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Though the Army adopted the SIG M7 rifle and M8 carbine, the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) decided not to follow suit. Similarly, the Marine Corps also rejected the new weapon platform and its 6.8x51mm cartridge, electing instead to stick with its M27 IARs and NATO standard 5.56mm ammo.
In addition to adopting new Medium Range Gas Guns, chambered in 7.62mm NATO or 6.5mm Creedmoor for the assaulter and sniper roles, SOCOM’s latest procurement plan seems to indicate that the command has aversion to the SIG.

Summary and Key Points: Strip away the politics, and Trump’s war on Iran reads like two completely different stories. In one, it’s a stunning military success: Iran’s air force, navy, and missile brigades shattered, its nuclear program crippled, its supreme leader dead. In the other, it’s a looming disaster — illegal in critics’ eyes, opposed by most Americans, fought without allies, and unable to deliver the one thing that would justify it: a real peace. Dr. Brent Eastwood lays both ledgers side by side and reaches an uncomfortable conclusion.

Can Trump Extricate Himself from the Iran War?: When President George W. Bush ordered U.S. troops to invade Iraq almost a quarter century ago, he was giddy: His own father had defeated Iraq just 12 years previously in just 100 hours, forcing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein into a humiliating withdrawal from Iraq. For a generation of Middle Easterners, the so-called “highway of death” became synonymous with American power. The war led Donald Rumsfeld to embrace “fourth generation warfare,” placing technology above manpower.

Many Americans today consider the 2003 Iraq war a quagmire.

Summary and Key Points: Almost every conversation about the Iran War points the same way — toward Tehran, the Strait of Hormuz, the warships in the Gulf. Dr. Andrew Latham thinks the real story is unfolding where nobody’s looking: inside China’s oil storage tanks. For years, Beijing quietly stockpiled crude on a massive scale, for reasons that seemed unremarkable at the time. Now those reserves are why China — alone among the great powers — isn’t scrambling. But stockpiles only buy time; they don’t remove pressure.

The Iran War Comes for China 

China’s Xi Jinping.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump has found himself in a mess, or perhaps it is better to say he has created one for himself. America and Iran continue to maintain a shaky ceasefire, characterized by a double blockade and punctuated by occasional airstrikes and missile exchanges. The United States is substantially short of the status quo ante, the position that it enjoyed before the war began. Worse, there is no clear way out of the conflict.

The Military Situation with Iran

U.S.

FlGlobal
Wednesday 3 June marked a seminal milestone in the aviation world: the end of Harrier jump jet operations in the USA.

BrDefense
The Air Force has picked GE Aerospace…

Greg Hadley, Air & Space Forces Magazine
Air Force

D’urso, Aviationist
A thermal image captured near Area 51 allegedly shows a previously unseen next-generation aircraft design with cranked-kite wings and canards, which is now spurring many…

GDN
The U.S.