The United States is drawing down both its emergency oil reserves and commercial stockpiles as the war with Iran continues. In an effort to stabilize global energy markets, the United States is depleting its own reserves while Washington works to secure a lasting deal that would see the Strait of Hormuz reopened and Iran prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon. New data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed another major decline in U.S.
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Summary and Key Points: On paper, the Iran war is winding down: Trump says a deal could come within days, and his secretary of state says Tehran is suddenly willing to discuss things it called off-limits weeks ago. On the ground, it looks like the opposite. This week a drone-and-missile strike tore into Kuwait’s international airport — dragging a country that had stayed out of the war directly into it — while the Strait of Hormuz remains choked shut months after a ceasefire was meant to reopen it.
The JH-XX or J-36 is an American designation for a suspected Chinese regional stealth bomber, reportedly developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC). It is suspected that the J-36, the first of China’s sixth-generation aircraft, was the stealth fighter-bomber that Western intelligence agencies have been tracking for some time. The J-36 is a highly unusual aircraft with a trijet configuration and a tailless, diamond delta wing layout. Its overall role in the PLAAF remains ambiguous, although its size suggests it is a multi-role strike aircraft.
How Long Can Russia Last in the War Against Ukraine?: The Russo-Ukrainian war is in its final stages. I predict that an extended ceasefire and peace talks will occur in about three months. Russia will not be negotiating from a position of strength, but Ukraine will. The defenders have put up a valiant fight and have decimated Russia’s best troops and military hardware. Ukraine is also winning with adroit psychological warfare. They just launched a flight of one-way drones to frightfully disrupt an economic conference in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin’s hometown.
Summary and Key Points: On the surface, the Iran war has stalled into a tense ceasefire. Underneath, the regime is coming apart: prices are soaring, exports have collapsed, and a government can no longer reliably pay the troops it’s counting on. Iran is using the lull to rebuild — but the same pause has handed Washington a menu of ways to push the regime past the edge, short of the ground war the headlines keep warning about.
America Has Options When It Comes to Iran
F-22 Raptor Elephant Walk. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
A U.S.
Oshkosh Defense, a business of Oshkosh Corporation, has received orders worth $142m for its Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) A2 platform from customers in the US and overseas.
Attention to orders: The commander of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing has promoted the beloved feline assigned to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, widely known as “Pizza Cat” to serve in the next higher grade of Senior Meowster Sergeant.
The cat, who earned her moniker for regularly being spotted near the on-base Pizza Hut, has a very large fanbase on social media — so much so that military officials had to issue a memo last year debunking rumors that she had been ordered to be put down.
Also known as the “Queen of the Deid,” the cat has long raised morale at the sprawling U.S.
The Pentagon launched a website this week to support a new initiative that helps servicemembers, military spouses and civilians explore jobs and career development opportunities.
The effort is part of what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is calling Project Patriot Pipeline.
The new portal, which can be found at mypatriotcareer.mil, includes links to resources and information about national defense-related jobs, resume building, education opportunities, credentialing, career counseling, the SkillBridge program, and other topics.
Ukrainian and Norwegian leaders complain that Europe mustdevelop its own fully fledged anti-ballistic missile capability to rival the US.
After four years of fighting in Ukraine, one of the biggest surprises of the war is that Russia’s economy never collapsed fully in the way Western observers expected. Russian GDP growth even remained positive at times during the war, with factories churning out products and, of course, military production humming, while unemployment remained relatively low. But that production and that employment were a superficial gloss that hid a deeper reality of stagnation.