The experimental autonomous weapon system was developed as part of the Air Force's Next-Generation Air Dominance program, its push to develop a sixth-generation fighter and create a hybrid crewed-autonomous fleet.

However, the ambitious next-gen initiative has been plagued by ballooning costs and development delays, raising concerns about the program's sustainability and prioritization within the Pentagon's budget.

The Air Force's fleet has shrunk over the last two decades to about 5,500 aircraft due to skyrocketing costs for developing and producing new aircraft. The service plans to buttress its existing airpower with CCAs, which would be cheaper to build and maintain.

Airmen could be trained more virtually so the crewed airframes would have fewer flight hours, and the aircraft's AI-driven software would bolster the fleet without risking human pilots.

The push to build the next-generation aircraft and aerial systems comes amid China's rapid build-up of its air force. Though China has less advanced systems compared to the US, the country is heavily investing in evolving its fleet and fortifying its airfields in the Indo-Pacific, threatening US airpower in the region.

Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall previously said CCAs would cost a third of the price of crewed aircraft, estimating that one CCA would cost between $25-$30 million during a budget meeting with the House Appropriations Committee last April.

During a panel at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference last September, defense experts said CCAs could cost less than $1,200 per pound, whereas crewed fighters and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft typically cost between $4,000 and $6,000 per pound.

"That's how you get the affordability, at the same time that you get the survivability," Robert Winkler, vice president of corporate development and national security programs at Kratos Defense, said during the conference.

Winkler added that while the airframe itself is affordable, the same can't be said about the drone's "exquisite" sensors, radars, and electro-optical cameras.

"Obviously, you don't want to have these aircraft get out there and just get all shot down," Winkler said. "And obviously, you don't want them to be 'silver bullets,' where they cost so much that you can't afford to lose them, so there is a right balance."

The Air Force aims to acquire 1,000 CCAs to use two for each of 500 advanced fighters, requesting $557.1 million from Congress to continue researching and developing the CCAs.

Congress instead suggested cutting the CCA funds from the $3.3 billion budget allocated to its NGAD program in 2025 after a contract for its sixth-gen platform was paused, though a final decision on the CCA budget has yet to be made.

The Air Force awarded initial contracts to five defense contractors — Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman — to design a CCA concept aircraft.

Last year, Anduril and General Atomics were selected to produce prototypes for the first developmental phase of the program.

The Air Force plans to order more than 100 drones in the next five years, though the service hasn't ruled out the other companies to develop CCAs in future phases of the program.

According to the Congressional Research Service, preliminary work has already begun for the second phase of the CCA as the Air Force explores working with domestic and international manufacturers to develop a more complicated platform that incorporates stealth technology.

The Fury, a large uncrewed aircraft, was developed by Blue Force Technologies, a North Carolina-based aerospace company that was acquired by Anduril in September 2023.

Powered by a single turbofan engine, the Fury was designed to reach speeds of over 650 miles per hour and operate at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet. Pending the aircraft's loadout, it can also tolerate thrusts of up to nine times the force of gravity at a ceiling of around 20,000 feet.

The American defense technology company said it chose to invest in the Fury and turn it into a "high-performance, multi-mission" fighter recently designated as the YFQ-44A. Anduril also said it plans to integrate its Lattice system, an open software program that uses AI to integrate data from multiple sensors, to enable the drone for command and control.

The CCA concept designed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is based on its existing XQ-67A platform, which the company said focuses on "flexibility, affordability, and mission effectiveness. "

The XQ-67A primarily functions as an autonomous sensor platform with a modular design that can be adapted to each mission. The aircraft's specific dimensions have not been publicly disclosed, but its design resembles other combat uncrewed aerial vehicles, such as the MQ-25A Stingray and XQ-58A Valkyrie.

The YFQ-42A will be designed to "integrate seamlessly" with crewed jets, providing fighter capacity "at a lower cost and on a threat-relevant timeline," according to a company press release.

"These aircraft represent an unrivaled history of capable, dependable uncrewed platforms that meet the needs of America's warfighters and point the way to a significant new era for airpower," General Atomics said in a statement.

Over the last month, Hegseth has criticized the Pentagon's diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as divisive, saying he thinks "the single dumbest phrase in military history is, 'Our Diversity is Our Strength.'"

"I think our strength is our unity, our strength is our shared purpose; regardless of our background, regardless of how we grew up, regardless of our gender, regardless of our race, in this department we will treat everyone equally," the defense secretary said during a town hall at the Pentagon in February.

"We will treat everyone with fairness. We will treat everyone with respect," Hegseth continued. "And we will judge you as an individual by your merit and by your commitment to the team and the mission."

The Trump administration took the concerning and unprecedented move to axe top military leaders within the US military as part of its DEI pushback, including Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first Black officer to lead a military branch, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy's first female service chief.

Hegseth said he believes diversity-related initiatives "erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution."

Hegseth said in a January press release that viewing troops by anything other than their "merit" is meant to "divide or create complications that otherwise should not and do not exist."

And the wide-ranging online content removal is ensuring that diversity content doesn't exist — at least on US government websites.

As one of the largest employers in the US, the Defense Department oversees a geographically and racially diverse workforce and has recognized traditions like Black History Month for decades.

The US military's active-duty force of 1.3 million is predominantly male, with white as the largest self-identifying race at 68%, according to the Pentagon's 2023 demographic report. The enlisted ranks are more diverse than the officer corps, with Black troops accounting for 19.5% and Latinos 21.7%.

Of the more than 400,000 racial minority troops, only about 15% are officers, and the lowest percentage of racial diversity is found among the highest-ranking officers across all service branches.

In addition to halting DEI efforts at the Pentagon going forward, Hegseth also mandated a "digital content refresh across all DoD public platforms," ordering the removal of diversity-related content by March 5.

A memorandum of the February 27 mandate broadly described relevant content as "information that promotes programs, concepts, or materials about critical race theory, gender ideology, and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI-related matters with respect to promotion and selection reform, advisory boards, councils, and working groups."

The mandate also required the removal of content related to "merit-based or colorblind policies" and cultural heritage months.

Since late February, photos and videos of cultural celebrations and stories highlighting groundbreaking servicemembers have been erased from military-run social media accounts and the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, the Pentagon's public media database.

The vague directive has led to a slew of content related to women, racial minority groups, and LGBTQ+ troops disappearing from military-run websites.

"I guess I'll just stop taking photos of and sharing the stories of women and Black soldiers," an Army public affairs official told Military.com. "Not sure how else to interpret this."

People have taken to social media to share the stories of diversity that have gone dark on the Pentagon's official digital platforms.

A transgender US soldier noticed the official Facebook account of the US Army's I Corps had taken down her 2021 Army Heritage Month video and re-shared the video on social media.

Similarly, an article published in May 2023 about the legacy and achievements of West Point female graduates was taken down. The article mentioned trailblazing women like Maj. Kristen Griest, one of the first two women to graduate from the US Army Ranger School, and 2nd Lt. Emily Perez, who had been a high-ranking cadet leader at West Point.

Perez was also the first Black female officer in US military history to die in combat after she was killed in action while leading a convoy in Iraq in 2006. Some videos about Perez's service were erased on the Army's public platforms.

"I also talked about how my dad served for 24 years and the impact of 9/11. Now it's just gone," a user who identified herself as a former soldier said on social media after noticing a video profiling her was deleted. "Not going to lie it stings knowing my dad's service didn't matter, Emily's service didn't matter to them, and mine doesn't either."

In an internal memo sent last week, the Army's Office of the Chief of Public Affairs listed nearly 60 keywords for officers to use to target online material for removal, Military.com reported.

The internal memo included terms like "culture," "diversity," "racism," and "sexuality." "Respect," one of the Army's core values, was also among the list of search terms for removable content.

"This directive is antithetical to everything public affairs is supposed to be about," an Army public affairs official told Military.com. "The Army has ethically compromised everyone."

Led by the Norwegian military, Joint Viking takes place in early to mid-March in Troms, a country in northern Norway located about 250 miles west of the Norweigian-Russian border.

The Marine Corps will be among 10,000 troops participating in the biennial winter military exercise, which will also include armed forces from the UK, Canada, Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands.

In Troms since January, the Marines will play a "significant role" in the cold-weather war games, testing how quickly they can mobilize and deploy a large force across the Atlantic in a crisis, the Corps said in a statement.

Joint Viking is one of several routine military exercises held in the Arctic Circle, including Nordic Response, Arctic Forge, Arctic Dolphin, and Joint Warrior.

Beyond preparing troops for Arctic warfare, the military exercises are also intended to send a message to Russia about NATO's military readiness, especially as the war in Ukraine rages on.

During the last Joint Viking exercise in 2023, NATO commanders patrolled the border toward the Kola Peninsula, driving snowmobiles on the frozen Pasvik River.

The war in Ukraine has forced Russia to reevaluate its military posturing in the Arctic, especially after enduring heavy losses in its land forces, according to an article published in the peer-reviewed journal, Arctic Review on Law and Politics.

Tormod Heier, a retired lieutenant colonel for the Norwegian Army, wrote that the Ukraine war acts as a sort of "Arctic tranquilizer," reducing tensions and the likelihood of direct confrontations between the US and Russia.

"This is partly due to fear of nuclear escalation but also due to strategic necessity: neither US nor Russian forces can afford an overstretch problématique in the contemporary international environment," Heier, who now works as an associate professor at the National Defence University in Stockholm, wrote. "As both protagonists forge self-imposed restraints, Russia's 2022 invasion has inadvertently led to more Arctic stability."

While Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine shifted some attention away from direct confrontation in the high north, the US and other NATO allies remain concerned about Moscow's ongoing military nuclear threat in the region, Heier wrote.

