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William Laughton is Director at Perfect Bore Manufacturing and is a Diversity Winner for Leadership in Defense Manufacturing

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s fleet of attack submarines are expected to see their missile carrying capacities increased significantly with the integration of the new YJ-19 scramjet powered hypersonic cruise missiles, which has the potential to revolutionise the fleet’s anti-ship capabilities. The YJ-19 has a smaller diameter than the service’s other cruise missiles, including the newly unveiled the YJ-17 and YJ-20, and appears to have been designed to be launched from submarines’ 533 mm diameter torpedo tubes, rather than from vertical launch cells.

British Defence Minister Luke Pollard has provided new details on plans to commission a new generation of destroyers, the Type 83 Class, into service, as questions have increasingly been raised regarding the future of the country’s small destroyer fleet. The minister highlighted that the Type 83 will be a “minimally (or optionally) crewed” vessel, and is “planned to enter service from the mid-2030s” with an assumed 25 year service life. The ships will form the centre of the Royal Navy’s Future Air Dominance System alongside the uncrewed Type 91 ‘Missile Ship.

MBDA will unveil a portfolio of new and evolving complex weapons systems at DSEI UK 2025 at the EXcel in London.

The Air Force has awarded Applied Research Associates a contract to build a prototype of the planned replacement for the GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bomb, the company announced Friday.
Under the 24-month contract from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s (AFLCMC) Eglin Munitions Directorate, ARA will lead overall design and production of test articles for the air-to-ground munition known as the Next Generation Penetrator (NGP).

Three of the Air Force’s newest and most advanced refueling tankers sustained a combined $22 million in damage in similar airborne accidents when refueling probes became stuck in fighter jets during refueling.
One of the accidents in 2024 was so violent that the plane’s refueling boom broke off the jumbo jet and fell into a remote California forest.

The Army has awarded a total of more than $350 million in contracts to industry teams to rapidly prototype soldier-worn headsets equipped with augmented reality, night vision and AI capabilities, according to announcements from selected vendors.
Anduril announced Monday that it landed a $159 million deal for the Soldier Borne Mission Command (SBMC) program. A few days prior, Rivet announced that it executed a $195 million agreement for the project.

The Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment has tested using First Person View, or FPV, one-way attack drones to destroy enemy tanks, drawing heavily from tactics that have become commonplace in the Russia-Ukraine war.
These experiments are one example of how the U.S. military is racing against time to ramp up production of small drones, as both Ukraine and Israel have used the unmanned aerial systems to launch devastating attacks against their adversaries.

Charlie may not be able to surf, but the U.S. military can. In fact, the American armed forces have a strong connection with surf culture. Troops stationed in Hawaii can’t help but pick up a board, even if they have to drive their Tacoma from Schofield Barracks to Haleiwa. In California, Marines in Oceanside and sailors in San Diego and Ventura are naturally immersed in the surf scene; never mind the private military beaches at North Island and Coronado.
A lesser-known connection, however, lies on the East Coast, where the iconic Ron Jon Surf Shop was founded by a United States Marine.

‘Top Gun’ is a classic and arguably one of the most visually stunning aviation movies ever made. Few movies in cinematic history have been as prolific in contributing to the pop culture lexicon. After all, who among us hasn’t said, “I feel the need for speed” in random social situations?
If you ask military aviators who signed up for flight school after 1986 why they did it, chances are they’ll list ‘Top Gun’ as one of the reasons.
Paramount had a huge challenge when they decided to make “Top Gun.