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When former U.S. President Donald Trump indicated earlier this year that he “would encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to countries that are “delinquent,” presumably in terms of defense spending, allies expressed alarm. This trans-Atlantic burden-sharing kerfuffle is only unusual for the crassness of the language. U.S. concerns about European free-riding date back at least to the Eisenhower administration. The time has come for European allies to carry a larger share of the burden of European defense.

The War Zone has obtained additional high-resolution satellite images of Russia’s Belbek Air Base on the occupied Crimean Peninsula that offer a better view of the destruction there from recent Ukrainian strikes. It also proves out our initial analysis based on other imagery, which readers can find here.
The new images, which come from Maxar Technologies and were taken earlier today, clearly show the burned-out hulks of two MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors on a damaged apron at Belbek.

With the threat of a conflict in the Pacific looming, a congressional subcommittee says the Navy is not moving fast enough to figure out how to better push munitions to its ships at sea and wants to know what is being done to fix the problem.
This is hardly a new issue, but it has come into sharp focus in the Red Sea as Arleigh Burke class destroyers had fired more than 100 Standard family surface-to-air missiles alone as of mid-February at Houthi missiles and drones.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned former Army Sgt. Daniel Perry on May 16, 2024. Perry was convicted in April 2023 of killing Air Force veteran Garrett Foster at a Black Lives Matter protest in Austin.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pardoned former Army Sgt. Daniel Perry, who was convicted last year for killing an Air Force veteran at a 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstration.
Perry served as an Army infantryman from January 2012 until March 19, 2024, Army spokesman Bryce Dubee told Task & Purpose. His last rank was E-1 private.

(Photo courtesy of Shawn Cooper).
When he was a child growing up in segregated Alabama, Jerome Gary Cooper snuck into the balcony of a movie theater to see a movie in which John Wayne played a Marine, his daughter Shawn Cooper recalled.
“He just said [Wayne] was the baddest SOB in the world and he wanted to be like him,” Cooper told Task & Purpose.
Cooper not only became one of the few and the proud, but during the Vietnam War, he also became the first black Marine officer to lead an infantry company in combat.

Satellite imagery confirms that a portion of the flightline and adjacent areas at Russia’s Belbek Air Base on the occupied Crimean peninsula were damaged in Ukrainian strikes this week. Russian MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors were observed in the same area of the installation just two weeks ago. Other parts of the base sustained damage, as well.
Ukraine’s recent attacks on Belbek, at least one of which occurred on the night of May 14-15, and another of which may have come last night, are already known to have destroyed portions of an S-300 or S-400 air defense system.

The U.S. Navy plans to use the upcoming Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise as a new testing ground for the cutting-edge networking technologies that have been developed for a highly classified effort known as Project Overmatch.
The next iteration of RIMPAC, a biennial event which has historically been the world’s largest international maritime exercise, is slated to take place this summer near Hawaii.

CW3 Morgan Brady is a nationally ranked BMX racer and has served in the Army for over 23 years. (Photos courtesy of Morgan Brady).
We all like to joke about the missing warrant officer, but this time, we found one who is doing something pretty rad in her free time. Chief Warrant Officer 3 Morgan Brady is representing Team USA for BMX racing during the UCI BMX World Championships.
Teams from all over the world are competing, and the competition started on May 12 in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

U.S. Marines salute during a formation on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., Sept 4, 2012. (Cpl. Jamean Berry/U.S. Marine Corps).
Sexual assaults are down across the military for the first time in a decade as incident reports by service members increased, a Pentagon report found.
“For the first time in nearly 10 years, the department is seeing a decrease in sexual assault prevalence,” said Elizabeth Foster, executive director of the Office of Force Resiliency for the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.

The Army has drafted and presented new concepts of operations for its slew of electronic warfare equipment to senior leaders.
After divesting much of its capabilities after the Cold War and lacking any program-of-record offensive or defensive EW equipment during the post-9/11 wars, the Army is now poised to begin fielding a raft of capabilities to its forces and formations.