In 2018, China also forced its way into the Arctic power competition after it declared itself a "near-Arctic state" to justify its strategic interests in the region.

While Western nations rejected China's claim because it has no geographical territory in the region, Russia welcomed the country's presence in the high north. China has since focused its efforts on scientific research, energy investments, and strategic infrastructure development in the Arctic.

China's growing Arctic presence and close Russian ties have been seen as a potential threat by the US and other Arctic nations, using military exercises like Joint Viking as a "deterrent effect."

China "is one of the newer entrants on the scene. Over time, the strategic interests that they have in the region are … giving us pause," Iris Ferguson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and Global Resilience for the Biden administration, said in a December statement.

Not only are the geopolitical tensions in the region ever-evolving, but the environment itself is reshaping as the climate crisis dramatically warms the Arctic at an unprecedented pace.

Melting ice is creating new shipping lanes along Russia's northern coast, potentially altering global trade routes. Growing access to resources, like oil, gas, and minerals that were recently impeded by ice, has led to countries, including the US, scrambling to stake their claim.

President Donald Trump's approach to Arctic policy has also heavily impacted the region, reversing climate regulations in favor of oil extraction and even expressing interest in acquiring Greenland from Denmark as part of his national security strategy.

In May 2012, Huntington Ingalls Industries was awarded the contract to build USS Tripoli, and the warship launched five years later in 2017 from Pascagoula, Mississippi.

It is the third vessel to bear the Tripoli name, a tribute to the first recorded land battle the US fought overseas when Marines landed on Tripoli's shores in 1805.

Initially planned to join the Navy's fleet a year behind schedule in 2019, the Tripoli's commissioning was pushed to 2020 due to "unspecified technical difficulties" and delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Tripoli is the second America-class amphibious assault ship delivered to the US Navy. The 45,000-ton vessel measures 844 feet in length and 106 feet in width, similar in size to its predecessor, the Wasp-class amphibious warships.

Powered by two marine gas turbines, the warship has a speed of 22 knots or about 25 mph. The assault carrier is armed with surface-to-air missile systems, two automated gun-based close-in weapon systems, and seven heavy twin machine guns.

The America-class fleet was designed to prioritize aviation capabilities and lacks a well deck to launch amphibious craft.

In its place, the assault carriers have an extended hangar deck and wider high bay areas, which allow more room for aircraft and aviation fuel. The ships also have two aircraft elevators and additional space for aviation maintenance facilities.

The Tripoli's flight deck can accommodate up to nine CH-53K King Stallion heavy transport helicopters flown by Marines. In a standard configuration, the Tripoli can carry up to 10 F-35B fighters, 12 Ospreys, and 16 military helicopters.

Amphibious warships typically operate as helicopter carriers designed to support near-shore operations. The America-class vessels, however, were modified with a more durable, heat-resistant flight deck to launch F-35B stealth fighters.

Taking its aviation capabilities even further, the US Navy used the Tripoli to test the "lightning carrier" concept, tasking the amphibious assault ship to function as a full-fledged carrier.

In 2022, the Tripoli departed its homeport in San Diego for the Western Pacific, spending the first few months of its seven-month maiden deployment putting the experimental concept to the test.

The assault carrier carried 20 F-35B stealth fighters on board — the most ever loaded aboard a big-deck warship.

"We refer to the ship as 'assault carrier 7,' and 'assault' is traditional for an LHD and LHA," Capt. Joel Lang, then-commander of the Tripoli, told reporters at the time. "Typically, the air combat element is a blend of rotary and tilt-rotor in order to enable that assault force to go ashore. We are proving the tactics and the techniques and the procedures to employ the 'lightning carrier' concept."

Produced by US defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the fighter jet has a stealth design to vastly reduce its ability to be tracked by radar and is touted as one of the world's most advanced fighters. The F-35B variant has a powerful propulsion system that gives it the unique capability of vertical takeoff and landing.

Developed by Rolls-Royce, the lift fan delivers an additional 20,000 pounds of thrust on top of the aircraft's engine thrust, allowing it to land and take-off like a helicopter.

The F-35B allows Marine aviators to operate aboard smaller flattops and makeshift airstrips, especially on expeditionary missions. With far more advanced capabilities and avionics, the F-35B is set to replace the US military's only other STOVL fighter jet, the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier, which is expected to retire by 2027.

While the Navy doesn't intend on substituting full-fledged carriers with "lightning carriers," operating smaller flattops bolsters the fleet's air power — at a much lower cost.

An America-class assault ship costs about $3.4 billion, nearly a quarter of the cost to manufacture a new Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, which costs around $13 billion, though the latter possesses more advanced capabilities and carries over 60 aircraft.

"One day, you can have F-35Bs on the flight deck; the next day, you could have MV-22s, and you can be putting Marines ashore," Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, then-commander of the US 7th Fleet, said following the concept testing. "And so it just is a very versatile instrument."

The "lightning carrier" concept could play a larger role in deterring China, which now has the world's largest navy.

Despite still being in the experimentation phase, Thomas said he believes that an assault carrier carrying 14 F-35Bs is "much more capable" than either of China's operational aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and Shandong, "both from a sortie-creation perspective as well as just a sheer capability."

Last December, China unveiled its own massive assault ship, the Sichuan, which can launch fighter jets or drones. The first Yulan-class landing helicopter assault ship has a flight deck as large as three football fields, about as long as the US Navy's America-class LHAs but 60 feet wider. China, however, does not have a carrier-based stealth fighter yet.

Recognizing the operational flexibility of assault warships, the Navy aims to expand its amphibious fleet to at least 31 vessels — 10 of which must be big-deck LHAs.

Two more America-class LHAs — USS Bougainville and USS Fallujah — are currently being built at HII's Mississippi shipyard. The fifth-in-class USS Helmand Province was named last May and has yet to start construction.

Last May, HII was awarded a $9.6 billion contract to ramp up construction on the Navy's amphibious fleet. The deal includes the construction of three San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks and the next America-class big-deck ship.

"Upgrading our fleet with amphibious combat vehicles capable of supporting sea denial and maritime operations will further bolster our ability to support deterrence efforts and respond to contingencies in the Indo-Pacific," Lt. Gen. Roger B. Turner, commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force, said in a statement.

In 1999, NASA selected Boeing to design a reusable orbital test vehicle to monitor and repair satellites closely.

Over the next four years, the X-37 underwent several design iterations to achieve a more aerodynamic design than the Space Shuttle orbiter. It was initially intended to launch from the cargo bay of a space shuttle. But after the Space Shuttle Columbia crashed and killed all seven astronauts on board in 2003, it was redesigned to launch from a different rocket, making it smaller and more autonomous.

The project cost nearly $192 million, and Boeing was awarded another $301 million contract in 2002 through the Space Launch Initiative, a joint research effort led by NASA and the Defense Department. The X-37 project was transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2004 and became classified because of its military applications.

In 2006, the Air Force announced the development of its own variant of the space plane, known as the X-37B, designed to operate with an orbital speed of nearly 17,500 mph for up to 270 days.

The uncrewed test vehicle was nearly 30 feet long and had a wingspan of about 15 feet. Its max takeoff weight was 11,000 pounds, and it could accommodate payloads of up to 500 pounds.

Dubbed the "most advanced re-entry spacecraft," the X-37B program would focus on "risk reduction, experimentation, and operational concept development for reusable space vehicle technologies, in support of long-term developmental space objectives," then-Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said in 2006.

The X-37B was tasked with multiple orbital missions, ranging from testing materials under the conditions of space to releasing a small satellite with its own experimental payloads.

The first X-37B vehicle was launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral in April 2010. The test vehicle spent 225 days in space and returned in December 2010 after conducting several orbit changes, though the data it collected during its maiden mission was classified.

In 2020, the X-37B's sixth mission involved toting a small service module into space for the first time. The FalconSat-8 was a small satellite developed by the US Air Force Academy carrying five experimental payloads. After a record-breaking 908 days in space, the X-37B completed its mission and landed at the Kennedy Space Center in November 2022.

Because much of the X-37B program is classified, the secrecy fueled speculation about the purpose of its mission sets, with some speculating that the space plane could be a weapons platform or used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance from space.

The X-37B embarked on its seventh and current mission in December 2023, launching from the Falcon Heavy rocket, manufactured and launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The Falcon Heavy is capable of launching payloads over 22,000 feet above Earth, so the X-37B was launched higher than any other spaceplane and flew in a highly elliptical orbit.

The purpose of its seventh mission was to experiment with "future space domain awareness technologies" and analyze the radiation effects on plant seeds during spaceflight, according to the Space Force.

Another key objective of the X-37B's current mission is to refine and execute novel maneuvers called aerobraking, using the drag of Earth's atmosphere to quickly shift into low orbit and safely dispose of service module components using minimal fuel. Changing orbit is a crucial capability should the spaceplane be used to upgrade US satellites or disable those of its adversaries.

Though the image taken by its onboard camera shows just a small portion of the X-37B, few photos of the vehicle itself are available to the public.

A video montage posted on X in 2023 included a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment of the X-37B separating from its service module during its sixth mission in 2020. The US military and Boeing also released the first photos from the same mission after it was completed in 2022.

The X-37B is known for conducting tests and scientific experiments in space, but details about its military applications remain highly classified.

Operating space-based technology for decades, including the X-37B, has given the US an edge on the new frontier of orbital warfare. China follows closely behind the US with its own spacecraft known as the Shenlong, named after a dragon god in Chinese mythology.

