missile

That Iran shot down a US F-15 was something unusual. The problem is that they have opened the missile… and everything points to China

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In 1960, when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet UnionWashington initially believed it was facing a military problem. He ended up discovering that the incident had diplomatic consequences much larger and blew up a summit between the two superpowers. Because sometimes a single downed plane reveals a story much bigger than the battle in which it fell. The takedown that changed the conversation. He downing of an F-15E on Iran last month was, in itself, an extraordinary event. It had been decades since a United States fighter had been shot down by enemy fire, and the rescue movie operation later, with one of the crew hiding for two days in the Zagros Mountains, underlined the seriousness of the episode. However, as investigations continue, the incident is shifting from being a story about Iranian military capabilities to something else: a story about China. According to cited sources by NBC News the suspicion that the plane was hit by a portable anti-aircraft missile (MANPADS) of Chinese manufacture has shifted the focus from the battlefield to a much more uncomfortable question for Washington: to what extent Beijing is helping to sustain Tehran’s military capacity. More important than the missile. From a military point of view, a portable anti-aircraft missile is not a revolutionary weapon. Its appeal lies precisely on the contrary: It is relatively cheap, easy to deploy, and capable of threatening even extremely sophisticated platforms if circumstances are favorable. Hence, what has aroused American interest is not so much the type of weapon used as its possible origin. If suspicions are correct, the shootdown would demonstrate that Chinese technology has ended up participatingdirectly or indirectly, in one of the more symbolic hits suffered by American aviation in years. From that perspective, the discussion then stops revolving around how Iran managed to shoot down an F-15 and begins to focus on what role played China to make it possible. The shadow of broader support. Because suspicions are not limited to the missile. US sources also suggest that China may have provided Iran with radar systems capable of detecting stealth aircraft and access to space capabilities that would facilitate the location of targets. So far none of these accusations have been conclusively proven publicly and Beijing categorically rejects them, but together they paint an image that is worrying in Washington: that of a technological support network which, without involving direct military involvement, could significantly increase Iran’s ability to challenge the United States and its allies. In this context, the downed F-15 becomes tangible proof of a broader phenomenon that US officials have been denouncing for some time. The contradiction of American diplomacy. The situation is especially delicate because the United States simultaneously needs to contain Iran and keep channels open with China. Beijing is the main buyer of the iranian oil and one of the few actors with enough influence to put economic pressure on Tehran. During negotiations to reach a ceasefire, the Trump administration sought precisely that collaboration. But every new accusation on Chinese missiles, radars or satellites used by Iran complicates that balance. Washington thus finds itself in an uncomfortable position: it needs China to contribute to stabilizing the region while accusing it of providing tools that strengthen one of its main adversaries in the Middle East. The real message. That’s why the downing of the F-15 It has a relevance that goes far beyond the loss of a plane. What is at stake is not only the effectiveness of Iranian defenses, but the American perception that more and more regional conflicts are connected to global strategic competition. against China. The investigation on the missile seeks to determine how the fighter fell, but also who was behind the technology that made it possible. In a sense, Washington has opened up the missile to examine it piece by piece, and in doing so has discovered that the biggest questions no longer point solely to Tehran. They aim more and more towards Beijingwhere the United States believes is a growing part of the economic, technological and military infrastructure that allows its rivals to challenge its power in different corners of the world. Image | U.S. Force In Xataka | The US has copied its very cheap drone swarms from Iran and Russia. The problem is what Starlink asks for connecting them In Xataka | The war in the East has reached an unexpected agreement: one where the US does not discuss Iran’s missiles, bombs or uranium

Nvidia has just launched its missile against Intel AMD’s dominance in PCs and laptops. There is a problem: it is a slightly obsolete missile

