Shield AI rendering of X-BAT aircraft deployed on an Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) vessel. Image: Shield AI via CDR Salamander / Substack

Way back even before the X-47B took off and landed on a carrier—and then was killed by the Fighter-Attack-Guy Mafia™—people would ask me what I wanted in a tactical drone.
My feelings have not changed that much since—I want something designed to be stacked up like so many Pringles—or for you science fiction fans, how the Cylons in the Battlestar Galactica reboot kept their Raiders on their Basestars—ready for use in number.

Iran Wants to Make the Strait of Hormuz a Warzone: Tanker captains are being offered salaries of up to $100,000 a month and bonuses of $50,000 for crossing the Strait of Hormuz, as Gulf exporters pay extraordinary sums to keep oil moving under the threat of Iranian missiles and drones.

Despite the attacks, the International Energy Agency reported Wednesday that Gulf crude exports reached 13.9 million barrels per day in September, more than 75 percent of prewar levels.

(Feb. 15, 2023) U.S.

Ukraine launched one of its biggest-ever attacks against Russia overnight into October 14, reportedly sending hundreds of uncrewed aircraft toward Moscow and successfully striking critical industrial infrastructure in other locations across the country.

Russian authorities claim to have intercepted over 900 Ukrainian drones during the strikes, which disrupted operations at major airports around the Moscow region and even damaged a data center operated by Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia.

HIMARS Rocket. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

HIMARS. Image Credit: U.S. Government.

The Trump administration is facing accusations that it is withholding critical military intelligence from Ukraine, potentially leaving major cities in the country vulnerable to Russian missile strikes as Washington attempts to pressure Kyiv into accepting a peace agreement with Moscow.

The allegations come after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the United States may suspend intelligence sharing unless Kyiv agrees to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, and as Russian missile attacks continue to cause widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure.

TOS-1.

The team of five Rangers was in the final stretch of an 18-mile ruck march when Staff Sgt. Colin Doyle started feeling the cramps.
“Mile 17 and my hamstrings started to lock up,” Doyle said this week. “And the dudes, they’re awesome, right? I check on them, they check on me, and within three seconds of me saying, ‘Oh, my hamstrings are locking up,’ they had Hoists, and I think I had two bananas and an apple in front of me.”
It was a moment that Doyle said defined the week-long competition for the five-man team from Fort Benning, Georgia, in September.

The Army is positioning itself to grow its space-related capabilities over the next year as officials face a growing demand for those types of assets to support military operations.

In the winter of 1917, Russian and German troops on the Eastern Front of World War I were not only fighting each other, they were also trying to stay alive amid the blistering cold, starvation and, perhaps not surprisingly, large packs of wolves. 
It’s a well-known fact that citizens of the Russian Empire were starving by the winter of 1917. It was one (of many) reasons for the downfall of Tsar Nicholas II and the rise of the Soviet Union. But German civilians and military personnel, too, were starving.

The White House recently appointed Katie Zacharia, a former Fox News contributor, as the new press secretary, replacing Karoline Leavitt, who recently left the role.

Zacharia has long defended Trump on television and has now been promoted to doing so from the White House podium.

President Donald Trump plays golf in the Senior Club Championship at Trump National Golf Club Jupiter, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Jupiter, Florida.

Ukrainian armour attacks Russian positions unde

Timing is everything in wartime. It’s also everything in politics. Right now, President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are wrestling with both. According to new reporting from Axios’ Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo, the two leaders discussed launching a major new operation against Iran before Israelis go to the polls on October 27 and Americans vote in the midterms a week later.

Two U.S. officials, an Israeli official, and a fourth source with knowledge of the matter backed up the account.

In late September, shortly after announcing the new Operation Economic Outcast initiative to punish countries that trade with Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted that, thanks to the U.S. blockade, Iran would have nothing left to trade in two weeks.

In a Fox Business appearance, as reported by the New York Post, Bessent predicted that there were only “15 million more barrels of Iranian oil on the water” at that point, and that once that was delivered to China, Iran would be left with nothing left to trade, and therefore desperate to make a deal to end the war.

The Pentagon recently established a new task force that’s charged with rapidly iterating and advancing weaponized drones and small uncrewed ground vehicles across the U.S. military.
Col. Michael Penn, the Army official who is commanding the team — dubbed Task Force Easy — shed new light on its origin and Defense Department leaders’ overarching vision for it during the annual AUSA conference on Tuesday. 
“We’re slower, less effective. We don’t outpace our enemy and our threat in how quickly we adapt new technology. So we’re trying to fix that in our task force,” Penn said.

This video describes the military situation in

HMS Queen Elizabeth is coming to the end of it&

There’s been much whispering in the global press about what next move Israel and the United States might make against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

While there have been no official declarations from either Tel Aviv or Washington, reports do indicate that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought up the prospects of the two nations striking Iran once more before the Israeli elections scheduled for October 27 (and before the US Midterm elections).

F-22 Raptor Reverse. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

F-22 Raptor High in the Sky. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

President Donald Trump is facing growing opposition, not just from the Democrats but also from members of his own party, over his decision to ease sanctions on Russian diesel exports.