Like the X-37B, much about the aircraft is still shrouded in mystery. The Shenlong was first announced in 2007, but China has publicly disclosed few details about the top-secret space plane program. There are no known images of the Shenlong, and among the few capabilities that are known about the unmanned vehicle is that it can deploy via a rocket, quickly maneuver in space, and deploy payloads into space, much like the X-37B.

During its first orbital flight in September 2020, the Shenlong remained in space for two days to release an object into orbit before returning to Earth.

Its second launch in August 2022 lasted considerably longer, operating in orbit for nine months. The Chinese spaceplane was reportedly practicing maneuvers to deploy and recover a subsatellite, operations that require similar techniques to capture an enemy satellite.

In December 2023, the Shenlong's third mission, which began just seven months after the second, reportedly had a similar objective, releasing an object from its cargo hold to test proximity operations. It completed its mission after nine months in space, returning to China this past September.

Founded by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin, the Martin Company developed and produced the Mars flying boat fleet for the US Navy. Best known for its contributions to military and commercial aviation, the American aircraft manufacturer was also behind innovative military bombers like the B-26 and B-10, which were widely used in World War II.

In the mid-1940s, seven Mars seaplanes were delivered to the Navy, scaled back from the 20 planes the sea service ordered following the end of WWII.

The first Mars prototype, dubbed "the Old Lady," was delivered in 1943. It was followed by the cargo variant of the Hawaii Mars, the Philippine Mars, the Marianas Mars, the Marshall Mars, the firefighting variant of the Hawaii Mars, and the Caroline Mars.

While most of the fleet has been scrapped, lost, or destroyed over the last eight decades, the second Hawaii Mars and the Philippine Mars survived to this day. The Hawaii Mars was donated to the British Columbia Aviation Museum in Canada, and the Philippine Mars will make its final home at the Pima Air and Space in Tucson, Arizona.

The Mars flying boats were the world's largest operational seaplanes and the Navy's largest WWII-era aircraft.

It measured nearly 120 feet in length and 200 feet in wingspan — roughly the size of a modern-day Boeing commercial airplane.

After the flying boats were reconfigured from patrol boats to cargo planes, the massive flying boat had a max takeoff weight of over 85 tons — or about 165,000 pounds. It could accommodate a 32,000-pound payload, including up to seven military jeeps.

Despite its hulking size, the four-engined flying boats had a maximum speed of over 200 mph. The aircraft had a service ceiling of up to 14,600 feet and a range of 4,900 nautical miles.

The aircraft were propelled by small rockets known as jet-assisted take-off bottles equipped under the wings. These small rockets provided extra thrust to help them get airborne quicker or take off with heavier payloads.

The Mars seaplanes were operated by a crew of four comprising pilots, engineers, and ground crew. It also had accommodations for a relief team.

The aircraft could also transport over 130 fully-equipped troops, or 84 litter patients and 25 attendants.

In March 1949, the Caroline Mars, set a world record for airlifting passengers on a single flight, carrying 269 people from San Diego to San Francisco.

But the youngest Mars flying boat didn't hold the title for very long — a little over two months later, the Marshall Mars broke the passenger load record by transporting 301 people from Alameda to San Diego.

Though produced at the latter end of WWII, the Mars fleet supported US Navy operations by flying cargo between Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. The flying boats were later deployed as medical air transport lifts between Hawaii and California during the Korean War.

After the Marshall Mars was damaged by an engine fire near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the remaining four aircraft continued to transport cargo from San Francisco to Honolulu until 1956, when they were decommissioned and beached at the Naval Air Station Alameda.

After retiring from military service, the remaining Mars fleet, which became known as "the Big Four," was sold to timber companies in British Columbia in the late 1950s, finding a new purpose as the world's largest water bombers to combat forest fires.

The four flying boats were modified with large tanks that could carry more than 7,000 gallons of water and up to 600 gallons of foam concentrate, which was used to create a fire retardant to smother the flames. The Mars tankers could make a drop every 15 minutes, loaded with enough water or foam to douse an area of up to 4 acres at a time.

The Marianas Mars crashed in 1961 during firefighting operations in Vancouver Island, and the Caroline Mars was damaged beyond repair by a typhoon the following year.

The last surviving Mars flying boats — the Philippine Mars and the Hawaii Mars — were later acquired by Coulson Aviation in 2007 to "expand its firefighting capabilities," according to the company.

The Coulson Group said the aircraft underwent several upgrades and renovations to make it a safer and more reliable aerial firefighter, but officials in British Columbia replaced it with newer aircraft, like the firefighting variants of the Lockheed C-130.

But after sitting in storage for half a decade, the Coulson Group decided to retire the Philippine Mars in 2012, donating it to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Florida as a permanent exhibit. Its red-and-white paint scheme from its time as a water bomber was replaced with its original dark blue Navy colors, but the trade deal with the Navy was put on indefinite hold amid the 2016 presidential election.

Last April, Coulson Aviation announced that the Philippine Mars would instead find its final landing at the Pima Air and Space Museum.

As the aircraft's retirement approached, the Coulson Group offered experiences for aviation enthusiasts to get "up close and personal with their Martin Mars water bombers."

The program, which had packages ranging from $1,000 to $15,000, featured tours of the planes and the opportunity to observe maintainers working on them. The top-tier experience, which included an opportunity to taxi the plane on the water, sold out in three days.

Over the last few months, multiple attempts have been made to get the Philippine Mars airborne to make the 800-mile flight from Vancouver Island to San Francisco to commemorate its service with the US Navy.

After four engine and propeller changes with parts taken from the Hawaii Mars, the Philippine Mars successfully took off from Sproat Lake, making its final flight to San Francisco Bay on Sunday.

The next day, it departed the Alameda Seaplane Base and flew to Lake Pleasant, Arizona, where the plane is expected to be de-watered, dismantled, and towed to the museum.

"Against all odds, the team behind her has worked tirelessly to prepare her for this final journey to Arizona," Coulson wrote on social media. "She may be leaving the water, but her legacy will always ripple through history."

In 2014, an F-35, tail number AF-27, was severely damaged at the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida after an engine fire burned the rear two-thirds of the aircraft. The cost of damage was estimated to be over $50 million, according to the Air Education and Training Command. The airframe was recycled as a damage and repair trainer for maintenance crews

In 2020, a landing gear malfunction caused an F-35, tail number AF-211, to crash, severely damaging its nose. The damaged airframe and its engine were preserved at Hill Air Force Base in Utah since the landing gear collapse.

Dave Myers, the lead engineer at the F-35 Joint Program Office Lightning Support Team, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that there was "no degradation" to the airframes, so splicing them together into the "Franken-bird" wouldn't impact its capabilities.

Hangared in the 4th Fighter Generation Squadron, maintainers created unique tools and equipment to support and join the nose section of the AF-27 and the rear section of the AF-211 since it was the first attempt at the ambitious repair job.

"When we received the aircraft, it was pretty much a shell," Senior Airman Jaguar Arnold, the aircraft's crew chief from the 4th FGS, said in a statement released last month. "There were a lot of tasks to complete that we hadn't done before at the unit level."

The repair process also incorporated some technical updates and new components, including reinforcement structures on its outer shell. Technicians reinstalled the landing gear, rewired the avionics systems, and rebuilt the cockpit.

"The F-35 program is still young compared to all legacy airframes," Myers said. "We are doing this for the first time, and organizationally for the future, we are creating a process we can move forward with."

The resounding success of the F-35 restoration efforts provided valuable technical experience for maintainers to improve installation and inspection processes.

"When we took responsibility for this project, we were taking on something unprecedented at the field level, and it wasn't easy," 1st Lt. Ryan Bare, Sortie Generation Flight commander for the 4th FGS, said. "That can't be overstated."

"But we were also taking on an opportunity for our maintainers to gain proficiency in this type of work and build experience at the unit level," Bare added. "As a program, and as a unit, we've benefited greatly from this."

The "Franken-bird" also had the added benefit of growing the Air Force's operational fleet — at a fraction of the cost. The aircraft restoration project cost an estimated $6 million, whereas a new F-35 jet costs over $80 million.

While the F-35 is the Defense Department's most advanced and costliest weapon system, Congress has questioned whether the stealth fighter's capabilities justify its steep price tag, especially as the program continues to be plagued by cost overruns, production delays, and maintenance and performance issues.

The DoD extended the F-35's projected operational life from 2077 to 2088, prompting the total estimated cost of the program to exceed $2 trillion. The US military operates about 630 F-35 variants with plans to procure over 1,800 more jets for the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy by the mid-2040s.

After the "Franken-bird" completed its functional check flights in January, the aircraft was transported to a Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, where it will complete final certifications to restore its combat-ready status.

The section behind the jet's nose, which is only covered with anti-corrosion primer, will also be finished by applying low-observable materials.

The aircraft is set to return to combat status with the 4th Fighter Squadron around March, though it could be fully operational well before then, according to Dan Santos, the F-35 JPO heavy maintenance manager.

"Not only will this project return a combat asset back to the warfighter," Santos said in a 2023 statement, "but it opens the door for repairing future mishap aircraft using tooling, equipment, techniques, and knowledge that has been developed."

Ben Rich, then the director of Lockheed's Skunk Works, decided to apply the F-117's stealthy coatings and angular shaping to a submarine.

Rich and his Skunk Works team — the industry leaders in stealth design — developed a small-scale model of a submarine dubbed the Sea Shadow to test in a sonic chamber. They found that the angular design of the cigar-shaped hull bounced sonar signals away from the vessel and muffled sounds it emitted from the crew and engine.

However, the Defense Department didn't find a need for underwater stealth craft, prompting Rich to adapt the design into a Small Water Area Twin Hull, a catamaran-style surface vessel designed to be stable and fast in rough seas whose futuristic design looked unlike anything else in the US fleet.

