Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet pitched the F-55 Ferrari concept — a supercharged F-35 incorporating technology from the company’s failed sixth-generation fighter demonstrator — after losing the Next Generation Air Dominance program to Boeing’s F-47 in 2025. The F-35 took more than 20 years and over $1 trillion to develop, and its current readiness rating sits at barely 50%. The Technology Refresh-3 upgrade required for the full Block 4 modernization is years behind schedule.

Army Pfc. Mace Veit knew completing four of the Army’s most distinguished training courses in less than six months, including the rigors of Ranger School, would be tough.
Constant testing. Brutal fitness standards. Lack of sleep. He knew he was ready for all that.
What Veit didn’t expect was the growing number of funny looks he’d get from fellow soldiers as he moved from school to school.

A recently resurfaced Kremlin video shows Russian President Vladimir Putin coughing repeatedly and struggling through a recorded International Women’s Day speech in March 2026. The original upload was quickly removed and replaced with an edited version that cut the coughs out entirely. BBC producer Ben Tavener said multiple outlets believed the Kremlin accidentally uploaded the unedited footage. Speculation about Putin’s health has intensified since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Fire remains the most dangerous threat to a U.S. aircraft carrier — and the U.S. Navy’s newest, the USS Gerald R. Ford, just proved it. During the Operation Epic Fury campaign against Iran, a fire in the carrier’s laundry burned for 30 hours, displaced more than 600 sailors from their berthing racks, injured 3 directly, and caused as many as 200 cases of smoke inhalation. The carrier withdrew to Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Greece for repairs. The historical record runs deep: Japan lost all four of its aircraft carriers to fire at Midway in June 1942.

On May 20, 2026, Airbus Defence rolled out the latest Tranche 4 Eurofighter Typhoon for the German Air Force at its Manching facility in Bavaria. More than 600 Typhoons are now in service across 9 operators. The aircraft Britain, Germany, Italy, and Spain built after France walked out of the joint Future European Fighter Aircraft program in 1985 has accumulated genuine combat experience across Libya, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and now Iran. An RAF FGR4 scored Britain’s first military air-to-air kill since the 1982 Falklands War over Syria in December 2021.

Britain’s next main battle tank, the Challenger 3, breaks decades of British design tradition by replacing the Challenger 2’s smoothbore gun with a 120mm rifled main gun — and giving the British Army access to standard NATO ammunition and programmable rounds. But the Royal United Services Institute warns the Army will field only 148 Challenger 3s by 2030, well short of the 170 to 300 tanks NATO considers credible for an armored division. Germany has roughly 320 Leopard 2 tanks; the United States operates around 4,600 M1 Abrams.

L3Harris Technologies has supplied its T4 and T7 multi-mission robotic systems to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to support personnel protection operations.

The British Army will operate 148 Challenger 3 tanks, arranged in new reduced Type 44 regimental formations.

Russia has lost between 1 million and 1.2 million soldiers killed and wounded in Ukraine since February 2022, according to Western analysts. A January 2026 CSIS analysis estimated as many as 325,000 dead. Russia controlled roughly 27% of Ukraine at its 2022 peak; Ukrainian counteroffensives at Kharkiv in September 2022 and Kherson in November 2022 pushed Moscow back to about one-fifth of the country. Russian advances have slowed dramatically. In April 2026, the Institute for the Study of War recorded Russia’s first net territorial loss since August 2024.

The U.S. Navy’s 14 Ohio-class SSBN ballistic missile submarines form the sea-based leg of America’s nuclear triad. Each submarine carries 20 Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles with multiple independently-targeted warheads and a range of 4,000 miles. The Ohio-class is 560 feet long, displaces 18,750 tons submerged, runs on an S8G nuclear reactor at over 20 knots, dives below 984 feet, and carries 155 sailors. Each boat operates with Blue and Gold crew rotations — 77 days at sea, then 35 days in port. The class begins retirement in 2028.

There is no F-35 Lightning II kill switch — the Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin have both said so directly. But the rumor that the U.S. could remotely disable allied F-35s gained traction after the Trump administration’s televised confrontation with Volodymyr Zelensky in March, and several allies are rethinking their orders. Canada is contractually obligated to only 16 of an originally agreed 88 F-35s; Saab is pushing the JAS-39 Gripen for the remaining 72. Portugal canceled its F-35 buy.

Yes, you read that right: Norman Schwarzkopf’s Beretta. The handgun that was on the hip of one of America’s most famous generals during one of the nation’s most significant modern military operations could soon be yours.
Imagine having the opportunity to bid on Andrew Jackson’s sword from the Battle of New Orleans or Teddy Roosevelt’s Colt 1892 revolver from his assault on Kettle Hill. Going straight from his family’s possession to the auction block, the sale of Gen. Schwarzkopf’s Desert Storm M9 is unprecedented.
Also Read: Gen.

