Honolulu, Hawaii – I sat down today with General Ronald Clark, Commander of USARPAC, the U.S. Army component command of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) at the LANPAC Symposium and Exhibition where allied Pacific land forces network for interoperability.
Beyond the obligatory pleasantries and declarations of teamwork, there were some golden nuggets from the General’s comments.
I’m paraphrasing below:
“With long-range strike capability and development, we aim to see first, sense first, and strike first to sustain the land force forward in theater.

When a British national was suspected of having

Several bills slated for markup Wednesday by lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee include provisions that aim to make American defense products easier, faster, or more enticing for foreign partners to purchase.
Senior committee staff previewed the newly proposed foreign military sales and financing reforms on a call with a small group of reporters Tuesday.
Allies’ ability to buy American-made military equipment and related assets have historically faced challenges associated with lagging administrative processes and bureaucracy.

The price tag for the Golden Dome for America could reach $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy and operate over 20 years, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office.
The updated cost estimate is based on a “notional” missile defense architecture that broadly includes capabilities outlined in President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order calling for Golden Dome’s development.

Japan is opening up its defense industry to the

Every separating veteran’s situation is unique, so it’s hard for the military to supply a list of your personal benefits when you get out. What’s so great about the HonorEarned tool: it gathers everything you could be eligible for and takes about 20 seconds. It includes links to apply for those benefits and even has the option to download a printable PDF.

Every firearm, whether it’s for military

On April 28, the United Arab Emirates announced that it would leave OPEC, effective May 1 — ending nearly six decades as an OPEC member. In terms of oil production, it is the most significant country to leave the group. While multiple factors drove the decision to leave, the timing is notable — as the war with Iran has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and focused global attention on oil prices. We asked four experts to consider the impact on OPEC’s future.Read more below.

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In a combat experiment that oddly resembles the claw game at an arcade, the Army will strap a test dummy under an oversized drone at an exercise in Poland this week, the first step toward eventually evacuating injured soldiers from active combat.
As part of ongoing NATO exercises in Poland, the Army will test whether an oversized quadcopter, known as a Flowcopter, can safely fly a casualty out of combat and to a nearby field hospital, officials confirmed to Task & Purpose.

More than 2,000 young people descended on Dartm

All eyes may be on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, but the ongoing mission at the U.S.-Mexico border continues as soldiers from the 101st Airborne and 1st Armored divisions will soon deploy to the region as part of the latest rotation of troops.
The move comes after the 101st’s headquarters and artillery elements were deployed to the border in the fall.
On Tuesday, the Army announced that four units would be part of this summer’s deployments to the southern border. About 8,700 U.S.

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Live rugby league returns to BFBS as the UK Arm

Gen. Frank Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command, sat down with Ryan to discuss the vision behind the command’s new Autonomous Warfare Command and what it signals for the future of military operations in the Western Hemisphere. Donovan explains how SOUTHCOM aims to move drones and autonomous systems beyond tactical experimentation and connect them to strategic effect: disrupting cartel networks designated as terrorist organizations, strengthening cooperation with allies and partners, and giving the command new ways to see, decide, and act across a complex region.

Tucked into the Navy’s budget request for fiscal 2027 is a new plan to identify commercially available vessels and “mothership” designs, existing oceanographic survey platforms, and other mature technologies that map the ocean floor, analyze the marine environment, and maximize undersea warfare capabilities.
The Next Generation Oceanographic Survey Ship — T-AGS(X), or T-AGS Next — is envisioned to replace the aging T-AGS 60 Pathfinder class of ocean-surveying vessels that will reach the end of their service lives in the 2030s, according to recently released budget documents.

Saudi Arabia is about to embark on a five-year period of intense defence spending, with the air domain looking to be the primary focus.

For nearly 400 years a succession of Proof Mast

Lockheed Martin has completed the Seeker Characterization Flight Test for its QuadStar missile, a key phase in the US Army’s Next-Generation Short-Range Interceptor programme.

Smart Shooter has secured a $10.7m contract to supply the US Army with SMASH 2000LE fire control systems, also known as the SMASH 3000SA.

Two Air Force rescue squadrons have been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for their roles in the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, including the desperate evacuation of American citizens and Afghans from Kabul in August 2021.
The Presidential Unit Citation is the highest award that U.S. military troops can be awarded for collective action as a unit, rather than individual valor.

Just when the entire U.S. Army had begun to believe the war would be over by Christmas, a surprise German offensive smashed through the Ardennes. The Allied forces were completely unprepared. What followed were the death throes of Nazi Germany; one last Hail Mary attempt to destroy the Allies’ supply lines and maybe even push them back into the English Channel. Over the course of the next six weeks, 47,000 American soldiers would be wounded, another 23,000 missing, and an estimated 19,000 killed.
So it goes.
The Ardennes was a soft target for the Germans.

