NATO’s top military commander, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, assured allies Tuesday that the planned withdrawal of approximately 5,000 American troops from Europe will not weaken the alliance’s defense posture in the region.
Speaking to reporters after meetings with NATO military chiefs in Brussels, Gen. Grynkewich — who serves as both Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and head of U.S. European Command — described the move as part of a broader adjustment in U.S. force posture.

From May 14 to 15, U.S. President Donald Trump held a summit in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. In addition to pageantry, the summit featured discussions about Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, Taiwan, and bilateral trade. Both Washington and Beijing emphasized a relationship based on “constructive strategic stability.”Many countries, particularly those in Asia, were watching closely to see how the two leaders got along, what they agreed on, and what divided them. We asked four experts to tell us about the reactions in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines.Read more below.

More than 300 years after the 150-foot-long Spanish galleon San José came to a grisly end off the coast of Colombia, the world’s most coveted shipwreck is again at the center of a bitter struggle over who has a right to its untapped wealth.

The Backstory
The San José sank near Colombia’s port city of Cartagena back on June 8, 1708, while carrying one of the richest cargoes ever assembled in the Americas. Often described as the “Holy Grail of shipwrecks,” the vessel is believed to have gone down with gold, silver, emeralds, Chinese porcelain, and other valuables.

The XM2001 Crusader was supposed to become the U.S. Army’s next-generation artillery system: a heavily automated 155mm self-propelled howitzer capable of firing faster, farther, and more accurately than the aging M109 Paladin fleet it was designed to replace.

Instead, it became one of the most famous canceled weapons programs in modern Pentagon history after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld abruptly killed the project in 2002 during the early months of the post-9/11 “military transformation” era.

NATO Artillery Test. Image Credit: NATO.

Has Ukraine just demonstrated a new phase of dr

The U.S. Navy commissioned three Midway-class aircraft carriers in 1945 — the USS Midway, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt, and USS Coral Sea — designed with heavily armored flight decks to survive the kamikaze attacks that had crippled the Essex-class. Each ship measured nearly 1,000 feet, produced 200,000 shaft horsepower, and carried more than 4,000 sailors. None saw World War II combat, but all three fought through the Cold War. The Midway launched strikes over Vietnam, evacuated Saigon in 1975, and struck Iraqi forces in Operation Desert Storm.

After his Beijing summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump called Taiwan a ‘place’ rather than a country, cautioned Taipei against using the word ‘independence,’ and froze U.S. arms sales to the island. The shift is the consequence of the Iran War. Tehran has now closed the Strait of Hormuz, set up a permanent toll bureaucracy charging passing ships in yuan, bitcoin, or gold, and the U.S. Navy has not forced the waterway open.

As President Donald Trump’s delegation prepared to leave Beijing after a two-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, White House staff collected the Chinese-issued credentials, lanyards, delegation pins, and U.S.-issued burner phones from the trip and dumped them into a bin at the bottom of the Air Force One stairs. New York Post correspondent Emily Goodin reported that nothing from China was allowed onto the aircraft. AFP reporter Danny Kemp confirmed Chinese officials had asked for their red lapel badges back, and U.S. staff put them in the bin instead.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the U.S. Navy’s lead Ford-class aircraft carrier, is heading into a major repair period after a 300-plus-day combat deployment — one of the longest in modern U.S. naval history. The damage list is long. The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear need full inspection after sustained combat sortie generation. The vacuum waste system that left sailors unable to flush toilets may be redesigned outright. Berthing compartments damaged by a multi-hour laundry fire need refurbishment.

Right at the front of the Strategic Defence Rev

The F-35 Lightning II is best known for stealth, internal weapons storage, and sensor fusion. It also has a Beast Mode. In stealth configuration, the F-35 is limited to 5,700 pounds of internally stored weapons. In Beast Mode, the jet can carry up to 22,000 pounds — a roughly 400 percent increase. A typical Beast Mode loadout includes four external 2,000-pound GBU-31 JDAMs and two AIM-9X Sidewinders, plus two more JDAMs and two AIM-120 AMRAAMs held internally. Empty, the F-35 weighs 29,000 pounds. Fully loaded in Beast Mode, it weighs about 70,000.

President Donald Trump has promised to release as many Pentagon UFO files as possible, raising the question of what the so-called disclosure moment would actually look like. Science fiction offers a hopeful answer — humanity unites against an external threat. History has a darker one. When the Persians invaded Greece in 490 and 480 BCE, large numbers of Greeks defected to the Persians. The Gauls fought alongside Caesar. Spanish conquistadors quickly found allies inside the Aztec and Inca confederations and exploited them.

