Defense News
Two MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters completed their first operational mission Jan.

Naval News
Largely, expansion plans within the surface fleet come in the shape of future large surface combatants, mainly aboard the new

Stew Magnuson, National Defense M.

Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven
U.S.

Making a plan to leave the military and step into the civilian workforce is probably one of the most stressful times for any military member. Their steady paycheck is ending, bills are still due, and finding a job suddenly becomes their full-time job.
So when a company finally calls, interviews them, and puts a salary offer on the table, it can feel like the only rational move is to grab it, hang on, and thank whatever god they believe in that the job search is finally over.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has carried out a mission autonomy test flight with its MQ-20 Avenger drone.

Ukraine’s 46th Airmobile Podilsk Brigade is using drones equipped with a fishing rod and weighted cord to intercept Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). 
Footage posted by the brigade on Sunday showed the Ukrainian drone approaching the target from above, causing the Russian drone’s propellers to become entangled in or damaged by the cord. The video captured the system successfully intercepting one fixed-wing drone and one quadcopter. writes SOFX.
Nets are also used by both sides.
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Who is the best team in Royal Navy football in

In July, the team at EarthTraq, a dual-use space company, received an email suggesting we “go through the Space Force Front Door process.” It seemed simple. We offer clear applications for pressing U.S. national security needs. The front door appeared to be the place to learn about capability gaps and seek funding to address them. Between July and December 2025, we navigated three such “front doors” at the U.S. Space Force, National Reconnaissance Office, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

The Battle of Marengo was the culmination of Napoleon’s campaign in Italy in May–June 1800. It completely unraveled the string of Second Coalition victories across the peninsula that began the year before. The battle is notable for Napoleon’s initial underestimation of his enemy. Only timely reinforcements and Austrian hubris won him the day. Napoleon recounted the words of Gen. Louis Desaix at Marengo, that “the battle is completely lost; but it is only two o’clock and we still have time to win another today.

Even after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured, U.S. nationals may still be prosecuted under international law for the country’s previous attacks against suspected drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, including those that happened as recently as Dec. 31, 2025.

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The Royal Danish Air Force has become the third service in the world to field a fighter fleet fully comprised of fifth generation fighter aircraft, following the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 2022, and the Royal Netherlands Air Force in 2024. All three Northern European countries were partners in the F-35 program, and procured the F-35A to replace their small fleets of Cold War era F-16 fourth generation fighters. The retirement of the last Danish F-16s occurred on January 18, ending more than four decades of service.

The Israeli Air Force received three new F-35I fighters from the United States on January 18 , bringing the total fleet up to 48 of the aircraft. The aircraft landed at Nevatim Airbase in southern Israel, where all F-35s are currently based under the 116th and 140th squadrons. The Air Force received its first F-35s in December 2016, declaring them operational the following year, and expanded its fleet with the formation of the 116th Squadron in January 2021.

Public Domain

U.S. forces have withdrawn from Iraq’s Ain al-Asad Airbase, which housed U.S.-led forces in Western Iraq, and the Iraqi army has assumed full control, the Iraqi defence ministry said on Saturday.
In 2024, Washington and Baghdad reached an understanding, opens new tab on plans for the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces from Iraq and a move towards a bilateral security relationship.
Ain al-Asad has hosted U.S.

Footage from the Ukrainian theatre has confirmed that the Russian Armed Forces have begun using a new type of jet-powered single use drone, which was seen striking and destroying a rocket artillery launcher from a U.S.-supplied HIMARS system.The footage published by the unit operating a supporting reconnaissance drone and captured the moment the target was detected and coordinates were passed to the jet powered kamikaze drone, which appeared as a a fast arrow-shaped airframe that approached at high speed.

Secretary of State at the Polish Defence Ministry Pawel Zalewski has confirmed that up to nine MiG-29 fighters being retired from the Polish Air Force will be transferred as aid to the Ukrainain Air Force. He noted that the process has received full political approval, with the Polish and Ukrainian defence authorities currently coordinating over issues including theaircraft’s condition, logistics, and maintenance planning.

National Guard troops will continue to be in Washington, D.C. through the end of the year, after the Trump administration extended their deployment. 
CNN first reported the news, citing government officials, with the Washington Post and ABC News confirming. It’s the second major extension of deployment orders for troops in the capital; in October the orders were extended the first time and expected to end in February. Currently more than 2,600 National Guard troops, from the District of Columbia and nearly a dozen states, are active in the capital after being called up in August.

