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The war between the U.S. and Iran has been in something of a holding pattern for the last two months. The war hasn’t consisted of daily shooting or bombing since July, but there isn’t quite peace either, as the sides remain at a standoff, and no full-on peace talks are scheduled.

According to one shipping boss, it’s starting to look like the Russia-Ukraine war, in which the front lines haven’t moved much recently. While the analogy isn’t exact, some similarities remain.

B-1B Lancer. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

A U.S.

A Pakistan Air Force Bayraktar TB2 drone. Turkey has become a key supplier of unmanned systems to Islamabad. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
Multiple Turkish Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft undertook repeated sorties between Turkey and Pakistan on August 19-21. They landed at two major Pakistan Air Force (PAF) bases – Nur Khan near Rawalpindi and Masroor in Karachi – on these dates, Indian intelligence sources told India Today.
“Frequency and pattern of flights taken by Turkish aircraft seemed unusual to us.

What’s the status of the talks between Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz? The negotiations were reportedly nearing a deal two weeks ago, but no such agreement has been announced — and last week, President Donald Trump was threatening to bomb Oman, a U.S. ally, if it didn’t cooperate.

Now, Iran has reportedly made a new demand.

Littoral Combat Ship. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

According to the Associated Press, which cited comments from Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Iran is insisting on barring military vessels from traversing the Strait of Hormuz.

The Marine Corps plans to push more air defenses “down to the squad level” as part of a major retooling of how its ground units and infantry troops are trained and equipped for future conflicts.
On Wednesday, the Marines released Ground Combat Element 2040, a blueprint for transforming the land force component of the Marine Air Ground Task Force or MAGTF, the central formation that the Corps organizes around for a battle. A MAGTF moves and fights with its owns ground, aviation, and logistics units under a single commander.

In 2025, Rob Geist Pinfold wrote, “The March Massacres Show That Syria Urgently Needs Solutions, Not Sanctions,” in which he argued that sanctions relief was a major way the West could positively engage with the new Syrian government. A year later, after sanctions relief materialized and the United States removed Syria from its list of terrorism sponsors, we asked him to revisit his arguments and reassess President Ahmed al Sharaa’s leadership, both foreign and domestic.

The Marine Corps just released its plan to fight against adversaries on land, and Ryan had the two architects of the plan, Ground Combat Element 2040, on the show to talk about it. They discuss drones, resilience, long-range fires, logistics, and what marines will need to survive and fight on an increasingly transparent battlefield while still preserving the critical human element.Image: Khalil Brown via DVIDS
The post The Marine Corps’ Plan for the Future of Ground Combat appeared first on War on the Rocks.

Iran’s currency has reached a record low, and long lines have formed at gasoline stations in Tehran as Washington tries to up the economic pressure on the Islamic Republic six months into the war.

The Iranian rial plummeted to below 2 million to the U.S. dollar on the free market Wednesday.

The Abraham Lincoln and John C. Stennis carrier strike groups conduct carrier strike force operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet. Together, the strike groups will complete high-end warfighting training, enhancing interoperability with key allies and partners in the European theater. (U.S.

Photo: U.S. Army / Sgt. Samantha Cate (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Five years ago today, 13 American service members were killed at Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan. Now, the investigation into what really happened — and who tried to bury the truth — may finally be blowing open.
Sean Parnell, Chairman of the Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel and Senior Advisor to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, dropped a bombshell on the fifth anniversary of the August 26, 2021 attack.

The Navy is planning to take dozens of Army pilots who were cut in a massive reduction of the land service’s aviation corps. 
But of the hundreds of Army pilots that officials estimate might be looking for a spot, the Navy is likely to only have slots for, at most, about a quarter of them.
A Navy spokesperson told Task & Purpose that the service is looking to take around 75 Army pilots who have completed initial flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

Kyiv says that Russia has lost 1.5 million personnel since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

On Wednesday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Moscow’s cumulative personnel losses now stood at 1,480,750, including a further 1,450 casualties over the last 24 hours.

Tu-95 Bear Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Tu-95 Bomber Russian Air Force. Image Credit: Creative Commons.