INTERNACIONAL
A drone for every soldier in army of the future, Driscoll says
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The Army is rapidly developing small, first-person-view drones — the same kind that have proven devastatingly effective in Ukraine — and envisions a future where «every infantryman will have a drone with them,» according to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
«We’re doing essentially a call to arms where we are ingesting the lessons being learned in Ukraine,» Driscoll told a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual conference. «Ukraine was able to take out almost $10 billion worth of Russian equipment with $100,000 worth of drones.»
He added that the Army’s elite units are already planning around drones for every mission. «When you meet with our lead units like the Ranger Regiment or Delta Force,» he said, «they envision drones being a core part of every action they do.»
The remarks came during the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington, where hundreds of Army leaders met with defense executives showcasing the latest battlefield technology. The event — one of the Army’s largest industry gatherings — almost didn’t happen this year amid the government shutdown.
ARMY PUSHES BATTLEFIELD AI AS COUNTER-DRONE FIGHT TAKES CENTER STAGE
A Ukrainian serviceman inspects a first-person-view drone provided by the Come Back Alive foundation to a Ukrainian Airborne Brigade amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine in Kyiv on Feb. 14, 2024. (Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters/File photo)
AUSA stepped in with a $1 million donation to cover travel costs and fly in Army officers from around the world, allowing the service to continue its meetings with industry and push ahead on modernization plans.
Driscoll said the Army sees drones and counter-drones as «different sides of the same coin,» noting that future soldiers will need to be proficient at both. «You can’t really defend against one without being an expert in the other,» he said.
The service is also developing defensive networks that merge sensors and interceptors to protect key assets from aerial threats. «We’re using new technologies like drones to create a sensing layer that, paired with interceptors, will essentially allow us to build mini ‘Iron Domes’ over protected assets,» Driscoll said.
PENTAGON EXPLORING COUNTER-DRONE SYSTEMS TO PREVENT INCURSIONS OVER NATIONAL SECURITY FACILITIES
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll (Spc. Luke Sullivan/75th Ranger Regiment)
He described this «drone-pervasive» vision as part of a sweeping modernization campaign that spans artificial intelligence, industrial reform, and energy resilience — all of which, he said, are necessary for the Army to operate in contested environments such as the Indo-Pacific.
In a separate but related effort, Driscoll and Energy Secretary Chris Wright unveiled the Janus Program, a next-generation energy initiative that would place small nuclear microreactors at Army bases across the United States. The goal: make installations self-sufficient in power and less dependent on vulnerable fuel convoys or overseas supply chains.
«These reactors will be commercially built and operated,» Driscoll said, «and they’ll give us the ability to provide resilient, secure, round-the-clock power at our most critical installations.»
ARMY’S NUCLEAR COMEBACK: SWEEPING NEW PROGRAM AIMS TO BREAK ‘TYRANNY OF FUEL’ AT BASES ACROSS THE GLOBE
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll briefed reporters on Army modernization. (Cheriss May/Getty Images )
Wright said the program aims to replicate the reliability of nuclear propulsion in Navy submarines. «These engines are installed, they run the life of the submarine without refueling,» he said. «That changed the game for our Navy. And I think we can do the same thing for our Army with small reactors that can be deployed in all different settings.»
The Janus reactors, which will be developed in partnership with the Department of Energy, are designed to be small and transportable. Driscoll said each would be shielded with armor-grade materials — «the same material you put around a tank» — and protected by the same layered sensor and drone network envisioned for base defense.
One of the biggest hurdles to scaling microreactors is uranium enrichment. The reactors require high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) — a higher concentration of uranium-235 than is currently produced for civilian use.
(Iryna Rybakova/Press Service of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters)
«Nobody produces it today,» Wright told reporters. «Congress allocated some money a couple of years ago, but it’s been sat on too long. We’ll be giving awards to accelerate the rise of American-owned enrichment capacity in America.»
Wright said the goal is to restore the domestic uranium supply chain and eliminate reliance on foreign sources. «We built 100 reactors quickly, providing 20 percent of U.S. electricity — and then it stagnated for decades,» he said. «Now nuclear provides around 5 percent of global energy output. This is deeply disappointing.»
