Numerous recent pirate attacks, especially the hijacking of three merchant vessels off the Horn of Africa, are a stark reminder that the conditions for resurgence can return quickly.It took years of sustained, coordinated effort by multinational naval coalitions, the shipping industry, and international organizations to get rid of pirates in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. Since 2016, many observers have viewed Somali piracy as yesterday’s problem. Shipping companies increasingly treated the threat as manageable, and Western navies no longer prioritized it.
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A Russian Aerospace Forces Su-35 air superiority fighter was reported on July 7 to have been shot down in the vicinity of Russia’s Kursk region during an operation that Ukrainian sources claim involved a MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence system deployed close to the border. After Ukrainian officials announced the crash of the fighter, from which the pilot survived, multiple open-source analysts and media outlets reported that a Patriot system was responsible.
The Republic of China Army has commenced its 2026 Shen Gong live-fire exercises, with a the primary focus being the first large scale operational live-fire testing of the FIM-92 Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missile systems from multiple launch platforms. The U.S.-supplied Stinger has become one of the Republic of China (ROC) Army’s principal short-range air defence weapons, providing frontline units with a highly mobile and easily concealable asset capable of defending against low-flying aircraft and cruise missiles.
The U.S. Navy is preparing to fully withdraw its sole class of cruiser, the Ticonderoga class, from service, which will mark the end of an era as the service fields only more lightly armed combat ships. Built from 1980–1994, 20 of the 27 cruisers have already been retired, with the remaining seven scheduled to be withdrawn from service by 2030. The ships are notable for their integration 122 Mk 41 vertical-launch cells, the same as those integrated in smaller numbers on Arleigh Burke class destroyers, split between forward and aft arrays.
The Japanese Ministry of Defence’s Joint Staff has reported ten cases of Chinese naval activities and one update on China-Russia joint aircraft activity during a 7-day period from June 25 to July 1, as operations by Chinese warships in international straits around Japan have intensified. Multiple batches of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy warships recently transited international straits around Japan before entering the Western Pacific, with five separate updates on these transits published on June 29 alone.
U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated that his administration is prepared to lift economic sanctions on Turkey and consider allowing the country to acquire F-35 fifth generation fighters, potentially reversing one of the most significant defence policy decisions made during his first administration. The announcement, made during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Ankara, signals a major shift in U.S.-Turkish defence relations.
The Swiss Defence Ministry is reported to be considering procuring the South Korean L-SAM long-range air defence system has an alternative to the U.S. MIM-104 Patriot system, amid growing concerns over delivery delays and rising procurement costs affecting the latter. Switzerland is facing significant issues with its existing Patriot acquisition program, including delays that could extend up to seven years and cost increases of at least 50 percent over the original contract value.
Doctors from The Wellness Company announced recently that they had completed a first of its kind study regarding the use of pre-prescribed medications in medical emergency kits.
The results are nothing short of stunning.
According to Dr. Peter McCullough, Chief Scientific Officer for The Wellness Company,
“Respondents reported high engagement, frequent use for common acute illness, rapid symptom resolution, infrequent and mild side effects, and preparedness benefits extending even to never-users.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, aka Sepah or Pasdaran) is at it again. Not quite three weeks after the official signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran that was intended to get the ball rolling on ending the war between the two nations (not to mention Iran’s war with Israel), the IRGC has once again launched attacks against commercial shipping attempting to transit the vital Strait of Hormuz, once again casting doubts upon the peace negotiations’ long-term prospects for bearing fruit.
The military services remain challenged to deliver key hypersonic weapons to warfighters by their previously projected timelines, according to a new report from the U.S. government’s watchdog organization.
Published on Friday by the Government Accountability Office, the review highlights that three of the Pentagon’s ongoing hypersonic weapons programs are at risk of being delayed or delivering systems that have not been fully demonstrated.