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CONCORD, Calif. — U.S. military officials who run strategic port operations and deployment logistics on the West Coast hosted a maritime technology demonstration last month to prove out the feasibility of using a commercial unmanned surface vessel to investigate watercraft of interest without jeopardizing the security of crewed patrols.
Senior military personnel from Army Combat Capabilities Development Command and the 834th Transportation Battalion, who led the demo in mid-May, discussed their top takeaways from that showcase with U.S. Transportation Command leaders on Tuesday.

Summary and Key Points: Millennium Challenge 2002 was supposed to prove the future of U.S. network-centric warfare. Instead, it became a warning about overconfidence. Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper, leading the Red Force (most likely Iran), used low-tech communications, small boats, and missile barrages to overwhelm a U.S. naval task force, “sinking” an aircraft carrier, cruisers, and amphibious ships early in the exercise. The decision to refloat the ships and restrict Red Force tactics fueled accusations that the war game had been scripted to protect favored Pentagon concepts.

Under growing pressure from Ukrainian drone strikes on its own territory, Russia launched one of its largest air attacks against Ukraine overnight on June 2. Reports described how Russian forces launched 656 drones and 73 missiles at targets across the country, with officials claiming that at least 22 were killed and more than 100 were injured. Major strikes were reported in Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Poltava, and Zaporizhzhia.

The scale of the attack has drawn a great deal of media attention for obvious reasons.

On the same day that William McRaven graduated from the University of Texas in 1977 with a degree in journalism, he received his commission into the United States Navy.
That day was a highlight of McRaven’s young life. Many more followed as McRaven became a four-star admiral and commander of United States Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014.
Also Read: Mike Vining on Vietnam, Delta Force, and the sardines he never ate
A few months before McRaven’s time leading USSOCOM ended, he returned to his alma mater and delivered the spring commencement address.

The Royal Thai Navy have chosen C295 to complement the Army and Air Force, which GlobalData claim will cut down on ancillary costs.

A fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States is under even more pressure as both sides traded attacks overnight on June 3. U.S. Central Command said it launched more “self-defense” strikes against Iran. The Americans had to shoot down missiles and drones fired by Iran that were traveling toward ships and targets in Gulf allied countries.

The United States conducted its retaliatory strikes on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, the BBC reported. Central Command revealed that Iran fired two missiles at Kuwait and three at Bahrain.

Summary and Key Points: It stretched nearly two football fields and carried twenty ballistic missiles tipped with as many as 200 nuclear warheads — all, by one account, once aimed at the United States. The Soviet Typhoon remains the largest submarine ever built and one of the most feared weapons of the Cold War. Yet for all its menace, it was quietly outmatched by an American rival with even more firepower. And stranger still, despite its size, it could run quieter than boats a fraction as large. What finally sank the giant wasn’t a torpedo — it was a budget.

Face down in the dirt, with his hands held behind his back, Sgt. Maj. Russell Hull inched his body up a hill. It was around that time that he started to rethink the choices that led him to that moment.
“That was miserable,” said Hull, who graduated from the Army’s Sapper Leader Course in the Spring. “There was a few minutes where I wanted to quit, because I was just like, ‘What am I doing? I’m 43 years old. I’ve been in the Army over 20 years.

Summary and Key Points: Top Gun: Maverick reminded the world why the F-14 Tomcat is the most beloved fighter the Navy ever flew. What the film leaves out: there was supposed to be an even deadlier one. The Super Tomcat 21 would have super-cruised at Mach 1.3 without afterburners, added thrust-vectoring and a glass cockpit, and flown farther than the original — a jet one expert believes might have been the most maneuverable fighter on Earth for decades. The Navy had its chance. It said no, and the reason had nothing to do with the airplane.

Summary and Key Points: He broke the sound barrier — and in his 1986 memoir, Chuck Yeager called it the finest fighter in the world. The F-20 Tigershark was supersonic, deadly, easy to fly, and far cheaper than the F-16 it was built to rival. By every measure that mattered, it was a winner. Yet the U.S. never bought a single one, and the jet vanished before it reached a squadron. What killed it wasn’t a design flaw or even the two fatal crashes investigators blamed on the pilots. It was something else.

The F-20 Tigershark Explained 

F-20 Tigershark Model at Western Museum of Flight.