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In October 2025 Nvidia launched its DGX Sparka unique workstation that the company called “the world’s smallest AI supercomputer.” that machine It was actually announced in January.but it took a while to reach the market. When it finally did, it became an interesting alternative but somewhat limited in scope. That is just what the new Nvidia RTX Spark family, which will arrive, wants to change both in the form of laptops as desktop computers, and that it will do so with a fundamental difference: Windows for ARM. Hello, Windows for ARM. The golden DGX Spark were Linux-based workstations, which targeted them at a smaller audience, but with the RTX Spark, Nvidia wanted to make the big leap to the general public. These devices are based on Windows 11 for ARM, and will take advantage of all hardware and software capabilities so that this technological solution is no longer only aimed at AI enthusiasts. Of course, that will continue to be one of the segments it will target, but these systems can also be used for both creative and gaming environments. In Xataka We wanted an ideal PC to be able to experiment with local AI models. The Framework Desktop is the answer to our prayers Approximate performance: an RTX 5070. Those responsible for NVIDIA have not yet given too many specific details about what we can expect from this platform in terms of performance, but they have indicated that the performance of the GPU It is close to that of an RTX 5070 (portable version), although the exact numbers depend on the specific application or game: in some it will be a little better, in others a little worse and in others exactly the same. Yes, they have indicated that the promise is to obtain 100 FPS in 1440p gaming as reference data. Same chip, different operating system. Hardware technical specifications They are identical to those of the DGX Spark. The main data are the following: NVIDIA Grace Blackwell Architecture CPU: up to 20 Grace cores GPU: Developed in collaboration with MediaTek, up to 6,144 CUDA cores, 1 PFLOP of AI performance Unified memory: up to 128 GB LPDDR5X at 273 GB/s with NVLink at 600 GB/s But compared to the DGX Spark, we insist, the fundamental difference is that instead of using a specific Nvidia Linux distribution for these machines, here we can take advantage of Windows 11 for ARM. When AI controls your computer. During the presentation of this platform, those responsible for Nvidia talked about the absolute rise of AI agents and how this will mark a paradigm shift in the way we use our PCs and laptops. Before we did it with a mouse and keyboard, but they see a near future in which control is taken by those AI agents, with whom we will interact in a quite different way. The example is the already famous OpenClaw and Hermeswhich with the appropriate permissions can run all kinds of tasks and applications on the computer to autonomously do things for us. Six laptops initially. The Nvidia RTX Spark platform will initially be available in six devices from six different manufacturers that will rely on this technological solution from launch. ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI will have their equipment ready this fall, although at the moment there are no specific specifications or prices announced. It is possible that during Computex we will learn more details about these devices. What can we expect in autonomy. At the moment no specific data has been given about the efficiency of these devices, but Nvidia spoke of a battery life “for the whole day.” They highlight the efficiency of the GPU and in fact indicate that GPU performance will be virtually the same whether the laptop is plugged in or not. Obviously in intensive tasks and demanding games that battery will drain much more quickly. In Xataka Goodbye to the duopoly of Intel and AMD in Windows: the arrival of NVIDIA processors is imminent and brings 8 laptops under its arm The doubt of Windows for ARM. The commitment to Microsoft’s operating system is striking, but Nvidia believes that now the system is much more mature, and that both emulation and hardware support It’s much better than in the past thanks to the work that Microsoft and Nvidia have done in the months and years leading up to this launch. They talk about a “first-class experience” for the operating system, and even commented that they have worked with the developers of anti-cheat systems in video games so that this is not a problem on these computers. And also desktop computers. When Nvidia announced its DGX Spark, then similar desktop computers appeared in format that also offered that same platform. The same thing will happen with RTX Spark, and although there was hardly any data here, Nvidia did indicate that these devices will appear in the fall from Acer, Asus, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, MSI and Lenovo. {“videoId”:”x7ztphf”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”How to know the components of your PC (RAM, Graphics, CPU…) and the state they are in”, “tag”:”webedia-prod”, “duration”:”387″} Many unknowns and certain obsolescence. There are many doubts surrounding these devices in terms of performance or price, but there is another fundamental problem: when these laptops and desktop PCs appear starting in the fall, they will do so with chips that have been on the market for a year and therefore in a certain sense are already somewhat obsolete. Competing with the Desktop Framework. The memory bandwidth is not exceptional, and for example the Framework Desktop presented in August 2025 already offered a similar configuration in that section, with up to 128 GB of LPDDR5x memory at 256 GB/s. It will be interesting to see how the RTX Spark machines perform against alternatives like this (which makes use of a “traditional” x86 Windows 11 operating system) and whether Nvidia’s ARM chip can really make a difference in an ultra-competitive market. In Xataka |The demand for AI memories is suffocating mobile manufacturers. The largest … Read more