The Pentagon expressed interest in Rich's modified stealth surface vessel model, authorizing a $50 million contract through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to Skunk Works to "test the effects of stealth shaping and coatings on surface vessels and effects of seawater on radar absorbing iron ferrite coatings," according to Lockheed Martin.

The Soviet Union's network of reconnaissance satellites could expose the positions of the US Navy's surface fleet. Drawing inspiration from the Nighthawk, the Sea Shadow incorporated sharp angles and flat surfaces of 45-degree angles to reduce the ship's radar visibility and avoid detection.

The stealth concept was tested in a 100-by-80-foot plastic swimming pool in Death Valley, California, using a simulated Soviet radar satellite. The successful test earned the project more funding to develop a prototype of the Sea Shadow.

Developed under strict secrecy, the Sea Shadow was constructed modularly, building smaller sections of the ship before they were taken to a submergible barge in California to be fully assembled.

The 164-foot vessel could accommodate a four-man crew consisting of the commander, helmsman, navigator, and engineer. The diesel-electric propulsion system allowed the vessel to reach speeds of up to 15 knots, or about 17 miles per hour.

The Sea Shadow prototype was designed to test the application of stealth technology at sea, exploring how its stealth capabilities would perform in real-world conditions.

But the stealth ship was a one-off prototype with limited capabilities, and its odd, unconventional design was highly specialized, making it less practical for general use. Without the flexibility or features of the other multi-role vessels in the Navy's fleet, the Sea Shadow never saw use.

After nearly three decades sitting in storage at a private shipyard in San Diego, the Navy offered the Sea Shadow to museums for free, but there were no takers. Instead, it was sold at a 95% loss in 2012 — the highest bid amounting to $2.5 million — and was dismantled and scrapped.

Even though the prototype itself didn't fit into the Navy's evolving needs, it did provide valuable insights into adapting stealth technology for the sea. The lessons learned from Sea Shadow contributed to more advanced stealth ships and systems, like the Zumwalt-class destroyers.

While the expensive Zumwalt class has long struggled to find a suitable mission and weapons, they featured similar stealth characteristics to the Sea Shadow, like low radar cross-sections and angular shapes, to achieve greater survivability and effectiveness in modern naval warfare.

The Sea Shadow's design also has similarities with a new vessel. Developed by General Dynamics, the GHOST is an uncrewed vessel designed for coastal defense, special operations, and anti-piracy patrols. It can raise or lower its wings for low visibility, high speed, or stability.

The 62-foot drone has a shallow four-foot draft for coastal operations, and its hybrid turbine-and-electric drive allows the vessel to reach speeds of up to 32.5 knots, or about 37 mph. A General Dynamics brochure said it has two "stealth" modes.

Not only can the GHOST be modified physically to fit the mission at hand — like carrying missiles or ferrying 16 Navy SEALs — but it can also be operated by a pilot and navigator onboard, controlled remotely, or programmed as an autonomous platform.

During its first year, authorities cleared 15 square miles for the camp.

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Sources: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Auschwitz‑Birkenau Memorial and State Museum 

Electrified barbed wire divided it into 10 different sections.

Sources: Jewish Virtual Library, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Sources: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Five to six prisoners were packed in so over 500 prisoners were in each unit.

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Auschwitz was the only concentration camp to do this.

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Source: Museum of Jewish Heritage

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Four new chambers were built between March and June 1943, each containing a disrobing area, gas chamber, and crematory ovens.

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The Nazis made prisoners work on large farms, in coal mines, in weapons production — basically anything the German military needed for war.

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Source: Museum of Jewish Heritage

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The majority of them faced starvation, illness, and death.

Source: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum

Of 180 children examined after liberation, 40% had tuberculosis.

Source: Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum

Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Editor's note: This list was first published in January 2020 and has been updated to reflect recent developments.

Leveraging its domestic transportation industry, the US military partnered with Holt Manufacturing Company, known for its tractors used to tow artillery.

They developed a prototype built off of an existing Holt Model 75 tractor powered by a modified hybrid gas-electric engine. The four-cylinder gasoline engine supplied power to two General Electric motors that drove each track individually for improved mobility and had enough space at the front to accommodate its main cannon.

Tracked treads better distribute weight than wheels and allow a vehicle to cross more types of terrain — an especially important quality for heavy vehicles whose weight is measured in many tons.

Protected by a layer of 15mm steel armor, the tank could accommodate a crew of six — commander, driver, two machine gunners, a main gunner, and a loader.

It was armed with a Vickers mountain cannon at the front and two machine guns on either side of the boxy tank.

The tank was a response to the annihilating firepower seen on the Western Front, where artillery barrages were commonplace and advancing columns of foot soldiers were mowed down by emplaced machine gunners.

The sheer scale of the carnage was shocking. In the Allied offensive known as the Battle of the Somme in 1916, an estimated 620,000 British and French troops were killed or wounded.

A shielded hull was intended to carry troops past deadly machine gun nests and target those positions with heavy fire, clearing the path for infantry.

However, its bulky armor and equipped weaponry made the prototype of the hybrid tank far too heavy, weighing about 25 tons. Its 90-horsepower engine struggled to propel the tank, which moved at a top speed of 6 mph and was practically immobile on an incline.

That was hugely underpowered. A modern M1 Abrams, the US Army's main battle tank, moves its 68-ton bulk around with a 1,500-horsepower engine.

But the US military didn't give up. Instead, it chose to create a variation of the first design by adding just an electrically propelled gun mount to the gas-electric tractor.

While more successful than its predecessor, the armed tractor ultimately never made it to combat since it was completed after the armistice was signed and WWI came to an end.

Though the hybrid tank didn't appear on the battlefield, it did appear on the silver screen.

American animation studio International Film Service, owned by media magnate William Randolph Hearst, produced a miniseries in 1917 that featured vehicles similar in design to the Holt tank.

The series' final battle featured US troops ahead of a twin-turreted prop tank, though much of the footage for the series has been destroyed or lost in the last century.

The former president displayed a penchant for using the distinctive black marker on documents throughout his first presidency. The bold strokes can be seen on anything from executive orders to speech drafts to allegedly altered hurricane maps.

Trump loved to use a Sharpie so much that he even reached out to the stationary company to design a custom pen for him to sign documents, emblazoned with his mountain-peak-like signature.

In a four-part HBO series done in partnership with Axios in 2018, he made no secret of his love for a Sharpie pen — and how much he hated using government-ordered writing utensils traditionally used by presidents.

"I was signing documents with a very expensive pen and it didn't write well," Trump said, referring to the government pen. "It was a horrible pen, and it was extremely expensive."

He added: "And then I started using just a Sharpie, and I said to myself, 'Well wait a minute, this writes much better and this cost almost nothing.'"

The Trump Organization — but not Trump himself or his children — in 2022 faced charges of criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records, and filing false tax returns in a scheme to defraud the state.

After the trial kicked off, documents from the Trump Organization were presented to jurors by the trial's first witness, Jeffrey McConney, the company's longtime controller.

McConney identified the signatures — in distinctive bold Sharpie — on some half-dozen documents, which included important letters and payroll documents, as that of the former president.

In a May 1, 2005 letter detailing an overhead projection, Trump personally authorized a $6,500-a-month lease for a Manhattan apartment to be lived in exclusively by his longtime chief financial officer.

"In other words, Donald J. Trump authorized Donald J. Trump to sign the lease" for the apartment, Joshua Steinglass, one of the two lead prosecutors, said during the trial.

Trump's notes were clearly visible to cameras — aided by his tendency to hold them up to the crowd for emphasis.

At a campaign rally in Virginia in 2016, Trump touted national polling numbers and talked about Jeff Sessions, who was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.

Trump also mentioned Ashley Guindon, a Virginia police officer who was killed on her first day on the job, and he vowed to "restore law and order [and] respect [for] the men and women who protect," per his notes.

In a press conference ahead of declaring a state of emergency amid the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, Trump briefed the nation on the distribution of ventilators and respirators ahead of the rapidly spreading respiratory disease that was then shrouded in mystery.

In his notes, the president jotted down to mention how "good govs are getting it done, bad ones are not."

"We're really backing up the governors. The governors have to go out and do their things and you have a lot of governors, they've done a fantastic job," Trump said during the press conference on March 22, 2020. "You have some that haven't. Usually, it's the ones that complain that have the problems."

He added: "But we've had a great relationship as an example with Governor Cuomo, with Governor Newsom," noting them specifically due to the "hotbeds" of infection that were transpiring in their states respectively.

One of the platforms that Trump infamously campaigned on for his first presidential campaign was building a wall at the border, which eventually came to fruition — though not to completion — during his first administration.

In September 2019, he paid a visit to a border wall construction in Otay Mesa, a neighborhood in San Diego County, California. With a hefty price tag of $147 million, the 14-mile section of steel beams, concrete, and rebar replaced the construction of a decades-old wall that was previously installed in the 1990s.

"You can fry an egg on that wall," Trump told the reporters and officials gathered during his visit, referring to the wall's design to absorb heat.

And without fail, the president brought out a Sharpie to sign one of the slats of his beloved border wall, which he said was at the request of the border patrol agents at the site.

"I autographed one of the bollards," he said. "There are a lot of bollards. That's a lot of bollards."

In September 2019, ahead of the devastation brought in by Hurricane Dorian, the president said the storm was headed to Alabama.

"In addition to Florida - South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated," Trump tweeted at the time. "Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever. Already category 5. BE CAREFUL! GOD BLESS EVERYONE!"

In a bid to quell public panic regarding the former president's errant forecast, the Birmingham branch of the National Weather Service set the record straight, blatantly correcting his prediction.

"Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian," the agency said in a tweet the same day. "We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east."

But Trump doubled down once again on his claims and refused to accept the NWS' forecast, instead presenting a map of Hurricane Dorian's path with a black Sharpie stroke extending the storm's path over Alabama. The incident later became known as "SharpieGate," prompting its fair share of internet mockery and memes in its wake.

During Trump's first impeachment inquiry, Gordon Sondland, former US Ambassador to the European Union, delivered damning testimony publicly confirming the quid pro quo request from Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The articles of impeachment were related, in part, to Trump's reported efforts to strong-arm Zelensky into launching politically motivated investigations against the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election and withholding vital military aid while doing so.

But like Trump's persistent spoken words in denying the accusations of quid pro quo, his written ones echoed the same denial, as written in bold Sharpie on Air Force One stationary in 2019.

"I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo," he wrote. "Tell Zelensky to do the right thing. This is the final word from the pres of the US."

And, of course, the note had its heyday on the internet as people turned it into Eminem jokes, Pearl Jam setlist jokes, and lyrics of a Morrissey song.

On the first day of his second administration, Trump showed the world his love for Sharpie pens persists.

He signed a flurry of executive orders to usher in his second non-consecutive term in the White House, including a freeze on federal hiring, a return-to-office mandate for federal workers, and an order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord — each bearing his name in thick Sharpie strokes.

The president's supporters appear to share his penchant for the black permanent marker, with one fan in the inaugural audience calling for Trump to toss him a pen after signing an order with it. Trump did, throwing each Sharpie he used to sign the orders into the crowd. 

Commissioned in September 1968, the Kennedy was the fourth and final vessel in the Kitty Hawk class, initially designated as an attack aircraft carrier.

Comprised of the first-in-class Kitty Hawk, USS Constellation, USS America, and the Kennedy, the vessels were the last group of carriers to be powered by fossil fuels, which were replaced by the Navy's Nimitz-class nuclear-powered flattops.

The name honored the president slain five years before, who had served as a naval officer during World War II. After his motor torpedo boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, he famously helped save his men from the water and relayed their stranded location to nearby allies by writing on a coconut husk.

After undergoing heavy modifications to adapt to a broader range of missions, the Kennedy became a class of its own, changing its classification to CV-67.

Nicknamed "Big John," the Kennedy completed 18 deployments over nearly four decades in service, including operations in the Mediterranean, Tyrrhenian, Ionian, Ligurian, Aegean, and Adriatic Seas.

In 2005, the Navy decided the cost of the maintenance overhaul for the aging carrier outweighed the benefits, opting to retire the ship instead. The aircraft carrier was taken out of service in August 2007 and towed to Philadelphia, moored alongside other inactive Navy vessels.

The Kennedy was notably involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict in the 1970s and deployed to the Middle East as part of the US response to the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

The vessel was also sent to waters off the coast of Lebanon after a suicide bomber struck the US Marine Corps Multi-National Forces Barracks at the Beirut International Airport, killing 241 Marines.

Aircraft aboard CV-67 launched the first major strikes on Iraq on the night of January 17, 1991, lighting up the night sky as the 80 sorties flying over Baghdad were pummeled with heavy fire from below.

"Imagine the Disney World light show, then magnify it 100 times," one pilot said. "That's what it looked like from the sky last night… it was incredible!"

The Kennedy and its battle group were also briefly deployed to the mid-Atlantic coastline to support the Nimitz-class carrier USS George Washington, establishing air security following the terror attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001.

"While John F. Kennedy Battle Group's services were needed for only a brief time, every member of the Battle Group was proud of their role in Operation Noble Eagle, providing security along the eastern seaboard of the United States," an observer with the Kennedy's battle group wrote, per the Navy.

The Kennedy also played an early role in the war in Afghanistan, launching the first air strikes off the coast of Pakistan that commenced Operation Enduring Freedom.

Not only will the Kennedy go down in history for its involvement in key conflicts in US history, but it was also the setting of one of the greatest military pranks of all time.

A Navy tradition dating back to the 1960s, crews aboard Navy aircraft carriers would prank the sailors aboard the relieving ship by releasing greased pigs on its flight deck.

When the Kennedy was set to relieve the Kitty Hawk-class supercarrier USS America in 1986, aviators aboard the America dropped off an unusual payload on the new arrivals: three greased pigs dyed with red, white, and blue food coloring.

In 2021, the Navy sold two old aircraft carriers — the Kennedy and the Kitty Hawk — to scrap dealers for just one cent each.

Though towing and breaking down the ship for scrap is a costly process, the profit from selling scrap steel, iron, and non-ferrous metal ores will benefit the company.

After 17 years at the Navy's decommissioned ship facility, Big John embarked on its final voyage to International Shipbreaking Limited's scrap metal yard in Brownsville, Texas.

Departing from the Philadelphia naval facility, the ship is set to sail into Delaware Bay and into the North Atlantic Ocean before transiting south, around the Florida peninsula, and then across the Gulf of Mexico.

The Kennedy namesake will live on in the future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier.

Expected to be delivered to the Navy in the summer of 2025, the second-in-class PCU John F. Kennedy touts a hefty $11 billion price tag — albeit $2 billion shy of the $13 billion first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford.

Measuring 1,092 feet in length — only a few feet shy of the height of the Eiffel Tower — the future Kennedy will be able to accommodate more than 75 aircraft.

Powered by two nuclear reactors, the Navy said its newest warship will incorporate nearly two dozen technological upgrades to make it more efficient, including improvements in propulsion, power generation, ordnance handling, and aircraft launch systems.

''USS John F. Kennedy will carry the legacy of its namesake and the power of our nation,'' then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said in a 2019 statement. ''The advanced technology and warfighting capabilities this aircraft carrier brings to our global challenges will strengthen our allies and partners, extend our reach against potential adversaries, and further the global mission of our integrated naval force.''

At just 9 years old, Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the 35th president, was chosen as the sponsor for the first carrier named after her father.

Fifty-two years later, Caroline Kennedy was once again selected to be the sponsor of the future CVN-79, christening the ship in December 2019 in a ceremony attended by over 20,000 people at Newport News shipyard.

"Having a chance to get to know the people who served on the USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) really gave me insight into who he was and what kind of leader he was in a way that I wouldn't have had any other way," Caroline Kennedy said. "And I know that's going to be just as true now with a whole new generation."

Navy Capt. Todd Marzano, then the commanding officer of the Kennedy, told Business Insider said the Kennedy's construction was streamlined by improvements from the inefficiencies and delays that plagued the Ford.

"We are definitely benefiting from being the second aircraft carrier in the class," Marzano said in 2019. "We're leveraging their lessons learned, which has helped not only from the construction side but from our sailor training."

Using a modular process, workers built smaller sections of the ship to form a superlift, a structural unit fitted with piping, electrical equipment, cable, ventilation, and joiner work, before bringing it to the assembly area on the dry dock.

The second-in-class carrier was launched into the James River three months ahead of schedule in October 2019 — then set to be delivered to the Navy in 2022.

Despite being leagues ahead of schedule compared to its predecessor, the Kennedy was not immune to shipbuilding delays of its own. The carrier's delivery date kept being pushed back, due in part to supply chain issues brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and delays in the ship's capability upgrades.

At first, PCU Kennedy wasn't designed to launch fifth-generation stealth fighters, prompting Congress in 2020 to step in and pause the delivery of the $13 billion flattop until it was retrofitted to support the aircraft, which cost over $100 million.

In February 2024, the future supercarrier tested its new electromagnetic aircraft launching system by catapulting 80,000-pound wheeled carts into the James River to ensure it could handle actual loaded aircraft.

An improvement on the Nimitz class' steam-powered catapult, the EMALS has a higher launch capacity, sending aircraft barreling down the 300-foot track at over 150 miles per hour.

The modernized catapult and arresting gear are also optimized for more accurate end-speed control, reducing stress on the aircraft.

The Navy said the second-in-class carrier is now expected to be delivered in July 2025 to perform more work and prepare it for its first deployment in the Indo-Pacific.

The Navy said that assigning the Kennedy to the Pacific fleet would cut down the amount of time the carrier needed at the shipyard to identify any issues with the ship's systems, equipment, or performance.

Deploying the Kennedy to the Indo-Pacific is also intended to strengthen the US' naval presence in the region amid heightened tensions with China.

"Our adversaries are modernizing at speeds akin to the Germans and Japanese during the Interwar period — both in the physical and technological sense," US Fleet Forces Commander Adm. Daryl Caudle said in June 2024.

"Winning this competition means achieving an overmatch of our adversaries," he added. "That necessitates having a fleet of technologically advanced warships with the readiness and lethal capabilities to answer our nation's call at a moment's notice."

Set to take effect on January 19, the complex cease-fire deal includes a phased approach. Lasting six weeks, the first phase consists of a "full and complete" cease-fire, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the release of hostages held by Hamas, US President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

Israel said it would reduce the number of forces operating in the Gaza Strip and expected to fully withdraw its military presence in a later phase of the deal. Hamas agreed to initially release nearly three dozen Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel but has not confirmed when the final hostages will return home.

Biden added that women, the elderly, and the wounded hostages would be released as part of the first phase, as well as American hostages being held in Gaza. Seven Americans are being held hostage in Gaza, three of whom are presumed to be alive.

To ensure both sides adhere to the terms of the cease-fire agreement, diplomats from the US, Qatar, and Egypt said they plan to create a "follow-up mechanism" to track reports of violations.

"We expect that the parties will adhere to the agreement and stay committed … but we know that these kinds of agreements are very complex and will have some issues down the line," Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said.

