More than 100 soldiers from the Royal Bermuda R
Author: Michael
The Russian Navy on June 1 deployed the heavy nuclear-powered battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov for the final phase of its sea trials, bringing a much stalled program that has lasted for close to 30 years to its final stage before the warship reenters frontline service. The Admiral Nakhimov is one of two Kirov class cruisers in service, and for the first time in 28 years began to set sail under its own power in August 2025. This followed the warship’s re-floating on July 25 that year.
On May 8, Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan broke a grueling six-month stalemate by passing a landmark $25 billion defense budget, catching many observers off guard. The vote brought sudden end to an agonizing legislative deadlock that had pushed U.S.-Taiwanese relations to the edge. For months, long-simmering frustration in Washington over Taiwan’s defense trajectory has threatened to boil over, catalyzed by an unprecedented bipartisan open letter from U.S. senators, demanding that Taiwan authorize the pending defense packages.
In late February 2026, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to foreign shipping. What began as a chaotic wartime closure has, in the past few days, hardened into something more consequential: an official sovereign toll regime, codified in Iranian law, and priced in cryptocurrency.On May 18, Iran operationally launched the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, a formal state bureaucracy with its own internet domain (pgsa.ir), account on X, and contact email.
The U.S. Armed Forces have confirmed the shoot down of an MQ-1 drone in combat during engagements with Iranian forces on May 30-31c with the statement widely interpreted by analysts as an indication that the MQ-1 Predator drone has been brought back into service in a limited capacity. U.S. forces attacked “Iranian radar and command and control sites for drones in Goruk, Iran, and Qeshm Island this weekend,” according to a brief press release by the U.S. Central Command, with the strikes resulting in the aircraft’s destruction by local air defences.
The U.S. Marine Corps’ 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit have conducted Realistic Urban Training exercises simulating a limited-scale urban assault, which has demonstrated the strengthening of expeditionary forces’ capabilities to conduct rapid raids in contested and densely populated areas. The exercise provided insight into how the Corps is refining its expeditionary assault capabilities, which have applications in a wide range of contingencies, including in the Pacific where the Corps’ assets are increasingly heavily concentrated.
Russian Army units have reportedly rapidly advanced into the city of Konstantinovka, with vanguard assault units firmly securing positions on the outskirts of the city to serve as a staging ground for broader efforts to take the disputed territory. Located between the major Ukrainian-held strongholds of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the city forms part of the heavily fortified “fortress belt” in the disputed Donbas region that has anchored Ukrainian defences for much of the war.
Canada and the F-35 Problem: Canada finds itself in quite a quandary. The country lies geographically above the United States, but in no way is it powerful enough to counter the wishes and interests of its American neighbor. It is often little more than an extension of US power and will.
Since Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, however, tensions and trade wars have defined the US-Canada relationship. One of the victims of this ongoing spat between Washington, D.C., and Ottawa is Canada’s long-delayed military modernization plan.
The Islamic Republic of Iran and Israel are again shadow boxing over the fate of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has long been a proxy of Iran. More importantly, though, the Iranians have told the Israeli government to clear their civilians out of northern Israel if Tel Aviv does, in fact, continue with strikes directed at Southern Lebanon.
Obviously, Tehran is not going to wait for things to deteriorate.
The regime will act in defense of what it perceives as its interests.
As the French fabulist and poet Jean de la Fontaine once wrote, “a person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” This quote quite nicely sums up the Constellation-class program. Following the troubled Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, the United States Navy launched the Constellation-class project to build a new lightweight surface ship on an existing design. Despite efforts to avoid the mistakes of the LCS, the program quickly spiraled out of control, running into many of the same issues that nearly crippled its predecessor.