Lockheed Martin’s $11 billion F-22 Raptor 2.0 upgrade adds stealth-compatible conformal external fuel tanks and infrared search and track pods on the outer wings — extending the F-22’s combat radius by up to 850 nautical miles without sacrificing stealth. Katie Ciccarino, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s F-22 program, said the new Low Drag Tank and Pylon fuel tanks can stay on the aircraft through combat. The F-22 Raptor’s current unrefueled combat radius is roughly 590 nautical miles — a critical limitation in the Pacific.

Operation Epic Fury has effectively saved the A-10 Warthog, an aircraft we have seen up close – our original videos and photos included below. The U.S. Air Force, which spent years trying to retire the venerable close air support platform, is now extending the A-10 Thunderbolt II’s service life into the 2030s — driven in part by the aircraft’s surprising success hunting Iranian small boats and coastal threats at low altitude during the campaign. The A-10 is engineered around its GAU-8/A 30mm Gatling gun, which fires 70 rounds per second from a 1,150-round magazine.

During NATO Exercise JTFEX/TMDI 99 in 1999, the Dutch diesel-electric submarine HNLMS Walrus (S802) penetrated the layered defensive escort screen around the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and notionally sank her in simulated torpedo attacks. The Walrus displaces only about 2,800 tons submerged, measures 222 feet, carries roughly 50 to 55 crew, runs on near-silent battery power, and is armed with four 533mm torpedo tubes and Harpoon missiles. The USS Theodore Roosevelt cost more than $4.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on May 21 that Chinese President Xi Jinping may travel to Pyongyang as early as next week, according to a senior government official in Seoul. An advance team from China’s Central Security Bureau and protocol officers from the CCP Central Committee have already traveled to the North Korean capital. South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong Young said a Kim Jong Un-Donald Trump summit will be discussed if Xi visits Pyongyang. Trump met Kim three times during his first presidential term.

Airbus Defense and Space chief Mike Schoellhorn told an Airbus event that he would support a two-aircraft solution for the European Future Combat Air System sixth-generation fighter program if a single fighter cannot work for France, Germany, and Spain. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury added that the assumptions behind FCAS — launched in 2017 to deliver a European sixth-generation fighter by the 2040s — are no longer valid after the war in Ukraine. France is the only partner with an aircraft carrier and an explicit nuclear weapons delivery requirement.

Australia’s HMAS Waller, a Collins-class diesel-electric submarine, ‘notionally’ sank a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in a wargame simulation and several escorts at the RIMPAC 2000 exercise. The Waller penetrated the carrier strike group’s defenses through patience, acoustic discipline, slow deliberate movements, and the natural advantages diesel-electric propulsion offers at low speed in the littorals. The Collins-class is 77.8 meters long, displaces 3,400 tons submerged, carries 58 crew, runs to 20 knots underwater on battery, and is armed with six 533mm torpedo tubes.

Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet told investors that the company’s F-35 Ferrari concept — an advanced fifth-generation-plus derivative of the F-35 Lightning II incorporating technology from the company’s failed NGAD demonstrator — is now being discussed at the Department of Defense and may soon reach the White House. Lockheed Martin lost the Next Generation Air Dominance program to Boeing’s F-47 sixth-generation fighter in 2025. Taiclet claims the proposed F-35 Ferrari could deliver 80% of sixth-generation capability at half the price.

A French Dassault Rafale fighter notionally shot down an American F-35A Lightning II at Exercise Atlantic Trident over Finland in 2025. Cockpit video shows the French pilot acquiring radar lock and saying take the shot — observer-controllers ruled the engagement a kill. The exercise involved roughly 40 aircraft and 1,000 personnel, including Finnish F/A-18 Hornets and British Eurofighter Typhoons. The Rafale is a non-stealthy fourth-generation-plus fighter equipped with the SPECTRA electronic warfare suite, an AESA radar, and the Meteor beyond-visual-range missile.

GE Aerospace and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions won a U.S. Air Force contract on May 19 to design the GE426 expendable drone engine — a compact propulsion system intended for attritable, next-generation unmanned combat aircraft built for one-way missions or limited operational lifespans. The program now enters the preliminary design review phase. The GE426 is part of the Air Force’s collaborative combat aircraft strategy that pairs manned fighters like Boeing’s new F-47 with autonomous wingmen capable of reconnaissance, electronic warfare, strike or decoy missions.