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Driscoll acknowledged that safety and security will be top concerns as the Army moves forward. «From a cyber perspective, no one is going to allow a nuclear reactor that is remotely operated,» he said. «They’ll be connected by fiber optic — there’s no remote operation possibility.»
He added that the reactors’ small size and design make them unattractive proliferation targets. «These will be in the 50 U.S. states, not deployed to the front,» he said. «They’re small targets, with very small amounts of material inside.»
army,drones,armed forces topics,military tech
INTERNACIONAL
Apagones, inflación y transporte limitado: la vida incierta de los cubanos sin combustible por el cerco impuesto por Estados Unidos
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
President Donald Trump will deliver his fourth State of the Union address of his presidential tenure Tuesday night, which will include guests stretching from conservative speaker Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, to the parents of the National Guard member fatally shot on the streets of Washington, D.C., in November 2025.
Trump will take the dais at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Tuesday, when he is expected to deliver a data-heavy speech focused on the economy and his administration’s wins lowering cost-of-living woes.
He will be joined by special guests who will help illustrate how his policies have delivered real savings to everyday Americans, those who have been the victims of crimes and tragedy and those embodying American triumph.
Among top names invited to the address are Erika Kirk, who is now leading conservative group Turning Point USA after her husband, the group’s co-founder and executive director, was assassinated in September 2025 while touring college campuses. Trump’s speech will include mentions of the U.S.’ «tremendous revival of faith, Christianity, and belief in God in our country» since Kirk’s death, The Daily Wire reported.
Brady Tkachuk, Jack Hughes, Matthew Tkachuk and Quinn Hughes attend a celebration of the USA Men’s Hockey Team’s Olympic Gold Feb. 23, 2026, in Miami. (Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for E11EVEN Miami)
The U.S. men’s hockey team also is traveling to the speech after winning the gold in the Olympics after defeating Canada 2–1. The team traveled on a blue-and-white Air Force jet from Miami to the nation’s capital Tuesday.
Everyday Americans also will play a large role in Trump’s speech, with the president inviting women such as Catherine Rayner of Norfolk, Virginia. Rayner and her husband have been navigating fertility complications and in vitro fertilization for five years.
LIBERAL PUNDITS CALL TEAM USA HOCKEY PLAYERS ‘MORONS,’ SCOLD GOLD MEDALISTS OVER TRUMP CALL
Rayner became the first patient of TrumpRx.gov — a government-run portal designed to steer consumers toward lower-cost prescription drugs offered by manufacturers — earlier in February when it rolled out, and saw pharmaceutical bills drop from about $4,000 to $500, Fox News Digital previously reported.
President Donald Trump will deliver his fourth State of the Union address of his presidential tenure Tuesday night. (Win McNamee/Pool via Reuters)
The president also invited Pennsylvania mom Megan Hemhouser, who homeschools her two children and also works as a waitress in the evenings. Her husband is a heavy machinery operator, with the family showcasing how the president’s «no tax on tips» and «no tax on overtime» policies have benefited everyday families. The Hemhousers have benefited from a $5,000 increase in take-home pay under Trump’s tax plans included in the one «big beautiful bill.»
GROWING NUMBER OF DEMOCRATS SKIPPING TRUMP’S 2026 STATE OF THE UNION
Members of the National Guard patrols along Constitution Ave. on December 01, 2025 in Washington, DC. Two West Virginia National Guard troops were shot blocks from the White House on November 26, resulting in the death of Sarah Beckstrom on Thursday, November 27, following what authorities called a targeted attack. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
Trump also invited the parents of Sarah Beckstrom, the 20-year-old National Guard member who was killed in Washington, D.C., ahead of Thanksgiving 2025.
Dalilah Coleman, 7, will also attend the speech, CBS News reported. Coleman was left seriously injured by a California car crash involving an illegal immigrant truck driver in 2024.
