Latest news with #HundredYearsWar
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Belgium's defense minister says drones are the future of warfare, like gunpowder was in the 1300s
Belgium's defense minister said drones are "the future of warfare." Theo Francken, speaking at a drone summit in Latvia, compared drones to gunpowder in the 1300s. Belgium, alongside Turkey, plans to join a group of countries boosting drone production for Ukraine. Belgium's defense minister compared the revolutionary impact of drone warfare to that of gunpowder as European officials pledged to boost drone production for Ukraine. "I really believe that this is the future of warfare, like gunpowder was in the Hundred Years War, like an industrial revolution was in the First World War, and like nuclear capacity was in the Second World War," Theo Francken said, speaking at the Drone Summit 2025 in Riga, Latvia. "Drone technology and drone warfare will be decisive in the Russian-Ukrainian war," he added. "And we need to jump on this train because otherwise we'll lose pretty much everything." Earlier that day, Latvia's defense minister, Andris Sprūds, announced that Belgium and Turkey planned to join the 18-member Drone Coalition for Ukraine, formed in 2024 to pool resources and expertise to produce drones for Ukraine's armed forces. Drones have transformed the war in Ukraine, with Ukraine using cheap uncrewed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, for surveillance and attacks, offsetting Russia's large equipment and personnel advantage. The country has also developed sophisticated long-range strike drones for attacks deep inside Russian territory, not to mention powerful sea drones. Russia, for its part, has developed its own sophisticated drone warfare capabilities and has used drones to attack Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. The Drone Coalition for Ukraine, formed by the UK and Latvia, invested €1.8 billion, or about $2 billion, in producing drones for Ukraine in 2024, Latvian broadcaster LVM reported. On Wednesday, Sprūds, the Latvian defense minister, said the drone coalition was on course to provide €2 billion of further funding for Ukraine's drones in 2025. "Our aim remains to reinforce the supply of drones to Ukraine," he said, "So Ukraine maintains the battlefield superiority but also, of course, invest in Ukraine, so it also develops its own industry." Ukraine's government has set the target of producing 4.5 million military drones in 2025. Speaking at the summit, Luke Pollard, the UK's Minister for the Armed Forces in the Ministry of Defence, echoed Francken's comments about the impact of drones. "The drone coalition exists because we all understand how drones have shifted the tectonic plates of warfare," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Belgium's defense minister says drones are the future of warfare, like gunpowder was in the 1300s
Belgium's defense minister compared the revolutionary impact of drone warfare to that of gunpowder as European officials pledged to boost drone production for Ukraine. "I really believe that this is the future of warfare, like gunpowder was in the Hundred Years War, like an industrial revolution was in the First World War, and like nuclear capacity was in the Second World War," Theo Francken said, speaking at the Drone Summit 2025 in Riga, Latvia. "Drone technology and drone warfare will be decisive in the Russian-Ukrainian war," he added. "And we need to jump on this train because otherwise we'll lose pretty much everything." Earlier that day, Latvia's defense minister, Andris Sprūds, announced that Belgium and Turkey planned to join the 18-member Drone Coalition for Ukraine, formed in 2024 to pool resources and expertise to produce drones for Ukraine's armed forces. Drones have transformed the war in Ukraine, with Ukraine using cheap uncrewed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, for surveillance and attacks, offsetting Russia's large equipment and personnel advantage. The country has also developed sophisticated long-range strike drones for attacks deep inside Russian territory, not to mention powerful sea drones. Russia, for its part, has developed its own sophisticated drone warfare capabilities and has used drones to attack Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. Getting drones to Ukraine The Drone Coalition for Ukraine, formed by the UK and Latvia, invested €1.8 billion, or about $2 billion, in producing drones for Ukraine in 2024, Latvian broadcaster LVM reported. On Wednesday, Sprūds, the Latvian defense minister, said the drone coalition was on course to provide €2 billion of further funding for Ukraine's drones in 2025. "Our aim remains to reinforce the supply of drones to Ukraine," he said, "So Ukraine maintains the battlefield superiority but also, of course, invest in Ukraine, so it also develops its own industry." Ukraine's government has set the target of producing 4.5 million military drones in 2025. Speaking at the summit, Luke Pollard, the UK's Minister for the Armed Forces in the Ministry of Defence, echoed Francken's comments about the impact of drones. "The drone coalition exists because we all understand how drones have shifted the tectonic plates of warfare," he said.
