On Dec. 5, 2025, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reached a significant milestone in his bid to build “Europe’s strongest conventional army”: Germany’s parliament passed a controversial bill requiring all German men to register for potential military service, which could become the first step toward reinstating a draft if volunteer numbers fall short. The breakthrough followed weeks of tense negotiations within Merz’s governing coalition, during which leading members accused one another of “torpedoing” the plan.
Author: Michael
New video footage has for the first time confirmed that the first batch of J-20 fifth generation air superiority fighters integrating twin WS-15 turbofan engines has completed serial production, marking a major milestone in China’s most high profile fighter program. The first flight of a serial production aircraft with the engines reportedly took place on December 27.
A U.S. Department of War contract notice has confirmed that Boeing received a ceiling $8,577,700,000 award to produce F-15IA heavyweight fighter aircraft to equip the Israeli Air Force. The effort covers the design, integration, instrumentation, test, production, and delivery of the fighters, with the option for the production of 25 more. Israel is the first country to place an export order for the F-15 in over eight years, since Qatar procured 25 F-15QA fighters in 2017, with the aircraft having since been ordered only by the U.S. Air Force, which is acquiring the F-15EX variant.
The Republic of China Air Force has deployed F-16V fighter aircraft for aerial reconnaissance operations, in response to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) launch of Justice Mission 2025 large-scale joint military drills around Taiwan Island. The two rival Chinese forces serve opposing governments based in Taipei and Beijing respectively, which both claim to be the sole legitimate governments of China and remain in a state of cold civil war. The Republic of China Ministry of National Defense revealed in a briefing at 4:45 p.m.
Special Operations Command flailed for several years on turning C-130s into float planes, leasing from a successful operator may be a better idea
Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is one of America’s premiere military forces.
But large scale program management is not always one of their strong points.
SOCOM did exploratory work on amphibious C-130s, but cancelled the whole project in 2024. But the requirement for flying boats still stands.
The U.S. needs modern flying boats for security of the Homeland and also the Pacific Theater.
…take a powder everyone…and instead focus on what we’re not doing
Sometime, hundreds of thousands of years ago during the Early or Middle Paleolithic Era in a coastal area, lake, or river system, our primitive ancestors discovered the use of a dugout canoe to fish and transport what they could hunt or gather from the surrounding forest.
At some point, they discovered that another band of humans were harvesting from their best fig tree and were fishing from their river.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Ground Forces have employed PCL-191 rocket artillery systems to participate in the Justice Mission 2025 large-scale joint military drills around Taiwan Island, with the assets demonstrating their ability to play a central role in possible conflicts in the Taiwan Strait. The system has pioneered unprecedented ranges for a rocket artillery asset, allowing it to launch low cost high precision bombardments against targets hundreds of kilometres away.
The Russian Su-35 air superiority fighter program was conceptualised in the late 2000s both to serve as a stopgap for the Russian Armed Forces until the Su-57 fifth generation fighter could be brought into service, and to provide a more advanced and higher level capability to export clients following the successes of the Su-27 and Su-30 on foreign markets.
Kirsten Davies has been formally sworn in as chief information officer at the Defense Department where she’ll oversee a “broad portfolio” of important programs, the Pentagon announced.
Davies took the reins shortly before the Christmas holiday, according to officials, less than a week after she was confirmed by the Senate.
The United States “hit” a dock facility on the Venezuelan coast last week, President Donald Trump said today. It is the apparent first American attack on Venezuelan soil since the United States began building up forces in the Caribbean this fall.
Speaking to reporters in Florida on Monday, Trump confirmed the U.S. had carried out a strike on Venezuelan land on Dec. 24, taking out the “implementation area” where drugs are allegedly being loaded onto boats.
“But there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said.