Author: Michael

In 2022, Brian McQuinn and Laura Courchesne wrote, “After the Islamic State: Social Media and Armed Groups,” where they explored how various violent extremist groups utilize social media to advance their aims. Three years later, we asked Brian to revisit their analysis in light of the boom of more advanced technology, the changing hands of some of the most popular social media platforms, and more.

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The Space Development Agency deployed the first batch of operational data transport satellites for the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Wednesday morning, beginning a 10-month launch campaign that has been delayed by almost a year.
The 21 space vehicles put on orbit are part of the Tranche 1 transport layer in the PWSA, a planned constellation comprising hundreds of satellites stationed in low-Earth orbit (LEO) to provide warfighters with critical data relay and missile warning and tracking capabilities.

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Soldiers have a new incentive to get a high score on the service’s new Army Fitness Test. Those soldiers who score at least 465 are eligible to be exempt from the service’s body fat standards, Army officials have announced.
The maximum score that soldiers can get on the AFT is 500 points. To be eligible for the exemption, soldiers are required to score 80 points or more on each of the five events.

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Eighty years after the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history, Leighton Willhite traveled to the National Museum of the Marine Corps’ support facility in Virginia for a reunion, of sorts, with the M4A3 Sherman tank that he drove onto the beaches of Iwo Jima.
Now 100, Willhite stood beside the tank, “Lucky,” on Aug. 15, the 80th anniversary of the announcement of Japan’s surrender in World War II, according to a museum news release. Lucky is one of just six surviving Sherman tanks that saw combat on Iwo Jima.
“It’s amazing,” Willhite said in the news release.

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