A Russian infantryman expertly takes apart multiple drone attacks with small arms. Good firing position, gets in lower terrain to make drone slow down.

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Military service members receive COVID-19 vaccines. Photo: Children’s Health Defense / The Defender

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender — Children’s Health Defense
Testimony in an ongoing federal defamation lawsuit is raising new questions about the legality of the U.S. military’s 2021 COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The testimony also sheds light on how the mandate shaped military policy and the broader federal vaccine policy during the pandemic.
The lawsuit was filed last year by Dr.

Oil exports from major Middle Eastern producers appear to be recovering, even as the war with Iran continues, as Gulf countries try to move as much crude as possible through the Strait of Hormuz and restart shipments along routes that bypass it entirely.

Preliminary data from shipping tracker Kpler put September crude exports from key regional producers at 16.328 million barrels per day — their highest monthly level since the U.S.-Israeli war began in February.

President Donald Trump departs the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn, Monday, April 21, 2025.

Chinese defence researchers have outlined a long-term architecture for electrically powered 60 ton tank powered by a compact nuclear reactor and armed with a 50 megajoule electromagnetic railgun. The concept, described in a research paper published in the June 2026 supplement of the Chinese defence journal Acta Armamentarii, envisages a development path extending beyond 2045. The study was conducted by researchers from Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group, the State Key Laboratory of Special Vehicle Design and Manufacturing Integration Technology, and Beijing Institute of Technology.

Military officials announced a slew of awards to several defense companies Tuesday as part of a contract vehicle worth billions in counter-drone technology, a potentially massive haul for the Pentagon’s Domestic Shield initiative and air defense efforts.
The 10 new awards have a collective ceiling of $4.15 billion and fall under an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) vehicle that officials expect to reach $7 billion by the end of next month.

Russia has recruited Americans as well as thousands of other foreigners to fight in Ukraine, as Moscow looks to the world for manpower after over four years of huge battlefield losses.

At Least 18 Americans Enlisted With Moscow

Tu-160 Bomber from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons

Tu-160 Bomber Russian Air Force. Image Credit: Russian State Media.

The New York Post reported Monday that Ukrainian intelligence has identified 18 Americans who enlisted to fight with Russian forces.

YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz. — Transnational criminal cartels are increasingly flying commercial drones into America over the southern border to enable human-trafficking operations, senior military officials indicated last week.
“It is a human tragedy what’s going on on our southern border — and the people that are trying to cross are being exploited,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Brian Filler, Joint Task Force-Southern Border’s deputy commanding general, told DefenseScoop. “So, anything we can do to prevent that from happening is good.

What does it really take to pass P Company?

America Stopped Iranian Missiles, Replacing Interceptors Could Take Years – On April 13, 2024, Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles toward Israel in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate compound in Damascus, Syria. U.S. forces responded by helping shoot down the incoming weapons, including ballistic missiles intercepted by U.S. Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean.

The United States Air Force is moving closer to establishing a full-rate production line for the F-47 sixth generation fighter, with the Air Force’s Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft Brigadier General Timothy Helfrich indicating that the new manufacturing line will appear in the near future. The programme is continuing on an accelerated schedule, with Boeing currently building the first flight prototype, while the first flight still scheduled for 2028.

Exercise Cobra Warrior is the RAF’s large

Cadets arrive at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 23, 2022. Photo: U.S. Air Force / Public Domain

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum dated September 29, 2026, directing the Military Service Academies to eliminate civilian faculty tenure — a sweeping move aimed at stripping out what he called “academic stagnation” and restoring a warfighting culture at institutions like West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy.

Eight U.S. Marines were reportedly injured earlier this month in a previously unreported attack by an Iranian cruise missile.

The eight Marines were injured when an Iranian missile struck a ship they were operating on in the Strait of Hormuz.

B-2A Spirit Stealth Bomber USAF Image.

A B-2 Spirit soars after a refueling mission over the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, May 30, 2006. The B-2, from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., is part of a continuous bomber presence in the Asia-Pacific region. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III)

It’s the first time U.

U.S. President Donald Trump denied on Monday, September 28, that he had offered Iran sanctions relief or access to frozen assets. His claim contradicted reports that his administration was preparing to offer economic concessions to Tehran in exchange for progress on Tehran’s nuclear program. The reports from Axios and CNN on Monday cited unnamed U.S. officials who claimed that the president was prepared to consider economic concessions as part of an agreement.

Writing on Truth Social, however, the president claimed that the stories were untrue.

F-15 in museum.

The Royal Navy has fired its newest anti-ship m

Iran Rial Hits Record Low: Iran’s rial fell to a record low on Tuesday, trading at more than 2.5 million to the dollar in Tehran after seven months of war, sanctions, and restrictions on Iranian oil exports weighed on the currency.

The currency reached a record low of 2.2 million to the dollar in Tehran on Sept. 2, according to the Associated Press, and 27 days later, Iran International reported that the dollar was changing hands for 2.418 million rials on Monday, before sharply rising more than 80,000 rials, or over 3 percent, in less than 24 hours.