Digital Trends
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
5 best Netflix war movies to watch on Memorial Day
War is hell, but for the movies, it's something more complicated. Some directors see war as a stylistic challenge, while others view it as an opportunity to drive home the trauma of the men and women on the ground. Netflix has a selection of war films spanning costume drama, science fiction, and recent history, all valuable in reflecting on the human drama of combat. We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Recommended Videos The King (2019) A David Michôd-directed adaptation of several of Shakespeare's history plays, The King was arguably the first big-budget film anchored solely by Timothée Chalamet, whose two Oscar nominations followed shortly thereafter. Chalamet, in his gruff-young-striver mode, plays the young King Henry V during his invasion of France as part of the Hundred Years' War. The sword-clanging action is pleasurable, solid, and steely in places and realistically anti-climactic in others. Joel Edgerton, also a co-screenwriter, is Henry's fictional drinking buddy Falstaff; most entertaining, though, is Robert Pattinson as Louis, the Dauphin of France, with an outrageous accent and a Lord Fauntleroy simper that make him a perfect foil to Chalamet. Stream The King on Netflix. Black Hawk Down (2001) If you prefer your war films jaw-rattling and glamor-less, Ridley Scott's brutal verité will be right up your alley. In October 1993, the United States led a UN peacekeeping operation in Mogadishu to capture the leader of a Somali terrorist group. A Black Hawk helicopter carrying a contingent of American Special Forces was shot down over the insurgency-torn city. The men aboard were forced to fight their way out, and Hollywood came calling about eight years later. Black Hawk Down is suffused with eardrum-shattering gunfire and almost relentlessly unwilling to depict soldiery as anything but horrifying. A mile-long cast list led by Josh Hartnett heaves with sweat and anxiety. Stream Black Hawk Down on Netflix. Charlie Wilson's War (2007) Aaron Sorkin's script for this Mike Nichols film, about the United States' arming of the mujahideen during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, is Sorkinesque to its bones, down to the obligatory Gilbert and Sullivan reference. (Philip Seymour Hoffman's sclerotic CIA agent, roaring out his qualifications, finishes with 'And I'm never ever sick at sea!') That's why it's so curious that the story has the air of being unfinished, leaping from the meddling of one wily Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) to its consequence — the attacks of 9/11, carried out by the very men the US had trained — without deigning to trace the line between points A and B. Still, the film, Nichols' last, is delightful, an absurd exploration of the backroom kibitzing that populates battlefields. Stream Charlie Wilson's War on Netflix. Dune: Part Two (2024) Director Denis Villeneuve has made plenty of films about violent conflict —2010's Incendies (2010) is about the Lebanese Civil War, and 2015's Sicario is about a CIA strike against a drug cartel. An artistically minded Villeneuve is drawn to the elegant warfare of science fiction. His two-film adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel Dune tells the orange-saturated, visually stunning tale of an interplanetary war that is both technologically unsophisticated — our heroes fight with blades and crossbows — and high-tech. (The threat of nuclear warfare hovers.) The action sequences in Dune: Part Two drift rather than rush and sweep rather than shudder. It's war as a visual exercise, like a battle plan plotted on an otherworldly map. Stream Dune: Part Two on Netflix. Starship Troopers (1997) A more literal transposition of America's imperialistic desert wars onto science fiction can be found in Paul Verhoeven's gloriously dumb adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's crypto-fascistic 1959 novel. Verhoeven wanted to make a satire — a film about an expansionist human species defeating an insectoid alien species called the Arachnids. The goal was to question the militaristic undertones of twentieth-century sci-fi by seeming to espouse them. In Verhoeven's words, the film's characters are 'fascists who aren't aware of their fascism.' This metafictional component of the story doesn't entirely work because the movie lays on the stupidity too thick to be entirely satirical. However, Starship Troopers is a rare film that seems to profit from its shallowness. It was made for a popcorn era that seems to have faded, with Verhoeven's trademark borderline-softcore love scenes and a cast (Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris) of surpassingly dopey gorgeousness. (Verhoeven says he cast the film to recall the preferred subjects of Leni Riefenstahl, the Nazi documentarian.) Stream Starship Troopers on Netflix.
