Browsing: All news

The Olympics have a long history of countries and participants using the games as a platform to build soft power, promote propaganda, advance diplomacy, and highlight political causes. These efforts can take hopeful forms, such as the 2016 creation of the Refugee Olympic Team and the role of the 2018 Olympics in boosting diplomacy between North Korea and South Korea. Sometimes, these events can be very dark, such as Nazi Germany’s shrewd use of propaganda while hosting the 1936 games and the 1972 terrorist attack on the Israeli Olympic team.

Summary and Key Points: China’s expanding aircraft carrier fleet is a major step in Beijing’s push for a true blue-water navy, with the Fujian marking its most advanced carrier yet.

-The ship signals real progress, especially with EMALS-style catapults, but major limits remain, including conventional propulsion and deck-layout constraints that could reduce sortie efficiency.

China Aircraft Carrier on the High Seas. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

-The broader takeaway is clear: China’s carriers may not yet match U.S. Navy supercarriers, but they can still pressure U.S.

Public Domain

Washington, D.C. – In the dark skies above Yemen on March 27, 2025, two U.S. Air Force F-16 pilots came within seconds of catastrophe when Houthi rebels launched a deadly surface-to-air missile ambush. Lt. Col. William “Skate” Parks and Maj. Michael “Danger” Blea, flying “Wild Weasel” jets specialized in suppressing enemy air defenses, survived a harrowing 15-minute ordeal that earned them the Silver Star—the military’s third-highest valor award.

Rheinmetall has introduced a new combat helmet and body armour system during the Enforce Tac 2026 trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany.

Summary and Key Points: The SR-71 Blackbird remains one of the most remarkable aircraft ever built, combining extreme speed, altitude, and survivability in a way no other spy plane could match.

-A famous Kadena-based flight story captures its legend: a crew departed Japan on Saturday and reached California in time for Friday happy hour, thanks to time zones and Mach 3-plus speed.

SR-71 Blackbird National Security Journal Photo by Dr. Brent M. Eastwood.

SR-71 Blackbird National Security Journal Photo Collection.

Theodore Roosevelt led the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill, survived an assassination attempt, and almost died while exploring the Amazon.
Roosevelt did what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it. And what he wanted to do on August 25, 1905, was to go underneath the surface of Long Island Sound in New York aboard the USS Plunger, one of the U.S. Navy’s first submarines.
Related: Teddy Roosevelt is the reason for military PT tests
It was a stormy day, but bad weather (or anything else, for that matter) rarely stopped the nation’s 26th president.

Hundreds of National Guard service members from several states along the East Coast are responding to the “bomb cyclone” winter storm that dumped record levels of snow across the northeast over the weekend. In military vehicles built for high-water and roadless terrain, Guardsmen are responding to emergency calls where even the beefiest of civilian vehicles cannot.
One team of four Massachusetts Guardsmen responded to dozens of calls for help Monday night in the small town of Duxbury, Massachusetts, where 30 or more inches of snow were reported from several nearby weather stations.

American forces fought for three weeks during the bloody and costly Meuse-Argonne Offensive. They suffered 100,000 casualties to reach the objectives that were planned for the first day of fighting.
One of those objectives was a large, well-defended hill. Douglas MacArthur was ordered to either capture it or spend 5,000 lives in the failure. MacArthur took the challenge, promising his name would be on that list if he failed.
MacArthur was a brigadier general at the time.

Summary and Key Points: In the 1981 Ocean Venture NATO exercise, the Canadian Oberon-class submarine HMCS Okanagan (or a sister boat) achieved the unthinkable: a simulated “kill” on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

-Running almost silently on battery power, the Canadian crew exploited “quiet spaces” in the carrier’s acoustic screen, slipped past a fortress of destroyers, and registered a confirmed torpedo hit.

-This “David vs. Goliath” moment proved that low-cost diesel-electric submarines, operated by skilled crews, remain a primary threat to high-value nuclear platforms.

Summary and Key Points: The U.S. Army has ended a decades-old uniform distinction by requiring all drill sergeants to wear the same campaign hat, replacing the bush hat previously worn by women in the role.

-The change took effect January 2, 2026, and applies across active-duty and reserve formations. Army leaders say the move reflects a single standard for certification and service, while also addressing long-running manufacturing and quality-control problems tied to the bush hat.