Over the next six weeks, Biden said negotiations between Israel and Hamas will continue to work out the second phase of the cease-fire deal: a permanent end of the war in Gaza.

"There are a number of details to negotiate, to move from phase one to phase two," the US president said. "But the plan says if negotiations take longer than six weeks, the cease-fire will continue as long as the negotiations continue."

Biden added that Palestinians can return to their homes in all areas of Gaza as officials work to get humanitarian assistance into the war-torn territory.

In a possible third phase of the deal, Biden said the remains of hostages who have been declared dead would be returned to their families, and "a major reconstruction plan for Gaza will begin."

Photos and video taken in the Gaza Strip captured celebratory cheers and gunfire as Palestinians crowded the streets after learning that this could be the end of the humanitarian crisis that has gripped the Gaza Strip and forced the vast majority of them from their homes.

Israel's war against Hamas has leveled neighborhoods and led to the deaths of at least 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

Some gathered outside al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, a medical facility in central Gaza that doubled as a displacement camp that was frequently targeted by Israeli attacks. The Israeli military said they believed the complex concealed a Hamas command center.

One of the celebrants, Alaa Abu Karsh, told CNN that the news of the cease-fire was a "very big surprise for the Palestinian people and the whole world."

"We wish many people could be celebrating this moment with us, but they are now in a better place," he said.

Ahead of the announcement of the cease-fire agreement, thousands of Israeli protesters gathered outside the country's defense ministry to call for the return of the hostages still being held in Gaza.

The remaining hostages have been held for 466 days in abject conditions in Gaza after being seized by Hamas fighters during the Oct. 7, 2023 terror rampage into Israel.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant condemned National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both of whom were against the hostage deal and threatened to quit the government if it was approved.

"It is neither Jewish, nor Zionist, nor humane," Gallant said at the rally.

However, the protests soon turned to celebrations as news spread to Tel Aviv that the cease-fire and hostage deal had been reached.

Demonstrators were seen embracing and crying as they held their picket signs depicting their friends and family still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a volunteer-based organization, said the agreement is a "significant step forward" to bring Israeli hostages home, expressing "profound gratitude" to the US and international mediators involved in brokering the peace deal.

"Since November 2023, we have been anxiously awaiting this moment," the organization said in a statement, "and now, after over 460 days of our family members being held in Hamas tunnels, we are closer than ever to reuniting with our loved ones."

"However, deep anxiety and concerns accompany us regarding the possibility that the agreement might not be fully implemented, leaving hostages behind. We urgently call for swift arrangements to ensure all phases of the deal are carried out," the group continued.

Though a majority of Israelis support the peace deal, the Tivka Forum, a right-wing organization advocating for the release of hostages, said they believe the agreement includes steep concessions, like the release of Palestinian prisoners, that could compromise Israel's national security and its leverage against Hamas.

"The proposed deal endangers the hostages and endangers the State of Israel," the organization said in a statement. "It is high time we stop the immoral surrender to terror, and demand that all the hostages be released at once, unconditionally and immediately."

The forum added: "Our only option is to win this war and to remove any incentive to ever attack Israel again."

World leaders reacted with messages of hope for peace.

The peace deal came less than a week before Biden leaves office and US President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House, with both administrations taking part in the negotiations.

"In these past few days, we have been speaking as one team," Biden said, as his administration will work to implement the deal while the Trump administration will work to carry it out.

António Guterres, United Nations secretary-general, emphasized the importance of implementing the deal and getting humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

"It is imperative that this ceasefire removes the significant security and political obstacles to delivering aid across Gaza so that we can support a major increase in urgent lifesaving humanitarian support," Guterres said.

Netanyahu had yet to officially announce that Israel accepts the agreement announced by Biden and Al Thani on Wednesday, saying that some final details are still being agreed upon. The Israeli prime minister said he will release a statement "after the final details of the agreement, which are currently being worked on, are completed."

Hamas said in a statement that the cease-fire was "the result of the legendary resilience of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip."

The first-in-class USS Gerald R. Ford is named after the 38th US president who office after then-President Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate Scandal.

Ford granted Nixon a controversial pardon saying it was in the country's best interest to put an end to the "American tragedy in which we all — all have played a part," he said at the time.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, completed its first full deployment last January, which the Pentagon extended in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.

The Ford and the other warships in its strike group served in part as a deterrence message for its 239-day deployment to the Mediterranean in 2023.

The second-in-class USS John F. Kennedy was named after the 35th US president, sharing its namesake with the last conventional aircraft carrier built for the Navy before the introduction of the nuclear-powered Nimitz class.

The future carrier was initially set to deliver in June 2024 but was delayed a year to July 2025 so the Navy could perform more work to prepare it for deployment in the Indo-Pacific.

The Navy said the Kennedy would be equipped with "new technology and warfighting capabilities," making the future aircraft carrier the "most agile and lethal combat platform globally."

The future USS Enterprise is one of two Ford-class carriers that wasn't named after a US president. It carries on a storied name whose heritage includes the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, a decorated World War II carrier, and a brig from the Barbary War over 200 years ago.

Still under construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News — the US's only aircraft carrier shipyard — the Enterprise was initially scheduled to deliver by March 2028, but the Navy's shipbuilding review found that it will now deliver by May 2030 at the latest.

In November, the Enterprise was moved for the first time at the shipyard to accommodate the construction of USS Doris Miller on the same dry dock.

The other Ford-class carrier without a US president's name is the future USS Doris Miller.

The future supercarrier, named after US Navy sailor Doris "Dorie" Miller, is expected to be delivered a year and a half later than scheduled in early 2032.

Miller was a World War II hero of the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The mess attendant fired at Japanese aircraft with a .50 caliber machine gun on the battleship USS West Virginia and was the first Black person to be awarded the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest award for valor.

"Naming CVN 81 for Dorie Miller casts long overdue recognition to a true American hero and icon," then-Master Chief Petty Officer Russell Smith said during the ship's naming ceremony. "It also honors the contributions of African Americans and enlisted sailors for the first time in the history of American aircraft carriers."

One controversy has been that the Nimitz-class carrier John C. Stennis honors a key lawmaker behind the funding of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, who was also a longtime segregationist and opponent of the US Navy's racial integration.

Bill Clinton served as the 42nd president of the US, becoming the second president in US history to be impeached after Andrew Johnson in 1868. He faced charges of lying under oath and obstruction of justice in the wake of his infamous affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In his time as commander-in-chief, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes against Iraq in retaliation for the assassination attempt on former President George H.W. Bush. He also played a key role in promoting peace in the Middle East and Northern Ireland through the Oslo Accords and the Good Friday Agreement.

The name of the future CVN 82 was announced in a private ceremony shortly after the new year, during which former President Clinton's daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was announced as the carrier's sponsor.

"It's never far from my mind that the precious freedoms Americans enjoy are safeguarded by our armed forces, anchored by a strong, modern, and agile Navy," Clinton said in a statement. "I'm honored that future servicemembers carrying on that proud tradition will serve on a carrier bearing my name."

The sixth Ford-class carrier will bear the name of former President George W. Bush, whose presidency was defined by the 9/11 attacks and the launching of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

He implemented domestic counterterrorism measures and built a worldwide coalition to dismantle terrorist groups globally.

"I am honored that my name will be associated with the United States Navy and a symbol of our Nation's might," Bush said in a statement. "I have a special admiration for the men and women of our Navy — including my dad — and ask God to watch over this ship and those who sail aboard her."

The 10th and final Nimitz-class carrier was named after Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, who served as the 41st president of the US. The elder Bush was honored for his service as one of the youngest naval aviators serving in World War II, receiving military decorations like the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation.

CVN 82 and CVN 83 will be the fifth and sixth carriers to join the Navy's fleet in the coming decade, but they are not yet under construction, nor have contracts been issued to HII's Newport News.

In a briefing last week, Christopher Kastner, CEO and president of HII, urged the US Navy to follow its shipbuilding timeline to procure USS William J. Clinton by 2028 as planned to avoid supply chain and workforce issues.

First unveiled at the Eurosatory Defense exhibition in Paris in 2018, it didn't take long for the Lynx KF41 to make waves due to its future-proof design.

The KF41, which stands for "Kettenfahrzeug," meaning "tracked vehicle" in German, is the successor of the KF31. With a more spacious interior than its predecessor, the KF41 can accommodate a crew of a commander, gunner, and driver, as well as up to nine fully equipped soldiers. It is designed to carry infantry to key objectives and with tailored firepower like autocannons to destroy enemy vehicles or strong points in the process.

The KF41 also features a more powerful diesel engine, allowing it to reach speeds of up to 43 mph. The tracked vehicle can also operate across various terrain and on long missions with a range of over 300 miles.

Depending on the armament and passengers, the combat vehicle can weigh over 40 tons, but it has a flexible suspension system to protect troops and payload without compromising mobility.

The KF41 is equipped with a 35mm Wotan cannon that can fire 200 rounds a minute at targets nearly two miles away using an advanced 360-degree weapon sight system. The IFV can also be configured to launch anti-tank guided missiles, loitering munitions, drones, or other electronic warfare packages.

Not only is the German light tank armed to the teeth, it can counter a range of threats, from rocket-propelled grenades to anti-tank missiles. Its formidable modular armor can be equipped with active hard-kill weapon systems to destroy incoming missiles and rocket-propelled grenades, or it can take on a more passive defense by deploying smoke cartridges to conceal its location.

Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger announced the delivery of Lynx IFVs at the Ukraine Recovery Conference held in Berlin last June, adding that the company hopes to start "manufacturing these systems in Ukraine in the near future."

