From Washington: Kamikaze Drones, AI, and the Future of Combat

0:00That's pure automotive joy. I'm Peter, the owner of Muscle Car Junior. It started as a hobby, then I started posting about it. Before I knew it, I built a business for storing muscle cars on Facebook Marketplace, and the community of car lovers on Instagram. Today, new customers send me what's that message is from all over. Not bad for a hobby. And how meta helps over 35 million American businesses, like Peter's Grow, at meta.com-slash-community. Instagram Teen Accounts, automatic protections for teens. Instagram Teen Accounts have built-in content settings, now inspired by 13-plus movie ratings, and limits for who can contact teens. Plus, teens under 16 can't change these default safety settings, without parental approval. So parents can help teens connect safely. Instagram Teen Accounts, automatic protections for who can contact teens, and the content they can see. Learn more at Instagram.com-slash-teen-accounts Sunday, March 15, 2026, I'm Jessica Rosenthal.

1:08From kamikaze drones to AI to autonomous mind-sweepers, advancements in U.S. military tech are on full display during the conflict with Iran, revealing the next generation of American battlefield capability. Number one, off the top and over top of all of it is the United States Space Force. They don't like to talk about it, and it's so much of it is highly classified, but I'm going to tell you they have a critical ability to detect every ballistic missile launch coming out of Iran. And Israel's ambassador to the U.N. says Iran's effort to block the Strait of Hormuz and to bomb its neighbors are acts of desperation. The U.S. is very powerful, Israel is very powerful, together we have a very good intelligence. So we are dismantling, you know, it takes time, it takes efforts, although when you look at the distance to fly into Iran from Israel, it's complicated. This is the Fox News rundown from Washington.

2:13This week, military leadership addressed some of the latest advancements deployed on the battlefield during strikes on Iran. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Cain said Friday, Our artillery forces have made history. They fired the first precision strike missiles ever used in combat, reaching deep into enemy territory. They've used Army ATACMs to sink multiple ships, including a submarine. SEMPCOM Commander Admiral Bradley Cooper addressed the use of our new one way or kamikaze drones, Lucas drones, low cost, unmanned combat attack systems. Lucas, indispensable, as many of you know, and if you don't know, this was an original Iranian drone design. We captured it, pulled the guts out, sent it back to America, put a little made America on it, brought it back here and we're shooting at the Iranians. Admiral Cooper also noted that their use of AI tools has helped them sift through vast amounts of data faster than he says the enemy can act. Humans will always make final decisions on what to shoot and what not to shoot and when to shoot, but advanced AI tools can turn processes that used to take hours and sometimes

3:15even days into seconds. While there have been reports of a U.S. shortage of munitions long before the U.S. struck Iran, the president posted to truth social on March 6th that after meeting with defense manufacturers, they agreed to quadruple production of certain weaponry and that while he insists we have a virtually unlimited supply of munitions, we have nevertheless ordered more. Number one off the top and overtop of all of it is the United States Space Force. Rebecca Grant is vice president of the Lexington Institute. They don't like to talk about it and it's so much of it is highly classified, but I'm going to tell you they have a critical ability to detect every ballistic missile launch coming out of Iran and their front line is often in Colorado at one of their command centers. They move satellites in place to detect the heat plumes from ballistic missile launches. They do a lot of other things including keeping our satellite guided GPS which directs a lot

4:17of our biggest bombs. They keep that satellite tuned up and ready and make sure that the Iranians or the Russians or anyone else can't interfere with it. So this is a major combat operation for our United States Space Force. They are the first movers in this fight and they're doing a tremendous job. In fact, Admiral Cooper called them out specifically in his briefing yesterday talking about what a tremendous job Space Force is doing. Let's talk about drones because that seems to be a huge part of what we're seeing in this conflict. Iran's use of them and our use of some newer models. Tell us about the first American ever use of a one way or kamikaze drone. We understand these are obviously much less expensive to make. Are we seeing them on the battlefield really for the first time on our end? For the first time for this particular drone variant and what's nice about adding the one way attack drones to the big air power arsenal is they can go after very specific targets

5:18and you can kind of change the effects. You may be going for a kinetic blast effect. You may also be going for an electromagnetic jamming effect. That's something we've seen done in the past with aircraft launching bomb once or using to tow decoys but to be able to have drones that are specifically for that purpose is a real enhancement. It really enhances Admiral Cooper's ability to go after all the targets in the way that's most effective. These are much less expensive to make. Talk to us about the difference between the millions of dollars needed for missiles versus these drones. Yes, what way attack drones certainly are less expensive because they are expendables. You'd want to compare them more to the pricing of artillery shells. We don't have a lot of artillery in this conflict. We do have high Mars in action but basically here we see the one way attack drones doing kind of the job of a much much longer range artillery and at a much lower price point

