[FOX] Across one of the coldest, most remote and strategically exposed corners of the United States, American forces are practicing how to fight on land, at sea and in the air — rapidly moving rocket systems into western Alaska, sending F-35s and F-16s toward simulated threats, and coordinating U.S. and Canadian warships in the Bering Sea.
The operations are part of Tundra Merlin, an enduring U.S. military campaign aimed at proving that even across Alaska’s vast distances and extreme Arctic conditions, American and allied forces can rapidly assemble combat power to defend the northern approaches to the homeland.
And behind that show of force is a changing security environment increasingly shaped by Russia and China.
"I think what’s changed is primarily two things," Lt. Gen. Robert Davis, commander of Alaskan Command, told Fox News Digital. "One is that the melting sea ice has made the Arctic more accessible. And we’re seeing increased activity both commercially and militarily in the Arctic, particularly during the summer months."
"The other factor is that China and Russia and others are continuing to advance their military capabilities and capacity with an interest in showing that they can use them in the Arctic as well," Davis said.
The Pentagon has reached a similar conclusion. Its 2024 Arctic Strategy warned that growing Russia-China cooperation could "alter the Arctic’s stability and threat picture," and called for greater U.S. presence, exercises and military preparedness in a region becoming increasingly accessible. Defense officials have said forces operating there must be able not merely to train in extreme conditions, but survive them.
Few places illustrate the stakes better than Alaska.
The state sits at the intersection of the Arctic and Pacific and serves as a critical hub for homeland defense and a platform for projecting U.S. military power toward the Indo-Pacific and beyond. The Russian and American mainlands are only about 55 miles apart at their closest points across the Bering Strait, while Russia’s Big Diomede Island and Alaska’s Little Diomede Island are separated by roughly 2.5 miles.
Alaska also hosts major air bases, early-warning and missile-defense infrastructure, and tens of thousands of military personnel. U.S. Northern Command says Alaskan Command has more than 22,000 active-duty personnel from across the services, along with approximately 4,700 Guard and Reserve members.
Air Force officials have described Alaska as the "crossroads of the Arctic and the Pacific," providing U.S. forces with reach and domain awareness for both homeland defense and global power projection.
Davis put that geography in even starker terms.
Pointing to the fifth-generation fighters positioned in Alaska, he told Fox News Digital that U.S. forces can "project from the Arctic to almost anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere in about 10 hours of flight time."
Tundra Merlin is designed to turn that geographic advantage into combat capability.
Davis described the operation as a collection of military options — essentially "plays in a playbook" — that can be activated either to deter an adversary or respond if one begins acting aggressively.
"Our hope is that we don’t have any adversarial activity because we’ve effectively deterred it," Davis said. "But if we do see it and we have kind of a play in the playbook ready to go. For a response."
One of the most striking demonstrations came recently, on Alaska’s western edge.
U.S. and Canadian forces rapidly moved a U.S. Army HIMARS mobile rocket system and an AN/TPQ-53 radar into western Alaska aboard a Royal Canadian Air Force C-17, then connected those ground forces with American F-35s, F-16s and a KC-135 tanker operating overhead.
The mission brought air defense and long-range offensive firepower together in a single operation. F-35s and HIMARS synchronized against a simulated ground target approximately 135 miles away, while F-16s simultaneously intercepted F-35s acting as simulated incoming aerial threats, according to U.S. Northern Command.
Davis said the point was not simply to prove the individual weapons worked, but to show how quickly forces could be moved into a remote part of Alaska and linked together.
The operation demonstrated that U.S. forces can rapidly move capabilities into Alaska "both to defend Alaska, but also, if necessary, to put other adversary targets at risk," he told Fox News Digital.
Tundra Merlin pushed that same concept out to sea in September.
From Sept. 18–22, U.S. and Canadian forces conducted a joint maritime strike scenario roughly 100 nautical miles north of Dutch Harbor, integrating U.S. Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy surface and subsurface vessels with Canadian maritime patrol aircraft and Alaska-based U.S. Air Force F-35 fighters and E-3 airborne warning and control aircraft.
The forces practiced multiple simulated maritime target engagements, testing whether information collected by different ships and aircraft could be rapidly passed across the force and used to identify, track and engage a potential threat.
"The most impressive part to me was seeing the high degree of cooperation and integration among units that day in and day out don't necessarily operate together," Davis said.
"To see the joint nature on the U.S. side integrated together with the inter-agency of the U.S. Coast Guard and with our allies, with Canada as an example, was just an amazing thing to see," he added.
That ability to operate at scale is complicated by Alaska itself.
Extreme cold can affect equipment and personnel, while the enormous distances and limited infrastructure of the North American Arctic make moving and sustaining forces unusually difficult. The Pentagon’s Arctic Strategy specifically identifies those distances and the region’s infrastructure limitations as obstacles to military operations and says maintaining infrastructure in Alaska is essential for missile defense, surveillance and rapid power projection.
Davis said military equipment brought into Alaska cannot simply be expected to function as it would elsewhere.
