Israel delivers autonomous BlueWhale mini-submarine to Germany in historic defense milestone
The IAI is a regular supplier to the German Army, having provided it with the Arrow 3 system, and has received an additional contract from the German Air Force.
Israel Aerospace Industries on Wednesday delivered its autonomous BlueWhale mini-submarine to the German Navy, further cementing defense relations between Israel and Germany.
ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems Atlas Elektronic collaborated on the submarine, integrating the anti-submarine warfare towed sonar system.
The IAI is a regular supplier to the German Army, having provided it with the Arrow 3 system. It has also received an additional contract from the German Air Force.
“IAI’s autonomous systems, in the air, at sea, on land, and in space, are now operational and provide a significant technological advantage, while improving the ability to protect the lives of soldiers in the field,” IAI President and CEO Boaz Levy said at the handover ceremony at the German Navy base in Eckernförde, on the Baltic Sea coast.
“The delivery of the BlueWhale highlights the maturity of the solution, the strength of the cooperation with Atlas, and the high level of trust between the State of Israel and Germany. We share a common mission: to protect the lives of soldiers and civilians in Israel, Germany, and across Europe.”
The German Navy conducted a series of intensive trials in the Baltic Sea to test the BlueWhale in real-world conditions before the handover.
IAI and TKMS deliver BlueWhale Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle to German Navy
Unveiled in 2023, the BlueWhale is the first-ever Israeli-made unmanned mini-submarine.
The BlueWhale was designed for covert missions
The 12-meter-long BlueWhale mini-submarine is intended for covert intelligence-gathering operations. It can detect submarines and gather acoustic intelligence. It could be the start of a future in which the Israeli navy shifts to more unmanned vessels that require fewer sailors.
In addition, the vehicle’s small size, made possible by its lack of space for human operators, makes it much harder for enemy forces to detect than many current naval options.
The large autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has successfully conducted thousands of hours of submerged and autonomous operations.
BlueWhale uses radar and electro-optical systems, “fitted to a telescopic mast, to detect sea and coastal targets,” IAI said in a press release.
The mini-submarine is also equipped with “dedicated sonars to enable the detection of both manned and unmanned submarines, and map mines on the seabed.”
In addition, a special sensor suite ensures safe transit for the submarine both below and in the proximity of the sea surface, on which it is also capable of “landing.”
More specifically, the BlueWhale can drop down at least a few hundred meters underwater.
The AUV is capable of remaining at sea for several weeks at minimal cost and maintenance, without the need for operators on board.
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A cat is seen during the excavation and restoration work underway on the exceptional frescoes in the Hall of the Mask and the Peacock, one of the most refined rooms of the Villa of Poppaea at Oplontis, Torre Annunziata, Italy on February 12, 2026.(photo credit: Alessio Paduano/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Archaeologists have uncovered a vibrant red fresco during excavations of a villa believed to have belonged to Emperor Nero's second wife in Naples, southern Italy, according to local media.
The discovery's announcement follow the site’s partial opening to the public for the first time.
Villa Poppaea, the Roman “pleasure villa,” is part of the ancient Oplontis, an archaeological site set not far from Pompeii. Like Pompeii, it was destroyed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.
The site was first discovered in the 16th century, though excavations only began in the 18th.
In 1974, archaeologists discovered the remains of a second building nearby (known as Villa B) believed to have been used for processing wine and oil. These remains are closed to the public.
“Each excavation is a surprise,” the site’s director, Arianna Spinosa, told AFP. “We certainly expected to find some of the frescoes that could be seen on the other wall, but the surprises were, of course, far more numerous.”
'Vivid' frescoes emerge from restored Ancient Roman villa near Pompeii
Peacocks, bright red, blue pigment
The fresco was reportedly found in the villa's main salon, depicting the legs and body of a peacock emerging from mud, against the backdrop of a yellow frieze.
Giuseppe Scarpati, the site's chief archaeologist, explained to AFP that the peacock,which is the sacred animal associated with the Roman goddess Juno, is “one of the decorative motifs that recurs very frequently in the decoration of the villa.”
“We don't know its boundaries to the north, east, or west,” Scarpatti explained to AFP, which further added that only 50%-60% percent of the villa has been excavated. “Potentially, the villa could still hold many surprises for us.”
Other finds reportedly include depictions of birds, fish, and fruit in vibrant pigments identified by archaeologists as “bright red cinnabar and Egyptian blue pigments,” according to Elena Gravina, the chief conservator of the villa.
AFP noted that Gravina further explained that such pigments were expensive at the time, and are a testament to the “commercial connections and the wealth of the patrons, as well as the skill and expertise of the artisans.”
