The United States plans to start cutting dozens of aircraft and several warships assigned to NATO operations in Europe, the latest move in a series of cuts to the American military presence on the continent.
The New York Times first reported on the cuts, citing European defense officials and parts of a written document shared by the United States with its allies. On Friday, NATO said that it is aware of the planned changes, and positioned it as a shift in the “balance of responsibility.

In major conflicts throughout American history, the lines are blurred between who did what and when. Unless someone decides to “Stephen Ambrose” your unit, any action or glory is usually reduced to a paragraph in a history book or a vaguely accurate sentence on Wikipedia.
The National Guard’s exploits get reduced to a negative stereotype. While it may not be all inaccuracies or embellishments of reality, the majority of National Guard history gets rolled in with everyone else’s.

According to a CNN report just yesterday, on 19 May, US Air Force (USAF) Dan Caine, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), made an unplanned, classified trip across the Atlantic to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters in Tampa, Florida. The purpose was reportedly for him to be briefed in person on a proposed but extremely sensitive military operation – the likes of which had not been previously attempted.

The plan being briefed was for the US military to deploy a force of specialized ground troops into Iran.

PACIFIC OCEAN (April 27, 2026) U.S.

The war in Ukraine is not going well for Russia. Russia and President Putin believed that Ukraine would collapse, as would the Western NATO alliance and its support for Ukraine. Putin believed that the Russian military would take Kyiv in a few days and the entire country in a few weeks.

None of that has happened. Russia hasn’t achieved one of the main objectives that it set out four and a half years ago. The Russian Army has suffered horrendous casualties and lost an incredible amount of tanks, aircraft, artillery, and equipment.

T-72 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Mark W.

Carvelli, MWI
More than Just Another Echelon

Michelle Stoddart, ABC N.
Trump said the U.S. military “delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike.

Global Defense News
The U.S.

IntEng
Saronic and Castelion, two defense technology companies, have announced plans to combine an autonomous warship with a hypersonic strike weapon.

The Ukraine War Was Never Meant To Last This Long: When Russian troops crossed into Ukrainian territory in February 2022, they had been told by their leaders in Moscow that the so-called “special military operation” was likely to last a matter of weeks. Russian forces quickly advanced toward Kyiv from Belarus, and even Western intelligence was assessing that the Ukrainian capital was at risk of falling within 72 hours.

But what has happened since is remarkable.

Germany’s defense establishment is issuing one of the starkest warnings heard from a major NATO government since the Ukraine war began. According to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, Russia could be able to threaten a NATO member by 2029. Notably, German Army Inspector General Christian Freuding says Pistorius’ view is not an isolated German assessment but rather a broader conclusion. According to Freuding, all 32 NATO members agree that Russia could regain the capability to challenge NATO military as early as 2029.

Ohio has never really been synonymous with “good,” even for some people who are from there. In fact, Gen Z and Gen Alpha turned “Ohio” into a colloquialism, a standalone adjective meant as an insult—both to the thing described and to the state itself.
But there are still plenty of good things the state has produced: LeBron James, “Superman” creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, zippers (maybe a sign to check yours), Blake Stilwell (We Are The Mighty’s editor in chief), and the NFL, just to name a few.

For the first time since the 2023 counteroffensive, Ukraine has clawed back some territory in its ongoing war against Russia. Though the war is grumbling toward its fifth year, momentum on the battlefield has shifted in Kyiv’s favor and put Russia on the back foot. Squeezed both at home and in Ukraine, Moscow is feeling the heat. Here’s why.

Ukraine Holds Longer Ranges

Ukraine Cruise Missile. Image Credit: Government of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s expanding campaign of drone strikes has allowed Kyiv’s forces to grapple with the Russian war machine and wrest back parts of formerly occupied territory on a larger scale for the first time since the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive. Bloodied on the battlefield in Ukraine, Russia is, however, feeling the pressure elsewhere: in Russia itself.

The Iran Strait of Hormuz Crisis May Have Changed the Global Economy Forever: For more than three months, the Strait of Hormuz crisis has exposed one of the world’s biggest economic vulnerabilities.

Before the conflict began, roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil moved through the strait, but when tanker traffic slowed, and the crisis escalated, it became obvious – particularly to Asian and European economies – that the old system was not safe.

Indian Ocean (January 6th, 2021)The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) steams in the Indian Ocean, Jan. 6.

This video describes the military situation in

Peace With Iran? Current State of Talks & the Chance It All Goes Wrong: After months of war, threats, and a failed ceasefire, the United States and Iran look like they may finally be closing in on an agreement that could see the Strait of Hormuz opened and the fighting in the Gulf region come to an end.

But even now, with mediators claiming that the memorandum of understanding (MOU) is nearly finished, the deal remains unsigned, and it remains entirely possible that the regime in Tehran will return to the delay tactics it has used to derail talks before.

