Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps gunboats fired on at least two commercial vessels Saturday near the Qeshm and Larak islands, with both ships turning back without completing the crossing. Iran's navy simultaneously broadcast a VHF message declaring the strait "completely closed again" and citing the U.S.'s failure to meet its negotiating commitments.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency confirmed a report of an incident 20 nautical miles northeast of Oman, in which the master of one tanker stated that two IRGC gunboats had approached and fired on the vessel; the tanker and crew were reported safe.

Hundreds of commercial ships carrying roughly 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows remain stranded in the Gulf, unable to transit the waterway. The closures follow an earlier notice to mariners that passage would be permitted in restricted lanes, a commitment Iran has now reversed as ceasefire talks show no forward movement.

The Army issued a commercial solutions opening notice seeking a dual-use unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) to operate in "the last tactical mile," the stretch between support units and the forward line of troops that the notice describes as facing "the greatest threat from enemy observation and fires."

The requested platform must be able to autonomously resupply a dismounted rifle platoon and evacuate at least two casualties, navigating without GPS, maintaining a low signature, and integrating with military networks. Industry responses are due April 28.

The requirement is directly informed by the war in Ukraine, where ground robots now handle roughly 90% of Kyiv's frontline logistics. The Army has already been testing the six-wheeled Hunter Wolf UGV, including a .50-caliber machine gun variant, at the Joint Readiness Training Center this month.

The Army's High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES), a Bombardier 6500 business jet converted for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance by Sierra Nevada Corporation under a $1 billion contract, will begin flight testing this summer, with first delivery to operational units expected before year's end.

The program is structured around three prototypes with progressively upgraded sensors: the first will carry legacy ISR sensors from previous turboprop aircraft, the second will add advanced radar, and the third will be "combat credible." Officials described the sensor strategy as intentionally open-ended under the Army's Continuous Transformation acquisition model.

HADES is envisioned as a standoff ISR platform that pairs its long range with launched effects, with officials previously targeting 1,000 kilometers of coverage before adjusting scope after industry consultation. The program will anchor Army aviation intelligence for the near-peer fight as the service retires its legacy turboprop ISR fleet.

Researchers at the MIT Marine Robotics Group have developed navigation algorithms that allow an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to track a diver's position by calculating range at regular intervals, solving what has historically been a key barrier to effective human-robot teaming underwater without relying on GPS or dense environmental maps.

The work addresses two fundamental gaps: navigation without known landmarks in murky, dynamic ocean environments, and visual perception of objects whose appearance can change significantly with biological overgrowth or structural damage. The team demonstrated the system in open-ocean environments, testing against real-world degraded conditions.

The research, funded through MIT Lincoln Laboratory with Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsorship, targets practical military applications including harbor access reconnaissance, infrastructure damage assessment and expeditionary operations where no pre-mapped environment is available.

The Air Force's Experimental Operations Unit (EOU) recently completed a series of sorties operating Anduril's YFQ-44A Fury Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) at Edwards Air Force Base, with operators using a ruggedized laptop to upload mission plans, initiate autonomous taxi and takeoff, task the aircraft in flight, and manage post-flight data. No fixed ground infrastructure was required.

A small number of EOU maintainers, with only a couple of days of training, were able to turn the aircraft between sorties. The exercise validated the YFQ-44A's design philosophy of radical maintainability with a small crew, a requirement the Air Force considers essential for the forward deployment of CCAs in contested environments far from established bases.

The Air Force intends to field a fleet of at least 1,000 CCAs and expects to make a down-select decision between Anduril and General Automatics this year for the production phase. The exercise is being used to accelerate the feedback loop between operators and acquisition professionals under the service's new Warfighting Acquisition System framework.

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