A further barrage of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones was aimed at Kyiv on Tuesday.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched ballistic missiles and dozens of the newer jet-powered drones at the city of 3 million.

Putin in June 2021 Russian State Media Photo

Putin Back in 2023. Image Credit: Russian Federation

The weapons are faster and fly higher than the propeller-powered Shahed-type drones that have been a staple of Russia’s long-range attacks.

The Red Arrows have returned to the skies, flyi

The United States Navy’s shipbuilding crisis continues to compound. Unable to reliably build new warship classes domestically, the Navy had been unwilling (and legally barred by Congress) to procure new warships from foreign partners.

The Navy attempted to partner with an Italian shipbuilder with strong ties to the US defense industrial base, Fincantieri, for the Constellation-class, but the effort ended in total failure. The need for new warships, however, has not gone away.

Constellation-Class Frigate U.S. Navy. Image Credit: Industry Handout.

U.S.-Iran Mediators Working On A Deal – Mediators are reportedly pressing ahead with efforts to bring the war with Iran to an end, but disagreements over Iran’s nuclear future remain the main sticking point, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press. 

New reports suggest that mediators are continuing to work on a potential deal to end the conflict.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued a 30-day statewide disaster declaration amid rising diesel prices in the Lone Star State.

Diesel prices across the country have reached record highs in recent weeks, largely due to Iran’s ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz and repeated attacks on oil refineries in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

B-1B Lancer Bomber U.S. Air Force Display. Image Credit: National Security Journal.

B-1B Lancer Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Gov. Abbott’s declaration comes just five weeks before Texas votes in the forthcoming gubernatorial election.

The Kremlin has found a new way to fill its trenches. It’s shopping for Americans.

According to a New York Post report now making the rounds, Russian recruiters are offering U.S. citizens, including former American service members, a signing bonus of about $26,000 plus a monthly salary to fight in Ukraine.

A U.S. M1A1 Abrams tank needed for training the Armed Forces of Ukraine awaits offloading at Grafenwoehr, Germany, May 14, 2023. The M1A1 training is expected to last several weeks and will include live fire, crew qualification, maneuver, and maintainer training.

From one generation to the next🪖
The latest

Iran claims that its attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have pushed American forces away from its coastlines, despite Washington’s insistence that more than one billion barrels of crude oil have passed through the region under its military protection.

19 large ships exited the strategic waterway last week, according to Kpler trade tracking data obtained by Reuters.

The French Marine Nationale aircraft carrier FS Charles De Gaulle (R91), and the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) are underway in formation in the Red Sea, April 15, 2019. The John C.

President Donald Trump is signaling that the United States does not intend to settle the Iran war with any sort of return to the prewar status quo. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said the US is going to “win” the war. “We’re going to win,” Trump said. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s going to be one way or the other.” The remarks come as the diplomatic track appears increasingly uncertain. The question now is what Trump would deem a sufficient victory.

Full story: https://taskandpurpose.

It doesn’t often fall to the Secretary of the Treasury to make belligerent threats to the nation’s foreign adversaries, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did just that this week.

Appearing on Fox Business’ “Sunday Morning Futures” program over the weekend, as the New York Post reported, Bessent said Iran will likely run out of things to trade within two weeks, forcing the Islamic Republic into a favorable deal.

STRAIT OF HORMUZ (May 1, 2012) The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), left, and the guided-missile cruiser USS Cape St.

President Donald Trump came back into office in 2025, after promising to bring an end to Russia and Ukraine’s war, possibly as soon as his first day in office. Weeks later, the president and Vice President JD Vance dressed down Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, implying to him that he couldn’t win the war and should accept peace. Trump had even mocked Zelensky for wearing casual clothes to the meeting.

In the year and a half since then, as with most things, Trump has gone back and forth between differing public positions.

During World War II, two regiments of Marines played a legendary game of American football on Guadalcanal while training for the upcoming invasion of Okinawa. For many, it would be the last game they ever played.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is expected to convene a high-profile meeting of military personnel for a “State of the Force” address this week. Will it show the U.S. armed forces as healthy? The answer may depend on how the audience responds, regardless of what Hegseth says. How the audience handles what could be one of the higher-visibility made-for-media events of the defense secretary’s tenure could tell us a lot about how the U.S. military has adjusted to President Donald Trump’s second term.

Russia’s long-range drone campaign against Ukraine has generally depended on relatively slow, propeller-driven Shahed-type attack drones. Their low cost and long range make them useful for mass attacks, yet slow speeds allow Ukrainian defenses time to detect and intercept them. Now, however, Russia is sending jet-powered Shaheds deep into western Ukraine. For example, early on September 29, Ukrainian authorities reported a jet-powered UAV approaching Ternopil, far from the front lines. The Ukrainian Air Force tracked the drone moving south of Horodok in Khmelnytskyi region toward Ternopil.

The MOD is offering a £2bn contract for up to

Russian forces have begun using an Iranian Misagh-2 man-portable surface-to-air missile systems to intercept Ukrainian unmanned aircraft, according to Ukrainian reporting and imagery. The system is reported by Ukrainian sources to be in use in the Rostov region. The Misagh-2 uses a passive infrared seeker and is designed as a fire-and-forget weapon. Once launched, the missile can track the infrared signature of its target without requiring continued guidance from the operator, allowing the firing team to immediately leave its position.

