Author: Michael

Summary and Key Points: The F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II are America’s two most advanced stealth fighters, both built by Lockheed Martin but designed for opposite missions.

-The twin-engine, thrust-vectoring F-22 is a pure air-superiority fighter built to dominate the skies, with supercruise speed, a 1,800-mile range, and up to six AIM-120 missiles.

-The single-engine F-35 is a multi-mission “Swiss Army Knife” — flying strike, electronic warfare, and reconnaissance across three variants for the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps.

Summary and Key Points: The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has removed roughly a billion barrels of oil from the market, triggering the worst supply shock since the 1970s OPEC embargoes.

-Exxon Mobil warns that Brent crude — about $92 a barrel now — could spike to $160 within weeks as global inventories near record lows.

NORFOLK, Va. (May 16, 2026) USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) returned to Naval Station Norfolk, May 16, 2026, following a historic 11-month deployment to U.S. 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Fleets as part of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group.

Summary and Key Points: Canada has selected Sweden’s Saab GlobalEye as its new Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced at the CANSEC defense show. Built on a Canadian-made Bombardier Global 6500 jet, the GlobalEye carries an Erieye radar that can track threats on land, sea, or air from 400 miles away — a priority as Arctic activity intensifies. The choice may also signal Canada scaling back its F-35 order in favor of Saab’s Gripen.

The F-35 Slash in Canada? 

F-22 and F-35 and the Flag. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Summary and Key Points: The F-111 Aardvark was the world’s first production variable-sweep-wing aircraft — a Cold War bomber built to fly fast and low after Soviet surface-to-air missiles made high-altitude bombing a death trap.

-Its swing wings let it sprint through contested airspace and land on shorter runways. Below are our own photos from a visit to the F-111 last July at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

-The Aardvark carried about four times the payload of the F-4 Phantom, saw heavy use in Vietnam and the Gulf War, and was retired in the late 1990s.

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Summary and Key Points: The F-14 Tomcat became one of the most successful fighters in U.S. Navy history — a Mach 2.3 jet that anchored carrier air wings from the 1970s through Operation Iraqi Freedom.

-But its early days were rocky. Grumman, squeezed by inflation after underbidding to win the contract, needed emergency loans, and Navy buyer Bob Belter once countersigned a $38 million check by hand.

-The Tomcat also overcame dangerous TF30 engine flaws before a new engine secured its legendary career.

Summary and Key Points: The USS Parche was the most decorated submarine in U.S. Navy history, earning 10 Presidential Unit Citations for missions still largely classified.

-Commissioned in 1974 as a Sturgeon-class fast-attack boat, it was rebuilt into a spy platform that tapped Soviet undersea communications cables and recovered missile fragments from the seafloor.

Sturgeon-class U.S. Navy Submarine. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

-Stripped of most of its torpedoes for spy gear, the Parche even carried explosives that could destroy the boat and its 112-man crew if captured.

The German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) have placed an order with Rheinmetall for more than 2,000 military transport vehicles.

Summary and Key Points: Iran has done more than close the Strait of Hormuz — it has claimed ownership of the route that carries 20 percent of the world’s oil.

-The IRGC now runs a coordination regime with fees reaching $2 million per passage, while Russia and China move freely and most Western ships stay out.

-Iran formally told all 176 IMO members that transit requires its permission. The longer no one contests the claim, the more permanent it becomes.

The Real Iran Strait of Hormuz Questions

US Navy Warship. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

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Summary and Key Points: Russia has lost an estimated 250 to 400 aircraft over Ukraine, including Su-25 attack jets, Su-34 strike fighters, and — most painfully — Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers it can no longer build.

-The most dramatic blow came in Operation Spiderweb, when Ukraine smuggled explosive FPV drones into Russia on trucks and destroyed more than a dozen parked aircraft, Russia’s worst air loss since World War II.

Su-27 Flanker. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

-Four years in, Russia has never won control of Ukraine’s skies.