"It needs to be conditioned. It needs to be properly outfitted to operate in sub-zero temperatures for a long period of time," he said, adding that troops also require specialized clothing, training and procedures to avoid cold-weather injuries and continue fighting in Arctic conditions.
The pressure to master that environment comes as Russia and China increasingly demonstrate their own ability to operate near North America.
In July 2024, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, detected and intercepted two Russian Tu-95 bombers and two Chinese H-6 bombers flying together in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. It was the first time NORAD had intercepted Russian and Chinese military aircraft operating together in the zone. The aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter U.S. or Canadian sovereign territory, and NORAD said the flight itself was not considered a threat.
The episode nevertheless highlighted the very kind of cooperation U.S. defense planners are watching.
For now, Davis said Alaska is positioned to deal with the military threats commanders expect under normal conditions.
"We're postured very well for any of the anticipated threats that we think would come our way in the very near term," he said. But if commanders saw indications of a significant escalation, Davis said Alaskan Command would likely request additional forces and capabilities.
That, ultimately, is what Tundra Merlin is intended to prove: that in a theater defined by enormous distances, punishing weather and growing Russian and Chinese activity, the United States can move forces across Alaska, connect them across land, sea and air, and have combat power ready before a potential adversary decides to test the northern edge of the homeland. Until Canada bans overflights.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The Flydubai pilot suspected of attempting to hijack a Dubai-Tel Aviv flight planned to fly the plane into Ben Gurion Airport, according to Amit Segal, a correspondent for Israel's Channel 12.
A good thing he was stopped.
"The Omani pilot
…Hamam al-Hammami, 29, with his complicated resumé as each employer noticed his extreme piety and fondness for the odder corners of the internet…
stated during interrogation that he planned for the plane to crash into Ben Gurion Airport... He planned... to fly the plane into the terminal building," the journalist wrote on his page on the social network X, without disclosing the specific sources of his information.
That is why the Omani attacked his colleague with a knife only in Jordan, near Israel, Segal added.
Flydubai Flight FZ1073, a Boeing 737 MAX, departed Dubai for Tel Aviv on the morning of September 30. Two and a half hours after takeoff, the aircraft began to rapidly lose altitude. The crew issued an emergency signal to the air traffic controller, and a few seconds later, another alert indicating a possible hijacking. The aircraft was over Jordan at the time. The plane then turned around and headed for Saudi Arabia.
As it turned out, during the flight, the co-pilot, an Omani, attacked the captain, attempting to kill him and steer the plane into the ground. One passenger speculated that the co-pilot (presumably a UAE national) was attempting suicide. While carrying out the attack, the pilot shouted a Muslim slogan. The captain suffered serious injuries to his arms and head.
The plane didn't crash because the pilots were on board, who were able to neutralize the attacker and land the aircraft in Saudi Arabia. There were 180 people on board, including 27 children. Most of the passengers were Israeli citizens. There were no Russians on board.
39, an Hindu Indian national from Mumbai who lives in Dubai as an Emirati citizen...
stated that shortly before the attack, the co-pilot stepped away to pray and was out of his sight for several minutes. This follows from a recording of the pilot's conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"While he was praying, I was looking forward out of respect, not back, and suddenly, after four or five minutes, I received a very strong blow to the head," the Prime Minister's Office quoted Machchhar as saying on social media.
According to the captain, he initially thought the impact was due to a serious aircraft malfunction. However, after several successive impacts, Machchhar realized he was being attacked by the co-pilot in the cockpit with him. After the initial impacts, Machchhar claims, he nearly lost his sight and was semi-conscious. The captain attempted to open the cockpit door, but the attacker blocked his reach.
Machchhar also reported that the crew tried to open the door from the outside using a code, but the co-pilot blocked it. From the cockpit floor, the captain heard shouts from the cabin and, according to him, realized the plane was descending. He eventually managed to reach the door, turn the handle, and open it.
Is this because Iranian proxies dunnit, or because of English carelessness about security when Moslems are involved?
[FOX] The Department of War confirmed Sunday that U.S. Air Force bombers were pulled out of RAF Fairford in England as authorities continue to investigate a suspected terror plot targeting the base.
Six people were arrested in connection with the security incident near the base on Sept. 27, including a dual British-Iranian national suspected of preparing terrorist acts.
“U.S. Air Force bombers routinely operate around the world to support global force readiness and operational requirements,” a department official told Fox News Digital.
“While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real time, we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States,” the official said.
“The Airmen that operate America’s bomber force, including B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s, remain ready to deliver precision global strike capabilities — including through operations that launch and recover from the continental United States — anywhere, anytime,” the official added.
A U.S. official also confirmed that about a dozen B-1 bombers were redeployed.
RAF Fairford, about 100 miles west of London, has been used by U.S. bombers during the current war with Iran and in previous Middle East conflicts.
The bombers were removed, according to U.S. officials as reported in a New York Times story, because of an unspecified threat from Iran.
The United States rushed over the weekend to withdraw all 12 B-1 Air Force bombers from an air base in southern England after commanders received new threats about an Iran-backed plot against the installation, two U.S. officials said on Sunday.