a plane, a ship and a missile launcher in one machine

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In the middle of the Cold War, American spy satellites detected a Soviet machine in the Caspian Sea so enormous and strange that CIA analysts thought for months that it could be a photographic error. That experimental creature, named after as “Caspian Sea Monster”ended up becoming one of the military projects most disconcerting never seen on the water. The return of the monster. For decades, Soviet ekranoplanes seemed like a technological extravagance impossible to repeat: gigantic machines that they mixed concepts of plane, ship and missile platform in an absurd hybrid even by Cold War standards. They flew skimming the sea at enormous speed, partially escaping radar and taking advantage of the so-called “ground effect” to move as if they were suspended over the water. The most famous, as we said, was the Caspian Sea Monstera military creature born in the sixties that seemed straight out of a Soviet science fiction novel and that ended up becoming one of the strangest military experiments ever built. Now China is resurrecting that idea with the call “Bohai Sea Monster”an aircraft that combines features of a seaplane, amphibious vehicle, military transport and possible missile launcher, recovering a concept that seemed buried near the end of the USSR. China and an obsession. The new images of the Bohai Sea Monster show that Beijing is not working on a simple experimental or maritime rescue device. Supports appear under the wings compatible with weaponspossibly torpedoes or anti-ship missiles, while the configuration of the device confirms that it is a vehicle specifically designed to operate at very low altitudes above the water. The detail is important because it completely changes the initial perception of the project: it stops looking like a strange seaplane and becomes a potential offensive platform. In essence, China is trying to unite several capabilities into a single machine: the mobility of an aircraft, the maritime persistence of a ship, and the strike capability of a military aircraft. The result is exactly the type hybrid concept that fascinated Soviets and Americans for decades and that now re-emerges in the 21st century. Designed for the Pacific. Chinese interest in this type of vehicle makes a lot of sense within a hypothetical conflict in the Pacific. Ekranoplanes can scroll quickly between archipelagos, forward bases and coasts without relying on traditional landing strips, something especially useful in the South China Sea or in a scenario around Taiwan. When flying just a few meters above the water, there are partially hidden below the radar horizon and are much more difficult to detect than a conventional aircraft. Additionally, they can transport cargo, troops, sensors or weapons while operating in areas where a ship would be slow and vulnerable and where an aircraft would need infrastructure. China appears to be exploring precisely that space in between: a machine capable of resupplying artificial islands, supporting amphibious landings, launching drones or attacking enemy ships without behaving entirely like a ship or a conventional aircraft. Mon Class The Soviet shadow. The entire program inevitably reminds us of the large soviet ekranoplanes of the Cold War, especially to Mon-classwhich carried anti-ship missiles on the fuselage and was conceived as an ultra-fast naval attack platform. The USSR dedicated enormous resources to these vehicles because they offered very specific advantages over NATO: speed greater than that of ships, lower radar visibility and ability to operate over enormous maritime distances. The problem was that they were also complex devices, vulnerable to bad weather and difficult to maintain. After the Soviet collapse, almost all of these projects disappeared and the concept was reduced to a historical curiosity. However, China seems to have concluded that current technology (better sensors, materials, digital navigation and drones) can turn that old idea into a reality. something much more viable than it was half a century ago. Much more than a simple prototype. Another of the keys to the Bohai Sea Monster is that it probably not the definitive modelbut a smaller technological “demo” intended to validate the concept before building much larger versions. The pictures show a relatively compact device, but several analysts believe that the ultimate goal could be a platform for much larger sizepossibly equipped with more powerful engines, greater autonomy and a considerable military load. That would fit with China’s usual strategy of revealing ambiguous prototypes that appear experimental until, years later, they end up becoming fully operational systems. The fact that the project appears precisely when the United States canceled the Liberty Lifter of DARPA is also revealing: while Washington abandoned its modern attempt to create a logistical ekranoplane, Beijing seems determined to explore exactly that path. The new military logic. The Bohai Sea Monster also fits into a transformation much broader of the Chinese armed forces. Beijing has been developing platforms for years that mix traditional categories and break the classic divisions between ship, plane, missile and drone. Their new military doctrines seek saturate the Pacific with systems that are cheap, fast, difficult to detect and capable of operating from multiple domains at the same time. In that context, an armed ekranoplane stops seeming like an oddity and begins to make sense as a piece of a broader strategy based on extreme mobility, distributed warfare and control of disputed maritime spaces. The fascinating thing is that China is not only recovering a technology forgotten of the cold war: It is trying to adapt it to a scenario where sensors, missiles and drones have completely changed the way of fighting at sea. Image | x, Vyacheslav Bukharov In Xataka | China has been designing the future of its hypersonic fighters and missiles for 30 years: an engine for all speeds In Xataka | China created the C919 to stand up to Airbus and Boeing. And we already have data to know if it is being successful

