At conferences, in pitch decks, and increasingly in public writing, “service” is increasingly being used to describe the work of startup founders, employees, and venture capital investors in defense technology. The claim, sometimes explicit, more often implied, is that building defense technology is itself a form of service comparable to uniformed military service.
Author: Michael
After the Gulf War’s air campaign concluded in February 1991, U.S. commanders were confident that airpower had destroyed the bulk of Iraq’s Republican Guard before the ground offensive ever began. A subsequent General Accounting Office review found they were wrong and identified why. The Republican Guard was among the “least measurable” target categories in the entire campaign. About a third of reported F-117 strikes either lacked corroborating evidence or conflicted with other data, putting the probability of a successful F-117 strike between 41 and 60 percent.
Since the United States and Israel launched large scale attacks on Iran on February 28, the U.S. Armed Forces have expended highly value munitions on a wholly unprecedented scale, raising serious questions regarding the implications for the country’s future war fighting capabilities. Iran’s sustained air defence capability has limited the ability of hostile aircraft to operate deep inside its territory, with costly U.S. and Israeli unmanned aircraft such as the respective MQ-9 Reaper and Heron having suffered heavy losses when undertaking high risk operations far inside Iranian territory.
Churchill once demanded, “Take this pudding away — it has no theme!” U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle’s new Fighting Instructions presents a similar sort of dish.In November 2024, I argued in War on the Rocks that successive chiefs of naval operations developed a pattern of issuing strategic guidance that described aspirations but did not consistently impose the concrete direction necessary to guide naval force planning.
The French Air Force is suffering from an acute shortage of air-to-air missiles, due to extensive operations against Iranian drones in the Gulf region. According to the French paper La Tribune, the rapid depletion of ammunition has raised serious concerns regarding the further combat capability of the air force, with French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu having convened an urgent crisis meeting during which measures to replenish missile stocks were discussed.
The Republic of China Army has carried out a drone combat training exercise from March 10, during which personnel have operated immersive dronesfirst-person-view attack drones in a simulated urban battlefield to conduct precision strikes and bomb-dropping pursuit attacks. Units operating under the Army’s 58th Artillery Command were required to locate and engage simulated hostile forces operating inside buildings and vehicles, with military officials described the exercise as part of broader efforts to develop operational concepts for unmanned systems in urban combat environments.
Russian state sources have reported that Ukrainian authorities are using construction work as a cover for the recruitment of Colombian nationals for combat operations, citing documents found on the phone of Colombian military contractor Jose Luis Pocheco Navarra, who recently surrendered to Russian forces. The document is reported to have contained a request by the head of the Zaporozhye Region’s military administration, Ivan Fyodorov, that Colombian citizens be engaged in construction and restoration works in the region.
Earlier this month, KTLA TV news in Los Angeles reported on the tearing down of a Vietnam War wall memorial in Fountain Valley in Orange County, California.
KTLA reporter Chip Rost said, “It was torn down before ever being opened to the public.”
One million dollars was designated by the city.
“It is now part of disgraced, former County Supervisor Andrew Do’s legacy,” reported Rost.
Andrew Do was behind the project, and he was convicted in 2024 in a bribery case.
How Administrative Power Replaces Accountability in Today’s Military
Public Domain
There is a moment in institutional life when a name stops functioning as an identity and begins functioning as a narrative.
Inside large hierarchical organizations—especially the military—individuals can sometimes become symbols of problems the institution feels compelled to resolve. A service member’s name becomes shorthand for controversy, disruption, or risk. Once that shift occurs, the individual is no longer evaluated solely as a person whose conduct must be examined.
Summary and Key Points: National security analyst Stephen Silver evaluates the operational status of the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) following a March 12, 2026, laundry room fire in the Red Sea.
-Currently supporting Operation Epic Fury near Saudi Arabia, the carrier is on track for a historic 11-month deployment, nearing the 332-day record set by the USS Midway during the Vietnam War.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) sails alongside the world’s largest aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), Sep. 24, 2025. Winston S.