Spring Storm 🌪️
UK troops from the 4th Lig

Forget skies, seas and cyberspace.

DNI de-classifies one of the mysteries of the universe

Image by Yasmim 2603

One of the early bizarre issues of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was the reference to U.S. Bio-Labs in Ukraine.
DNI Director Gabbard has de-classified files to show that yes, the U.S. had Bio-Labs in Ukraine.

In early 2022, after the Russian invasion began, I thought people citing Bio-Labs were unhinged conspiracy extremists until I looked at the U.S. Embassy Kyiv website.
Right on the front page was the reference to U.S. funded Bio-Labs in Ukraine.

U.S. Southern Command carried out a “swift and lethal kinetic strike” to kill Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, the head of the Tren de Aragua street gang, President Donald Trump announced Friday evening.
The strike is the apparent first announced military operation inside Venezuela since Operation Absolute Resolve, the Jan. 3 attack on Caracas that saw U.S. forces capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Russian military analysts have engaged in a heated debate regarding the performance of the Su-57 fifth generation fighter program and the capabilities of the aircraft itself, with a statement by President Vladimir Putin referring to the fighter as the most capable in the world appearing to have sparked this discussion. Military analyst Maksim Kalashnikov, one of Russia’s more prominent defence commentators, strongly disputed the president’s statement, claiming that the Su-57’s limited operations evidenced that it was not comparable to the U.S. F-35.

Out near the Rocky Mountains, Ben Meager found a good spot to park his robot vehicle. It was the best place to park in a lot packed with some of the defense industry’s newest tech, but it also happened to sit next to a counter-drone turret he’d been eyeing for more than a year.
Meager had made renderings of the turret, an autonomous machine gun drone killer made by Allen Control Systems known as “the Bullfrog.” He thought it could fit on top of his company’s small, ruggedized ground robot to help blow swarms of unmanned aerial systems out of the sky.

Punch perfect🥊💥
Check out the future star

In an effort to align IT and cyber responsibilities, senators are proposing to create a new Undersecretary of Defense for Cyber, Information, and Networks position within the Pentagon.
The language to create the new role is included in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s draft of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), according to a summary of the bill. A committee staffer told reporters Thursday that the undersecretary would serve in a dual-hatted role as both Defense Department chief information officer and principal cyber advisor to the secretary of defense.

The Marine Corps has officially retired the AV-

With the war against Iran intensifying, it seems fitting to take a step back and examine the damage so far on Iran’s side.

Despite Operation Epic Fury lasting only a month, the U.S. and Israel have inflicted significant damage on the IRGC.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (June 12, 2019) B-52 out of EDW carries ARRW IMV asset for its first captive carry flight over Edwards Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force photo by Christopher Okula)

U.S.

Ukraine is attacking Russia with a strategic drone and missile campaign that aims to degrade Russia’s military air defenses, its supply and logistics lines of transportation, and most importantly, its oil and gas infrastructure.

With Russia in the midst of a national holiday weekend, which is the start of the typical Russian holiday season, there are long gas lines and fuel shortages all across the Russian-occupied and illegally annexed Crimea, which has traditionally been a favorite holiday destination on the Black Sea.

Kirov-Class Battlecruiser Sailing. Image Credit: X Post.

The Defense Department’s enterprise generative AI platform is now being used by 1.5 million personnel, according to Pentagon CTO Emil Michael.
GenAI.mil was introduced in December to give DOD employees access to commercial AI tools and bring efficiencies to their workflows. Google’s Gemini products were the first to be made available in the new system, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT and xAI’s Grok were also set to be integrated.
There were just 80,000 AI users in December, Michael noted during remarks at the Hudson Institute on Friday.

In August 2022, almost six months after an unprovoked and criminal invasion of his country on 24 February by Vladimir Putin’s Russian military, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy laid down a marker for one of his objectives to be achieved by the end of the war.

“Crimea is Ukrainian, and we will never give it up,” he said at the time, and added, “we will not forget that the Russian war against Ukraine began with the occupation of Crimea. This Russian war…began with Crimea and must end with Crimea – with its liberation.

When Russia escalated its air campaign against Ukraine with Zircon hypersonic missile strikes on Kyiv and other major urban population centers earlier this month, it was clearer than ever that an escalation was underway. Moscow said the strikes were a retaliation for recent Ukrainian long-range drone and missile barrages that continue to impact its war economy – particularly its energy industry.

The strikes followed days of warnings from Russian officials that foreign diplomats in Kyiv were unsafe, but now it looks as though the escalation may not end there.

