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Summary and Key Points: When two American pilots ejected from their F-15Es over Iran and were pulled to safety, they survived something most people never think about: one of the most violent experiences a human body can endure. The pilots who’ve been through it describe a brutal, split-second ordeal. The moment the handle is pulled, rockets blast the seat out of the cockpit with a force that can bruise shoulders to the bone and snap collarbones — and a pilot who fails to tuck in fast enough risks far worse.

What Every Fighter Pilot Fears: Ejection 

A U.S.

North Korean state media has shown footage of a major facility producing tactical ballistic missiles for the KN-23 system, as the country’s leadership has announced plants for a 2.5 fold expansion in ballistic and cruise missile production capacity over five years. The planned increase in capacity was ordered as North Korea faces both high demand for its missiles abroad, most notably from Russia, as well as an increasingly unstable security situation as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East continue.

Footage from Moscow’s Sokolniki District has shown continued operations by the world’s largest and most powerful transport helicopters to position Pantsir-SMD-E stationary air defence systems onto the rooftops of high rise buildings, which appears to be part of an effort to rapidly expand a multi-layered defensive network across the capital to respond to the threat of drone attacks from Ukraine.

The French Ministry of Defence has announced the first successful supersonic launch of the MICA NG air-to-air missile from a Rafale fighter, marking a significant milestone in efforts to keep the ageing mid-1990s missile design viable into the 21st century. The MICA NG is available in two primary variants, including one with infrared thermal imaging passive guidance and one with active radar guidance. Both are equipped with a new dual pulse motor, resulting in improved manoeuvrability and combining beyond-visual-range and close-range combat capabilities.

The French Joint Staff on June 5 published footage showing a Rafale fighter conducting a close-range visual interception of a Russian Aerospace Forces Su-35 long range fighter,in a tense encounter over the Baltic Sea. The engagement, which took place on June 2, occurred after the Su-35 was deployed to escort five other Russian aircraft, including a An-30 reconnaissance and survey platform, two transports, and Su-24M and Su-34 strike fighters.

The New Zealand Army has deployed infantry platoon to South Korea for a three-month rotation, which was designed to improve interoperability with both the Republic of Korea (ROK) Armed Forces and the United States Army, exposing personnel to operational scenarios and force structures that are significantly larger and more technologically advanced than those normally available at home. Stationed primarily at Camp Casey alongside the U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, under 20 kilometres from the inter-Korean Demilitarised Zone and 20-25 kilometres from the North Korea’s borders.

Summary and Key Points: It is being built to do something no weapon ever wants to be used for: survive the unthinkable and strike back. The U.S. Navy’s first Columbia-class submarine is expected to arrive in 2028, and its developers are already calling it the quietest and most lethal submarine ever built.

Summary and Key Points: For more than three decades, the official story of the SR-71 Blackbird’s retirement has been simple: the legendary spy plane that flew at the edge of space, faster than three times the speed of sound, simply cost too much to keep flying once the Cold War wound down. Now, a man who sat in the back seat says that the story was never the whole truth.

Summary and Key Points: China is building aircraft carriers at a pace not seen since World War II. By 2035, the Pentagon expects Beijing to triple its fleet to nine flattops — and the next one may be a nuclear-powered supercarrier larger than the USS Gerald R. Ford, capable of carrying more than a hundred aircraft. On paper, it’s a staggering rise. But the numbers hide a very different story.

China Has Thousands Of Missiles Aimed At The Pacific. The War With Iran Was The Warm-Up Act: The recent war against Iran strained the United States military in ways that rattled defense planners, and Iran fired its missiles by the hundreds. China can fire them by the thousands. That difference in scale is the most important fact in any honest discussion of a Pacific war, because it converts a problem the United States managed against a regional power into one it cannot fully solve against Beijing.