Lavish frescoes discovered at Villa di Poppea, linked to Nero’s wife, reveal elite Roman luxury
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The giant phantom jelly is rare. ( Schmidt Ocean Institute via Storyful / FOX Weather)
A rare giant phantom jellyfish was spotted off the coast of Argentina during a mission led by Argentine researchers in early February.
The researchers were aboard the Schmidt Institute of Oceanography’s FALKOR research vessel, which spent several weeks exploring deep-sea ecosystems along the country’s coastline.
The footage was taken by a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) at a depth of approximately 250 meters below the sea’s surface.
The jellyfish has a bell size of up to one meter in diameter, and its four arms can reach lengths of up to about ten meters.
The team documented alarge coral reefalong the country’s coastline and several other reef complexes, as well as 28 species that researchers believe may be new to science, including worms, corals, sea snails, and other species yet to be identified.
Team's goal was to find cold vents
The team’s main goal was to find cold vents - areas where gases and chemicals are released from the seafloor, feeding the area’s biodiversity. They found the cold vents in an area of more than one square kilometer, more than twice the size of the huge coral reef
"We did not expect to see such a level of biodiversity in the Argentine deep sea, and we are so excited to see it teeming with life," the expedition's lead scientist, Dr. Maria Emilia Bravo of theUniversity of Buenos Airesand the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, said in a statement.
"Seeing the biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and connectivity between them unfold together was amazing. We opened a window into the biodiversity of our country only to find that there are so many more windows left to open," she added.
"We have collected an unprecedented number of chemical, physical, and biological samples that will be used to understand relationships in the water in the coming years," said Dr. Melissa Fernandez Sabriny of the Argentine Institute of Oceanography and the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research.
"These samples represent a unique opportunity to understand not only how extraordinary theseextreme ecosystemsare, but also how vulnerable they are."
The team didn’t just find biodiversity but also litter, including fishing nets and other bits of plastic waste that had been carelessly left to float out to sea, polluting natural habitats. They even found a piece of tape with a Korean sticker, raising questions about how it ended up in Argentine waters.
Rare Giant Phantom Jellyfish Discovered In Expedition Off Argentina Coast
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Target practice for jousting: consisting of a cross-bar turning upon a pivot with a broad part to strike against. Illustration after a manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. An engraving from The Sports and Pastimes of the people of England, by Joseph Strutt, (London, 1833). (photo credit: The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
A child buried with a shield and spear was discovered during excavations of a medieval cemetery in Kent, southeast England, by Prof. Duncan Sayer and archaeologist Andrew Richardson.
The child, believed to have been somewhere between 10-12 years-old, most likely did not use either of the weapons “comfortably” due to his curved spine, Sayer explained in a January 30 article to The Conversation.
Sayer added that the grave of a second child was also discovered during the excavations, this one believed to have been a “boy who was just two to three years old” buried with a large silver belt buckle.
“Graves with objects like these usually belong to adult men, large buckles were a symbol of office in later Roman and early Medieval contexts, for example the spectacular gold examples from Sutton Hoo,” Sayer noted in the article.
“The weapons in our graves were as much as an expression of loss and grief, as they were a physical statement about strength or masculinity and the male family,” Sayer wrote. “Even battle hardened and ancient warriors cried, and they buried their dead with weapons like swords that told stories."
“The spear, shield and buckles found in little graves spoke of the men these children might have become.”
Two medieval swords also discovered
Sayer and Richardson also discovered four medieval swords buried in the graves.
One of the blades, a “high status 6th century object,” bears a “decorated silver pommel and ring which is fixed to the handle” and was sheathed in a beaver fur-lined scabbard, while a second bears a smaller silver hilt and a “wide, ribbed, gilt scabbard mouth.”
“Two elements with different artistic styles, from different dates, brought together on one weapon,” Sayer wrote.
“This mixture was also seen in the Staffordshire Hoard (discovered in 2009) which featured 78 pommels and 100 hilt collars with a range of dates from the 5th to the 7th centuries AD.”
Several weapon burials were revealed during the excavation, all set around an older, deeper grave surrounded by a ring ditch.
This grave was marked with a mound of earth, Sayer noted, and held a man who was not buried with weapons or metal artifacts.
Sayer and Richardson were joined by a team from the University of Lancashire and Isle Heritage. Fourty graves were excavated in total, and the discovery can be watched on BBC2’s Digging for Britain.
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Elephant bone found at Spanish archaeological site may have marched on Rome with Hannibal - study
The finding represents the first elephant skeletal remains found to possibly confirm Hannibal’s historical march from Carthage to Italy during the Second Punic War.
By Miriam Sela-Eitam, Jerusalem Post, February 7, 2026
A member of staff of the Natural History Museum in Berne, Switzerland, checks the skeleton of an elephant on show at the museum's Skeleton Hall, September 16, 2005. (photo credit: REUTERS/RUBEN SPRICH)
A “baseball-sized” bone discovered in Spain may have belonged to one of famed Carthaginian general Hannibal’s war elephants, according to a new study published in the February edition of Journal of Archaeological Science.