The next Mercedes-Benz model aims like a missile to fully enter the war

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In the middle of World War II, while Allied bombing destroyed German factories and consumed resources at an impossible rate, many plants that until then manufactured cars, engines or civil machinery began to transform hurriedly to produce military vehicles, aviation parts and weapons. Some of the most recognizable brands in the European automotive industry they then discovered something that decades later resonates strongly again: in times of geopolitical tension, an assembly line can change purpose much faster than it seems. The unexpected twist, or almost. For decades, the future of the European automobile seemed to come down to a single discussion: electric, hybrid or gasoline. However, the German industrial crisis and the accelerated rearmament of Europe are opening a possibility completely different. Mercedes-Benz, like before Volkswagenhas just made it clear that it is willing to enter the defense industry if the business makes economic sense. This has been confirmed through an interview in the Wall Street Journal of its CEO, Ola Källenius, and it is much more important than it seems because it reflects a profound change within the German automobile industry: the big brands are no longer only looking at the car of the future, they are also beginning to look at war as a new industrial opportunity. In a Europe increasingly obsessed with drones, missiles, air defense and military production, car factories are beginning to be seen not only as car plants, but as possible centers strategic manufacturing. The perfect storm. The context explains why this idea is beginning to seem reasonable even for companies historically far from the military business. The German automobile industry is going through one of its most delicate moments in decades: falling profits, pressure from Chinese manufacturers, high energy costs, lower European demand and tariff threats from the United States. Mercedes-Benz, for example, suffered a strong profit drop in 2025, while practically all major German manufacturers have announced cuts or adjustments labor. At the same time, the defense industry is experiencing exactly the opposite situation. European rearmament after the war in Ukraine has fired orders, investments and military contracts to historic levels. For many German industrial companies, the military sector is beginning to represent something very different from a marginal business: stability, growth and guaranteed public financing for years. From cars to artillery. The case of Mercedes is not isolated and we have been counting. Volkswagen is also exploring possible military collaborations as defense companies such as Rheinmetall study reuse factories of automobiles or absorb part of its industrial infrastructure. The message is clear: Europe is beginning to discover that many capabilities necessary to produce modern cars (advanced metallurgy, electronics, robotics, complex logistics chains or highly skilled workers) are also extremely useful to manufacture systems military. The border between both industries begins to fade little by little. It is no longer just about producing tanks or ammunition, we are talking about radars, drones, autonomous vehicles, electronic systems and air defense platforms that require technologies very similar to those of the modern automobile. The new European war economy. As we said, the ukrainian war It has caused an enormous psychological change within Europe. For years, much of continental industry assumed that globalization and stability made a large military capacity of its own unnecessary. Now the opposite happens: European governments are increasing defense budgets at speeds not seen since the Cold War. This transformation is pushing traditionally civil companies to reconsider their role within the new geopolitical context. The CEO of Mercedes himself insist that any military activity would remain dwarfed by its core business, but at the same time recognizes something revealing: can become a growing and profitable niche. That is to say, the German automobile industry is beginning to assume that part of future European growth could come directly from rearmament. The car of the future may not be a car. If you like, the most striking thing of all is the symbolism of change. For a long time, the automotive debate revolved around batteries, autonomous driving and sustainability. Now, some of Europe’s most iconic companies are beginning to speak openly on anti-drone defensemilitary production or collaboration with weapons manufacturers. The idea that the next big European industrial business could be closer to war than sustainable mobility would have seemed absurd just a few years ago. However, the combination of economic crisis, Chinese competition and continental rearmament is slowly pushing giants like Mercedes-Benz itself into completely new and unexpected terrain. And that reveals the extent to which Europe is entering a stage where the economy, industry and security are beginning to mix more and more. Image | Nara, RawPixel, Julian Herzog In Xataka | Europe wants to make more weapons and faster. Your biggest obstacle is not money: it is finding qualified welders and technicians In Xataka | In the midst of rearmament, Spain has just surprised Europe: 5,000 million for 34 warships and four submarines

Ukraine has opened the missile that devastated kyiv. They have found 100 reasons to be angry, and not exactly with Russia

