Author: Michael

Summary and Key Points: The USS America (CV-66), a Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier, served the Navy for 30 years — through Vietnam, the 1986 Libya strikes, and Desert Storm — without ever losing an aircraft to enemy fire.

-Her final mission was unusual: in 2005, the Navy used the decommissioned carrier as a live-fire “SinkEx” target to build tougher future ships.

A Fighter Squadron 101 (VF-101) F-4J Phantom II aircraft taxis on the flight deck of the attack aircraft carrier USS AMERICA (CVA 66).

An American aircraft fired a Hellfire missile into a cargo ship’s engine room on Friday, disabling the vessel after it tried to break the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. Central Command said on Saturday that the military took action against the Gambia-flagged M/V Lian Star after it tried sailing through the Gulf of Oman towards an Iranian port on May 29.
It’s the fifth time since early April that U.S. forces have directly fired on a ship to disable it as part of enforcing the blockade. The U.S.

This video describes the military situation in

Eleven months after they escorted B-2 Spirit stealth bombers into Iran, airmen from the 34th Fighter Squadron were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for their part in the June 2025 strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
Six airmen from the 34th Fighter Squadron received Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Air Force’s highest honor for valor during flight against an enemy, for actions covering last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer as well as last spring’s fight against Houthi forces in Yemen. The squadron, flying F-35As, deployed to the Middle East in early 2025 for several months.
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Summary and Key Points: On June 23, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group — a private army the Kremlin itself had built — seized the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and drove toward Moscow, halting just over 120 miles away.

-For one stunning day, Putin’s vaunted security state could not stop an armed challenge on its own soil. Rather than crush the mutiny, Putin cut a deal. The march exposed his grip as a bluff — and proved a coup in Russia, once unthinkable, is no longer.

Putin Speaking in 2025. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Summary and Key Points: Russia’s war on Ukraine is devouring its finances. War spending now totals 16.8 trillion roubles ($238 billion) — nearly 40% of the entire 2026 budget — and Putin’s own finance minister, Anton Siluanov, has privately warned of a possible economic collapse, urging deep cuts to avert it.

-The deficit is the largest since the 2022 invasion, growth has flatlined at 0.4%, and analysts say Moscow is faking its books.

Challenger 2 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Challenger 2 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Ask a civilian what the hardest part of military life is, and they’ll probably say deployments. Long separations, missed birthdays, the whole Hollywood version of sacrifice.
Ask a military spouse?
You’ll get a different answer. And it’s not always the one people expect.
Also Read: Why military kids overseas have to outwork everyone to get recruited
When I asked a group of military spouses to share their biggest struggle, the responses weren’t about one specific moment. They were about something deeper. Something quieter.

Summary and Key Points: Lockheed’s S-3 Viking — nicknamed “the Hoover” for its vacuum-like whine — spent 35 years as the U.S. Navy’s carrier-based submarine hunter, yet never sank a single sub. It hardly mattered.

-The versatile jet flew anti-submarine, surveillance, attack, and refueling missions, even destroying an Iraqi missile site in the 1991 Gulf War, and carried nuclear weapons in its bomb bay.

An aerial stern-on view of the Russian Northern Fleet AKULA class nuclear-powered attack submarine underway on the surface. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Summary and Key Points: Boeing once floated one of the era’s wildest aircraft concepts: the B-1R, a version of the B-1 Lancer bomber reimagined as the world’s largest air-superiority fighter. The plan swapped the Bone’s engines for the F-22 Raptor’s F119s, pushing its top speed to Mach 2.2, and added air-to-air missiles atop its enormous bomb load. Australia, having retired its F-111s amid rising tensions with China, was eyed as a buyer. The B-1R never flew — but the B-21 may one day inherit its mission.

U.S.

Summary and Key Points: Northrop’s F-89 Scorpion holds two firsts: it was the first purpose-built jet interceptor in U.S. service and the first warplane to carry a nuclear air-to-air weapon, the Genie rocket. But it earned a rocky reputation.

-In 1952, an F-89 broke apart over a Detroit airshow crowd of 51,000, killing both crewmen. In 1956’s “Battle of Palmdale,” two Scorpions fired 208 rockets at a drone over Los Angeles and missed every time. The jet flew on until 1969.