Due to the latest intensification of Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, at least 12 people have been killed and 20 injured. Those killed were in Kyiv and other locations across the region and included two children, according to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and other officials.

Six of the casualties reported were workers from Ukraine’s national railway service, the state-run Ukrzaliznytsia company.

Tu-160 Up Close. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Tu-160 bomber Creative Commons Image

They were killed when a rail depot was hit in Kyiv.

WARSAW, POLAND – In his 1 September 2026 address, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that “the safe days in Russia’s skies are over.” He elaborated on the reason for his statement in saying that “drone-infested skies are no place for civilian aviation.”

The Ukrainian President Zelensky issued a warning to commercial air carriers and their passengers, stating that Russian airspace is “completely unsafe” due to the presence of Ukrainian drones operating throughout areas, including the corridors normally used by civilian and commercial aircraft.

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao. Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that he will nominate acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao to be the permanent Secretary of the Navy. Trump referred to Cao as a “true WARRIOR” and implored the Senate to confirm him immediately.
President Donald Trump will nominate acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao to permanently serve in the position, the president calling Cao a “true WARRIOR” and saying he needs a “Patriot” to lead the Navy and Marine Corps.

While the final week of August marked the return of college football, none of the military service academy football teams played last weekend. That is about to change. On Saturday, September 5, Air Force, Army, and Navy will watch their teams open the season with home games.
The Army Black Knights will kick off at noon Eastern time against the Bryant Bulldogs. The Air Force Falcons will open their season at 1 p.m. against the Duquesne Dukes. Then at 3:30 p.m., the Navy Midshipmen will take on the Towson University Tigers in an all-Maryland matchup.

A U.S. Sailor assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 31 conducts preflight checks on an F/A-18E Super Hornet during Operation Epic Fury. Photo: U.S. Navy / DVIDS (Public Domain)
CENTCOM said it conducted a “wave of strikes” against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, targeting air defense systems, radar, ships, mine laying assets and communications. The action came after the IRGC continued to attempt to attack commercial ships and U.S. forces, CENTCOM said.
CENTCOM announced in a post on X that over 50,000 U.S.

Across the expanse of modern military history, from the insurgent mortar belts of the Euphrates River Valley to the heavily contested maritime corridors of the Middle East, one foundational principle of counter-network operations remains absolute. You cannot defend your way out of an asymmetric attrition fight. When an adversary possesses access to cheap, mass-produced offensive weaponry and is driven by an unyielding ideological commitment to disrupt regional stability, playing passive defense is a recipe for strategic exhaustion.

Warrior M.
Seconds matter in modern combat.

GDN
The U.S.

Aviationist
During the recent Project Convergence Capstone 6, an H-60M Black Hawk crew employed an Altius-700 Air-Launched Effect to autonomously find the target, pass data across the…

Kevin Eyer, RealClearDefense
The recent troubles aboard USS Benfold (DDG 65) have produced precisely the wrong lesson in the public sphere.

AvWeek
The U.S.

The Spanish Defence Ministry has become the latest European customer for South Korea’s K9 Thunder 155 mm self-propelled howitzer, with Hanwha Aerospace signing an export contract with Spanish defence company Indra Sistemas on August 31. The agreement expands South Korea’s position Europe’s leading suppliers of modern artillery systems. The contract is linked to a major Spanish artillery modernisation effort reportedly valued at approximately €4.55 billion ($5.3 billion).

Finland’s defence market will register steady through through the next decade as Helsinki continues its rearmament programme.

This video describes the military situation in

This video describes the military situation in

As the war in Ukraine progressed, Russian strikes increasingly degraded Ukraine’s terrestrial communications infrastructure, steadily deepening Kyiv’s dependence on SpaceX’s Starlink. The satellite constellation became indispensable for crucial military functions, including command and control, drone operations, and artillery fire coordination, with no readily available European alternative should access be withdrawn.This reality exemplifies the idea that today, governments rely on critical infrastructure that is privately owned and globally embedded.

In August 2024, special forces from five Ukrainian military intelligence units crossed the Black Sea to raid Russian-held Kinburn Spit. The commandos of these units — Chimera, Aratta, Stuhna, Paragon, Terror, and the Siberian Battalion — landed, fought, destroyed equipment, and withdrew. Two years later, in July 2026, Ukraine returned, but left the soldiers behind. Instead, an uncrewed surface vessel carried a ground robot across the water and released it onto the shore. The robot, equipped with a Wolly 7.

