Author: Michael

The ongoing war in Iran has entered another period of escalation after a span of relative calm, with fighting extending well beyond just barrages between the United States and Iran.

Washington is asking Congress for significantly more funding — a marker of potentially extended operations against Iran — and Iran has continued its missile and drone attacks against its Gulf State neighbors that host American forces, while the Houthis, the Iran-backed Shia Islamist group, backed by Iran, are expanding the war to include an embargo of Saudi oil exports via the Red Sea.

As the war in Iran drags on, a new front is poised to open, one that would see the shuttering of another important waterway: the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The Houthis, the Yemeni Shia rebel group backed by Iran, declared in a bombastic video statement that they would blockade the passage in retaliation for Saudi strikes on Yemen’s airport at Sanaa, in the Yemeni capital.

President Donald Trump participates in a welcome ceremony with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, May 13, 2025.

BAE Systems is set to support the local manufacturing of the Light Gun artillery capability in Ukraine through a new licencing agreement with its strategic defence partner.

Russia Is Hardening Its Ukraine Land Demands as Peace Talks Stall: Russia is hardening its territorial demands and no longer plans to return some occupied areas of northern Ukraine in a future settlement, according to a Bloomberg report citing people close to the Kremlin. The account says Moscow now intends to keep parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions as border buffer zones.

The same sources said President Vladimir Putin remains committed to taking all of the Donetsk region and may refuse to resume negotiations until Russian forces achieve that objective.

When the Japanese navy showed its overwhelming force during the Russo-Japanese War in the early 20th century, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt took notice.
Well before he became assistant secretary of the Navy or America’s 26th president, Roosevelt advocated for a stronger sea component to the military. When he ascended to the White House in 1901 after the assassination of William McKinley, Roosevelt started to develop a Navy that, for so long, others in power largely ignored.

The United States May Have to Defend Hormuz and the Red Sea at the Same Time: The United States has concentrated a fleet of more than 20 warships and several hundred military aircraft in the Middle East to fight Iran, enforce a blockade, defend regional bases, and support commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Yemen’s Houthi movement could now require Washington to cover a second maritime front at Bab el-Mandeb.

The Houthis have declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia and warned shipping companies not to load or unload cargo at the kingdom’s ports.

E.R. Miller, DefBlog
The U.S. Navy awarded Raytheon a $1.8 billion contract extension on July 21, 2026 for SPY-6 radar production and sustainment, with options worth up to $3.

DefScoop
The 2nd Marine Regiment relied on the system’s vendor to employ the drone because the unit lacked trained operators.

USNI N.

Flight Global
Joint Strike Missile and Spear integration are on the cards for uncrewed aircraft