The last American troops at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad Air Base have left after a months-long drawdown, Iraq’s defense ministry announced on Saturday. 
In a statement, the ministry said that Iraq’s army fully took control of the major base in the country’s western Anbar Province. Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah was on hand for the final withdrawal. The withdrawal marks the final part of a drawdown that got extended this past fall due to concerns of a “security vacuum” in Syria.

Youtube Screenshot

CDM/AFP recently reported on President Trump’s threats to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell violent protests in Minnesota over ICE raids. We have also reported that Treasury Secretary Bessent is working on ‘following the money’ behind the demonstrations.
Today, word comes the Pentagon has put troops on alert for possible deployment in that scenario.
Some 1,500 active duty Army paratroopers have been put on alert for a potential deployment to Minnesota, according to two defense officials, reported ABC News.

For more than three quarters of a century, reports of strange objects in the sky have unsettled pilots, challenged scientists, and tested the credibility of governments.
What began in the late 1940s as scattered sightings of so-called flying saucers has evolved into a modern national security issue discussed openly in Congress under the term Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAP. Two men, separated by generations but united by military service and a refusal to accept official dismissals, played defining roles in that transformation. Maj. Donald E.

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British and Argentinian Falklands veterans are

The Japanese government Board of Audit has revealed that military equipment worth approximately 1.1 trillion yen ($6.9 billion) purchased from the United States under the Foreign Military Sales program more than five years ago has yet to be delivered delivered to the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Among contracts signed since Fiscal Year 2018, 118 procurement cases remained incomplete far beyond their original delivery schedules, primarily due to issues with manufacturers in the United States.

The United States Army has confirmed that it failed to meet its end-of-2025 deployment target for the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) program, otherwise known as theDark Eagle, despite the unit assigned to operate the system already being trained and ready. This follows prior delays in 2023 and 2024, making this the third major recent deadline to have been missedby the program. The missile that has been under development since 2018, and has already received more than $12 billion in funding. It is intended to provide the U.S.

The lawsuit accuses the U.S. military of enforcing a “two-part strategy” to deny virtually all religious accommodation requests from service members and recruits. CHD alleges the military’s policy for granting religious exemptions to recruits is “ambiguous.” For acting service members, the process for obtaining a religious exemption from vaccines is a “sham” and “largely theater.”

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
The U.S.

Dean Dudley

The Secretary of War has made it a priority to remove all DEI and Marxist ideology from the American military. It seems there is more work to do at West Point, otherwise known as the United States Military Academy.
West Point Associate Professor in Social Sciences Dean Dudley reportedly stated on social media that Supreme Court Justice Alito’s question about how courts should define men and women was: “disingenuous and meant for rhetorical show only.”
This professor is still teaching cadets? This is embarrassing.

.@SecWar did you see this? https://t.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy Southern Theatre Command has deployed a naval task force built around the Type 075 class amphibious assault ship Hainan, which includes the Type 903A class supply ship Luomahu and the Type 055 class destroyer Yan’an, alongside a supporting the Type 054A class ocean-going frigate Yueyang. The task force has conducted multi-subject maritime training, with the Type 055 and Type 075 being among the most high profile new types of warship in the Navy’s inventory providing a wide range of advanced capabilities for far seas operations.

The USS Gerald R. Ford has a plumbing problem. 
The Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, which heavily took part in the Jan. 3 airstrikes on Venezuela which led to the capture of Nicolas Maduro, keeps seeing its toilets break down. It’s an apparently ongoing problem that has plagued the ship for months, according to documents obtained by NPR. 
Even though the Ford is the newest and most advanced carrier the Navy has, its toilets continue to fail on a regular basis, impacting more than 4,000 sailors.

American forces killed an al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist leader in Syria connected to the Dec. 13 ambush that killed two Iowa National Guard soldiers and their civilian interpreter. 
U.S. Central Command said that it killed Bilal Hasan al-Jasim in a strike in northwest Syria on Friday, Jan. 16. The strike was in direct response to shooting in Palmyra last month, where an ISIS gunman killed Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard and Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, as well as their American translator Ayad Mansoor Sakat, during a diplomatic meeting between American and Syrian officials.

“Top Gun” is an iconic movie, no doubt about it.
The action flick, which came out in 1986, was a blockbuster hit and has stayed popular ever since. The movie’s lexicon has permeated into our everyday language over the years. We tell others to “Cover me, Goose,” “You can be my wingman anytime,” or “Take me to bed or lose me forever.