In 1985, the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered USS Enterprise aircraft carrier hit Bishop Rock at Cortes Bank — an underwater seamount roughly 100 miles west of San Diego — during an Operational Readiness Exercise. The collision opened a massive gash along the port side and damaged the propellers, but the nuclear reactors were unaffected. The crew executed a counter-flooding operation to stabilize the carrier. Captain Robert L. Leuschner Jr. then decided to continue the exercise before returning to port for $17 million in emergency repairs. Leuschner was relieved of command afterward.

The U.S. Navy took delivery of its 25th Virginia-class fast-attack submarine — the USS Massachusetts (SSN-798) — in November 2025. The seventh Block IV boat in the program was built jointly by General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII Newport News Shipbuilding. The submarine measures 377 feet long, displaces 7,800 to 8,000 tons, dives below 800 feet, and reaches roughly 25 knots underwater. It carries 12 VLS tubes, four 21-inch torpedo tubes, Mk-48 torpedoes, and BGM-109 Tomahawk missiles.

When responding to a call for fire, mortar crews have to verbally yell out deflection, charge, and elevation before dropping a round in the tube, but a new mortar system being developed for the Army and Marine Corps could automate much of that process.
The Scorpion Light 81mm mobile mortar system allows crews to use a map-like device to digitally enter the information needed to hit targets, and then the tube is moved into firing position automatically, said James Knight, director of business development for Global Military Products.

In 1995-96, the U.S. Navy sailed two aircraft carriers through the Taiwan Strait after Beijing tried to blockade Taipei. China stood down and was humiliated. Senior National Security Editor Brandon Weichert argues China spent the next 30 years building the answer. The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force’s anti-access and area-denial arsenal now includes the DF-21D carrier killer, the DF-26 Guam Killer with a 4,000-kilometer range tested for anti-ship use in 2020, and the DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense has agreed a deal with Smart Shooter for SMASH Hopper lightweight remote-controlled weapon stations.

Robert Knievel was in his late teens, and he already faced a crossroads.
It was of his own making. Hell-bent on testing the limits of authority, Knievel ran afoul of the authorities in his native Montana several times. The judicial system finally tired of Knievel’s criminal antics and offered him a choice: Spend time in prison or enlist in the military.
Also Read: History Channel doc revisits boxing’s most politically charged rivalry
While Knievel was a troublemaker, he was not dumb. He joined the United States Army and became a paratrooper.

The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet has been the backbone of the U.S. Navy carrier air wing since 2001. Eight hundred and thirty-eight built. Roughly 550 are still in active service. Combat missions over Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and now Iran during the opening waves of Operation Epic Fury. The aircraft Tom Cruise flew in Top Gun: Maverick. The aircraft that every American carrier strike group has built its operations around for the past two decades. Boeing is shutting down the production line in 2027, and the Navy has to make the existing fleet last into the 2050s.

The South Korean Defence Ministry has initiated the formal process to procure nuclear powered attack submarines, after the Navy submitted relevant documents to the Joint Chiefs of Staff outlining the need for the program and specifying requirements. The Joint Chiefs are now reviewing the Navy’s proposal, and are expected to hold a meeting before the end of the month to finalise the requirements for the program.

“The Dodge Durango of submarines.” That’s how a former U.S. Navy admiral described the Virginia-class attack submarine. The framing is correct by every credible technical measure. The Virginia-class is the most capable nuclear attack submarine ever built — quieter than the Russian Yasen-class, more heavily armed than the British Astute, and now carrying 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles per boat in the Block V configuration. It is also produced at half the rate the Navy actually needs.

The Cuban Armed Forces have deployed Soviet-supplied S-125M/M1 medium range surface-to-air missile systems for air defence exercises, at a time when the country faces an imminent threat of a U.S. led assault. Trump administration officials have since the beginning of the year provided multiple indications of plans to use military force against Cuba, with the bringing of charges by the United States against former Cuban leader Raul Castro, among other leadership figures, on May 20, considered a significant escalation intended to provide pretext for attacks.

Andrew White, Breaking Defense
The U.S.

Stars and Stripes
Somewhere between Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro on May 10, the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz became the longest-serving flattop in Navy history, the service said this…

Sandy Clark, RCDefense
In the Navy’s force of helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft, we live and die by the “3-for-2” rule.

USNI N.

Tyler Rogoway, WarZone
We now know the building goes six floors underground and will have “the greatest drone empire you’ve ever seen that’s going to protect Washington” on its roof.

United States officials speaking to the Washington Post have reported that the Israel Defence Forces conserved its stockpiles of anti-ballistic missile interceptors during the 39 day war with Iran, which placed more pressure on U.S. forces in the Middle East to expend very high portions of their own stockpiles. According to three officials who spoke to the outlet, the U.S. Army expended over half its stockpile of interceptors for the THAAD system, making around 200 launches, while the Navy expended over 100 SM-3 and SM-6 anti-ballistic missiles.