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In 2014, after the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, international investigators spent months reconstructing fragments metallic weapons scattered among fields and roads to identify the weapon responsible. One of the biggest surprises was not just the missile itself, but the enormous amount of information that they could reveal small pieces seemingly insignificant. Ukraine has been “surprised” for some time by what is inside Russian war technology, but the latest perhaps exceeds anything seen before. The 100 components that should not be there. It we have been counting with numerous intercepted drones and missiles by kyiv, but the latest “unboxing” has set off alarms. The reason? When the Ukrainian teams they began to analyze the remains of the Kh-101 missiles that had hit residential buildings in the capital, they hoped to find Russian technology, perhaps Chinese parts or improvised systems to avoid sanctions. What they found was much more uncomfortable for the West: more than one hundred components manufactured by American and European companies inside each missile. Chips, microelectronics and systems produced years after sanctions began, including from this same 2026continued to appear in some of the most advanced weapons in the Russian arsenal. For Ukraine, the discovery has ended up generating a particularly bitter sensation: the missiles that they devastate the cities Ukrainians continue to partially depend on technology designed and manufactured by the same countries that support kyiv militarily. The Kh-101 is mounted on pylons The great crack of sanctions. He Kh-101 case is revealing one of the biggest problems of modern technological warfare: sanctioning does not necessarily mean cut off the supply real. Russia continue accessing to Western microelectronics through re-exports, intermediaries, opaque distributors and commercial networks that are extremely difficult to control. Some pieces even arrive from china as clones or compatible copies of Western designs. The result is that Moscow has achieved maintain and expand its missile production despite economic isolation. Ukraine maintains that many of the components found were fOpened in 2024 and 2025years after the sanctions packages that were supposed to strangle Russian military capacity. The feeling in kyiv is that there is a huge difference between announcing restrictions and making them actually work. The missile that Russia does not stop perfecting. Yes, because the Kh-101 has become a of the central pieces of the Russian air campaign. Launched from strategic bombers and designed for long-range flights at low altitude, Moscow has multiplied its production since 2022 to levels far above those before the invasion. But also, Russia is continually modifying the missile to make it more difficult to intercept. Ukraine assures that the new versions incorporate anti-interference improvements, more sophisticated navigation systems, double charges reducing fuel and even fragmentation munitions with zirconium elements to increase damage. kyiv continues to intercept a good part of them, but each new development forces spend more resources defenses and demonstrates that Russia maintains sufficient industrial capacity to sustain a prolonged technological war. The Western Paradox. Also it we have been counting. The history of the Kh-101 reflects, one more timean extremely uncomfortable contradiction for Europe and the United States. As the West delivers anti-aircraft systems, intelligence and economic aid to Ukraine, part of the global technology industry it keeps leaking towards the Russian military machine. In practice, some Western companies may end up seeing their own chips end up inside the missiles which then force the use of expensive Patriot or NASAMS interceptors also financed by the West. That paradox explains much of the Ukrainian frustration. For kyiv, the problem is no longer just Russia, but the inability of global trade chains to prevent critical technology from ending up feeding the Kremlin’s military production. The industrial war of the 21st century. He analysis of the remains The attack on kyiv is also leaving a deeper conclusion about how modern wars work. No great power today manufactures advanced weapons completely isolated of the global market. Missiles, drones and guidance systems depend of an international network of microelectronics, software and components extremely difficult to control. Russia has shown that even under massive sanctions can still access much of that global technological infrastructure. And Ukraine has discovered something equally disturbing: that in the wars of the 21st century, open a missile enemy is no longer only useful for studying its military technology. It also serves to discover to what extent the connected world continues feeding indirectly the war he is trying to stop. Image | Office of the President of Ukraine, Russia MoD In Xataka | Russia has been advancing at a snail’s pace in Ukraine for months. That’s about to change because of one season: summer. In Xataka | The war in Ukraine has entered such a crazy phase that soldiers are shooting at their own drones

The US believed it had crushed Iran’s missile city. They have counted the complexes again, and it is as if they had shot in the air

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During the Gulf War, several American pilots returned convinced they had completely destroyed numerous Iraqi underground shelters. Days later, reconnaissance images revealed something disconcerting: Many of those complexes were still active because the explosions had barely blocked secondary entrances while the main infrastructure remained intact under tons of rock and concrete. The big surprise. For weeks, the White House presented the campaign against Iran as a crushing demonstration of modern military power: stealth bombers, precision missiles and coordinated attacks with Israel that had supposedly left the Iranian strategic network reduced to rubble. donald trump came to affirm that Tehran already “had nothing” in military terms and that its missiles had been dispersed and out of combat. However, the new secret evaluations US intelligence agencies describe a radically different and deeply uncomfortable scenario for Washington. After reanalyzing satellite images, underground access and logistical activity, American analysts discovered that Iran maintains operational 30 of its 33 complexes of missiles in the Strait of Hormuz and retains a good part of its mobile launchers and arsenals, in addition to having recovered the 90% access of its underground facilities. The feeling within some national security sectors is beginning to be disturbing: after spending thousands of missiles and selling the world the idea of ​​total destruction, the immense Iranian “missile city” remains practically where it was at the beginning. Architecture of a fortress. Here you have to remember something what do we count weeks ago. The real problem for the United States is not just how many missiles Iran retains, but how they were built and distributed their complexes for decades. Tehran turned entire mountains into underground defensive systemswith tunnels, protected warehouses, redundant access and mobile platforms capable of moving missiles from one point to another even after a bombing. Many installations were not designed to resist a specific attack, but to ensure that they always there will be something operational after any initial wave. That’s where the intelligence reports are causing real concern: Many of the entrances were temporarily sealed, but not completely destroyed, and the vast majority of the complexes they regained access operational in a matter of weeks. In some cases, the Iranians may even continue to launch missiles directly from the facilities themselves. The result is a very different image from the American public narrative: rather than eliminating the threat, Washington seems to have scratched the surface of an infrastructure conceived precisely to survive a war of technological attrition. The hidden price of the operation. The other great revelation of the conflict is not underground in Iran, but inside the own US arsenals. The campaign consumed gigantic amounts of advanced ammunition: more than a thousand stealth cruise missiles, around a thousand Tomahawks and more than 1,300 Patriot interceptors, figures that are equivalent to entire years of industrial production. The Pentagon attempted to balance two incompatible priorities: destroying extremely hardened Iranian complexes and, at the same time, do not empty completely its strategic reserves in the face of possible future crises with China or North Korea. This limitation explains part of the most controversial tactical decisions of the war. Rather spray completely many underground complexes, planners opted to seal access and entrances using fewer bunker buster bombs than necessary to destroy the entire facility. Now the consequences are beginning to appear starkly: it spent enormous amounts of high-end weapons, but the Iranian network continues to retain significant operational capacity. Hormuz as center of gravity. All of this takes on an even more delicate dimension due to where most of Iran’s surviving capacity is concentrated: the Strait of Hormuz. Approximately a fifth of the world’s oil circulates through that maritime strip, and US intelligence believes that Iran maintains enough missiles and launchers there to to continue threatening warships, oil tankers and critical infrastructure. The US Navy maintains a practically continuous presence in the area with more than twenty ships patrolling and holding the blockade, but the strategic reality is beginning to become uncomfortable: even after a gigantic military campaign, Washington has not been able to eliminate Iran’s ability to turn Hormuz into a nightmare for global trade. There is no doubt, this persistence completely alters the initial perception of the war. What seemed like a demonstration of technological supremacy is also beginning to look like a warning about the real limits of modern air power against deeply dispersed underground networks. The political contradiction. Ultimately, the conclusions of the intelligence “count” They are also opening an increasingly visible political rift in Washington. While the White House publicly insists that the operation was a historic success and accuses those who question that story of “virtual betrayal,” internal reports describe a enemy far away of being neutralized. And the contradiction threatens to become both a strategic and political problem. If the ceasefire collapses, Trump would have to decide between accepting that Iran retains a relevant military capability or relaunching an even more costly campaign using ammunition reserves that will most likely take years to recover. The dilemma is especially delicate because European allies They already fear delays in arms deliveries destined for Ukraine due to American industrial wear. The war against Iran was designed to demonstrate strength and restore deterrence, but what is beginning to emerge, however, is another, much more uncomfortable reading: that even the most powerful military machine on the planet may discover too late that destroying a “missile city” buried under mountains is much more difficult than announcing its destruction on television. Image | Iranian Media In Xataka | Suddenly, a military outpost sprouted up in the Iraq desert: it was Israel in its bombing campaign of Iran In Xataka | While everyone was looking at Hormuz, Russia has found a much more important route to supply drones to Iran