6:20because you're not expecting them to come back and be used again. Now we know Iran is using drones quite a bit of them. We know they're good at making them and they've been supplying Russia during the their war in Ukraine and we know to some extent are these kamikaze drones we use are modeled after the shahed but I understand for our purposes that the rate of interception of drones is actually better than the rate of intercepting missiles. Which I find interesting because I also thought drones were much harder to detect. So what might account for that easier interception? The U.S. has been working on drone and missile interception for such a long time and to intercept a drone first you've got to be able to find it and that's what the U.S. is so good at. It starts with space. It goes down to the big radar planes like the AWACS and the Navy's E2 and in fact Australia is sending their E7 wedge tail to add to this with that huge air volume search radar you're

7:20able to pick these drones up. And then off you go, ideally you've got a fighter jet and that is a perfect drone killing package. They've got a radar on board, air to air missiles. Snacks in the cockpit because this is a very long mission but that pilot that has the ability to really pick up those drones and take them out. We've seen so much of this activity with the UAE that the UAE is actually having to restock on some of their AMRAM missiles and then finally you've got this integrated picture of where the drones are and next on the ground comes the point defense. And while everybody knows about Patriot and Thad and their terrific systems, the U.S. is also developed and assisted with some really new counter drone systems for Ukraine and these are point defense systems. They can either kill with a kinetic blast. They can zap drones and make them fall out of the sky and they can also go after swarms. It's a whole range of systems. I'm talking coyote, vampire, mirrops, slam ram, a lot of these putting together pre-existing

8:24missiles in modified launchers and then here's the key all tied into that single integrated air picture so they know where to direct the terminal intercept. It's really a fantastic system and we have seen just tremendous success with the drones. I think also picking up information from Ukrainians on what the tactical characteristics of those Shahid drones are, what do they look like on radar? That's been helpful both for our pilots and for our air defenders on the ground. Drill down a little bit for me on that because what I read is that radar isn't always great at picking up drones that there are instances of confusion even with birds when it comes to drones because they're smaller and when it comes to the kinetic hit to stop a drone, I'm reading about like directed energy weapons and how is this working visually? Right, let's start with the radar search. So your long range detection radar is going to pick up a flicker here and there but I tell you when you get into the fire control radar which really shapes the track of that target,

9:30then you're very precise. Now, those Shahid drones have a nice rounded front and a bit of a swept wing. They are pretty stealthy from one angle but oh, it's a huge signature out the back. Side, particularly with those warring pusher motors. A lot of vibration, a lot of heat, really easy for a fighter pilot to track and target especially now that we had some experience back in 2024, intercepting drones fired by Rand towards Israel. Now that the pilots and the crews on the ground know what these things look like, they're very, very effective in intercepting them. Can you talk to me about how fast they move compared to missiles because I have a lot of family on the West Coast and when they heard the FBI was telling police departments to be wary, to be ready for Iran to possibly try and use drones to attack the West Coast, I mean, the imagination runs wild if we don't have a necessarily action in the skies over the West Coast at that moment, how are we detecting incoming and is it helped by their

10:31speed? Well, luckily these drones are quite slow compared to a ballistic missile which by the time of reentry of ballistic missile, obviously the hypersonic moving it up to 20 times the speed of sound. The drones, because they fly straight and level, at least in most of their profile, are a lot easier to take out and so you see gun camera, for instance, of the Royal Air Force with an F-35V chasing down a drone over, I believe it was Jordanian airspace, the fighter jet has a huge advantage. As far as California and the West Coast, don't forget we have a very key space force base there at Vandenberg on the coast and I have feeling they've got a radar too looking to keep track over that base as well. So most of these Iranian drones or most of that type of drones are very short range. By the way, drug runners run drones across the border in California at the rate of about a thousand a month. So this is something that our officials out there know how to look for. Oh, wow, that's right.

