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For 18 days in June, two of America’s most capable AI models went dark worldwide, not for technical or business reasons, but because the U.S. government ordered it. On June 12, 2026, the Commerce Department informed Anthropic that its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models could no longer be provided to any foreign person without a license, and the company concluded that compliance meant shutting the models down for everyone. Public access to Fable 5 was restored on June 30.

Editor’s note: This is the fifth article in a limited series celebrating American defense technologies born from wartime and their effects on broader national security, politics, and society. This series will run for several weeks to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, and winners will be selected by a reader vote undertaken through our newsletter later this summer. Prior installments can be found at the Arsenal of Innovation page.

On July 10, 1943, the Allied invasion of Sicily — codenamed Operation Husky — put more assault troops ashore on its first day than the Normandy landings would 11 months later. Despite the scale of these amphibious and vertical assaults on the Mediterranean’s largest island, the images most carry of this campaign come from a movie: Patton. In the 1970 film, U.S. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton wins the race to Messina and waits, smirking, as British Lt. Gen. Bernard Montgomery’s column rolls in late.

Following confirmation that the Russian Navy’s most capable surface combat ship, the Kirov class nuclear-powered battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov, had returned to the Arctic port of Severodvinsk, analysts have widely noted that the vessel could contribute to significantly shifting the regional balance of power to the detriment of Western interests. The cruiser returned to its home base after completing another phase of sea trials, bringing one of the world’s most heavily armed surface combatants closer to re-entering operational service.

A Russian Aerospace Forces Su-57 fifth generation fighter has crashed during a training flight near Zvenigorod in the Moscow region, prompting an investigation by Russian authorities into the circumstances surrounding the loss. The pilot successfully ejected and survived the incident without reported injuries, while images circulating from the crash site show extensive wreckage scattered across a wooded area.

The U.S. Army has made the first ever deployment of a hypersonic missile system in the Western Pacific, marking a major milestone in efforts to strengthen capabilities to target China. Although the Pentagon has not disclosed the Dark Eagle missile battery’s precise location, the exercise took place across Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, and surrounding areas of the Western Pacific, putting portions of China’s eastern seaboard within the system’s estimated range.

Following confirmation that a derivative of the Soviet 5V55 surface-to-air missile has been selected to form the heart of the pan-European Freya missile defence system, significant questions have been raised regarding its capabilities. Production of the missile was established at the Vizar plant in Soviet era Ukraine from the late 1970s, with Ukraine set to produce an enhanced derivative of the design under the designation FP-7 for the program.

The Republic of China Ministry of National Defence has confirmed that it is seeking compensation from the United States and the manufacturer of its new F-16 Block 70 fighters, Lockheed Martin, due to repeated delivery delays. Air Force officials have indicated that compensation may come in the form of technical support, spare parts, or extended warranties rather than direct financial payments. The Ministry signed an agreement to purchase 66 F-16 Block 70 fighters under an $8.

Newly released satellite imagery appears to show significant damage to aircraft hangars at King Faisal Air Base in Jordan, lending some visual support to earlier Iranian claims that one of the facilities targeted during recent missile strikes had been successfully hit. The imagery shows a destroyed hangar structure with a large plume of black smoke rising from the site, indicating that at least one of the F-15E Strike Eagle fighters inside was destroyed.

The U.S. Army is preparing a fundamental transformation in how it employs its AH-64 Apache attack helicopter fleet, with new concepts focusing on distributed maritime operations across the Pacific rather than traditional land-based warfare. During recent experimentation, the service demonstrated the ability to deploy Apaches from naval vessels and integrate them into dispersed strike networks, reflecting a broader effort to prepare for potential high-intensity conflict in the Pacific theatre.