The summer of 2026 has raised questions once again among politicians, diplomats, and academics about whether Germany might be about to dither on Russia. Last month, a drone attack on German soil seemed designed to coerce Germany back into business as usual. Earlier, there had been rumblings about two German ex-chancellors brokering a peace treaty between Kyiv and Moscow. Both Angela Merkel and Gerhard Schröder are living embodiments of the ill-reputed Ostpolitik, Germany’s tradition of pragmatic cooperation with the Kremlin over the heads of other Eastern European countries.

This video describes the military situation in

A French assessment has highlighted the significant struggles faced by Rafale lightweight fourth generation fighters in an era where aerial warfare is increasingly dominated by fifth generation capabilities, reflecting on feedback from pilots at a time when the future of France’s air power is increasingly uncertain. The Future of Air Superiority: Mastering the Sky in High-Intensity Warfare was unusually candid about the limitations of current European fourth generation fighters.

Reports from multiple Indian sources indicate that the Indian Defence Ministry is continuing to consider acquiring Russia’s S-500 Prometheus strategic air and missile defence system, which will add a new tier to its air defences over its fast expanding arsenal of S-400 systems. The reported interest in the S-500 emerged during discussions between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday evening that he’s nominating Hung Cao to serve as secretary of the Navy on a permanent basis.
Cao has been acting SECNAV since April when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forced out then-Navy Secretary John Phelan. Cao was serving as the Senate-confirmed undersecretary of the Navy prior to Phelan’s ouster. In the undersecretary role he was tasked as the chief management officer with leading and synchronizing the modernization of the Navy’s unclassified IT systems and critical defense business systems.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit is taking place this week in Kyrgyzstan, and in an awkward moment, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit.

And at that moment, Modi appeared to embarrass his Russian counterpart by calling for an end to the long war in Ukraine.

The Army awarded Palantir and Anduril a combined $192 million in delivery orders for the service’s Tactical intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) program, officials announced Tuesday, pushing the targeting platform into a production phase.
Having been in development for several years, officials have touted TITAN as a “game changing” mobile ground station capable of using artificial intelligence to ingest data from a variety of sensors and package it into target recommendations, specifically for long-range fires.
The Army awarded Palantir a $178.

The United States launched another wave of strikes against Iran on Tuesday following a series of strikes over the weekend that ended a roughly month-long period of relative calm.

Washington evidently still has the firepower to keep hitting Tehran hard, but the latest round of attacks raises a difficult question that President Trump undoubtedly plays over in his head every minute of every day: exactly how long can the U.S. keep doing this?

DAYTON, Oh.–An F-22A Raptor from the 1st Fighter Wing conducts flying operations during a solar eclipse, April 8, 2024.

For over six months, the U.S. and Iran have been at war. As a result, global oil markets continue to fluctuate.

Oil-exporting nations in the region are now making serious plans to build more ports and pipelines that can bypass the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Oman and conflict-ridden Iran, as traffic there remains severely constrained.

An F-35B Lightening II with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing out of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., stopped at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska en route to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Jan.

An official Pentagon memorandum viewed by DefenseScoop on Tuesday provides U.S. military families who were instructed to flee Bahrain for safety six months ago with planning, logistics and relocation options, new timelines, and other details about the near-term support they may receive from the government. 
The memo — issued Aug.

The Navy’s top officer said sailors and their families should prepare for longer deployments until the service has a larger force and fleet.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle fielded questions from sailors during a livestreamed Q&A session at Fort Meade, Maryland, on Monday, which covered deployments to quality-of-life issues for shoreside personnel and Pentagon-directed policies like stricter grooming standards.
“In the short term, until I can grow the Navy we need,” Daryl said, “I hate to admit it, but longer deployments are going to be probably part of that.

U.S. President Donald Trump has declared that Iran is “dead.” In a Truth Social post on Monday, 31st August, Trump described Iran as a “failed nation”, adding: “They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, they have no currency, they are not paying their soldiers or police.”

He also claimed that Iranian inflation had reached 300%, and Tehran was “in total disarray and incapable of properly representing the country”.

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Marydith Stidham, a 125th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief, marshals Capt.

An A400M has delivered Royal Marines, US forces

Ukraine struck Russia’s largest Baltic Sea port early Tuesday during an overnight drone assault that Moscow claimed involved more than 500 aircraft.

The attack damaged the port of Ust-Luga in Russia’s Leningrad region and started a fire, according to regional authorities.

HIMARS Rocket. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Tennessee Army National Guard Soldiers with Alpha Battery, 1-181st Field Artillery Regiment conduct a training exercise using the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, June 9.