This video describes the military situation in

China’s diplomats are on an “AI governance” offensive. At a May 5 United Nations meeting, China’s vice minister of science and technology championed China’s role in shaping U.N.-led frameworks that determine how the technology should be built and used. Just a week earlier, two top Chinese AI experts actively involved in Beijing’s governance efforts appeared by video on a Capitol Hill panel discussion hosted by Senator Bernie Sanders, touting China’s contributions to AI safety and cooperation.Norms and standards on AI development and applications are still being defined.

This video describes the military situation in

Gaza did not have to look the way it looks. That is not a moral claim. It is an operational one.Claims of necessity are invoked to explain the scale of civilian harm, but they founder in the face of operational logic. Supporters of Israeli methods argue that Gaza’s urban battlefield — tunnels, rocket fire, extreme population density, hostages held underground — left no viable alternative to large-scale destruction. That argument rests on a false assumption: that large-scale fires were inevitable rather than chosen, and that the only tradeoff was between more fires and mission failure.

Every time reports emerge about a potential reduction of U.S. forces or capabilities in Europe, the old continent falls into the same cycle of anxiety and panic. The same applies to announcements about delayed or suspended deployments, planned rotations, or broader force posture reviews.A brief historical reminder here is necessary.  The 2014 Wales Defense Investment Pledge is still often misunderstood in Europe as little more than an American demand for higher defense spending.

Join us as The Royal British Legion hosts “Re

The Cuban Armed Forces have launched live fire air defence exercises, deploying modernised Soviet S-125 medium range surface-to-air missile systems, in what analysts have assessed to be a simulation of a U.S. assault on the country. This has occurred as the U.S. Navy deployed the nuclear powered supercarrier, USS Nimitz, and its strike group, into the Caribbean Sea. The exercises closely follow the bringing of charges by the United States against former Cuban leader Raul Castro and others in the country’s current and former leadership for allegedly conspiring to kill U.S. citizens.

Footage released by the Russian Defence Ministry has shown the delivery of Russian nuclear warheads to equip Belarusian Armed Forces Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile systems, as part of the nuclear-sharing arrangement between the two countries that has been in effect since 2023. State media reported that several Iskander systems have been stationed in Belarus, while “special munitions,” the Russian military term for nuclear payloads, are stored separately at a secure facility.

The Russian Aerospace Forces scrambled Su-35 and Su-27 fighter aircraft to repeatedly intercept a British Royal Air Force RC-135W Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft operating near Russian forces over the Black Sea. The British Ministry of Defence on May 20 published footage of the incidents, which included a very close approach by a Su-35 that triggered the British aircraft’s onboard emergency systems and automatically disable its autopilot. A Su-27 subsequently made six passes directly in front of the RC-135, closing to within six metres of its nose.

The Chengdu J-20A — the upgraded variant of China’s J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighter — is being assigned to top-tier PLAAF formations within direct operational reach of Taiwan and the First Island Chain. Senior National Security Editor Brandon Weichert argues the J-20A is best understood not as China’s answer to the F-22 Raptor but as a long-range battle manager — a flying quarterback designed to orchestrate the wider kill chain across PL-15 long-range missiles, drone swarms, naval forces, ground-based missile batteries and airborne early warning aircraft.

The U.S. Navy’s Block V Virginia-class fast-attack submarine adds an 84-foot Virginia Payload Module that triples Tomahawk cruise missile capacity from 12 to 40 per boat. The increase matters because Operation Epic Fury against Iran depleted nearly one-third of America’s prewar Tomahawk inventory — over 1,000 of 3,100, according to CSIS. The U.S. Navy is also retiring four Ohio-class SSGNs between 2026 and 2028, removing 616 Tomahawk cells, and twelve Ticonderoga-class cruisers, removing another 2,080 vertical launch cells. Tomahawks cost between $1.

The Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) — the joint sixth-generation fighter program between Britain, Italy, and Japan — is facing its first major crack. BAE Systems has warned that roughly 4,000 British engineers and personnel working on the program will be reassigned within ten weeks if the British government does not finalize longer-term contracts before the temporary bridge funding ends in June. Britain has already paid £686 million into Edgewing, the industrial venture combining BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo, and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co.

TAMPA, Fla. — While U.S. forces deployed to the southern border employ several fixed and mobile counter-drone systems, the top general in charge of stateside defense said troops lack adequate technology for patrols.
Within days of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, troops quickly flooded to the southern border as part of the administration’s crackdown on immigration, soon taking to mounted and dismounted patrols along the barrier.
Since then, the region has become what officials dubbed a testbed for counter-UAS systems, part of an effort to zap drones coming over the border. Gen.