11:32I guess we've had some practice then. We referenced Ukraine, how important is Ukraine in this conversation right now? Are we talking to them? Are we asking them for help? I understand they've been working on advancing drone technology in the past four years. Yes, they have. And two Ukrainian companies are part of a Secretary-Hexes initiative where he's looking at 25 different companies that are making one-way attack drones, but you know Ukraine has been a great battle lab again for understanding how to net together the sensors, which are the most important piece along with all the effectors and interceptors. And then for understanding what the Shahed drones do under combat situations, how they look, how they turn, what it takes to knock one down, which by the way isn't very much. There have been over 50,000 Shahed's fired by the Russians into Ukraine and that gives us a tremendous database. Now you know that's a whole American technology over there that has put together that tremendous

12:34system, that now Ukraine's air defenders are doing such a great job. A lot of our companies have quietly assisted them in this process, so it's a two-way street of information coming out of Ukraine as to how to perfect drone intercepts. The most important difference, of course, is we have aircraft over Iran. Russia's Shahed drones are in a sanctuary behind their borders firing at Ukraine, but we have aircraft over Iran looking for the wanchers, the storage, the people and the drone factories. That's what gives us the winning edge. Dr. How is AI being used with all of this? Like I was reading that Palantir's Maven Smart System is being used with Claude to like help process the data, which is what you need to target Iran's drones and missile sites as well as Iranian leadership that this chain of time has been cut from like hours to minutes because of AI. So there are a couple ways and it's been in process for a while. One is to take all that data from the sensors that are looking at everything moving on the

13:36ground in Iran and in the airspace and kind of put it together and say, hey, these are the characteristics of, here's a missile launcher hidden under a bridge or here's a drone factory. So it's used for Intel analysis. It's also used a little bit to make decisions about which is your closest interceptor, is that F-22 or F-35 or F-18 up there closer or do you have a terminal system that's closer to this particular drone? There's a little bit of assistance through there all very much with humans on the loop and in command. And you know, even up in the fighter cockpits, there's a little teeny bit of AI as they rack and stack for their missile loadouts, check what missile loadouts their buddies still have left, deal with fuel state and integrate all the signals that they're getting. So yeah, we are seeing an assist from AI. But it is mostly our great men and women and their incredible training and practice. They're making that Iranian drone launch rate go way way down. Finally, we know minds are being laid in the straight of hormones or that's the attempt right from the Iranians.

14:38Tell me because I understand several mindsweeping capable ships were brought back to the US this past week. They're spotted in Philadelphia and there's a discussion now about, you know, why have we been decommissioning these older mindsweeping ships? Then I read there's a new autonomous way that we sweep for minds. Is that deployed? So many ways to do it and it does involve ships. It involves autonomous surface vessels and it involves helicopters. The helicopter anti-mining capability is tremendous. You know, the Sea Dragon Squadron down in Norfolk, I believe they fly the big MH-53 helicopters, drops and stuff out the back on cables and there go the minds. Now Iran does have between three and 6,000 kind of old Soviet, old Russian and some newer Chinese minds. The worst one is the Chinese minds. It's on the bottom of the sea. Got about a 600 pound warhead. But we have tremendous ability and don't forget our undersea forces as well to detect these minds. You heard President Trump tell Iran not to put stuff down on the bottom.

15:41I think he was referring to that one. Others are floating contact minds as well. Let's say this, the Navy has been training to demine and protect the state of her moves literally for decades and having blown up most of Iran's Navy really contracts the problem. So I see US Navy dominance there. Got to keep an eye out for the minds and they're working at hard but we weigh heavily up our hands over Iran's minds. And then one more finally for you, did we miss anything? Is there anything else you want to highlight for us that you think is being used or being tested out on the battlefield right now? Well I think most of all you just got to remember this really at its core. This is an air campaign. We've got everything from our B2s, B52s, etc. and some great modernized weapons, some longer-range missiles. Of course our fabulous family of JDM weapons that are satellite guided. But really it is about this air campaign. We've got a lot of experience from Iraq 20 years ago, from the war against ISIS in Syria.

16:44And it really is about the training and integration. We sure are glad to have our stealth jets that can do this as well. So in the end, this really comes down to Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps air power to destroy Iran's military capability and they are doing a fantastic job. Dr. Rebecca Grant, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Isn't home where we all want to be? Reba here for Reelter.com, the pro's number one most trusted app. If you're hearing me, I'm going to assume you're awake. And if you aren't, because while you're snoozing someone else might be finding your dream home, that's where Reelter.com comes in. With over 500,000 new real listings straight from the pro's every month, that's a lot of chances to find the place you've been dreaming of. Whether you're searching for a two-story mid-century with a pool or a little extra space with a spawn-spired bathroom, Reelter.com can help you find it today. So quit hitting that snooze button.