SPEECHWRITERS FROM REAGAN TO BIDEN AGREE: TRUMP’S SOTU IS A CRITICAL TEST FOR HIS SECOND TERM
President Donald Trump revealed that first lady Melania Trump is no fan of his public dancing on stage. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
First lady Melania Trump invited guests who the White House said reflect on her «Be Best, Fostering the Future» push, including Sierra Burns, a participant in her Foster Youth to Independence Program, and Everest Nevraumont, a 10-year-old student at an AI-focused private school, Alpha School, an AI advocate and a TedX speaker.
The pair will join the first lady in her box for the 2026 State of the Union, spotlighting her focus on expanding opportunity through education and technology, according to the White House’s website.
Trump additionally invited the U.S. women’s hockey team to the speech after their gold win over Canada, but they declined due to the timing of the speech.
Trump’s speech is expected to focus on economic wins under his leadership, while celebrating the nation’s landmark 250th anniversary of independence.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital ahead of the speech, «President Trump’s State of the Union Address will celebrate 250 glorious years of our nation’s independence and excellence, highlighting incredible stories of American heroes throughout the speech.»
Related Article
donald trump,state of the union,politics,economy,erika kirk
INTERNACIONAL
Iran’s shadowy chemical weapons program draws scrutiny as reports allege use against protesters
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A new report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) raises concerns about Iran’s opaque chemical weapons program, which argues policymakers have paid little attention to compared with Iran’s more scrutinized nuclear weapons program.
The FDD report outlines how the Iranian regime may have resorted to the unconventional use of chemical weapons while it faced an unprecedented uprising beginning in December 2025, a wave of unrest Tehran has not seen since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Any use of chemical weapons by Iran would be in defiance of their obligations under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.
«The United States, its allies and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) should investigate credible claims that Iran’s regime used chemical weapons against its own people,» Andrea Stricker, deputy director of FDD’s nonproliferation program and author of the report, told Fox News Digital.
An Iranian military truck carries surface-to-air missiles past a portrait of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a parade on April 18, 2018, in Tehran. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
Iran’s illicit chemical weapons program is under renewed scrutiny as the Trump administration appears closer to taking military action against Iran and its nuclear weapons program.
While the U.S. has been engaged in indirect talks with Iranian officials mediated by Oman in Geneva, the U.S. has increased its military presence in the Persian Gulf, sending the USS Gerald R. Ford to join dozens of other warships to the region.
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi posted on X that «Iran will resume talks with the U.S. in Geneva with a determination to achieve a fair and equitable deal—in the shortest possible time.»
The foreign minister claimed that Iran will not pursue nuclear weapons under any circumstances but emphasized that Iran will not forgo its right to harness peaceful nuclear technology.
ISRAELI OFFICIALS REPORTEDLY WARN IRAN’S BALLISTIC MISSILES COULD TRIGGER SOLO MILITARY ACTION AGAINST TEHRAN
The headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, Netherlands, May 5, 2017. (Peter Dejong/The Associated Press)
«A deal is within reach, but only if diplomacy is given priority,» he added.
Despite the optimism and push for continued talks, there remain fears that Iran will not make any meaningful concessions on their nuclear program, which could lead to U.S. military strikes on the nation.
A broader regime change campaign to topple the Islamic republic’s government, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is also not off the table, according to some reports.
«If Washington launches strikes against Iran, it should give serious consideration to targeting the regime’s chemical weapons research and production facilities. Such action would help halt further development and potential use of these weapons while sending a clear message that the regime cannot commit atrocities with impunity,» Stricker said.
The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which Iran is party to, upholds the norms against state-held chemical weapons, specifically, banning states’ development, stockpiling, production and use of chemical weapons, even for retaliatory reasons, as well as their receipt from or transfer to anyone.
US ASSETS IN MIDDLE EAST POSITIONED FOR ‘HIGHLY KINETIC’ WAR, EX-PENTAGON OFFICIAL WARNS
Israel’s deputy ambassador to the Netherlands, Yaron Wax, said in July 2025 before a special meeting of the OPCW that «over the past two decades Iran has been developing a chemical weapons program based on weaponized pharmaceutical agents.»
These agents, Wax said, impact the central nervous system and can be fatal even in small doses.