The Navy is finally moving forward with its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, asking industry to submit ideas for carrier-capable loyal wingman prototypes that can fly alongside the service’s manned platforms.
A request for information posted Monday by Naval Air Systems Command calls for two “fully functional, unmanned autonomous prototype air vehicle(s)” that can operate from both Ford- and Nimitz-class carriers.

Iran’s President Wants Peace – But Will Hardliners Listen? – Hardliners in Tehran want to extend the war to the November midterm elections or even until after U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office, but others, like the country’s president, are calling for peace instead. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian now says Tehran is prepared to immediately return to the terms of the June memorandum of understanding that briefly halted the war with the United States, offering Washington a potential path out of the six-month-long conflict just as direct fighting appears to be reigniting.

From WWII Shermans to modern Strykers, military

President Donald Trump, earlier this week, posted an AI-generated video to Truth Social, purporting to depict an attack on Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub.

Per The Independent, the Pentagon was put in the unprecedented position of confirming that the video was fake and that the U.S. had not, in fact, attacked that facility, which had not been, in Trump’s words, “blown to smithereens!!!”

HIMARS Attack. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The U.S.

Date: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026Time: 12:00-1:00 PM ETThe second joint webinar by RUSI and War on the Rocks: Two leading defense publications from both sides of the Atlantic present their expert panel. OverviewFor this edition of The Atlantic Brief, the Royal United Services Institute and War on the Rocks will present a dialogue on U.S. and European Perspectives on Nuclear Deterrence. Participating experts from the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and the United States bring decades of first-hand experience in the armed forces, diplomacy, and foreign policy.

The U.S.

Two Supertankers Struck in Strait of Hormuz – The war in Iran, and specifically the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, took a new turn on Monday, 31st August, after two supertankers were struck within minutes of each other.

The Saudi-flagged Sidr and the Liberian-flagged Senegal Prosperity were attacked by unidentified projectiles while transiting through the key shipping route. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Generic Oil Tanker Image. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

It marks the latest incident in the Strait of Hormuz, following U.S.

Russia Strikes Kyiv for Sixth Day in a Row as NATO Spillover Concerns Grow – Russia has struck Kyiv for the sixth consecutive day, killing a dozen people.

Moscow has bombarded Ukraine’s capital over the past week, with more than 2,000 drones fired westwards.

T-14 Armata Tank Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

T-14 Armata Tank Russian Army. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

T-14 Armata Tank from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The attacks form part of an ongoing campaign by Russia to strike the heart of Ukraine in the four-and-a-half-year war.

From discovering a passion for table tennis to

Back on August 19, Axios reported that the U.S. had been running a clandestine effort to get oil shipments through the “closed” Strait of Hormuz.

Published during the weeks-long lull in military action between the U.S. and Iran, the Axios report stated that the U.S., with help from regional partners, had “ quietly established a shipping corridor” over the course of several weeks, which allowed 15-20 tankers to get through the contested waterway through a Southern channel closer to Oman.

Does Putin Know How Badly the War Is Going? Russia appears to be preparing to put hundreds of thousands more troops on the front in Ukraine, even as analysts warn that President Vladimir Putin may be detached from the realities on the battlefield — and as Russia faces a major economic crisis that could severely hurt the country not just now, but in the long term.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its August 31 assessment that Putin appears to favor continuing a covert mobilization campaign after Russia’s September parliamentary elections.

Portugal’s leading UAS builder, Tekever, has acquired Scotland’s Flowcopter according to a 1 September press release.

HMS Tamar’s visit marks the third UK warship

Ukraine has created TrophyLab, a digital catalogue of captured Russian equipment, offering schematics and datasets to the defence sector.

After about six weeks of relative calm, the United States and Iran traded salvos earlier this week, with the U.S. striking Iran’s Larak Island, and Iran then attacking military bases where U.S. troops are stationed in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

With President Donald Trump posting an AI-generated video of a U.S. plane destroying Iran’s energy export hub Kharg Island, things looked a lot like the war was about to escalate again.

President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at the 450th mile of the new border wall Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, near the Texas Mexico border.

The US Department of State has approved a possible $800m Foreign Military Sale to Iraq for helicopters and other associated equipment.

When a drone lands somewhere unexpected, its op

This video describes the military situation in

Pentagon Pushes Back After Military Chiefs Object to Continued Troop Deployment – The Pentagon is dismissing claims that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth regularly ignores formal objections from senior commanders.

The Washington Post published a story on Sunday, 30th August, on Hegseth’s decision to keep more than 50,000 troops stationed in the Middle East. It’s based on an assessment released in the Thursday, 14th August edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB) – a bi-monthly report on the availability of U.S. military assets across the world.

U.S.