The finding represents the first elephant skeletal remains found to possibly confirm Hannibal’s historical march from Carthage to Italy during the Second Punic War.
The bone, identified as a wrist bone from an elephant's right forefoot, was originally found during archaeological digs at the site of a fortified Iberian village in Córdoba, Spain, in 2020.
In the same layer of earth, archaeologists also discovered artillery ammunition, a heavy bolt from a siege weapon, and a Carthaginian coin minted between 237-206 BCE.
According to the study, similar findings have been uncovered at other Spanish sites linked to the Second Punic War.
A general view of the ancient ruins of the Greek and Roman city of Cyrene where the recent Storm Daniel has hit Libyan town of Shahhat, Libya, September 29, 2023. (credit: REUTERS/ESAM OMRAN AL-FETORI)
The study noted that the debate lies between the possibility of an Asian elephant, the same species used by the Greek king Pyrrhus against the Romans during the First Punic War, or a now-extinct species of African elephant, which the Carthaginians preferred to use during battle.
Even so, the discovery “may constitute one of the scarce instances of direct evidence on the use of these animals during Classical Antiquity, not only in the Iberian Peninsula but also in Western Europe,” archaeologist and first author of the study, Rafael Martínez Sánchez, wrote.
“While it would not represent one of the mythical specimens Hannibal took across the Alps, it could potentially embody the first known relic − so sought after by European scholars of the Modern Age − of the animals used in the Punic-Roman wars for the control of the Mediterranean.”
Hannibal's Elephants vs Roman Genius
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Weizmann Institue, NASA discover Jupiter is smaller and flatter than previously believed
“This research helps us understand how planets form and evolve… by studying what’s happening inside Jupiter, we get closer to understanding how planets like ours came to be.”
A VIEW of Jupiter's moon Europa created from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990's, according to NASA, obtained by Reuters May 14, 2018.(photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute/ Handout via REUTERS) The planet Jupiter is smaller and flatter than astrophysicists have believed for over 50 years, the Weizmann Institute of Science and NASA discovered.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy on February 2, 2026, found that Jupiter is about 8km less wide at the equator, and 24km flatter at the poles.
It doesn’t sound like much difference for a planet that is approximately 143,000km wide and 134,000km pole-to-pole, but “these few kilometers matter,” explained Dr. Eli Galanti, a senior staff scientist on the research team.
“Shifting the radius by just a little lets our models of Jupiter’s interior fit both the gravity data and atmospheric measurements much better.”
Why are these measurements different from previous ones?
Lead researcher Prof. Yohai Kaspi explained that earlier measurements didn’t account for Jupiter’s powerful winds. As previous calculations included the extreme winds in their measurements of Jupiter, there were long-standing discrepancies in the measurements.
Elbit Systems' JUPITER space camera launches aboard the NAOS Satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. (credit: ELBIT SYSTEMS)
The new research carried out by the Weizmann team utilized radio signals to map Jupiter’s atmosphere. As the radio waves pass through its atmosphere, they bend, allowing the team to create detailed maps of Jupiter’s temperature and density.
The team used Juno, a NASA spacecraft that was launched in 2011 and has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016. In 2021, NASA extended Juno’s mission, expanding its path and allowing it to pass along the far side of Jupiter from Earth.
This creates new opportunities to measure Jupiter as radio signals from Juno now have to pass directly through Jupiter to reach Earth.
Juno’s Principal Investigator Dr Scott Bolton, explained that “when the spacecraft passes behind the planet, its radio communication signal is blocked and bent by Jupiter’s atmosphere. This enables an accurate measurement of Jupiter’s size.”
The Juno team at the Weizmann seized the opportunity to create the clearest picture yet of the giant gas planet’s size and shape.
This research is an exciting scientific collaboration between the US and Israel to advance our understanding of our solar system.
What’s the significance of this discovery?
Jupiter stands as the largest planet in the solar system, with a surface gravity of approximately 25m/s². Its gravitational pull helps protect Earth from comets and asteroids that could otherwise collide with our planet.
Its gravitational field is also considered to have halted the inward migration of other planetary bodies, allowing Earth to form at its current location.
Prof. Kaspi said, “This research helps us understand how planets form and evolve - Jupiter was likely the first planet to form in the solar system, and by studying what’s happening inside it, we get closer to understanding how the solar system, and planets like ours, came to be.”
The techniques developed in these studies will serve the team in future analyses. The European Space Agency launched Juice, an unmanned mission to explore Jupiter’s icy moons, in 2023, and the techniques developed for this research will be used in combination with the Israeli technology onboard Juice to gain a deeper view into the planet’s atmosphere.
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