Several prominent Russian businessmen are silently moving billions of dollars abroad amid growing long-term concerns about the state of the Russian economy. After four years of war, state government spending has remained at record highs, hampering growth. The problems have been further exacerbated by Western sanctions and Ukrainian drone strikes, which have not only hampered the economy but also prevented wealthy Russians from safely moving their wealth to the West.
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The Navy’s new hypersonic missile is facing significant manufacturing and quality-control challenges that are preventing the program from reaching its planned production rates, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Lockheed Martin is currently capable of building only six to seven rounds of the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missile annually — around half of the sea service’s target production rate of 12 missiles per year, GAO found in a new report published Friday.
Former Russian PM Speaks Out: Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign against Russia continues, and it’s doing more than just destroying Russian military targets. After months of increasingly frequent attacks against Russian oil infrastructure, ports, logistics hubs, and other military sites, Kyiv is undermining one of President Vladimir Putin’s greatest promises to the Russian people: that they could live their lives untouched by the “special military operation.”
And Russia knows it, too.
The U.S. military’s medical supply chain is dangerously reliant on foreign entities, prompting the Pentagon to take “an immediate, urgent action” to pinpoint and assess domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing solutions and diversify options for the joint force.
A Russian dissident living in Latvia who ABC News describes as “once one of the most powerful men in Russia,” Mikhail Kasyanov, believes that mounting domestic political pressures-such as recent protests or shifts in public opinion-are increasingly challenging Vladimir Putin’s authority over the Ukraine War.
Recent strikes deep inside Russia by the Ukrainians have targeted oil production, refining, and export facilities as well as cultural symbols, like Russia’s “second capital” of St. Petersburg.
Switchblade Drone. Image Credit: Industry Handout.
President Donald Trump is threatening to continue his escalation against the Islamic Republic of Iran; this comes after a brief interlude in which a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) paused the fighting for around 18 days before the entire military operation resumed.
Ostensibly, the new round of warfare centers around control over the Strait of Hormuz (SoH). The Americans want it to remain an open international waterway, whereas the Iranians insist that the SoH be governed at least partly by them (with the other part governed by Oman).
Ukrainian special operations forces say they destroyed a Russian Su-24M strike bomber at Saky Air Base in occupied Crimea using two upgraded Hornet strike drones after a three-week planning effort.
Ukraine says the bomber was preparing for a combat sortie when it was hit.
Tu-95. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Tu-95 Bomber Russian Air Force. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The incident provides yet another example of Ukraine’s increasingly sophisticated deep-strike capabilities, demonstrating the vulnerability of Russian air bases and assets behind the front.
For decades, new recruits joining the Air Force have left their hometowns and taken commercial flights to San Antonio, Texas, home of the service’s boot camp for all enlisted troops.
But perhaps oddly for a military branch built on aviation, that final civilian flight to Texas was the only exposure to a real airplane an Air Force recruit could expect for months or even years.
Back in late February, President Donald Trump joined Israel in launching strikes on Iran, including an initial strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killing him and other top leaders.
That decision, for which Trump never quite made the case to the American people, came just weeks after the U.S. intervention in Venezuela, which included the arrest of that country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, and the installation of a pro-Western regime. So the success of that intervention likely emboldened Trump to once again attack Iran.
Crimea Is Quickly Slipping Away From Russia And Putin: Crimea was an integral part of Russia’s illegal annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin joked then that “little green men” were responsible for the takeover of government facilities, as Crimea was the ”jewel” in Putin’s attempt to rebuild the Soviet Union.
But the peninsula is now looking vulnerable. Intensifying Ukrainian drone strikes and the resulting state of emergency have made Crimea a severe strategic and symbolic liability for Putin.