Saab and Scania France have finalised an agreement with the French Directorate General of Armaments (direction générale de l’Armement) to provide 17 Giraffe 1X radars to the French Armed Forces.

The new Bob Odenkirk film “Normal” is now available to rent or buy on digital and it’s a blast.
Literally. 
In fact, in the words of the screenwriter Derek Kolstad, “It’s not a film. It’s a f***in’ movie!” 
I had the chance to chat with Kolstad, who is also the creator of the “John Wick” franchise and the writer of Odenkirk’s “Nobody,” and it became clear why “Normal” is the fun flick that it is—because Kolstad loves what he does. And it sounds like the rest of the cast and crew felt the same way.

The U.S. Navy plans to spend $17 billion on the first Trump-class BBG(X) nuclear-powered guided-missile battleship, with the first three hulls estimated at $43 billion and the full fleet potentially reaching $700 billion across its lifetime. The ship will displace 30,000 to 40,000 tons — closer in size to Russia’s Admiral Nakhimov nuclear battlecruiser than to a U.S. destroyer — and carry hypersonic weapons, Conventional Prompt Strike missiles, directed-energy lasers, and potentially nuclear cruise missiles. The Pentagon is designing the BBG(X) around the U.S.

The US Department of State has approved two possible foreign military sales (FMS) to India, with a total estimated value of $428.2m.

For special operators, having expertise in new and emerging technologies is just as important as physical fitness and other aspects of fighting, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, said on Tuesday.
“This environment demands exactly what Wild Bill Donovan said 80 years ago: We need PhDs who can win a bar fight,” Navy Adm. Frank M. Bradley said at this year’s SOF Week exhibition in Tampa, Florida.
Bradley was referring to a famous quote attributed to Army Maj. Gen. William Joseph Donovan, who led the Office of Strategic Services, the U.S.

A war between Poland and Russia’s long-time close ally Belarus could break out at any time, say Polish defense officials. The frontline NATO-member nation shares a more than 300-mile border with the small, former Soviet Republic, run by a strongman, President-for-Life Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Poland vs. Belarus Could Mean NATO vs. Russia 

Su-57 Felon Fighter from Russia

What has raised increased concerns among the Poles in the past few years is the development of a new form of warfare that Belarus is now engaged in.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced on May 18 that Ukraine has deployed its first domestically built glide bomb — the Vyrivniuvach, or Equalizer — and that the 250-kilogram weapon is already cleared for combat use after 17 months of development by the Brave1 platform and DG Industry. The Equalizer is roughly comparable to the U.S. JDAM at a fraction of the price, can be fitted to multiple aircraft, including the Sukhoi Su-24, and arrives as Russia has been dropping as many as 5,700 KAB glide bombs on Ukrainian positions in a single month.

Ronald Reagan avoided combat during World War II because of severe nearsightedness. Instead, he narrated about 400 preflight training films while in the Army Air Forces.
It was a natural fit. An actor by trade, Reagan was comfortable in front of a camera. Blessed with a distinctive, grandfatherly voice, he was also a gifted public speaker.
Also Read: This Navy aviator escaped his captors during the Vietnam War and lived to tell about it
As a two-term president during the 1980s, Reagan delivered some of his most memorable speeches on Memorial Day.

The F-14D Tomcat was the most capable fleet defense fighter the U.S. Navy ever flew off a carrier deck. Grumman’s proposal to make it dramatically better was called the Super Tomcat 21 — and it was, by most credible assessments of what Cold War aerospace engineering could produce, the carrier fighter the Navy probably should have built.

The Super Tomcat 21 Would Have Been Amazing: She Never Flew Anywhere

It would have supercruised at Mach 1.3 without afterburner. It would have carried more fuel, more weapons, and a longer-range radar than any other naval fighter in the world.

The U.S. Navy is informally calling it the Nimitz Gap. The USS Nimitz, the oldest carrier in the fleet and originally scheduled for decommissioning, is now leading a task force in U.S. Southern Command. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower’s retirement has been pushed past 2028. The Ford-class replacements — the USS John F. Kennedy and the USS Enterprise — are both delayed. The $13 billion USS Gerald R. Ford just returned from a 326-day deployment, battered by a laundry fire and broken plumbing. America has 11 aircraft carriers on paper.