China has launched its hypersonic missile against the US and Japan

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During the Falklands War, British naval officers they later recognized that one of the most tense moments was not a big attack, but the simple missile warning that no one saw arriving clearly on the radars. In a matter of seconds, the uncertainty was enough to disrupt maneuvers, communications and critical decisions across the fleet. The scene left an idea that is difficult to forget: at sea, sometimes the decisive factor is not firepower, but the speed at which everything happens. A missile, three speeds and a dashboard change. The appearance of YJ-20 missile marks a qualitative leap in the military competition between great powers, and it does so because it places China in a position of advantage in the development of hypersonic weapons capable of altering the naval balance in a matter of minutes. This system, designed specifically to attack large surface ships, introduces a threat difficult to neutralize due to his extreme speed and ability to overwhelm defenses. In other words, the difference no longer lies only in who has more ships, but in who can hit first without giving any room for reaction. The problem of extreme speed. Several analysts said weeks ago that the YJ-20 moves in a range that redefine the times naval combat, with cruising speeds around Mach 6 and a final descent that can reach Mach 10. This means that the interval between launch and impact is drastically reduced, seriously limiting the ability of current defensive systems to detect, track and intercept the projectile. For example, in scenarios close to China, this margin narrows even moreto the point of compromising any effective attempt at a response. missile launch Aircraft carrier in the spotlight. The Scmp analysts They recalled that the priority target of this type of missile is aircraft carriers, considered the core of US naval power. Although these operate within complex battle groups with multiple defensive layers, the nature YJ-20 hypersonic calls into question the effectiveness of that model. There is no doubt, we always talk about deterrence, but the possibility of launching multiple missiles against the same target increases the risk of saturationopening the door for even advanced systems to be overwhelmed. A sea as a scene of tension. And it is at this point where the missile has been in the news this week. The tests and demonstrations of the YJ-20 that have taken place do not occur in a vacuum, but in a context of increasing friction in the South China Sea. The reason? As the United States, the Philippines and Japan carry out joint exercises like Balikatan 2026China has responded showing its offensive capacity in exactly the same region. Geographic proximity, especially in areas such as Luzon or the Taiwan Strait, turns each maneuver into a strategic message with direct implications on regional balance. Technology versus technology: the emerging gap. Yes, because the comparison with systems like Japanese Type 88 missile highlights the technological leap that hypersonic systems represent. While the latter multiply speed and reduce reaction times, many of the allied systems continue to operate with subsonic capabilities or, at best, supersonic. This gap forces to rethink doctrinesinvestments and priorities in defense, since current tools may not be sufficient against this new generation of threats. A career that moves to space. They explained from IE that the American response points to large-scale solutions, such as the development of space-based interception systems. Here proposals arise such as the so-called “Golden Dome” announced by Trump that reflect the magnitude of the challenge, with projected investments of hundreds of billions of dollars and deadlines that extend for years. The problem is not only technological, but strategic: how to adapt to an environment in which speed and surprise can decide a confrontation before it even fully develops. A debut at the worst possible time. The entrance on scene of the YJ-20 matches one of the voltage spikes more visible in the region, just when forces from the United States, Japan and their allies deploy their largest joint exercise in waters near China. In that context, the public demonstration of this missile is not an isolated gesture, but rather a calculated message that takes advantage of the moment of maximum military exhibition rival. If you will, the result is a particularly delicate combination: one with a new weapon, tested against potential direct adversaries, in a scenario where each movement has an immediate strategic reading and increases the risk of possible escalation. Image | CCTV In Xataka | China is beating the US with a simple strategy: manufacturing hypersonic missiles at the price of a Tesla In Xataka | China has revealed a new naval military strategy: civilian ships that can become missile launchers

