Browsing: All news

The United States launched a major new round of airstrikes against Iran overnight on July 30 after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to retaliate for an attempted Iranian ballistic missile attack on U.S. forces stationed in Jordan.

The operation ended a brief diplomatic pause in fighting, which had lasted almost two weeks, and resumed direct U.S. strikes against Iran.

A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker offloads fuel to U.S. Air Force F-15 Strike Eagles over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, April 11, 2025.

Ukraine’s Department of Defense has codified and approved mass production for Firefly, a low-cost, precision-guided add-on kit designed for drone-dropped munitions.

Fitted to heavy “Baba Yaga” bomber drones like the Vampire and Kazhan, the system dramatically increases strike accuracy from high altitudes while resisting enemy electronic warfare.

Lancet Drone. Image Credit: Russian State Media.

Lancet Drone from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

DAYTON, Ohio — The Air Force could bring up to six vendors into the early prototyping work of its second robotic wingman batch next year, according to the official overseeing the program.
The service is currently working with nine unnamed vendors to outline concepts and define requirements for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) Increment 2 program — a process that will last around 10 more months, Col. Timothy Helfrich, program acquisition executive for fighters and advanced aircraft, told reporters Tuesday at the Air Force Life Cycle Industry Days.

Defence AI start-up Agon has announced its launch with $30m in initial investment, marking one of the largest seed rounds in Europe’s defence technology sector this year.

The war between the United States and Iran has seesawed between open conflict and temporary lulls in hostilities several times since it began on Feb. 28, 2026, but the fighting has never truly ceased. 
The massive air and missile strikes that marked the start of U.S. military operations were followed by a ceasefire in name only — one that was punctuated by exchanges of fire and a churn of press releases and statements from U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, the Pentagon, the White House and other arms of the government, ticking off strikes and targets destroyed.

On Thursday, just hours after President Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington, Ukraine successfully launched long-range strikes that hit two large Russian oil refineries.

According to the Associated Press, which cited Ukraine’s Security Service and General Staff, the strikes hit a Lukoil refinery in Russia’s Perm region and another refinery in Ryazan. The two refineries that were hit, the report said, have an annual production capacity of 220 million barrels.

MSTA-S Russian Artillery. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

A Russian cruise missile crossed into NATO territory overnight on July 30 during Moscow’s latest barrage of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine. The action prompted Poland to scramble fighter aircraft.

Polish authorities say that a Russian Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile entered Polish airspace before it crashed in an uninhabited field near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia in eastern Poland.

A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon flies over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Oct. 14, 2020.

During the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt noticed that some civilians-turned-soldiers displayed some fairly poor marksmanship skills. So when Congress considered creating the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice under the Office of the Secretary of the Army to address the problem, President Roosevelt was its biggest champion.
Under the NBPRP, the Office of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship became responsible for civilian firearm training and safety. In 1996, the entire program was privatized and became the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP).

Tank usage on both sides of the war in Ukraine is way down due to the plethora of drones available to front-line troops, which have taken an enormous toll on armored columns.

Russia lost so many of its main battle tanks that it was bringing antiquated T-62s and T-55s out of mothballs to serve its units in Ukraine.

Russian T-90 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

T-90M from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The remaining tanks are mostly relegated to reserve roles.

As the fight with Iran intensifies, the revelation earlier this month, first reported by The Financial Times — that Iran is targeting U.S. military personnel via their smartphones — should not surprise us. The war in Ukraine has supplied numerous stories of both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers killed when their cell phones revealed their location. And yet, U.S. servicemembers in the Middle East will likely continue to use their cell phones, just like Ukrainian and Russian soldiers in Europe do.