"It is now being tested by the armed forces so that a mass order may be placed as soon as possible," Papperger told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The delivery and production of Lynx IFVs in Ukraine is part of a larger effort by Rheinmetall to build "closer cooperation" with the country and bolster its waning defense industry. The Düsseldorf-based contractor also plans to open facilities in Ukraine to domestically produce munitions and repair armored systems. The publicly traded Rheinmetall, Germany's largest arms maker, reported €6.3 billion in group sales during the first nine months of 2024, a 36% increase.

After opening its first manufacturing facility in Ukraine last summer, Papperger recognized the vital role that ramped-up arms and ammunition production play in Ukraine's "re-industrialization and in strengthening its defense capability."

However, the Rheinmetall CEO added that more government support from other countries is needed in the long term, with the current industrial strategy likely lasting only six to 12 months.

"This is not enough if you are waging a war against Russia, a very dangerous counterpart," Papperger said at the June conference. "I really hope that this will not happen, but if Ukraine loses, Europe will have a very large-scale problem."

Ukrainian forces have suffered heavy losses in their mechanized forces, which include US-made Bradleys and outdated Soviet-era vehicles, heightening the growing need for fighting vehicles like the Lynx against advancing Russian forces.

"Why the Lynx? This is one of the most modern infantry fighting vehicle platforms," Oleksandr Kamyshin, then the head of Ukraine's strategic industries, said at the June conference in Berlin. "For our European partners, this is a good opportunity to test it in battle and make it better. And for our soldiers today, we need every additional vehicle that will help them stand at the front."

The domestic production of Lynx IFVs is also aimed at creating a more self-reliant defense industry in Ukraine while sustaining efforts to maintain and repair its fleet locally.

Rheinmetall isn't the only defense company setting up operations on Ukrainian soil. American defense contractor AeroVironment partnered with a Ukrainian company to locally manufacture its loitering munition, Switchblade 600.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 30% of the military equipment used by Ukrainian forces was domestically made, including sea drones, howitzers, glide bombs, and even its own missiles.

"The Ukrainian defense industry has been in decline for decades," Kamyshin said in June. "But today, it is reviving and making a significant contribution to Ukraine's economic recovery — also thanks to partners like Rheinmetall."

Zelenskyy said the efforts and support from the US and other European allies "have made us stronger." But defense experts have criticized Western governments for being too slow to provide essential military aid to Ukraine, forcing the country to become more reliant on its own supply.

President-elect Donald Trump's second term has also raised international concern about the US' role in providing assistance to Ukraine. On the campaign trail last year, the former president proposed his intention to cease support to Ukraine and negotiate a peace deal with Russia that would likely cede much of the territory it lost since the war began.

Ahead of his return to the White House, NATO officials are bracing for US support to diminish during his administration, sparking discussions to "Trump-proof" future aid packages to Ukraine.

Constructed at the docks of Hamburg, Germany, the U-505 was one of the German navy's Type IX-class submarines, a long-range attack boat developed with longer dive times and agility compared to its predecessors.

Given the Kriegsmarine's limited surface fleet, the U-boat was tasked with destroying shipping vessels in the Atlantic owned by the US and other Allied nations. After the U-505 entered the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942, it sank eight ships over a dozen war patrols and was credited with the loss of nearly 50,000 tons of Allied supplies and goods.

Tens of thousands died in the brutal war at sea. Allied mariners died in the torpedo explosions or drowned in the cold ocean waters afterward. In some incidents, U-boats also attacked passenger liners like the SS Athenia.

The string of sunken ships earned the U-505 a feared reputation as an underwater predator, but little did the crew know that its winning streak would someday come to an end.

The U-505 had a displacement of over 1,100 tons and measured about 250 feet long. Propelled by two saltwater-cooled diesel engines, the U-boat had a range of nearly 17,000 miles, allowing it to deploy on long-range patrols to target merchant vessels.

Its surface speed was 18 knots, but its underwater speed was eight knots, which left it vulnerable to faster enemy ships while it operated below the surface. It mostly sailed on the surface at night and dove when spotted or when sneaking up on ships to torpedo.

Serving as an attack submarine, the U-505 had six 21-inch torpedo tubes — four in the bow and two in the stern — with storage to carry up to 22 torpedos at a time.

The U-boat's surface armament included two antiaircraft guns and a 4.1-inch deck gun that could fire 15 rounds per minute.

Built to endure longer voyages and dive times, the U-505 could operate on patrols for 100 days or more. Despite the larger design of the Type-IX subs, the pressure hull was no bigger than a subway car.

As many as 60 people would live and work on the U-boat, taking turns sharing the 35 bunks, some of which were installed in the sub's front and rear torpedo rooms.

Space was hard to come by in the cramped hull. Only one sailor could stand in the tiny kitchen at a time. The fumes would waft from the engine room to the rest of the U-boat, leaving the crew's limited provisions tasting like diesel.

Personnel often just wore shoes and underwear while living in the submarine, where temperatures could exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the warmer months.

The U-505 only had two bathrooms aboard — one of which was used to store food — but the crew never bathed and had to clean themselves with alcohol throughout the two-month patrols.

On June 4, 1944, a US Navy hunter-killer group detected the U-505 operating off the coast of Rio de Oro in Africa's Western Sahara. Commanded by US Navy Capt. Daniel V. Gallery, Task Group 22.3 was comprised of the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal and five destroyers.

Depth charges launched by the Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Chatelain, which detected the German vessel with sonar, jammed the U-boat's rudder and flooded the aft compartment, forcing the vessel to surface.

Setting out on an anti-submarine sweep with the stated purpose of capturing and bringing back to the United States a German submarine, all units of the Task Group worked incessantly throughout the cruise to prepare themselves for the accomplishment of this exceedingly difficult purpose.

German intelligence was vital during WWII, making recovery efforts for the sinking U-boat a top priority for the Navy task group.

German Capt. Harald Lange, who commanded the U-505, ordered the crew to abandon ship. To avoid capture, the Germans attempted to sink the U-boat with time bombs throughout the submarine and opened a sea strainer that caused water to rush inside the hull.

US Navy sailors who boarded the quickly flooding vessel disabled the scuttle charges and replaced the strainer cover.

In an operation wrought with numerous risks and dangers, the capture only resulted in one recorded casualty from the U-505's crew as a result of Allied gunfire.

A boarding party from the Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Pillsbury took a whaleboat to rescue the surviving 58 German sailors and salvage the U-505.

"Undeterred by the apparent sinking condition of the U-boat, the danger of explosions of demolition and scuttling charges, and the probability of enemy gunfire, the small boarding party plunged through the conning tower hatch, did everything in its power to keep the submarine afloat and removed valuable papers and documents," Adm. Royal E. Ingersoll, then-Commander in Chief of the US Atlantic Fleet, said in the presidential unit citation awarded to the task group.

Following the harrowing capture came the task of towing it back home. Operating under utmost secrecy, the US Navy painted the U-boat black and renamed it USS Nemo to hide its capture from the Germans.

The partially submerged vessel was towed over 2,500 nautical miles to Bermuda to study the submarine's technology and intelligence on board.

The 58 sailors from the U-505 were transported and held at a prisoner-of-war camp in Louisiana, kept under special conditions like isolation and limited communication to keep the submarine's capture a secret.

They remained at the camp until the end of the war, with the last of the captives repatriating back to Germany in 1947.

The Navy recovered codebooks, thousands of communication documents, and two Enigma machines used by the German military to decode and encrypt messages to and from the U-505. Breaking Enigma codes allowed fleet commands to know where U-boats would attack. That, along with increasing Allied aircraft patrols for submarines, turned the tide of the Battle of the Atlantic.

American naval engineers uncovered that the Germans were developing an advanced acoustic-homing torpedo to target a ship's propellers.

The intelligence also allowed the US to get more precise locations for German U-boat operations, redirecting merchant vessels from those areas.

"The Task Group's brilliant achievement in disabling, capturing, and towing to a United States base a modern enemy man-of-war taken in combat on the high seas is a feat unprecedented in individual and group bravery, execution, and accomplishment in the Naval History of the United States," Ingersoll said in the presidential citation.

Once the Navy learned what it could from the German submarine, the U-505 was destined to become gunnery and torpedo target practice, a typical fate for captured enemy vessels.

Two years after its capture, Chicago native John Gallery, the brother of Guadalcanal Capt. Gallery, contacted the president of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry to preserve the wartime relic as an exhibit.

The Navy donated the U-boat to the museum, but the city of Chicago was tasked with raising $250,000 to move, install, and restore the submarine for exhibition.

In 1954, the U-505 was towed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where it was being stored, through 28 locks and four Great Lakes to Chicago.

After being towed 3,000 miles to 57th Street Beach in Chicago, the next hurdle was transporting the submarine from the waters of Lake Michigan to the museum — an 800-foot journey that included passing over an urban expressway.

Over the course of a week, engineers removed parts of the sub to make it easier to pull, then moved it across Lake Shore Drive using a network of rails and rollers to its permanent display outside the museum.

The U-505 was initially berthed outdoors but was later moved into an indoor climate-controlled environment to better preserve it in the long term.

"The lives and the history that is embedded within the U-505, we don't want to lose any of that," Voula Saridakis, a curator at the Museum of Science and Industry, told Business Insider. "It's so important, historically, of what this war was all about, especially the Battle of the Atlantic, which often, I think, gets overlooked in many ways."

Due to its size, the exhibit's concrete housing was erected around the U-505, surrounded by external exhibits that relayed the history of the submarine and the Battle of the Atlantic, whose toll included over 100,000 sailors and mariners and 3,500 merchant ships; Germany alone lost 783 U-boats and an estimated 30,000 crewmen.

The interior of the submarine was meticulously restored to replicate the atmosphere and environment as it was before its capture more than eight decades ago, complete with simulated lighting and sound effects to add to the immersiveness.