turn a missile into an explosive “storm” in full descent

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In the most advanced missile defense systems, each interception can cost millions of dollars and requires seconds of decision perfectly coordinated. It turns out that these systems were designed under a key assumption: that each threat would be identifiable, unique and treatable as a single objective. Iran has found a “hole.” Multiply a missile. In the last weeks of war, Iran has found a gap in the “millionaire” shield of Israel: convert a missile into everything a “rain” of threats in the middle of the descent, in a matter of seconds and just at the moment when the defensive systems have less room to react. The key is not to launch more missiles, but to change their nature at the critical moment, transforming a single interceptable target in dozens of submunitions that fall at high speed over large areas. It is a subtle but decisive change, because it breaks the logic on which anti-missile defenses are designed: detect, track and destroy a single target before impact. The “rain” that overflows the system. The analysts counted in The Guardian that Iranian cluster warheads release between several dozen and up to nearly a hundred submunitions at high altitude, dispersing them over areas that can span dozens of kilometers. At that point, the system stops dealing with a missile and starts dealing with multiple simultaneous threatsFurthermore, each one with a different trajectory and impact point. The result is an instant saturation where what was a controllable problem becomes a chaotic scenario where the defense must decide in seconds. what to intercept and what notknowing that it can’t cover everything. Chart providing an overview of the typical trajectory of a ballistic missile compared to other missiles and hypersonic boosted glide models The structural failure. The success of this tactic lies in exploiting a fundamental limitation: the systems like David’s Sling or even the iron dome They are optimized to intercept before dispersal, not after. If the missile is not destroyed in high phases (especially in the middle phase outside the atmosphere), the window of opportunity closes quickly. Once the submunitions are released, intercepting them individually is, in practice, unfeasible even for the world’s most advanced defensive networks. The invisible cost. Beyond the physical impact, the Iranian strategy introduces a problem economic and logistic. Intercepting a missile is already very costly, and trying to neutralize dozens of submunitions it is much moreto the point that the exchange stops making sense for the defender. Each attack requires interceptors to be expended expensive and limited against much cheaper threats, progressively eroding arsenals. Thus, even when most attacks are intercepted, the simple act of forcing defense already fulfills a strategic objective. Less missiles, more effect. Paradoxically, Iran does not need to launch large salvos to maintain the pressure. The reason: its current doctrine aims to combine moderate volumes with amplified effects, relying on hard-to-locate mobile launchers and a decentralized command structure designed to survive intensive bombing. This allows you to sustain constant attacks, even if they are few, but with the ability to impact specific objectives and keep Israeli defenses active continuously, forcing them to react again and again. A preview of the war to come. As we have been seeing in Ukraine and since the beginning of the war in the Middle East, what is happening with Iran’s missiles It is not just a tactical adaptation, but a preview of how can they evolve high intensity conflicts. Turn a single system into multiple threats, saturate advanced defenses and wear down the adversary without need for numerical superiority redefines the balance between attack and defense. And if this logic is extended (and everything indicates that other actors are watching it closely), current anti-missile systems could face a challenge for which they were not designed: not stopping missiles, but stopping real storms of explosives. Image | Yoav Keren In Xataka | The US is going to end its war in the Middle East with a very uncomfortable reality: Iran had years of advantage underground In Xataka | If the question is “how close are we to an escalation in Iran,” the answer is US A-10s flying there

The problem for the US is not that China is mass-producing a new hypersonic missile. It costs the same as a Tesla