As Republicans head into the November 3 midterm elections with a major disadvantage in every major poll, Trump-aligned candidates and their supporters appear to be concerned over the possibility of the United States extending more economic incentives to Russia to end the war.

President Donald J. Trump meets with his cabinet at Camp David, Maryland on Friday, July 31, 2026.

Testing underwater drones in a back garden pond

Six commercial vessels were attacked on October 11; that was the highest number of vessels hit in a single day since the Iran War began (now more than seven months ago).

The most recent strikes hit three refined petroleum product tankers, two crude oil tankers, and an Indian container ship.

A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer assigned to the 28th Bomb Wing takes off in support of a U.S. Air Force Weapons School Integration at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, Nov. 18, 2025.

On the night of October 14, Ukraine carried out another large-scale drone attack against Moscow.

According to preliminary reports, Ukraine used nearly 500 strike drones against Russia.

Putin Back in 2009. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The attacks targeted industrial facilities and data centers across the country, but the total number of impacts has not yet been confirmed.

The attacks come as Russia continues striking energy infrastructure around Ukraine as part of its annual campaign to turn off the country’s energy grid for the winter.

In 2022, Jeremy Shapiro warned in “We Are on a Path to Nuclear War” that the war between Russia and Ukraine was heading toward nuclear escalation. Four years into the war, we asked him to revisit that argument.Image: Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia CommonsIn your original piece, you named nuclear escalation as “the path that we are currently on.” Instead, the past few years have brought several rounds of stalled negotiations and, more recently, a near-frozen front line. What has kept nuclear escalation in check over the last year?We are still on that path.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said a “massive” oil, gas, and mineral exploration is set to begin in Greenland.

Trump announced the exploration in a Truth Social post in the early hours of Wednesday, 14th October, with work “getting ready to begin in our new and beautiful Greenland.”

Trump at Turning Point Creative Commons Image

Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2023 Annual Leadership Summit at the Venetian Convention & Expo Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. By Gage Skidmore.

Iran is fortifying nuclear sites and preparing for the possibility of a renewed offensive by the United States and Israel, according to satellite imagery and Western assessments.

The country is “fortifying its defenses, rallying loyalists and threatening a wider, harsher response against the U.S. and its Gulf allies as it prepares for potential American attacks after the midterms and seeks to deter them,” according to a Wall Street Journal article published Monday, 12th October.

Israel F-16I Fighters IDF. Image Credit: IDF.

F-16I from Israeli Air Force.

A coordinated series of protests interrupted a keynote panel discussion at AUSA 2026, with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth the target.

Iran has changed tactics against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, two senior Iranian officials told Reuters, as a container ship sank near the waterway and a series of attacks threatened to disrupt the recovery of Persian Gulf oil exports.

The officials told Reuters that Tehran had changed the methods and frequency of its attacks to prevent Washington from lowering oil prices before November’s congressional elections.

An estimated 500 Russian sea mines litter the B

Ukraine Takes the Data Center War to Sberbank – Russia wanted a digital war against Ukraine’s data centers. Now it’s paying the price for that at home.

Overnight on October 14, Ukrainian drones targeted and hit Sberbank’s mega data center in Balakovo, in Russia’s Saratov region. Sberbank First Deputy Chairman Alexander Vedyakhin confirmed the attack to TASS a few hours later.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Josiah “Sirius” Gaffney, Pacific Air Forces Demonstration Team commander, prepares to fly a practice sortie before the Dubai Airshow in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 11, 2021.

The Army’s newest cannon, the XM1776, was

A year ago, an Army brigade rotating through the service’s major training center in Hohenfels, Germany might launch a few hundred drones during a 14-day exercise. Soldiers would get even less use of the systems designed to counter those drones.
The reasons ranged from German airspace restrictions over the training area to U.S. units simply arriving without any drones they knew how to use. 
Now, that number has skyrocketed, according to the general in charge there.

Russia Says 493 Drones Headed Toward Moscow: Russia said that it had intercepted hundreds of Ukrainian drones overnight on October 13-14.

Moscow’s airports temporarily suspended flights, and a major Sberbank data center was struck hundreds of miles from its border with Ukraine.

Putin Back in 2025 Creative Commons Photo

Putin Back in 2010 Creative Commons Image

The attack follows three strikes on Russian technology company Yandex’s data centers in four days.

The sound of Russia’s air war against Ukr

The ‘Grynch’ tells some alternative facts

Some housekeeping up front.
I am not anti-Ukrainian. I have been to the front in Donbass. I was there during the 2022 invasion, dodging Russia paratroopers and cruise missiles in Kyiv; I walked across the Moldovan border. I appeared before House Oversight Committee attorneys on Ukraine. I had a Ukrainian refugee family in my house for eight months. I have a lot of friends in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people have been good to me.
However, we are not helping the people of Ukraine.

Donald Trump Loses His Grip on the Economy – President Donald Trump’s problems are growing as the American voting public prepares to head to the polls on November 3 to determine the makeup of the next Congress. New polling shows Americans now trust Democrats more than Republicans to manage the economy, remarkable news after decades of Republicans being widely seen as the party of fiscal conservatism and responsibility.