NOBODY CARES — WORK HARDER | Military Tribute

The dramatic finale sees the Inter Service trop

Can the RAF stop the Army from dominating the w

Lacking much formal education because of difficult family circumstances, Percy Spencer was determined to learn on his own.
The emerging wireless technology industry of the early 20th century intrigued Spencer, who enlisted in the United States Navy in 1912 intent on becoming a radio operator. The sailor served less than two years in the military, but in that relatively short span, he acquired as much knowledge as possible while in uniform.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey has publicly backed his boss, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, amid a widespread rebellion by Labour MPs.

The U.S. Navy has formally launched the BBG(X) battleship program as part of its Fiscal Year 2027 shipbuilding plan, while confirming that the vessels will be nuclear powered and thus likely very significantly more costly than previously projected. The program is reported to be replacing the long-running DDG(X) next generation destroyer program, although sources have widely speculated that a new destroyer will likely also be developed in parallel.

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UK troops have completed a historic medical par

Terrill, MCT
The U.S.

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The Coast Guard plans to grow its fleet of interdiction teams who hop onto…

Bloomberg
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U.S. Naval Institute Staff, U.S.

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Ukraine has integrated AI into a point defence turret, marking the start of what seems to be the deployment of autonomous weapons at scale.

A number of Russian sources have reported that the sinking of a Russian cargo ship, the Ursa Major, off the coast of Spain in December 2024 has been widely assessed to be the result of a sabotage operation carried out by multiple NATO member states. The sources cited Western reports noting that the ship wascarrying nuclear reactor components intended to support North Korea’s nuclear powered submarine program. A series of unexplained explosions on the ship resulted in it sinking in the Mediterranean, with a U.S.

The UK Armed Forces rugby league team take on G

What happens when the Arctic starts to look like the South China Sea?Historically, a neutral region where cooperation prevailed, the Arctic is quickly becoming a contested space. This is no more evident than in the increasing scope and volume of Russian and Chinese lawfare affecting the region.

The United States Naval Institute has reported that the Russian Navy has deployed warships from the Pacific fleet to escort civilian shipping in the East China Sea, guarding cargo against attempted armed seizures by the U.S. Armed Forces or strategic partners. This has occurred as the United States has escalated efforts to target Russian civilian shipping, and more broadly that from Iran and Venezuela as well. U.S.

Italy may finally be about to publish its first-ever national security strategy, a striking development for the only G7 country that has never had one.For decades, a mix of government instability, competition between institutions, a relatively permissive international environment, and the perceived reliability of U.S. security guarantees in Europe and the Mediterranean reduced incentives to produce a strategy. Recently, however, domestic political consolidation and external pressures have appeared to align in a way not seen before.

RussianPresident Vladimir Putin has revealed that the country’s new type of heavyweight intercontinental range ballistic missile (ICBM), the RS-28 Sarmat, has the world’s longest engagement range at 35,000 kilometres. “The missile can move not only on a ballistic but also on a suborbital trajectory, which allows for a range of over 35,000km while doubling its accuracy and the ability to penetrate all existing and future missile defence systems,” the president observed.

Ukrainian drone operators joined 18,000 Nato tr

The U.S. Navy has announced the development of a nuclear powered surface combat ship, colloquially referred to as the Trump class battleship, which would mark a major shift for the service’s power projection. The United States has not laid down a nuclear powered surface combat ship in almost half a century, since the USS Arkansas was laid down in 1977, with the extreme production and sustainment costs of such ships having been considered prohibitive.

Leading U.S. jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney has completed a fully digital assembly readiness review for its XA103 adaptive engine, which is the major design-phase hurdle before the procurement of hardware to build the first prototype.

Expert on the F-35 fifth generation fighter program Abraham Abrams has in a recent interview on his new book on the program provided insight into its possible future modernisation, responding to a question on whether the fighter would likely in future integrate laser weapons or hypersonic missiles. His answers highlighted the global scale of the F-35 program, and in particular the large number of countries with highly developed economies and defence sectors which operate the aircraft and can potentially contribute to producing new weapons or subsystems.

The inaugural Best Jumpmaster competition at Fort Benning, Georgia, began in a similar style as many of the Army’s “Best” competitions: with competitors taking a PT test and starting off on a long ruck march.
But as the 28 competitors made their way over the 13-mile course, they stopped along the way to be graded on a variety of jumpmaster skills. Then over the course of the three-day event, the paratroopers were put through skill tests that ranged from aircraft inspections and crew briefings to packing or “rigging” a parachute.

The Coast Guard plans to grow its fleet of interdiction teams who hop onto fast-moving cocaine submarines and fast-rope onto oil tankers to make mid-ocean seizures, according to service officials and a fiscal 2027 budget proposal.
In all, the Coast Guard wants to spend about $80 million to add more than 650 personnel to its Deployable Specialized Forces units and a new Special Missions Command overseeing them.

While known for their distinctive role in the H

The Missile Defense Agency is planning to deliver a provisional capability to defend against hypersonic weapons in the near term as it continues development of more advanced systems.
Under a new effort dubbed “Project Maverick,” MDA intends to conduct a flight test of a defensive system to prove the agency’s ability to track and defeat hypersonic missiles in fiscal 2027, according to the organization’s latest budget request. If the demonstration is a success, the resulting capability could serve as an interim counter-hypersonics capability until more advanced systems are fielded.