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The most advanced military systems have had something in common: exorbitant prices and limited production, with weapons that can take years to manufacture and cost millions per unit. It happens that there is a less known fact that is beginning to change everything: today it is possible to build technology capable of traveling more than 1,000 kilometers in minutes using components derived from the civil industry. And China is in the lead. What a car costs. It we count in November of last year. China has introduced a quiet but profound change in modern warfare: a hypersonic missile, the YKJ-1000capable of reaching speeds of up to Mach 7 and traveling more than 1,000 kilometers for a price around at $99,000that is, equivalent to that of a high-end car like a Tesla Model It is not a trivial fact, although it may seem anecdotal, it is actually the core of the problem you have right now. United States in Iranbecause it completely breaks the traditional logic of military balance: for the first time, an extremely advanced weapon allows to be exclusive and expensive to become something potentially massive, accessible and replicable on a large scale. It’s not the technology, it’s the cost. Because the challenge for the United States is not that China has developed a new hypersonic missile, but that it has done so extremely cheap. While intercepting a threat can cost millions per attempt (with systems like Patriot, SM-6 or THAAD), destroying that missile costs dozens of times more to manufacture it. This creates a brutal asymmetry where the attacker always wins financially, forcing the defender to spend disproportionate amounts just to stay safe. In this scenario, defending yourself is no longer sustainable, especially in the face of massive attacks. Mass production. Unlike traditional programs, this missile is not a limited or experimental piece, but rather a product designed to be manufactured in large quantities. using civil materialscommercial supply chains and components already available on the market. China has not only reduced the cost, but has industrialized productionallowing us to imagine scenarios where hundreds or thousands of these systems can be rapidly deployed, saturating any existing defense without the need for absolute precision. Invisible launchers. The change is not limited to the missile itself, but how it unfolds– Can be launched from platforms hidden in shipping containers, trucks or common industrial facilities, integrating into global civil infrastructures. This virtually eliminates any predictability on the origin of the attack, expanding the scope of the threat to any point within its operational radius. In other words, war no longer has defined fronts and begins to depend more on a diffuse network where the attacker can appear anywhere without prior notice. The swarm effect. Added to this logic is the parallel development of advanced drones like the TM-300capable of flying at high speed, with stealth capacity and also designed for mass production. In that light, the combination of cheap missiles and swarming drones creates a scenario in which even sophisticated defenses can be overcome. simply by volumenot because of technological superiority. It is not necessary for all attacks to be successful: it is enough for some to do so to generate a disproportionate strategic impact. Change of era. If you like, all this points to a structural transformation: one where the advantage is no longer in having the most advanced weapons, but in being able to produce them faster and cheaper that the opponent can defend himself. The central idea, as we saw in Ukraine and now in Iranis clearly imposed: the problem for the United States is not that China is mass manufacturing a new hypersonic missile, but that it is doing so at a ridiculously low costaltering the balance between attack and defense and opening the door to a war where quantity and price can prevail over technology and sophistication. Image | x In Xataka | China is sending drones to an island 100 km from Taiwan. The problem is that Japan and the US are filling it with missiles In Xataka | China has drawn a very clear red line to Japan: being an ally of the United States is good, supporting Taiwan is bad.

We thought that 3D printing a gun was already disturbing. Now someone has gone one step further with a homemade guided “missile”

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Talking about 3D printing is no longer just talking about prototypes or industrial environments. In recent years, this technology has been established as a tool available to enthusiasts and creators who can design and manufacture complex objects from home with relative ease. That accessibility has expanded the possibilities of use, but has also opened debates about its limits, especially when it intersects with weapons development. The precedents of 3D printed guns They have been on the table for some time, and now a new project once again pushes that debate into even more delicate terrain. The disturbing jump. What has now put the focus on this issue is a video of just five minutes in which the amateur Alisher Khojayev shows a prototype that is reminiscent, at least in its approach, of portable anti-aircraft missile systems. The project includes a launcher, a projectile and several electronic systems designed to assist in guidance. What does it teach. In practical terms, what Khojayev shows is a set divided into three parts that the creator presents as a coordinated system. The launcher acts as the base of the system, the projectile concentrates a good part of the 3D printed components, and an additional node with a camera can be incorporated to reinforce tracking. How the system is laid out. The architecture proposed by the project is based on linking several devices through a wireless network that coordinates the flow of data. The first step is to connect the launcher with a control computer via WiFi, which analyzes the information received and calculates the trajectory. In a second phase, the projectile becomes part of that network and receives instructions to adjust its orientation using moving surfaces. The system combines ESP32 microcontrollers with sensors such as GPS, barometer, compass and an inertial measurement unit to estimate variables such as speed and position. The cost data. The project is not only presented as a technical demonstration, but also as a low-cost exercise. According to the creator, the entire system can be assembled for about $96 from commercial components and 3D printed parts. That, of course, doesn’t mean that anyone can make something similar at home, not least because such a development would probably be illegal in many parts of the world. But it does leave a broader reading: 3D printing is reducing barriers and costs in a growing variety of projects. Images | Alisher Khojayev In Xataka | We thought that the war in Iran was about missiles. Until Germany has started counting them: it’s about what will happen in May without them

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