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) has been awarded a $510m task order by the US Army Communications Electronics Command (CECOM) to deliver worldwide logistics, sustainment, and maintenance services.

Four and a Half Years On, Russians Still Support the War with Ukraine: It’s hard to know what Russians truly think of their country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The “special military operation” launched in February 2022 was expected to last no more than three days. Instead, it has surpassed the duration of the First World War.

Why the Ukraine War?

Russian Artillery Creative Commons Image

MSTA Russian Artillery Creative Commons Image

Hundreds of thousands of Russians have been killed, and many more wounded.

The USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. returned home this week after a 10-month deployment that included defending Navy assets against ballistic missiles as part of Iran war operations.
The USS Petersen left Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, on Dec. 1, 2025, and arrived back at its home port on Monday after 300 days at sea, officials announced in a release. The ship originally set sail in the South China Sea as part of ongoing “presence operations” to deter Chinese military actions in the region.

This video describes the military situation in

Russian President Vladimir Putin this week ordered another expansion of Russia’s armed forces, seeking to add 15,500 troops to bring the total to  2.44 million personnel, including 1.55 million active, CNBC reported, citing a Telegram post with the official government decree.

The report said that this is the fourth time that Putin has ordered such an increase since the start of 2026, after treating such increases much more sparingly in the earlier years of the war.

Putin in 2021. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Putin in 2023. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Eight Reactors, One Hull, and a $1.4 Billion Bill: Why Scrapping the USS Enterprise Costs So Much – The USS Enterprise, CVN-65, was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. Launched in 1958, it was the eighth vessel in the US Navy to bear the name Enterprise. Like her World War II predecessor, her crew nicknamed her “The Big E.”

The vessel had a long, distinguished career in modern U.S. Navy history, including the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis; aerial combat and bombardment missions during the Vietnam War; the evacuation of the U.S.

President Donald Trump has insisted that the United States will win the war with Iran “very soon” amid ongoing negotiations between the two warring states.

Trump spoke to reporters at the White House on Monday, 28th September, where he affirmed his belief that the U.S. will win the war “one way or the other.”

A B-52 Stratofortress leads a formation of a B-1 Lancer, A-10 Warthog, F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-18 Hornet, F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning, assigned to Air Combat Command and Global Strike Command, during the Hyundai Air and Sea show at Miami, Florida, May 23, 2026.

When the Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was first announced as the replacement for the iconic Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the news was met with great fanfare. After all, on paper, the Ford-class would bring many new capabilities and truly become the United States Navy’s aircraft carrier of the twenty-first century. This did not happen, though. Instead, the USS Gerald R. Ford went significantly over budget and over its scheduled development time.

That means a math problem no one can easily solve: the US Navy now simply doesn’t have enough aircraft carriers.

Feel the rush of speed, pressure, discipline an

Paratroopers from the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division return to Pope Army Airfield after supporting the drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. Photo: Sgt. 1st Class John Laughter / DVIDS / Public Domain

By Tuesday, September 30, 2026, the last of the boots from American troops will have left the soil of Iraq — the same land that the US invaded in 2003 and where, over twenty-three years, the military lost the lives of 4,500 Americans.
Iran-backed militias are celebrating tonight.

This video describes the military situation in

In recent weeks, the U.S. and its allies have had some success in moving oil through the Strait of Hormuz by finding new routes to circumvent Iran’s control of the crucial waterway, as oil exports from the region have rebounded.

That’s according to an analysis published Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal, which also reported that Iran could seek to halt that progress by military means.

(July 28, 2017) An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 approaches the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) for an arrested landing.

A new guidebook outlines the duties for soldiers in the barracks and offers management tips to noncommissioned officers on how to address emergencies in living spaces.
The “NCO’s Barracks Guidebook,” published Wednesday morning, includes recommendations and outlines steps for addressing issues ranging from maintenance needs to cleanliness in the barracks. 
The guide’s introduction notes that it is not setting policy but is meant to be a “professional tool, a resource built to educate, clarify, and strengthen the NCO’s ability to lead.

The European Council has approved five European Defence Projects of Common Interest (EDPCIs), making the cross-border initiatives eligible for funding through the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP).

The United States has embarked on an unprecedented campaign of maritime and financial isolation against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Following the escalation of hostilities in early 2026, Washington deployed a formidable dual-pronged offensive. First, the enforcement of a comprehensive naval blockade by Central Command, initiated in April, effectively sealed the Iranian coastline and crippled traditional maritime exports.

Milford Beagle Jr. had been in the Army for about a year when a new battalion commander took charge of his unit.
It was 1991, and Beagle and five other lieutenants waited nervously together for their one-on-one meetings with the colonel. The furniture was hard, and there was a faint smell of pine oil in the air, Beagle recalled last week at the 2026 Military Influencer Conference (MIC) in Tampa, Florida. The six young service members shared a collective sense that they were heading into the principal’s office.

This video describes the military situation in