RBT's Defense Blog

For last 3 decades Israeli PM Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu has been trying to pull USA into a war with Iran. He knew quite well that it was only Iran that stood between his dream of ‘ Greater Israel ’. After Hamas attacked in 2023 to stop Israel from further annexing Palestinian land it gave Bibi his chance finally wage war against Iran with gun on USA shoulder thanks to President Donald J Trump. Bibi tried everything from killing IRGC commanders to killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, bombing Iran nuclear sites to killing 168 innocent children at school in Minab, to instigating riots by sending Starlink devices and weapons to facilitate killings that result in regime change. But Iran stood firm and has seemingly fought off all tricks by Zionist Jewish state of ‘ what Israel wanted to do with Iran ’ and is literally dictating terms for permanent ceasefire, be it charging fee Hormuz to forcing Arab states who were tacitly supporting the war by Israel to cough up money as wa...

For nearly two decades, the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper was the undisputed king of the skies in modern asymmetric warfare. It was the poster child of the Global War on Terror—an exquisite, hunter-killer platform that could loiter over a target for over 24 hours, beaming back high-definition video before quietly delivering a precision strike. But the geopolitical landscape has shifted dramatically. High-intensity conflicts and advanced air defense networks have exposed the Reaper’s Achilles' heel: it was designed for permissive environments, not contested ones. Faced with mounting combat losses and an unsustainable financial equation, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has officially set its sights on what comes next. In mid-2026, top military officials finalized the requirements for a successor program, colloquially dubbed "MQ-9 Next." Here is a look inside the strategic shift that is fundamentally redefining the future of unmanned aerial warfare. The Catalyst: The R...

The USA's Naval Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, is a dramatic escalation after ceasefire in the 2026 Iran War. On April 13, 2026, at 10 a.m. ET, USA under President Donald Trump imposed a naval blockade targeting all maritime traffic entering or leaving Iranian ports and coastal areas along the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. This blockade was in addition to blockade already imposed by Iran on the Straits of Hormuz that has effectively stopped over 20% of global crude oil outflow from the Persian Gulf. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has reportedly deployed over 10,000 personnel, more than a dozen warships, and dozens of aircraft to enforce it, primarily from positions in the south of Gulf of Oman and northern Arabian Sea to minimize exposure to Iranian missiles and drones. In the first 24 hours, 6 merchant ships were turned back, with no vessels reported breaching the blockade yet—though ship-tracking data shows some uncertainty did and continued traffic through the broader St...