All The Pretty Airplanes Lined Up In A Row – Will America Get Serious About Force Protection From Drones Before It’s Too Late?

As a member of the Pentagon Press Corps, we have raised this issue with USAF management and look forward to their response on measures taken to address this serious threat.
UPDATE: Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey:
The United States really since the end of the Cold War has erected these ideas that the things that we’re spending money on are going to keep us safe and that they’re going to help our allies win any potential war that comes along.

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The Department of Defense wants to spend as much as $25 million in major infrastructure improvements to Pituffik Space Base’s runways in Greenland. The overhaul of its airfield is part of other work planned for the installation. 
Pituffik, the U.S. military’s single base in Greenland and a major early warning missile tracking site, could see tens of millions of dollars in upgrades to its airfield and other facilities. In a solicitation for bids posted to SAM.

History
In 1951, the U.S. and Denmark signed a mutual defense pact directed by NATO that remains in effect.

Donald Vandergriff
I am not advocating a war with Cuba. I am a military historian and analyst.

S.

Marine Corps Compass Points
U.S.

Trevithick & Altman, TWZ
The Army wants to start fielding its first MV-75 tiltrotors in 2027, years earlier than originally planned.

This video describes the military situation in

Is the US Army’s old-school ethos- 1️⃣Mission first 2️⃣Never accept defeat 3️⃣Never quit 4️⃣Never leave a fallen comrade -still suitable in a modern battle setting? #bfbsforcesnews #forcesnews #news #uk #shorts #military #army #usa Subscribe to Forces News: http://bit.ly/1OraazC Check out our website: https://www.forcesnews.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ForcesTV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forcesnews/?hl=en X: https://twitter.com/ForcesNews

L Todd Wood and COL Rob Maness, both former USAF pilots, discuss the behind the scenes actions as Trump prepares to strike Iran.
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The Moroccan Defence Ministry has begun evaluating a potential acquisition of up to 400 South Korean K2 Black Panther main battle tanks, as part of a broader modernisation plan for the country’s ground forces. This follows a visit to Seoul in April 2025 by Morocco’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Ryad Mezzour, during which he formally expressed an interest in the K2.

CEO of the Russian unmanned aircraft developer Geron, Vladimir Tabunov, has announced the development of the ‘Predator’ stratospheric unmanned multifunctional platform, which was designed for long range high-altitude missions to partially replace certain functions of satellite and ground-based systems. Designed to fly at low subsonic speeds of Mach 0.46, the aircraft will have a 12,000 kilometre range, 15,000 metre operational altitude, and payload of up to 500 kilograms.

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Zumwalt has departed Pascagoula, Mississippi for sea trials, and is the first warship to do so while configured to be equipped with intercontinental range missiles. The Zumwalt has been under refit since August 2023, during which its twi 155mm Advanced Gun System turrets were removed and replaced with 12 launch tubes or the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) intercontinental range hypersonic missile. The missile has a terminal speed exceeding Mach 5 and an unknown range that exceeds 6000 kilometres. It for the first time provides the U.S.

Ukrainian armored units are getting the ‘hedgehog armor’, a system similar to a wire brush covering the exterior of an armored vehicle to protect against drones. The wire causes the drone warhead to explode some distance from the exterior of the vehicle, preventing damage.
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The Army’s most senior civilian official recently criticized a counter-drone system that soldiers have been employing for years, including in training and on patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told soldiers during a town hall at Fort Drum, New York, this week that the Dronebuster — a handheld jammer designed to zap unmanned aerial systems out of the sky — is “fucking terrible” in his experience.
“It’s a joke,” he said.

Defense giants Lockheed Martin and GE Aerospace recently completed a series of tests for an experimental engine that could reach hypersonic speeds at lower cost, the companies announced Wednesday.
Under a joint technology development effort, Lockheed and GE are developing a liquid-fueled rotating detonation ramjet system that could allow missiles to fly farther and reach speeds of at least Mach 5 — considered the threshold for hypersonic flight. Following the recent ground-based demonstrations of the technology, both firms plan to continue maturation throughout 2026, a news release stated.

A proposed law introduced in Congress this week aims to require private military housing companies to pay for expenses involving mold, including relocating families when their homes become uninhabitable. But an attorney who practices military law says the legislation lacks any teeth.
The bill has no method of forcing the private companies to pay for the expenses they would be required to cover.