The ambassador said at the Shahid Meisami Research Complex, destroyed by Israel in June 2025, Iran’s Shahid Meisami Group (SMG) was working on fentanyl opioid-derived tactical munitions for military use. Israel believes the pharmaceutical-based agents were transferred to Syria’s longtime and now deposed dictator, Bashar al-Assad, and Iraqi Shia militias as well.
Iran began developing its chemical weapons program in 1983 during its war with Iraq in response to chemical attacks from the regime of Saddam Hussein, according to the U.S. Intelligence Community.
As recently as 2024, the U.S. has repeatedly found Iran in noncompliance with its obligations under the CWC.
In a post on X in November 2024, the Iranian mission to the United Nations pushed back on the charges against it. «A victim of Western-donated chemical weapons employed by the Saddam regime, Iran stands as a responsible member of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Over the past several decades, not a single instance of Iranian violation has been recorded. The current unfounded reports are merely an outgrowth of psychological warfare propagated by the Zionist regime in the wake of its recent defeat on the Lebanese front.»
Cars burn in a street during a protest over the collapse of the currency’s value in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 8, 2026. (Stringer/West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
TRUMP WARNS IRAN, DELAYS STRIKES AS RED LINE DEBATE ECHOES OBAMA’S SYRIA MOMENT
Stricker says the U.S. and international community have failed to hold Iran accountable for its illegal chemical weapons program, and meaningful action must be taken to prevent Iran from transporting banned substances to Iran’s nefarious proxy actors in the Middle East.
The report notes that the U.S. and OPCW should launch a pressure campaign against Iran, calling out the regime and publicizing any violations. The Trump administration, the report recommends, should demand a formal ultimatum to demonstrate compliance with the convention and accept monitoring and verification mechanisms.
FDD also suggests Israel should ratify the CWC and work within the OPCW, which would give Israel more credibility in combating Iranian violations.
Smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025, during an attack by Israel. (Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The report says that, as a last resort, the U.S. should consider launching strikes targeting regime chemical weapons facilities, or support Israeli efforts, if actionable intelligence indicates movement on Iran’s chemical weapons efforts or a renewed push by the regime to use such illegal weapons to crack down on anti-government protests.
«The only solution to Iran’s persistent WMD threat is for the United States and Israel to undermine the regime’s grip on power. Until then, the two nations will periodically be forced to play whack-a-mole with Tehran’s capabilities whenever they endanger regional peace,» Stricker said.
Related Article
iran,israel,conflicts,ali khamenei,national security
Natalie Weber, entre rezarle a San Cupertino o enviar a su hija Mía a una maestra particular: “Felicitaciones”
Cuadernos de las Coimas: Ricardo Jaime recusó a un juez y un empresario pidió anular su declaración como arrepentido
La Justicia realiza 30 allanamientos en la causa que investiga al dueño de Sur Finanzas, Ariel Vallejo
El Gobierno se reunió con el Grupo de los Seis: la postura empresarial sobre la reforma laboral y las preocupaciones de algunos sectores
Marruecos desmiente la salida de Regragui: portazo para Xavi
Apagones, inflación y transporte limitado: la vida incierta de los cubanos sin combustible por el cerco impuesto por Estados Unidos
Villarruel cuestionó la apertura de importaciones: «Sin industria, se pasa a depender de China»
“Ahora es la hora de jugarse”: el mensaje de Patricia Bullrich a los empresarios tras aprobarse la reforma laboral
Según un especialista, el precio de la carne se mantendrá alto “entre dos y tres años”
Cómo será el tratamiento de la reforma laboral en el Senado, luego de haber obtenido la media sanción en Diputados
POLITICA3 días agoAsí está el recuento estimado de votos de la reforma laboral que se debate en la Cámara de Diputados
- POLITICA1 día ago
“Nos hacemos cargo”: Patricia Bullrich admitió un error del Gobierno en la inclusión del artículo de las licencias médicas
- POLITICA23 horas ago
Daiana Fernández Molero defendió la reforma laboral: “Va a haber mayor creación de empleo porque va a ser más fácil contratar en blanco”