BATTLE READY SOUL | Military Tribute
✓ Link t

Russia’s Avangard is the only operational hypersonic glide vehicle in service anywhere in the world. Developed from Soviet Project Albatross, which began in the 1980s to defeat Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, the system rides an R-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile into the upper atmosphere, separates, and glides toward its target at speeds between Mach 20 and Mach 27. Estimates put the warhead at 800 kilotons to 2 megatons, with a range exceeding 6,000 kilometers. Russia revealed the system in 2018 after Putin first teased it in 2004. The U.S.

The Pentagon is moving to fast-track the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation carrier-launched stealth fighter after months of internal debate over whether the program could be deferred in favor of upgraded F-35Cs. The shift reflects a hardening assessment of China’s air power trajectory: the People’s Liberation Army Air Force is on track to field roughly 1,000 J-20 fighters by 2030, the Chinese Navy has moved its J-35 carrier stealth fighter into mass production, and the PLA is now flying two sixth-generation prototypes — the J-50 and J-36. The F/A-XX will be designed for Mach 2.

US defence spending could be set to increase significantly in the medium term, with a focus on military fixed-wing aircraft and missiles.

The International Energy Agency’s May report shows global oil inventories fell by 250 million barrels across March and April, with the Q2 drawdown running at 8.5 million barrels a day. The U.S. just released another 53.3 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Trafigura, Marathon, and ExxonMobil — the second major release this spring, leaving the reserve below 300 million barrels. President Trump set five new preconditions for resuming talks with Iran, including the delivery of Tehran’s full enriched uranium stockpile to the United States.

The Air Force now has 18 new light attack aircraft that are designed to support special operations forces on the ground, and it expects to receive “a handful more” by October, said Lt. Col. Robert Wilson, of Air Force Special Operations Command, or AFSOC.
The single-engine turboprop OA-1K Skyraider II is “essentially a Swiss Army Knife of airborne capability,” that can fly armed reconnaissance, close air support, and precision strike missions, said Wilson, AFSOC’s armed overwatch requirements branch chief.

The F-14D Super Tomcat was the final and most capable version of the most famous American naval fighter ever to launch from an aircraft carrier deck – we know, we have seen quite a few of them up close, and have included the videos and photos we took for your viewing pleasure. New General Electric F110 engines, a digital glass cockpit, the upgraded AN/APG-71 radar, infrared search and track, and precision strike capability — the F-14D fixed nearly every flaw of the original F-14A. It dropped JDAMs over Afghanistan and Iraq. It flew its last combat mission in February 2006.

“I am sorry, but the best submarine on Earth isn’t American.” That’s what a former British naval offical told me yesterday. The bias is clear, but it is worth noting that such a bold claim is not made lightly. His point was clear: “That title belongs to the Asute-class nuclear attack submarine.”

The Astute-Class Submarine: How Britain Built The Best Hunter-Killer Submarine It Could — And Why Only One Of Them Can Currently Go To Sea

Astute-Class Submarine Royal Navy. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Astute-Class. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

This video describes the military situation in

The Russian state run United Aircraft Corporation has released the first images showing a new variant of the Su-57 fifth generation fighter, reportedly designated the Su-57D, making its first flight on May 19. This occurred just a day after the first image of the aircraft was leaked, confirming its development which Russian officials have alluded to for over half a decade. Compared to the baseline Su-57, the aircraft’s cockpit canopy is elongated significant with a steep elevated position for a second airman behind the pilot.

The Republic of China state defence research institute, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, has publicly unveiled a next-generation handheld anti-tank missile system that promises to provide a significant improvement to infantry’s ability to counter adversary armour. The new system, the Kestrel II, was reported to be able to achieve 67 centimetres of armour penetration in testing, and to be able to engage targets at 500 meter ranges.

B.

Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering
Elbit America, L3Harris, and Photonis will each build their own BiNOD version, aiming to improve depth perception, clarity, and battlefield awareness

Joseph Trevithick, The WarZone
The Army knows it needs a more affordable and producible Patriot option as enemies seek overmatch through cheap drones and throngs of ballistic missiles

GDN
Northrop Grumman has secured a $325.5 million U.S.

Valerie Insinna & Michael Marrow, Breaking Defense
Sen.

The Indonesian Air Force has formally brought the first four French-supplied Rafale fighter aircraft into service at a defence handover ceremony at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base in Jakarta. The ceremony was attended by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, and included the transfer of six Rafales, four Falcon 8X business jets, one Airbus A400M MRTT, and one Thales GM403 ground-controlled interception radar.