17:44Reelter.com isn't sleeping on finding your dream home and neither should you. Download the Reelter.com app today because you're nearly home. Make it Reel with Reelter.com. Pro's number one most trusted app based on August 2024 proprietary survey. For 500,000 new listings every month based on average new four sale and rental listings, February 2024 through January 2025. This past week, US military commanders and the president told us Iran's capabilities have been severely diminished by strikes on critical targets, including ships, missiles and drone launch and production facilities, as well as nuclear weapons. US envoy Steve Whitkoff told Sean Hannity the Iranians told him during negotiations ahead of the strikes that they had enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear weapons. We then heard, this past week, from Iran's new Ayatollah, the late Ayatollah hominase son Moshtaba. While he's believed to be injured and did not appear in public, a statement purportedly

18:48from him was read on Iranian State TV. He said they will avenge the blood of the Iranians killed and will continue to use the straight-of-war mousse as a point of leverage. He also told neighboring Gulf countries they seek friendly relations, but will continue to strike US assets and bases in those countries unless they close them and push the Americans out. Great for footprint Trump for showing leadership. Danny Denon is the Israeli ambassador to the UN. We spoke to him last week. You know, many leaders chose to ignore what happened in Iran for decades, and that's why they came to a position that they can actually threaten not only the entire region, the entire world. And I think by acting now, you know, the President Trump demonstrated moral clarity. We have achieved a lot in the last 10 days. Still, we have many targets, and we are continuing with the operation. So I think President Trump is doing the right thing by keeping it vague about, you know, the timing and what the activity we are planning ahead, that the way to act, and we are continuing as we speak to hammer the infrastructure and the tower machine of Iran.

19:53For all the talk of this success, you know, we are hearing reports now that Iranian boats are laying mines in the state of Hormuz, and President Trump is responding to that saying if that is in fact happening, then the US will respond in a very forceful way. When we talk about taking out Iran's navy, what you just said, there is still quite a bit to do. Our eyes on these fastboats. I mean, how big of a threat would mines be in the state of Hormuz? We see that they are desperate, the panic, and you know, when someone is desperate, it is dangerous, you know, sending ballistic missiles to Cyprus, to Turkey, to the Gulf countries, and our threatening, you know, to put mines in the Gulf, in the state of Hormuz, it shows that they are still very dangerous, very desperate. And I think they should know that if they will do that, they will pay a heavy price, because today it's not only Israel and the US, today you see more and more countries, the Gulf countries for sure, but even others who understand that Iran is a threat, it's

20:56a problem, and we have to deal with it. US envoy Steve Whitkov, as you know, said the Iranian negotiators at the beginning of negotiations told him they had enough enriched uranium to make roughly 11 nuclear weapons, and that the US then offered them free nuclear fuel for years. If their true intent really was for peaceful purposes for energy, and they turned it down, how important is that? That's very important, because we know, we for you say that they are lying, you know, it's not a peaceful nuclear program. If it was peaceful, you don't have to enrich uranium for the level of 60 percent. If it was peaceful, you don't have to hide it in mountains, and in bunkers beneath the ground. If you build a peaceful program, and if it's peaceful, you should allow inspectors to come in. So I think, you know, we all know it's a lie. They actually want to achieve the nuclear capabilities, and basically to assemble it on the ballistic missiles.

21:56That's the plan, and we walk up right on time to stop them from achieving those dangerous capabilities. Was that critical to the timing, like we've heard Secretary Rubio say, talking about timing with regards that Israel was going to do something, and so the US had to do something as well. I'm sure you caught those comments last week as well. Is that what he's talking about? Is that your understanding? It was about their new capability? At the timing, where it then was crucial, and we have to learn, you know, from the experience with North Korea, that for years, they negotiated, they delayed, they played the games. And then one morning, we all walk up, and they announced, that's it, you know, we tested a ballistic missile, we assembled a nuclear warhead, and that's a given. So that's what I wanted to do. You know, we know they have the ballistic missiles, they're sending them, launching them every day into Israel, and many other countries in the region.

