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Warsaw, Poland: On 12 June, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, announced an initiative to aggressively recruit foreign mercenaries for Kyiv’s front-line military units. The announcement, made on the Telegram messaging platform, states that the ultimate goal is for these foreign, contract-paid soldiers to make up 30 to 50 percent of all of Ukraine’s assault and infantry units.

F-35 Full-Mission Readiness Falls to Just 25%: The Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program is under new scrutiny after a government watchdog report found that only one-quarter of the U.S. military’s F-35 fighter jets were fully mission-capable in fiscal year 2025, meaning they could fly any and all missions the stealth fighter was designed for.

According to a report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), America’s most advanced fighter jet may still be technically capable, but it is being bogged down by a series of problems that make it hard to maintain readiness.

According to reports citing multiple senior European officials, the United States is preparing to scale back several major military contributions to NATO in Europe, including its fighter-jet presence on the continent. The reports suggest that Washington intends to put greater responsibility for European defense on its allies. According to the New York Times, the American

“Green Mountain Boys” may sound a bit silly in the modern day, but the moniker is attached to one of the OG American warfighting units: the Vermont National Guard.
Originating from colonial Vermont militias, the Green Mountain Boys repeatedly earned their place in history. When America met times of great conflict or friction, Vermont stood ready and answered the call.
Also Read: Why the National Guard should embrace its illustrious history
Unfortunately, this may not be what people think when you mix the National Guard into the conversation.

Russia is offering men $80,000 to sign up and fight in Ukraine, more than quadruple the country’s average annual salary, along with debt relief of up to $140,000 for those who would otherwise face penalties for defaulting. According to a CNN report published this week, the money is no longer working: Russian military recruitment fell by 20 percent in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, even as billboards and social media feeds promise recruits they will become heroes and earn fast-tracked citizenship.

Could The Ukraine War End Putin? Why The Cracks Are Real, And Why He Probably Survives Them Anyway: For the first time since Russian tanks rolled toward Kyiv in February 2022, serious analysts of Russian politics are writing that Vladimir Putin’s grip may be slipping. Western media reported in May that his position within the power structure had weakened. The economy has contracted for the first time in three years. The army is stalled along the front. Ukrainian drones strike refineries hundreds of miles inside Russia.

United States Air Force Chief of Staff General Kenneth Wilsbach has referred to the MQ-9 Reaper drone as the “most valuable player” of the country’s war effort against Iran, raising questions regarding the extent of its role which saw the aircraft take particularly high losses. Wilsbach said the MQ-9 was by far the most widely used aircraft to support strikes against more than 13,000 targets during the war.

A new Government Accountability Office report has provided insight into the state of the U.S. Armed Forces’ F-35 fifth generation fighter fleet, highlighting severe ongoing issues with the sustainment of the aircraft, resulting in full mission-capable rates of just 28.5 percent in Fiscal Year 2025. The Air Force’s full mission capable rates have generally been higher than the Navy and Marine Corps over the past five years, but are still trending downward overall.

The U.S. Navy has established a new submarine squadron, Submarine Squadron 3, at a Royal Australian Navy base HMAS Stirling in Western Australia, as part of broader efforts to refocus the large majority of American attack submarine operations to the Pacific theatre. Rear Admiral Chris Cavanaugh, commander of Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, formally reestablished the squadron, laying the command infrastructure needed before the first nuclear powered attack submarines begin rotating through the base in 2027.

Following the resumption of high intensity hostilities between Iranian forces, and both the U.S. and U.S.-aligned states across the Middle East, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the night of June 7-8 launched multiple ballistic-missile salvoes against military installations in northern and central Israel. The known targets include Ramat David Air Base, Nevatim Air Base, and Tel Nof Air Base. The Corps announced that these were a “warning” for Israel’s military actions in Lebanon and that they had “targeted Israeli military facilities.