When the U.S. military launched its war against Iran in Feb. 2026, it did not just dismantle Iranian military capabilities. It shattered the illusion that the United States would consult with its closest allies and that an ally’s refusal to grant base access can stop an American war in motion. Rather than the much discussed “outward flows” of military assets from the Korean Peninsula to the Middle East, it is the anticipated “inward flows” of U.S. military assets that could be more consequential in times of crisis.

Since its proclamation of independence from Somalia in May 1991, Somaliland has sought international recognition for the territories under its control. Despite functioning as a de facto independent state for years, it lacked any formal recognition on the international stage until recently, when Israel became the first state to officially recognize Somaliland as an independent state. On Dec.

Yemeni Ansurullah Coalition Forces have released footage confirming the shootdown of a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft, marking the 27th Reaper shot down by their forces, and the 51st shot down in broader regional hostilities by air defences in Yemen and Iran collectively. The aircraft was shot down in the late hours of May 17, with footage confirming that it was carrying AGM-114 air-to-ground missiles. The missile type was designed for targeted assassinations with minimal collateral damage, and uses deployable blades instead of a traditional explosive warhead.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced that on May 19 that the Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group to ad been dispatched conduct training exercises in the Western Pacific. The exercises will include long-range tactical flights, live-fire drills, support and cover operations, and comprehensive rescue operations, which aim to test and improve combat readiness.

The Pakistani Armed Forces have deployed 8,000 personnel and significant quantities of aerial warfare assets to Saudi Arabia to support its participation in the U.S.-led war effort against Iran, which has been ongoing since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on the country on February 28. Reflecting Pakistan’s uniquely high reliance on Chinese military equipment, equipment deployed has included JF-17 fighters, an HQ-9B long range air defence system, and two squadrons of unmanned aircraft which some reports have indicated may be of Chinese origin.

Lockheed’s F-104 Starfighter was one of the fastest fighters of the early Cold War, capable of Mach 2 on a single General Electric J79 turbojet, and was developed by Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works after he toured air bases in Korea. The aircraft used a long, thin fuselage and very small straight wings to cut drag, but the same design produced brutal low-speed handling. West Germany became one of the largest operators of the Starfighter and lost a significant portion of its fleet to crashes, earning the jet the nickname Widow Maker. Italy flew the F-104 into the early 21st century.

The U.S. Air Force has just concluded its Checkered Flag exercise at Tyndall Air Force Base, a high-end air-to-air training event designed to rehearse the kind of war the United States expects against a peer adversary like China or Russia. Run by Air Combat Command and the 325th Fighter Wing, Checkered Flag puts up to 100 aircraft in a single battle, with around 50 flying as adversaries.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the U.S. Navy’s lead Ford-class aircraft carrier, has returned to port after a 326-day deployment — the longest for any U.S. carrier since Vietnam. The 4,600-sailor crew fought combat operations in the Middle East and South America under Operation Epic Fury, crossed the Atlantic multiple times, and launched hundreds of sorties. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth awarded the Presidential Unit Citation to Carrier Strike Group 12 — including the USS Ford, USS Bainbridge, and USS Mahan.

Summary and Key Points: Israel is moving to extend the range of its F-35I Adir stealth fighters after long-range strike operations against Iran exposed the limits of tanker-dependent airpower. A new $34 million agreement with Elbit Systems will develop external fuel tanks intended to increase endurance, reduce reliance on aging Boeing 707-based tankers, and give Israeli planners more flexibility for future deep-strike missions. The tanks appear likely to function as drop tanks rather than conformal tanks, allowing the aircraft to trade stealth for range when needed.

Lockheed’s YF-12A was a Mach 3.2 Cold War interceptor born from the same Skunk Works lineage that produced the A-12 and SR-71. Built to hunt Soviet bombers before they could threaten North America, the aircraft combined titanium construction, JP-7 fuel, J58 engines, advanced pulse-Doppler radar, and internal AIM-47 missiles. It could fly near 80,000 feet and outrun almost anything in the sky, but its extreme engineering came at a steep cost.

All four Navy aircrew members involved in a midair collision Sunday over an Idaho airshow survived ejecting from their planes, Navy officials confirmed Monday, an outcome that several retired fighter pilots described as extraordinary.
The mishap came when two Navy E/A-18G Growlers appeared to become stuck together in midair during a demonstration flight over Mountain Home Air Force Base. All four crew of the two-person jets ejected almost instantly as the planes stalled, including the two aviators whose jet had become stuck underneath the other plane.