The withdrawal was highly unusual: Such moves are rarely made so quickly from an allied air base in a peacetime country thousands of miles from a combat zone.
The need to move the bombers out of the base, R.A.F. Fairford, was deemed so urgent that some of the planes and their flight crews left while aerial refueling aircraft were still being scrambled to support their flights to the United States. At least three of the planes had landed at their home base in South Dakota by Sunday, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
This move was carried out with alarming alacrity, which would cause one to believe that 1) any threat was deemed credible, and 2) if last week's attempt, for which six men of Iranian descent were arrested and quickly released, was attempting some kind of trial run. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is suspected to be involved in the plot.
The Pentagon has made a statement, which appeared Sunday in the Wall Street Journal.
“While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time, we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States,” the Pentagon said in a statement, adding that the U.S. bombers remain ready to carry out attacks from the U.S. The U.K. Ministry of Defense declined to comment.
In the initial phases of the war against Iran, both B-1 and B-52 bombers were based at RAF Fairford, due to its long runways that can handle a heavily loaded strategic bomber. The B-52s had already left, and most of the B-1 bombers had also redeployed to their home stations; these six which just departed were the last U.S. bombers on that base.
Now, here's the thing: While these bombers were removed with remarkable speed, the very fact that they were moved so quickly would seem to indicate that the threat was not only deemed credible, but also that the timeline for said threat means some action was imminent. And, while the Bones can hit targets in the Middle East from the United Kingdom without any difficulty, deploying them from their stateside bases to the other side of the world presents a much more complicated logistics problem.
Note also that any successful attack on any of our aircraft, if tracked back to the IRGC or the Iranian government, would likely warrant a kinetic response on the part of the United States, and by "kinetic response" we can safely substitute "a lot of stuff is going to be blown up."
Tehran, October 4, 2026, 7:09 PM — Regnum News Agency. Serious discussions are underway in Iranian political circles regarding the country's possible withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei announced this on October 4.
"The discussion is very serious in Iranian political circles. This is a very serious issue," Bagai noted during a briefing.
The diplomat emphasized that Tehran, as a full party to the NPT, should receive all the rights and preferences provided by this international agreement. He stated that a situation in which the country, instead of receiving the benefits it deserves, faces constant external pressure and threats of military force is unacceptable.
Bagai added that Iran currently continues to maintain its membership in the NPT and is fully aware of the range of its international legal obligations during its membership in the treaty.
Earlier, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ali Nikzad stated that the Iranian parliament would consider the bill on withdrawal from the NPT immediately after its introduction. He added that parliament lacks confidence in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its current head, Rafael Grossi. According to him, the IAEA only conducts formal inspections and issues negative reports on Iran.
On May 24, Mohsen Rezaei, the military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, stated that Tehran could withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in the event of US aggression. He also warned that the Islamic Republic would respond harshly, painfully, and unprecedentedly to any aggression against the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A new convoy carrying around 263 displaced Syrian families left camps in northern Idlib countryside on Sunday, heading back to their hometowns and villages in the governorates of Idlib, Hama, Aleppo, Homs and Latakia.
The Idlib Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate said the convoy set off under the supervision of the National Committee for a Syria Without Camps initiative.
Teams from the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management, along with other participating agencies, helped secure the convoy and provided the families with healthcare services to ensure their safety throughout the journey.
The directorate said the convoy was part of ongoing efforts to facilitate the return of displaced people to their hometowns and support stability in local communities.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran will mobilize its allied armed groups across the region if the United States launches a ground operation against it, a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) external operations arm said on Sunday, hours after US President Donald Trump said he was weighing a decision on Iran.
Defa Press on Sunday cited Iraj Masjedi, deputy coordinator of the IRGC’s Quds Force, as saying that Iran and its regional proxies and allied groups would respond forcefully to any US action and “certainly defeat” the enemy.
The Quds Force is the IRGC unit responsible for operations abroad and maintaining ties with Tehran-aligned armed groups across the region.
“Iran is stronger today than it was in previous decades and that the same is true of the Axis of Resistance,” Masjedi claimed.
The so-called Axis of Resistance is a network of Tehran-aligned armed groups across the Middle East, including in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
Trump told Rudaw at the White House on Saturday that he is weighing a decision on Iran, warning Tehran that it faces an “easy way or the hard way.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said at a gathering of ambassadors on Sunday that there is no military solution to the war, adding that “only negotiations based on justice and fairness" could end the conflict. He warned that if Washington attacks again, Tehran’s response would be “stronger than before.”
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told his weekly press conference on Sunday that Tehran had neighboring countries against allowing their territory to be used by the United States or Israel to launch attacks against Iran.
“Undoubtedly, any renewed attack on the country’s national security launched from the territory of neighboring countries will face a fundamental, different and regret-inducing response,” Baqaei said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
BREAKING: Israel says pilot tried to hijack flydubai flight to Tel Aviv that diverted, landed in Saudi Arabia