The findings are particularly damaging for the president, too, because he returned to the White House on a promise to bring down prices and rebuild American industry.

New footage from the aircraft carrier Liaoning’s far seas operations have for the first time shown the integration of J-35 fifth generation fighters into the ship’s air wing, marking a significant expansion of Chinese carrier aviation capabilities. The J-35 is one of four fifth generation fighter types in production worldwide, and one of two in China, and was confirmed in 2026 to have entered service both in the Air Force, and as part of the air wing of the supercarrier Fujian.

The Army is set to launch Project Gatekeeper later this month, officials said Tuesday, an effort intended to speed up the onboarding of defense vendors’ software into the service’s network by using AI to vet prospective industry code in an isolated environment.
Headed by the Army’s Acting Chief Information Officer Gabe Chiulli, Project Gatekeeper will start Oct. 23. The goal is for companies interested in selling software to the Army to get their code assessed and accredited in a matter of minutes instead of months, according to officials.

President Donald Trump says that his administration is preparing to decide on Iran “very soon,” raising the possibility that the U.S. could return to military strikes against the Islamic Republic in the near future.

The president suggested on Tuesday, October 13, following reports that he had been discussing a new major military operation against Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Air Force F-15I Image Credit IDF

Israeli F-16I Fighter.

Tehran is currently campaigning hard in the American midterm election. Unlike before, it doesn’t need a single fake social media account. Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Tehran is deploying new tactics against ships in the Strait of Hormuz, with the goal of keeping oil prices high and influencing November’s midterm elections.

One said the shift began about 10 days ago and has already driven up the number of attacks.

Iran claims a vessel was sunk in the Strait of Hormuz after striking an Iranian sea mine.

The vessel, reportedly carrying 2,500 containers, sank Wednesday morning, 14th October, according to state media.

Idaho National Guard pilots land A-10 Thunderbolt IIs after a flight mission near Gowen Field on March 15, 2023 with the Boise foothills in the background. (U.S. National Guard photo by Master Sgt.

Donald Trump Makes a Fool of Himself – U.S. President Donald Trump’s handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has certainly raised eyebrows in the past few days.

Since Friday, 9th October, Trump has announced a surprise deal to allow Russian diesel onto the U.S. and global markets; he has called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be replaced, and he’s publicly demanded that Ukraine, currently fighting an unprovoked war within its own borders, stop striking oil refineries.

Su-34 Fullback. Creator: Vitaly V. Kuzmin. Credit: Vitaly V.

Starlink’s New Speed Limit Is Grounding Ukraine’s Drones – Satellite internet just became a political lever in Ukraine. Again.

Overnight on October 13-14, SpaceX imposed a 160 kilometers per hour (about 100 mph) speed cap on Starshield, the military-grade Starlink package Ukraine’s drone units rely on.

Lancet Drone. Image Credit: Russian State Media.

Lancet Drone from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser on defense technology, confirmed the change on Telegram and said several missions were disrupted.

The US Army will redesignate its Futures and Concepts Command as the US Army Futures and Autonomous Systems Command (FASCOM), placing responsibility for integrating autonomous capabilities across its warfighting functions under a new three-star command.

Oshkosh Defense has commenced production of the first prototype of the Dutch Expeditionary Patrol Vehicle (DXPV), designated “Kaaiman,” for the Netherlands Ministry of Defence.

With oil flowing from the Gulf at levels more than eighty percent of the pre-war levels, and the price of Brent Crude, a global oil benchmark, down from its springtime peaks when the fighting in Iran erupted, it would appear that a new normalcy has set in, one in which Washington and Tehran grapple for the upper hand. As they struggle to best one another, trade through the Strait of Hormuz, particularly in energy, has resumed.

The Saudis have leveraged other outlets besides that fickle wartime bottleneck to get their oil to the outside world.

Iran Missiles.

At one of Jason Redman’s lowest moments, his 3-year-old daughter saw him cry.
The previous year, Redman was a Navy SEAL deployed to Iraq when insurgents ambushed his unit. Redman was hit eight times during the attack on September 13, 2007, including one round to his face and another that almost took off his left arm. Doctors rebuilt his nose three times, and his myriad injuries ultimately required 37 surgeries.
When Redman’s daughter walked into his room, he was at home. His recuperation was not going very well. Infection ravaged his body, medication made him sick, and his arm was fused.

This video describes the military situation in

The U.S. Navy’s F-35C fifth generation fighter has made its first arrested landing aboard a Gerald Ford class supercarrier, which took place on October 13 aboard the future USS John F. Kennedy in the western Atlantic during an ongoing aircraft compatibility testing campaign. This follows several years of delays, and marks the first time a fifth generation fighter has operated from an aircraft career with an  Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) outside China.

Riley Ceder, Defense News
The Army

Sydney Freedberg, Breaking Defense
The service’s new cybersecurity testing sandbox will stand up on Oct.

Steve Trimble, Aviation Week
The U.S.

Hope Seck, Army Times
A heavy-duty quadcopter carrying

WarZone