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The next war over Taiwan may be deterred not by aircraft carriers or nuclear arsenals, but by a Dutch lithography machine. ASML, headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, is the sole manufacturer of the extreme ultraviolet lithography systems required to produce the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Without its machines, the most sophisticated foundries on earth — including those of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) — cannot operate. This fact should be at the center of how the United States thinks about deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. Currently, it is not.

Washington is littered with the corpses of grand plans to restore the Merchant Marine. The Trump administration’s Maritime Action Plan is the latest attempt, and to its credit, the most comprehensive since World War II.The plan is the government’s blueprint to resurrect America’s commercial shipping and domestic shipbuilding industry. The goal is straightforward: build enough merchant ships and train enough civilian mariners to sustain the military through war, while cutting reliance on foreign supply chains in peace. With a $1.

Since the outbreak of open hostilities between Iranian forces, and the United States and Israel, in April 2024, followed by multiple subsequent clashes over the following years, the Iranian ballistic missile arsenal has played an indisputably central role in allowing the country to sustain its defences and limit its adversaries’ escalation through deterrence.

Footage released from Iran on June 10 for the first time showed F-14 Tomcat long range fighter aircraft landing after completing a mission, providing the first indication that the aircraft are actively involved the ongoing war effort against the Untied States and its Western and regional strategic partners. While previously Iran’s Vietnam War era F-4 and F-5 fighters, and newer Soviet MiG-29A and Russian Yak-130 fighters, were seen launching multiple sorties against hostile targets, the footage provides the first confirmation of ongoing F-14 operations.

Chinese Type 59D main battle tanks have begun deliveries to the Cambodian Army, with the vehicles appearing to have been drawn from reserves or possibly frontline units in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, which still operates the type widely in rear units. Following concerns that the delivery would cause controversy in neighbouring Thailand, which was engaged in a brief border war with Cambodia,Chinese military attache in Bangkok confirmed that, according to the annual military cooperation agreement, a total of 93 vehicles were being supplied to Cambodia.

Footage released on Chinese social media has shown the latest ever known grouping of Chinese nuclear powered submarines, including four Type 094A ballistic missile submarines and five Type 093B attack submarines. The image was published shortly after confirmation that China now has three shipyards producing nuclear powered submarines, with the second and third facilities, the Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group facility and the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, effectively tripling productive capacity, while the original facility in Huludao, Liaoning Province, has been expanded.

Trump Can’t Afford Another Epic Fury Against Iran: Writing on Truth Social on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Iran had taken too long to negotiate a peace deal and said that the regime would “pay the price.” The comments came after the United States responded to an Iranian drone attack that downed a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.

The Pentagon announced the “Cyber Mastery Incentive Pay” (C-MIP) program on Wednesday, an initiative defense officials described as an effort to attract and develop talented cyber operators through monetary compensation.
C-MIP will go into effect Oct. 1, according to the announcement. Officials billed it as part of the Defense Department’s Cybercom 2.0 initiative, an effort meant to modernize the way the military recruits, assesses, trains and retains a digital force.

As part of a string of other recent long-range strikes, Ukraine launched one of its most extensive campaigns on June 10, targeting military and industrial facilities and energy infrastructure hundreds of miles from the front line using domestically manufactured missiles and attack drones.

The latest round of attacks saw targets in the Chuvash Republic, Samara, and other regions severely damaged, and proved that Ukraine has no intention of slowing down its drone campaign.

Image Credit: Office the the President, Ukraine.

For months, the Strait of Hormuz has faced intense disruption, with traffic down by as much as 95%. The narrow waterway, which typically carries one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, has seen commercial traffic plummet amid hostilities between Iran, the United States, and Israel. Despite the disruption, oil prices per barrel have yet to reach some of the most severe estimates. In March, Wall Street analysts predicted that oil could soar to $200 per barrel. Today, Brent Crude hovers around $93 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is about $91.