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The British Army has deployed Challenger 2 main battles tanks for exercises in Estonia’s Voru county, a small territory that lies directly on Russia’s borders, with the tanks operating under the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, and playing a central role in NATO’s Spring Storm war drills. These exercises have simulated a major conflict with Russian forces, with the tanks’ presence representing part of a broader expansion of NATO ground units around Russian territory.

Summary and Key Points: For years, Russia terrorized Ukrainian cities with cheap drones. Now the weapon has turned around on Moscow, exposing a hole that Russia spent too long ignoring. Ukraine’s drone campaign is systematically wearing down Russia’s air defenses — forcing them to fire constantly, burn through their best missiles, and fall back on improvised and decades-old gear. The economics are brutal, and even the skies over Moscow no longer feel safe. Russia still holds significant advantages, but one kind of control it has always taken for granted is slipping away.

Summary and Key Points: In 1987, when Iran tried to close the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy steamed in and broke the blockade. Nearly four decades later, with Iran’s grip complete, the most powerful navy in history is keeping its distance — and one analyst argues it has no choice. For a fraction of one warship’s cost, Iran has built a missile-and-drone shield the Navy’s own leaders won’t risk sailing into. What that means, the argument goes, reaches far beyond the Gulf.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Senior military officials from U.S. Transportation Command and U.S. Strategic Command toured Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Rocky Mountain Campus in Colorado on Monday, where they received executive briefings on modernization efforts to enable next-generation command and control.
This engagement comes as America’s adversaries are actively attempting to disrupt industrial supply lines and degrade the military’s communication networks.
“From the connectivity perspective, absolutely, we’re in the same place.

Retired Army Col. Bruce Perry Crandall, the legendary helicopter pilot who was awarded the U.S. military’s highest decoration for valor for his bravery during the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang, recently died at the age of 93, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
Crandall was awarded the Medal of Honor in February 2007 for repeatedly flying his helicopter into heavy combat to evacuate wounded troops and provide the outnumbered soldiers on the ground with the supplies needed to hold their own against massive North Vietnamese attacks.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is facing increasing pressure both at the front and within the country. The Russian army’s offensive is slowing down, resources are being depleted, and Ukrainian drone strikes are hitting the logistics and economy of the Russian Federation increasingly hard.

Military analysts are increasingly coming to the conclusion that Putin’s war aims, despite his insistence, are becoming increasingly unattainable.

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

While small drones increase the distance at which small units can identify or destroy an adversary target, Marines are still contending with how much those systems weigh and the “cognitive drains” it takes to operate them, a service official said Tuesday.
Early in the Pentagon’s latest, sweeping crusade to put a slew of drones into the hands of troops, military officials identified that adopting small unmanned aerial systems comes with its tradeoffs.

Last year, I walked into the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force outside Dayton, Ohio, and stood close to the batwinged shape of a B-2 Spirit, and I have the video and photos below to prove it. The aircraft on display there is the only public B-2 anywhere in the world, a stealth bomber so far ahead of its time that the United States can afford to retire one example to a museum exhibit while a fleet of operational Spirits still flies. That is the backdrop against which China’s H-20 has to be measured.

Summary and Key Points: The Iran War ceasefire is coming apart, and a second round may be weeks away. But one national security analyst argues that whatever happens on the battlefield, Iran has already found the war it can actually win — and it isn’t a military one. -Tehran’s real play, he writes, is to

Summary and Key Points: With Iran’s blockade choking the Strait of Hormuz, America has quietly become the world’s oil backstop — shipping record crude to Asia to replace what’s no longer getting through. It’s an impressive show of U.S. energy muscle, and it’s keeping the crisis from spiraling. But there’s a catch buried in the numbers: much of that oil is coming straight out of America’s strategic reserve, the nation’s emergency stockpile. The U.S. can keep filling the gap — but not forever.