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B. Vincent, DefenseScoop
The U.S. military’s urgent need to counter cheap adversarial drones in multiple regions has heightened calls for directed energy weapons.

 **Please note, as a matter of house style, War on the Rocks will not use a different name for the U.S. Department of Defense until and unless the name is changed by statute by the U.S. Congress.Image: United States Department of Commerce via Wikimedia Commons.
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GPS denial is no longer a theoretical future threat. It is the environment in which modern forces increasingly operate.China has invested heavily in space and counterspace capabilities designed to degrade U.S. positioning, navigation, and timing. Other state and non-state actors are following close behind. Cheap jammers, spoofers, and electronic warfare tools now allow adversaries to disrupt GPS and radio frequency navigation with minimal funding or expertise. The result is a battlespace where signals cannot be assumed.

The U.S. Air Force has redeployed two squadrons of F-16CJ fighters from bases in the U.S. and Europe to the Middle East, with their location in the region remaining unknown. Open-source tracking data and related reports indicate that 36 F-16s were flown to bases in the region on February 19, around 24 of which were F-16CJs, with this reflecting part of a much wider military buildup being staged against Iran.

Europe’s most fragile region is not sleepwalking toward war, but it is quietly recalibrating for it. Across the Western Balkans, military procurement decisions once framed as technical upgrades are evolving into something more consequential: a shifting balance of power unfolding at a moment when Europe’s security order strains under growing transatlantic tension. These regional dynamics emerged unevenly, with Serbia clearly leading the way a decade ago. In response, neighboring countries have also modernized their militaries, though in different ways.

The Polish Air Force’s F-35A Husarz fifth generation fighter fleet has surpassed 1,000 flight hours during training in the United States, after they crossed the 500 flight milestone in December 2025. The service’s first stealth fighter was unveiled during a rollout ceremony at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on August 28, 2024, with the first of the aircraft expected to arrive in the country near the end of 2026.

The Russian defence sector has completed the development of the new Khrizantema-M anti-tank guided missile, which combines an extended engagement range and a new capability to fly supersonically. A representative of the High-Precision Systems holding company noted that the missile was designed to be deployed from combat helicopters, and is already being used in air-defence missions. He explained that the missile’s extended range allows the launching aircraft’s crew to remain outside the “kill zone” of enemy man-portable air defence systems thanks to its greater firing distance.

Image by Rhododendrites

Sometimes, politics is best explained using metaphors. At no time in the relatively short history of America have Americans been more in need of simplifying the information morass that unduly influences the ability to make truly informed decisions on the future they want or that they want to leave behind. Like many lessons in life, nature often holds interesting parallels. Consider the allegory of the Red Herring and the Dart Frog.
We swim with a never-ending school of Red Herrings. Red herrings often lead fishers of truth toward a mistaken conclusion.

The Germany Defence Ministry was reported on February 19 to be considering placing an order for up to 35 additional F-35A fifth generation fighters, doubling the number of the aircraft it plans to field, in response to the continued stalling of the pan-European Future Air Combat System (FCAS) stealth fighter program being pursued jointly with France and Spain.

Public Domain

Posted Zero Hedge
Last week we and others reported that American forces finally after many years withdrew from the remote Al-Tanf Garrison, a base in southern Syria near the borders of Iraq and Jordan. US troops had long operated out of Tanf to pressure the Assad government as part of the long-running US-backed regime change project. The US primarily trained the Syrian Free Army (FSA) in that remote desert area – which was an umbrella group of various factions, among them jihadists, armed and funded by Washington.