“To comprehend something, you must observe it at the extremes.” Col. John Boyd understood that clarity comes when forces are stretched to their limits. In the Western Pacific, where strategic competition is rapidly tilting toward confrontation, the first unit to show up may decide who stays. III Marine Expeditionary Force, the Marine Corps’ only permanently forward-deployed Marine Expeditionary Force, lives daily at that extreme.
Author: Michael
Recent months have brought a startling shift in U.S.-Pakistani relations. On Sept. 25, President Donald Trump hosted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, at the White House, marking the latest sign of improving relations. The warming up began with Trump inviting Munir to lunch at the White House earlier in June — the first time a U.S. president had hosted a Pakistani military chief unaccompanied by civilian leaders. Munir was back within two months, sitting in the front row at U.S. Central Command’s change of command ceremony in Florida.
This video describes the military situation in
Following the announcement by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of a state of emergency in the country’s external forces, the armed forces deployed a number of assets to respond to emerging threats from the United States. These actions were taken following confirmation that Washington was considering options to launch attacks against Venezuelan targets, after it escalated military pressure with increased force deployments in the Caribbean including multiple F-35 fighter squadrons and a sizeable naval fleet including with multiple destroyers and a nuclear powered attack submarine.
The Russian Army has received a new batch of BMPT Terminator tank support combat vehicles, which are designed to operate alongside main battle tanks to provide direct fire support. General director of the Uralvagonzavod tank factory Alexander Potapov observed that the facility “is fulfilling a large order for BMPTs — the demand for this vehicle is high.” “It was always believed that the main strike force of the Ground Forces was the tank. Now we can say that BMPTs have joined them,” he added.
A new deal between the F-35 Joint Program Office and the fighter program’s primary contractor Lockheed Martin has laid out terms for the production of the next 296 fighters under Lot 18 and Lot 19, for a total cost of $24.29 billion. Although the average cost across all three variants stands at just $82.4 million, the deal notably does not include the costs of the aircraft’s F135 engines which are by far the most costly in production for any fighter type int he world.
The Trump administration’s sweeping U.S. military shakeup is expected to gain momentum in the months to come — with more leadership changes, major acquisition updates and possible personnel cuts in the Pentagon’s pipeline, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested during an unusual gathering of military brass Tuesday.
In front of an audience of top brass on Tuesday, President Donald Trump suggested the military use American cities as “training grounds” and that senior leaders would be part of combating “a war from within.”
Trump named San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles as cities run by “the radical left Democrats” and said that the military leaders in the room he was addressing would be involved in helping “straighten them out, one by one.”
“That’s a war too,” he said. “It’s a war from within.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the use of artificial intelligence to “expedite” investigations by the office that looks into workplace discrimination and sexual harassment and in the early stages of Inspector General inquiries.
The AI instructions were in a series of memos released Tuesday by the Pentagon in the wake of Hegseth’s address to senior officers in Virginia.
The memos offer only hints at how AI might be used by investigators, such as to “classify and route complaints” along with scheduling and record keeping.
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The Air Force is reported to be studying possible use of a B-21-type bomber for air-to-air operations in the Pacific.
Specifically, the study is considering the possibility of developing a large flying wing stealth aircraft for air-to-air combat operations, such as an air-superiority-optimized variant of the B-21. This large-capacity aircraft would shoot down enemy aircraft after they are detected at range by smaller fighters (e.g., F-35s, F-47s).