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“I hate talking about combat drills when the U.S. Navy lost, and many times, lost aircraft carriers in simulations. But, hey, you only learn when you make mistakes.” That’s what a long-retired U.S. Navy surface warship officer told me last week when I asked him about the various times that U.S. Navy aircraft carriers have been sunk in various wargames over the years. And while we talk a lot about the infamous time Gotland-class AIP submarine from Sweden sinking an aircraft carrier back in 2005, Canada also achieved such a submarine ‘victory’ as well. And it was decades before.

A term called “Darkstar” is stretching the U.S. Air Force’s imagination. No, it is not something from the latest Star Wars movie. This is the nickname for the new SR-72 spy plane. Also known as the “Son of Blackbird,” the new kid on the block has many of the same attributes as the SR-71 Blackbird, and that has aerospace enthusiasts salivating at the new possibilities.

The proposed SR-72 could hit a top speed of MACH 6, or 4,600 miles per hour. This is almost twice as fast as the SR-71 Blackbird.

When considering the music that we’d want to play as we ship out to a combat zone, very few of us would think of choosing a 19th century Australian folk song about a hobo who stole a sheep.
And yet, that’s exactly what the Marines of the 1st Marine Division do every time. It may seem odd that United States Marines choose to deploy using Australia’s unofficial national anthem, but a closer look at the history of the unit (and how the song ends) helps make sense of it all.

Following its adoption by the U.S. military, the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (more popularly known as the Humvee) found success in the commercial market as the Hummer H1. It looks like the Humvee’s replacement might have the same civilian market appeal.
GM Defense’s Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) was selected by the Army in 2020 to replace the iconic Humvee. The truck is based on the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 and features 70% commercial off-the-shelf components—and the first Infantry Squad Vehicle made available to the civilian market.

According to budget documents released by the Air Force, troops deployed to war zones could see their special pay doubled next year if a new Pentagon proposal is approved by Congress.
Currently, troops who are deployed in designated combat zones receive up to $225 per month in imminent danger pay or hostile fire pay. That number could double to $450 each month later this year, according to Air Force budget officials, if Congress approves a proposal in the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2027 budget request.

Seeing the YF-118G, like we did last year at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, makes one stop in their tracks. And we have the original photos below to prove it. The YF-118G “Bird of Prey,” a one-off experimental aircraft built by Boeing, is one strange-looking plane. Tiny, unconventional wings, an engine intake on the aircraft’s spine, and its almost beak-like nose all combine into one odd—but presumably quite stealthy—aircraft.

It smelled like old diesel and sounded like the apocalypse. Its bench was a wooden plank bolted to an aluminum frame that felt purposefully designed to make your back hurt and your legs go numb. The canvas overhead snapped in the wind like it was trying to get the heck out of there, and who could blame it?
Also Read: The Gun Trucks of Vietnam: Soldiers transformed cargo vehicles into fighting machines
If you ever climbed into the back of a 2½-ton M35 cargo truck, you remember it. The shaking and flying off every bump.

The morning of Nov. 12, 2016, began like any other at Bagram Airfield, the largest American military installation in Afghanistan at the time. By mid-morning, five people were dead and 17 others were wounded. Among them was a young Army specialist who lost the use of his left hand, arm and the left side of his face while trying to stop the bomber before he reached a larger crowd.
Nearly a decade later, the U.S. Supreme Court says that soldier has the right to make someone answer for it.