"As our visitors come through, they can get an idea of what life was like for these submariners and the living conditions and the tech and the innovation that went into this Type IXC," Saridakis said.

In 1982, members from the US Navy's Task Group 22.3 reunited with members of the German submarine's crew in Chicago, marking the first time the German sailors saw the U-boat since the war.

"Part of what we want to do is preserve the history of the U-505, the battle, and the capture for future generations," Saridakis said, "and we do this through telling this story, helping our guests understand its history and keeping this up and preserved for as long as we can."

At least 10 people have died and 10,000 properties have been damaged in the fires, and officials expect figures to grow as firefighters and first responders struggle to contain the flames.

The Santa Ana winds annually threaten to stoke the flames during California's wildfire season, but extreme drought combined with the powerful offshore winds catalyzed the record-breaking wildfires that continue to burn through Southern California.

Since California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County, tens of thousands of residents have been impacted by evacuation orders.

More than 600 personnel, 10 rotary-wing aircraft, and two C-130 Hercules aircraft from the California National Guard were deployed to battle the blaze.

The Biden administration ordered the Pentagon to send eight MAFFS-equipped C-130s from Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado to support firefighting efforts in Los Angeles. Some were expected to start fire-suppression flights on Friday.

Hazardous weather conditions prevented the DoD from getting the planes in the air earlier and from sending additional assets to respond to the massive fires.

"We can surge assets, and the president has directed this department to bolster whatever California needs, but we have to work with California," Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said during a press conference Wednesday, "and right now, we can't even get assets up in the air because the fires are so bad and the winds are so bad."

"Until we can get more assets in the air, there's only so much we can provide," she continued. "So we're going to be standing by to support in every single way that we can."

In the meantime, the Defense Department is also sending 10 Navy helicopters with water delivery buckets for immediate aerial suppression, in addition to two firefighting teams and four military police groups on the ground.

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a versatile workhorse plane with a spacious cargo hold that can be equipped for a wide range of operations.

When deployed as a firefighting aircraft, the C-130 can be equipped with a Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) unit to support other air tankers in aerial suppression.

The MAFFS units can be filled with water or a fire retardant called "slurry," which is mostly made of water with the addition of ammonium sulfate, a jelling agent, and red coloring to make it visible to pilots when dropped.

The US military has eight MAFFs units ready for use nationwide, operated by National Guardsmen stationed in California, Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado.

The MAFFS Program was launched by Congress in the 1970s after a massive wildfire in Long Beach, California, overwhelmed the responding civilian air tanker fleet and destroyed hundreds of homes.

The unit can fit inside the cargo hold with no structural modification to allow for quick loading on short notice, taking about four hours or less for a crew of five to set up, fill, and load the 11,000-pound unit.

The C-130 drops its contents through a discharge tube installed on the rear left side of the C-130 and through the open cargo bay door, releasing 3,000 gallons in less than five seconds and covering an area over 1,300 feet long and 100 feet wide.

Because the fire retardant slurry is released in a mist, it doesn't cause damage to buildings and structures while acting as a fertilizer, but it can be harmful to the environment and local wildlife if used in excess.

The unit can be refilled and airborne again in under 20 minutes.

Produced by the Russian manufacturing company Kurganmashzavod, the BMP-3 — an abbreviation of Boevaya Mashina Pekhoty, or infantry fighting vehicle in Russian — was first used by the Soviet army in 1990.

The armored, tracked, and the amphibious vehicle was designed to transport troops across varied combat terrain and water while protecting troops and providing direct fire support.

The combat vehicle was developed to replace Russia's aging fleet of BMP-1 and BMP-2 vehicles, upgraded with a thicker armour made of steel and aluminium and equipped with more modern weaponry with improved precision.

The 23-foot-long light tank is operated by a crew of three — a commander, gunner, and driver — and can accommodate up to seven additional personnel with space for storage.

Weighing about 20 tons, the aluminum-hulled vehicle is still light enough to be fully amphibious, propelled by two water jets at the rear. With a range of about 372 miles, it can reach speeds of up to 43 mph on land and about six mph while afloat.

The BMP-3 is armed with a 100mm cannon, a 30mm automatic cannon that fires up to 330 rounds a minute, as well as three machine guns. The crew can also fire anti-tank guided missiles through the main gun's barrel.

The fighting vehicle features advanced sights that allow crews to operate at night and in low visibility, as well as a two-plane weapon stabilizer that can precisely aim at targets while traveling at speeds up to 18 mph.

Equipped with the firepower to engage fortified positions and armored vehicles, Ukrainian troops have operated IFVs in both direct and indirect fire support roles as light tanks, closing the capability gap as Ukraine faces a shortage of battle tanks.

Ukrainian forces have suffered heavy losses in their mechanized forces, including combat vehicles like the Bradleys and refurbished Russian BMPs.

Russian BMPs are equipped with heavier armament compared to the American Bradley vehicles, whereas the latter has heavier armor that better protects troops inside from small arms and artillery.

So while more lethal Russian BMPs have been battering Ukraine's mechanized forces, Ukrainian troops have a better chance of survival in Western-made vehicles.

But repairing and redeploying captured Russian vehicles hasn't been an easy task. Ukrainian troops struggled to find parts to fix the seized equipment, which they view as "trophies" of the ongoing war, The Washington Post reported in 2022.

A commander of a Ukrainian maintenance squadron told The Post that it's "obvious it should be fighting the enemy and not sitting in a hangar."

There are several variants of the BMP-3, adapted to its combat environment.

The upgraded BMP-3M features more advanced automatic fire control systems and thermal imaging, as well as a new ammunition loading system that can launch laser-guided projectiles.

The BMP-3F was purpose-built for at-sea operations, designed with improved buoyancy and seaworthiness that allow it to operate on amphibious assault missions for up to seven hours.

The BMP-3K, a tactical command variant, can act as a mobile command center, lacking the machine guns mounted at the front of the hull and instead equipped with additional radio and navigation systems.

As drone warfare redefines the battlefield in Ukraine, IFVs like the BMP-3 are no exception. Earlier this year, Russian state media reported that the BMP-3 could soon carry mini-drones.

"The work to introduce drones into the armament of armored vehicles is one of the tasks for specialists of SKBM [Special Design Bureau of Machine-Building] at present," according to a statement from High Precision Systems, a subsidiary of the state-owned military conglomerate Rostec, to Russian news agency TASS.

Rostec previously announced plans to integrate drone countermeasures on light armored platforms, as well as the addition of first-person view drones to assist in reconnaissance and live surveillance.

The company's press office added that "draft organizational decisions and a schedule of joint work for integrating mini-UAVs into the BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle" are still in the works, per the TASS report published in August.

"Drones are planned to be introduced into the design documentation of armored vehicles after the results of type testing," according to the statement.

Construction on the next-generation assault ship began in early 2024, according to the Pentagon's annual congressional report on China's military.

With a displacement of 40,000 tons, satellite images show the Sichuan measures more than 850 feet long and about 170 feet wide, making it considerably larger than its Chinese predecessor, the Type 075, but smaller than the Fujian, the People's Liberation Army's newest and largest aircraft carrier.

The Type 076 is also much larger than Japan's Izumo-class helicopter carriers. While the Sichuan is about as long as the US Navy's America-class LHAs with a similar displacement, it is more than 60 feet wider.

The Chinese warship's larger size and deck space allow it to accommodate both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, with additional storage capacity for more personnel and equipment.

Unlike traditional light aircraft carriers, the Sichuan is equipped with a catapult system and arresting gear for the launch and recovery of fixed-wing aircraft — an operative capability typically reserved for aircraft carriers.

"This is not something that we've seen before," Matthew Funaiole, a senior fellow with the China Power Project at CSIS, told BI previously. "No other country has an LHA that has a catapult system on it."

The electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) is likely similar in design to the catapult aboard the US Navy's advanced Ford-class supercarriers.

The only warship in operational service that employs EMALS is the US Navy carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. China's third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, which has been undergoing shake-down trials at sea, also features three EMALS-style catapults, but the Sichuan's catapult trench, which is over 425 feet long, is significantly longer by comparison.

Earlier Chinese carriers had ski-jump-style ramps for launching aircraft without catapults, leaping past steam-power catapult technology to pursue the more advanced electromagnetic launch system.

Operating for a little over a decade, China's relatively young carrier force could still face a"steep learning curve" in employing modern catapult technology, retired Adm. Raymond Spicer, the CEO and publisher at the US Naval Institute, previously told BI. But the installation of the technology aboard the Type 076 could indicate China's confidence in the design.

The Chinese navy has yet to confirm what kind of air wing will operate aboard the Sichuan, but it could have a future role as a massive drone carrier, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The vessel's catapult, wider flight deck, and unobstructed runway make it highly capable of large-scale drone operations as China expands its arsenal of UAVs, like the Hongdu GJ-11 stealth combat drone, Guizhou WZ-7 reconnaissance drone, and the CASC CH-4B Rainbow strike UCAV.

While the exact timeline for the Type 076 still remains unclear, the Pentagon estimated the ship could join China's naval fleet by the second half of the decade.

Operating more than nearly 400 naval platforms, China has the world's largest maritime fighting force but has long been considered a green-water navy, meaning it operates mostly near its shores. Amphibious assault ships and carriers change that equation.

"I think it is as important, if not more important, to emphasize how mind-bogglingly impressive China's ability to build ships is," Funaiole said.

While not much is known about the capabilities or primary mission of China's next-gen amphibious flattops, the CSIS said the Sichuan "represents a substantial step forward" toward the PLAN's blue-water ambitions, projecting power in waters thousands of miles away.