets if the loadout is replicated symmetrically on the other wing. Note with the adaptor, that two seven shot rocket pods are only using a single hardpoint.

These two factors make defending against drone swarms a possibility, both in terms of being cost effective, and in terms of the amount of guided rockets available at a single given time for intercept missions. This could be why drone and cruise missile attacks on US Navy ships are not as effective as before. While in Ukraine the use of APKWS guided rockets is limited to their ground and sea based launching systems, such as technicals and fastboats, the United States does not have such limitations and can fit these to aircraft, enabling defence over a much wider area. The APKWS guided rockets themselves have a very short range, only a few kilometres/miles, meaning that they can only defend a very limited area from ground/sea based launch platforms. So mounting them to a fighter aircraft vastly increases the area that can be defended by them, and detection capabilities for drones out of range of the APKWS (fighter aircraft have their own radar).

Make no mistake, the US military is learning their lessons when it comes to the Ukraine war, the confrontations with Ansarallah in the Red Sea, and defending against Iranian ballistic missiles.