Ukraine Keeps Embarrassing Russia: It’s hard to ignore Ukraine’s newfound confidence in the war. Its long-range drone campaigns are hammering Russia and bringing the fight back across the border, and they’re serving two purposes at once: degrading Moscow’s ability to sustain the war while publicly exposing vulnerabilities the Kremlin would also rather keep hidden. Recent Ukrainian strikes have targeted oil facilities and defense manufacturers, causing major disruption to the Russian economy and often occurring at moments of particular political significance.

The recent St.

Soldiers assigned to the McGregor Range Complex, New Mexico, are missing meals because trying to eat at the base’s dining facility, or DFAC, often means waiting for an hour or more, two soldiers currently at the base told Task & Purpose.
The soldiers, speaking on the condition that their names not be used, said they have missed meals as a result of the long lines, which they say are a regular occurrence at the base, which is part of Fort Bliss, Texas. 
Video of one such line began making the rounds on social media earlier this week.

The Army spent over a billion dollars on nearly 10,000 augmented-reality headsets for soldiers to wear in combat. A federal watchdog reported this week that they won’t end up being used.
The Government Accountability Office looked at programs across the Department of Defense that “exceeded cost estimates and delivery schedules — wasting billions of dollars and decades of time,” according to a report released Tuesday. One of the programs highlighted in the report is the Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS headset program.

The “Iran Deal” Is a Mirage: Why This 60-Day Ceasefire Won’t Hold: In between irrational exuberance over SpaceX’s initial public offering (IPO) and the UFC fight night scheduled for this Sunday evening, June 14, President Donald Trump appears to have grown bored with the major Middle East regime-change war of choice that began more than 100 days ago.

The New Iran Deal? 

A U.S. Air Force F-15EX Eagle II flies over the Gulf of America, September 16, 2025.

John Healey’s parting broadside as Defence Se

Defence resignations. Budget rows.

Kharg Island is back in the discussion, so we a

In 2026, many mainstream news reports have focused on the staggeringly high casualties that the Russian Armed Forces have suffered in Ukraine.

What many reports seem to miss, however, is the large casualty rate that Ukraine has suffered after four years of war and the looming demographic crisis that the country is bound to face after the war.

Msta-S Russian Army. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

This video describes the military situation in

The war in Ukraine has delivered perhaps the most important armored warfare lesson since World War II. Remarkably, neither the American M1 Abrams nor the German Leopard 2 has performed as Western planners envisioned when designing the tanks during the Cold War. Built for fast-moving armored offensives under the cover of NATO air superiority, these tanks now face a battlefield saturated with 21st-century tech, including FPV drones, loitering munitions, constant aerial surveillance, and precision artillery.

The result: tanks are struggling to survive.

The creators of the future Global War on Terrorism memorial say they based their design around a single question posed to veterans, military families and others associated with the war: How did they want a memorial to the two decades of conflict to make them feel?
This week, after initial plans for the memorial were released — revealing a grass-covered archway and plaza with few direct ties to a battlefield — some veterans, including members of Congress, are questioning whether the design reflected their war 
Michael Rodriguez, President of Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation.

The current negotiations, if one wishes to characterize what is transpiring between the United States and Iran as negotiations, are a fool’s errand.

The terrorist regime stalls for time, tries to rebuild its shattered defenses, and continually breaks a ceasefire agreement while constantly pointing its finger in the other direction.

HWASONG-18 ICBM North Korea. Image Credit: North Korean state media.

Abu Dhabi-based defence company EDGE has established a new European enterprise called EDGE Europe, with its headquarters located in Paris.

This video describes the military situation in

Eddie Slovik didn’t have an idyllic childhood.
He consistently found trouble while growing up in Detroit, bouncing between reform schools and serving time in jail. His prison record initially disqualified Slovik from serving during World War II, but his status changed when the United States Army reclassified him.
Also Read: This American flag survived D-Day, then was returned to the US 75 years later
Slovik was drafted into service. Despite Slovik’s rough upbringing, the unrelenting demands of combat overwhelmed the nearly 24-year-old soldier.

The US Air Force’s Accidental Masterpiece: How the F-16 Conquered 50 Years of Change – When the YF-16 first flew in January 1974, it was revolutionary. It introduced digital fly-by-wire controls, relaxed static stability, a side-stick controller, and the famous bubble canopy. Those were generational leaps in fighter design.

And because the basic aerodynamic design was so good, engineers never had to replace the aircraft. Instead, they kept upgrading everything around the airframe.

Why are famous US military helicopters called A

What Is Known About The Iran Peace Deal? Seemingly Nothing Good: The U.S. and Iran could reportedly sign a peace deal as soon as Sunday, after Iranian state media reported that the draft deal included a U.S. commitment to lift oil sanctions and a pledge by Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days.

President Trump said on Thursday that the two sides had agreed to a “very strong memorandum of understanding” to stop the conflict, adding that a provisional agreement would give room to negotiate other deals. Iran, however, in typical fashion, says it is yet to decide on a deal.

The Day They Woke the Beast | Military Tribute