22:56We know that they developed the nuclear program, and it's only a matter of weeks before they can actually break and put it on a tip of our ballistic missile. So we could not, and to take that chances, and that's what we decided, together with the US, to block them before they actually have this capability. Just imagine if today the ballistic missiles would nuclear warhead, how this operation would have looked like? No. I'm seeing comments from those who are skeptical about how prepared Iran was for all of this. These comments are like people saying things like the US and Israel are underestimating Iran that much of what they have is deeply buried and out of sight and hidden. How confident is Israel that this operation can take out enough of what Iran has? Well, at first I agreed, you know, for 47 years, they built this thermal machine in trench to the underground, so it is complicated, it is not easy, but you know, the US is very

24:01powerful, Israel is very powerful, together, you know, we have a very good intelligence. So we are dismantling, you know, it takes time, it takes efforts, also when you look at the distance, you know, to fly into Iran from Israel, it's complicated. You know, we don't have a border with Iran, we don't have any conflict with Iran. The only problem is that there is radical ideology against the US, against Israel, and that's what they put their money in promoting the radical ideology of the revolution and basically building the infrastructure and the weapons to implement those crazy ideas. A Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal came out of a briefing on Tuesday, on Iran, a classified briefing, and said it appears Russia is actively helping Iran with intelligence against the US and Israel. What's your reaction to that? Well, I will not go into specific details, but you know, we all know the an alliance between Russia, China, and Iran, they don't hide it, you know, even at the UN, when the resolutions

25:04condemning Iran, you will see Russia and China protecting the Iran, I think they should know better because, you know, with the work regime with the threat to everyone, not only to Israel, not only to the Western democracies, today they threaten the US, tomorrow they can threaten Russia and China also. I just want your thoughts on, when the president says that he wants the Iranian people to take back their country at some point, we all know that Israel has had intelligence capabilities inside Iran, so I have to ask, what is Israel's assessment if you can share one with us about the Iranian people's ability, this is a group of people who are unarmed to take back their country at some point. Well, first we all agree that they deserve better, you know, they were oppressed for so many years, you know, you look at the women rights and what's happening there, it's outrageous, you know, outrageous, unfortunately we saw what happened, you know, a few weeks ago when

26:04we estimate 10,000 were massacred by militias that were brought from different countries to execute, you know, the people who went to demonstrate against the regime, I hope that they would see that they are not alone, you know, the message today is that, you know, they are not alone, you know, we are supporting them and hopefully they will be able to rise up and build a new future for everyone, they deserve a better future and also in terms of investments, so much money, billions of dollars every year will spend on terror, on their proxies, his valla, Hamas, the hooties, that money belongs to the Iranian people which you go to schools, you should go to infrastructure and hospitals, it's unfortunate what's happening today in A1. Ambassador, we know Israel is operating on two fronts right now at least, but in strikes in Lebanon against his bolla, how significant was it that the Prime Minister of Lebanon announced a ban on his bolla's military activities, like how big of a shift are you seeing

27:09from Lebanese leaders about his bolla, is it kind of the first time you're seeing this sort of talk, or have you seen this before? So, you know, we welcome those statements, but it's not enough, we expect actions. We have no beef with Lebanon, we hope that I believe that in the future they will join the Abraham Accords, but first they have to confront his bolla, they should restrain his bolla and so far they are very weak, you know, they say the right things, the right declarations from the leadership in Beirut, but when you look at the actions on the ground, very disappointing, you know, they should mobilize the Lebanese military and push his bolla away from our border and stop them from launching rockets into our civilian communities, they are not doing it, that's why we have to retaliate, we have to make sure that we dismantle the abilities of his bolla, but eventually they would have to decide either they confront his bolla or they allow his bolla to take over Lebanon. What have you heard from the ambassadors of other countries, you don't have to like name

28:10them, right? But what have they expressed things to you personally about this joint operation and has anything surprised you that you've heard from any of them? No, I think what was surprising is to see the reaction of the Gulf countries, you know, I think a right, Iran miscalculated the reactions, they thought that, you know, if they will attack those countries, there will, the operation will be over immediately, but what we are seeing now that those countries are independent, strong, and once they were attacked, they are attacking actions against Taiwan, and I think it's meaningful, so it's not US and Israel today, you have many other countries lining up in order to make sure that Taiwan will not be in a position to threaten the world. Ambassador Danny Dunon, thank you so much for your time. Thank you very much, to the pleasure. Nearly home. Isn't home where we all want to be? Reba here for Realtor.com, the pros number one most trusted app.

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30:12terror threats. I'm Jessica Rosenthal, thanks for listening to the Fox News rundown from Washington. Stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. Listen ad-free on Fox News Podcasts plus on Apple Podcasts, and prime members can listen to the show ad-free on Amazon Music, and for up to the minute news, go to FoxNews.com. When you're stuck in your inbox, cast vision when you're chasing approvals, or develop people when calendar chaos consumes your day. And when you try to do it all, you're not just burning out. You're dragging your organization down with you. Belay matches you with a US-based executive assistant who handles the administrative work so you can focus on leading your team because delegation isn't dumping work.

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