Not for a very long time have so many belligerent declarations been heard in the manner of the verbal war Israel has been waging this last week vis-à-vis the Iranian entrenchment in Syrian territory and the possibility that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad attempt to avenge the deaths of its men in the blasting of the underground tunnel near Kibbutz Kissufim.

Saudi monarch King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will step down next week and announce his son Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman – known in the west as MBS – as his successor, the Daily Mail reported Thursday.

The report, based on a single source described as "close to the royal family," is not yet confirmed by any other source.

Intelligence collection in the maritime (naval) theater of operations is one of the primary challenges facing naval forces in 2017, despite the resources currently available. Naval intelligence may be divided into two major efforts – assembling an operational naval status picture for border defense, and collection of long-range naval intelligence. These two efforts involve two mutually-complementary but almost separate intelligence setups that assemble their respective status pictures differently.

IHS Janes reports that Elbit Systems has developed a small tactical-level unmanned aircraft system (UAS) dubbed Hermes 45 that has a maximum operating endurance of more than 24 hours.

The new system has a blended wing design with a combustion engine driving a pusher propeller. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 65 kg, including a payload capacity of up to 15 kg, and can simultaneously operate with up to three payloads.

At the IDF Ground Arm they have started thinking about the force build-up plan for the next decade, titled "Force Build-Up 2030". Several IDF organs are involved in the planning activity: the IDF Operations Directorate, the IDF Planning Directorate, and the IDF Ground Arm HQ. The Planning Directorate is in charge of developing the reference threat scenarios. The Operations Directorate is in charge of breaking the reference scenarios down to operational scenarios.

The X-Clouduav Company has revealed a high-speed vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) attack drone called A-Hawk at the Dubai Airshow.

"The eight rotors enable the 170 Kg maximum-take-off-weight drone to achieve a top speed of 60kmph at an altitude of 3000 meters which is nearly twice of conventional VTOL drones equipped with four rotor engines," Defense World reports.

The Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF’s) medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle project has moved into an 'options analysis' phase, IHS Jane's reports. The project’s aim is to provide an integrated persistent long-range, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance capability.

Palo Alto's Unit 42 research group has discovered a new malware family named Reaver with ties to hackers who use the SunOrcal malware. "SunOrcal activity has been documented to at least 2013, and based on metadata surrounding some of the C2s, may have been active as early as 2010," according to the publication.

Rostec has received government approval to sell a 26 percent stake in Kalashnikov, Sergei V. Chemezov, the director of holding company, said on Monday in Dubai.

Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel will not tolerate Iran’s presence in Syria.

"We maintain absolute freedom of action and the only considerations that guide us are the security considerations of Israel," he said at the end of a two-day tour in northern Israel.

Lieberman visited the northern border accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Northern Command Chief Maj. Gen. Yoel Strick and the commanders of the Bashan and Galilee Division.