Reza Pahlavi, exiled crown prince of Iran, weighs in on Iranian threats to shut the Mediterranean Sea amid war with Israel and the threat America faces from the country and its proxies. The U.S. Navy fired anti-ship ballistic missiles on Tuesday against incoming Iran-backed Houthi missiles in the Red Sea, signaling a significant escalation in the region, a senior defense official told Fox News. The Navy engaged three ballistic missiles provided to Yemen's Houthis by Iran. It was the first time the Navy shot down an incoming ballistic missile using an anti-ship ballistic missile. The USS Laboon and assets from the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group shot down 12 one-way attack drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two land attack missiles fired by the Houthis over a 12-hour period, U.S. Central Command said.

In this paper, we present a methodology for constructing data-driven maneuver generation models for agile aircraft that can generalize across a wide range of trim conditions and aircraft model parameters. Maneuver generation models play a crucial role in the testing and evaluation of aircraft prototypes, providing insights into the maneuverability and agility of the aircraft. However, constructing the models typically requires extensive amounts of real pilot data, which can be time-consuming and costly to obtain. Moreover, models built with limited data often struggle to generalize beyond the specific flight conditions covered in the original dataset. To address these challenges, we propose a hybrid architecture that leverages a simulation model, referred to as the source model. This open-source agile aircraft simulator shares similar dynamics with the target aircraft and allows us to generate unlimited data for building a proxy maneuver generation model. We then fine-tune this model to the target aircraft using a limited amount of real pilot data. Our approach combines techniques from imitation learning, transfer learning, and reinforcement learning to achieve this objective. To validate our methodology, we utilize real agile pilot data provided by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). By employing the F-16 as the source model, we demonstrate that it is possible to construct a maneuver generation model that generalizes across various trim conditions and aircraft parameters without requiring any additional real pilot data. Our results showcase the effectiveness of our approach in developing robust and adaptable models for agile aircraft.

Yemen's Houthi rebel group has said that it carried out drone attacks targeting the Israeli port city of Eilat, as well as a commercial vessel in the Red Sea, as the Iran-backed group steps up attacks that it says are a means of pressuring Israel to end its war in Gaza. Speaking on Tuesday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group conducted drone attacks on Eilat and "other areas in occupied Palestine". Sarea said the group also launched missiles at an MSC United vessel in the Red Sea after it rejected three warning calls. The statement comes several hours after a British maritime group said it received reports of an incident involving a vessel off the coast of Yemen, saying that drones were sighted and an explosion was heard. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) on Tuesday said the incident took place about 60 nautical miles (111km) outside of Yemen's Hodeidah port.

The U.S. military has launched strikes on three installations in Iraq targeting what it said was a terrorist group backed by Iran that Washington has accused of a series of attacks on American personnel, including one Monday that left three people injured. "At President Biden's direction, U.S. military forces conducted necessary and proportionate strikes on three facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement late Monday. In a separate statement, U.S. Central Command said "early assessments indicate that these U.S. airstrikes destroyed the targeted facilities and likely killed a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants." Centcom added that there were no indications civilian lives were affected.

After Mr. Biden was informed of the Erbil attack on Christmas morning, he ordered the Defense Department to prepare response options, White House officials said. Later in the day, the president authorized strikes that were conducted around 8:45 p.m. Eastern time. Mr. Biden chose Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated facilities that had been used to launch unmanned aerial drone attacks, officials said. Last month, the United States struck an operations center and a command-and-control node south of Baghdad used by Kataib Hezbollah. The group's political wing is part of the coalition of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of Iraq.

The United States has launched strikes on Iran-aligned forces in Iraq after a drone attack that wounded three US service members, one of them critically, the White House has announced. US President Joe Biden ordered the strikes on three sites used by Kataeb Hezbollah and affiliated groups in Iraq, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement on Monday night. Watson said the strikes "focused specifically on unmanned aerial drone activities". "The President places no higher priority than the protection of American personnel serving in harm's way," she said. "The United States will act at a time and in a manner of our choosing should these attacks continue."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., joins'Fox News Sunday' to discuss U.S.'s'mixed messages' to Israel, Iranian sanctions and the border crisis. Iranian state media claims an Israeli airstrike outside Damascus in Syria on Monday killed a senior advisor in Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Reuters reported that three security sources confirmed the death of Sayyed Razi Mousavi, who was responsible for coordinating a military alliance between Iran and Syria. State television interrupted programming to announce the death of Mousavi and described him as one of the oldest advisors for the Guard in Syria. The announcement stated that Mousavi accompanied Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Guards' elite Quds Force, who died in a U.S. drone attack in Iraq in 2020.

Kurt Knutsson talks about an innovative robot that can explore the depths of the ocean and capture stunning photos and videos. Drones are everywhere these days. They can fly, swim, and even transform into different shapes. They can deliver packages, be used to spy, pick fruits, and even explore the ocean depths. Some of them are downright creepy.

A Japanese-owned commercial tanker was attacked by a drone launched from Iran in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, causing a fire but leaving no one injured, the U.S. Department of Defense said. The Liberian-flagged, Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck about 370 kilometers off India "by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran," the Pentagon said in a statement, adding the fire on board has been extinguished. The Associated Press reported the tanker had ties with Israel, citing a British maritime security firm. The tanker, which was carrying 20 Indians and one Vietnamese, had left Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and was heading to Mangalore, southwestern India, according to the U.S. Defense Department and the Indian Coast Guard. But the vessel decided to head to Mumbai for repairs and to have the damage assessed with the assistance of the Indian Coast Guard.

Former CENTCOM Spokesperson and retired U.S. Army Colonel Joe Buccino discusses Iran's involvement in Houthi attacks and the U.S.' approach to deterrence and response. Iran appears to have struck a ship off the Indian coast with an unmanned aerial vehicle, a U.S. official told Fox News on Saturday. It comes as Houthi militants targeted multiple cargo ships on Saturday, as the group fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles into international shipping lanes located in the Southern Red Sea, according to U.S. Central Command. No ships were impacted by the ballistic missiles, officials said. The USS Laboon shot down four unmanned aerial drones on Saturday which originated from areas that the Houthis control in Yemen.