France has officially named its next-generation nuclear-powered aircraft carrier France Libre, after the Free French resistance movement led by Charles de Gaulle in World War II. Displacing between 78,000 and 80,000 tons, France Libre will be the largest warship ever built in Europe. The carrier will be powered by two K22 nuclear reactors, equipped with General Atomics’ Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear, and carry more than 30 aircraft including Dassault Rafale M fighters and E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes. Cost runs around 11.6 billion U.S. dollars.
Author: Michael
France’s four Le Triomphant-class ballistic-missile submarines carry the entire French nuclear deterrent. Each 14,000-ton boat is propelled by a nuclear reactor, can reach more than 25 knots submerged, and carries 16 M51 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Each M51 reportedly carries up to six independently targeted MIRV warheads and flies at roughly Mach 25. The upgraded M51.3, designed to beat modern missile defenses, entered service in late 2025.
The Pentagon’s counter-drone task force announced a $500 million contract award Monday to Perennial Autonomy, a defense company known for developing an interceptor that has downed thousands of Russian one-way attack drones over the last two years in Ukraine.
The Iran war, which has seen the same Tehran-variant drone known as the Shahed wreak havoc across the region, has also hastened the U.S. military’s push to down them.
The Light Armored Vehicle has served the Marine
The expectation for the troops in 2003 was that
The types of massive troop deployments of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are becoming dangerous as attack drones become a ubiquitous presence on battlefields, the head of U.S. Southern Command said on Tuesday.
“I think we need to make ourselves a smaller target,” said Marine Gen. Francis Donovan. “We have to be harder to be detected, hit.”
During both those wars, the U.S. military adopted the mantra that “more is better,” Donovan said during this year’s SOF Week exhibition in Tampa, Florida.
At the peak of both conflicts, roughly 100,000 U.S.
Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo has officially been named as director of the Space Development Agency and the new portfolio acquisition executive for Space Force’s missile warning and tracking programs, the agency announced Tuesday.
Previously SDA’s deputy director, Sandhoo has been leading the agency as acting director since September 2025, when Derek Tournear stepped down from the role. In the last few months, Sandhoo has overseen SDA begin the highly anticipated launch campaign of its foundational program — the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” — Admiral James Stockdale, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his leadership after spending seven years as a POW in Vietnam.
The U.S. Navy’s new Trump-class BBG(X) nuclear-powered battleship will cost roughly $17 billion per hull and displace between 30,000 and 40,000 tons, making it the largest American surface combatant since World War II. The Navy plans 15 ships between fiscal years 2028 and 2055. Early concept material referenced approximately 128 vertical launch cells plus 12 Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic tubes.
Navy leadership’s recent decision to make the future Trump-class battleship nuclear-powered introduced a new twist in the saga of one of the service’s most controversial programs.
President Donald Trump unveiled his vision for the platform in December when officials shared their desires to arm the vessel with a variety of high-tech weapons such lasers, railguns, hypersonic missiles and nukes.
The Pentagon plans to spend more than $17 billion on the lead ship in the class, according to budget documents released last month.
Earlier this year, Chief of Naval Operations Adm.