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Putin’s Goals in Ukraine, Then and Now: Russian President Vladimir Putin still insists that peace with Ukraine is possible – but only on his terms. Today, Putin’s demands of Ukraine are hard to parse. The goals have moved over years of fighting, and with Ukraine now proving it can cripple the Russian economy and make warfighting even more expensive than it was before, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where a negotiated deal doesn’t end up with concessions from Russia.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the United States is getting along very well with Iran, that Iran’s denuclearization is moving along well, and that recent meetings in Qatar had gone well. He said it within hours of a report that he had spent recent days weighing whether to walk away from those talks and restart the war outright.

Both things are true, and the distance between them is the story.

Last fall, the U.S. Marine Corps had virtually no first-person view attack drones. That’s changed quickly. This episode is about how a team of marines at Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico went from a cold start to building a Marine Corps-wide first-person view drone training system. Ryan was pleased to welcome some great marines onto the show: Col. Scott Cuomo, CWO5 Steve Pearsoll, CWO3 (Gunner) Troy Hotaling, GySgt Jude Stewart, GySgt Justin Creasman, and Sgt Timothy Brockup.Since we recorded this episode, Cuomo has changed command and is off to his next assignment.

Rheinmetall has received an order from Ukraine to supply 155mm long-range artillery shells, with production for the contract already underway.

The global satellite market forecast will see an increasing share spent on military and dual-use systems over the coming decade.

Ukraine Warns Russia May Be Preparing Northern Offensive: Amid Ukraine’s hugely successful long-range strike campaign, Kyiv is now warning that a new Russian offensive could be on the way – this time, from the north. And the goal this time would not be to capture Kyiv, but to stretch Ukrainian defenses to their limits.

The tail insignia for the Air Force’s E-4B Nightwatch airborne command post — unofficially nicknamed the “Doomsday Plane” — pays tribute to a legendary World War II bomber unit that was awarded three presidential citations.
On June 26, the first E-4B featuring the Square B tail flash — a black box with a white letter “B” — was unveiled at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, as part of the 95th Wing’s heritage week, according to a news release from Eighth Air Force, which oversees the wing.

Then-sergeant first class Jacob Gaskill felt uneasy last year. He had been in the Army for more than a decade as an explosive ordnance technician before heading to the Army Software Factory. There and over the course of multiple years, he helped fix some of the service’s most pressing digital issues.
But in 2025, his software tour was coming to a close. Armed with an “additional skill identifier” that denoted his qualifications as a software developer from his time at the ASWF, he was set to go back to the EOD branch and finish out his service in the job he entered back in 2010.

…just good stuff to report, really…

Public Domain

One day, and that day may never come, there will be an easy search mechanism for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Until then, the best a humble citizen from the provinces can do is take a low pass, bite a nibble at the most attractive bits, and then head off to digest what you got.
Speeches, orders, and policy statements from the Executive Branch are important, but if you really want to drive change or correct error, you have to do it through the legislative branch.

The Ukraine War Comes Closer to Putin: Russia’s capital city was once again under bombardment by Ukrainian drones in the latest round of strikes to hit Russia’s largest city and the seat of power in the world’s largest country.

Posting to his Telegram channel, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote that more than 60 explosive-laden drones had been successfully shot down by Russian air defenses, but it was not immediately clear how many Ukrainian drones had managed to evade being shot down.

Tu-160 Bomber from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Russia Tu-160 Bomber on Tarmac.