The Italian Air Force has deployed F-35B fifth generation fighter aircraft to conduct highway operations in Finland for the first time, operating the aircraft from the Finnish Air Force’s dispersed road base network to simulate dispersal in a high intensity conflict situation. The fighters operated from the Jokioinen alternate landing site in Kanta-Hame, approximately 200 kilometres from the Russian border. These operations reflected a broader U.S.

Delays to the development of the Indian Tejas lightweight fourth generation fighter have caused serious and worsening issues for Indian Air Force’s combat capabilities, resulting in both the missing of targets for the size of the fighter fleet by a considerable margin, and in major increases to the average age of currently serving fighter types.

General Designer at Russia’s largest tank producer the Uralvagonzavod Group, Andrey Terlikov, has provided new details on the future of the T-90M main battle tank program and the vehicle’s future modernisation potential. Assessing that the tank is performing excellently during operations in the Ukrainian theatre, he projected that it continue to be modernised for a decade. Referring to the baseline T-90 variant, he observed: “The tank was developed in the 1990s. Its service life is at least 50 years.

L Todd Wood and former Special Mission Unit Commander Pete Blaber discuss the Iran conflict, and how Europe is pushing for war with Russia as the Ukraine conflict may be coming to an end.
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Russian forces attempted to shoot down a real stork with an FPV interceptor drone on the southern front.
The stork narrowly escaped by entering a sharp spin at the last moment to evade the attack.
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Summary and Key Points: Congress and the Pentagon are reviewing the Ford-class aircraft carrier program — including whether the CVN-80 and CVN-81 block buy actually delivered the promised savings before authorizing a future CVN-82 and CVN-83 block.

-The Ford-class supply chain involves over 2,000 specialized sub-vendors, and abruptly canceling the line would collapse the U.S. carrier industrial base. Designing, testing, and certifying a clean-sheet replacement would take 10 to 15 years before the first steel is cut.

Everyone is again talking about a potential deal between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran that will end the war and see the Strait of Hormuz, which remains closed despite a (shaky) ceasefire being in place, reopened to all civilian shipping.

Yet again, it seems, the world has amnesia. We’ve all been down the false path of peace talks between the Trump administration and Tehran. Every time, it has yielded no results whatsoever (other than keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed).

One of the first things I did when I moved to a new home just south of Orlando after leaving national security think tank-land in DC was to make as many contacts in the space community as I could. I have been fortunate to meet a number of past and present SpaceX employees, and I have to say they are some of the smartest and most fascinating people I have ever met. In fact, my uncle worked for NASA, helping design and maintain the Space Shuttle back in the 1980s and 1990s.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has the world’s largest arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons and has rattled his nuclear saber quite often since the war in Ukraine started, and as he keeps trying to use nuclear blackmail against the West.

Western intelligence and security analysts generally view the actual deployment of those weapons as highly unlikely. However, he keeps repeating it, trying to unnerve the West, but it has had the opposite effect.

MiG-31 Russian Air Force. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Su-33 Flanker from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Infanteers from Y Company, The Princess of Wale

The MITRE Corporation confirmed that insiders are reviewing its archives to comply with a recent production request from Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., who pressed the not-for-profit organization for dozens of assets that would reveal whether it currently has or previously possessed information on unidentified anomalous phenomena and associated unexplained technologies.

Summary and Key Points: The United States Navy originally planned a fleet of 29 Seawolf-class attack submarines, but only 3 were built before the program was canceled following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

-Each Seawolf used HY-100 steel, which allowed the boat to operate at greater depths and could carry as many as 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles. The cancellation directly contributed to the Navy’s current submarine deficit.

RFA Lyme Bay has sailed from Gibraltar packed w

Summary and Key Points: Ukrainian drone strikes have knocked out 25 percent of Russia’s oil refining capacity, forcing Moscow to ban diesel and aviation fuel exports. Since February 2022, Ukraine has carried out 158 strikes against Russian oil refineries and hit 24 of its 33 major facilities.

-Russia’s average refining rate in April fell to 4.69 million barrels per day — the lowest level in more than 16 years.

This video describes the military situation in

The 11th Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) concluded on May 22. Held every five years, the conference offers an opportunity to evaluate the treaty’s implementation, respond to technological and geopolitical developments, and reinforce states’ commitment to the treaty. For the third time in a row, the conference failed to reach consensus on a final document.We asked five experts for their perspectives on what the conference achieved — or failed to achieve.Read more below.

Summary and Key Points: Total United States household debt has reached $18.8 trillion, with credit card balances climbing to $1.28 trillion, according to the New York Federal Reserve. Only 44 percent of Americans can cover a $1,000 emergency from savings, and nearly one in three Buy Now, Pay Later users have started putting groceries on installment plans. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reports credit card accounts making only minimum payments are at the highest level in more than a decade.

The F-22 Raptor tore through the skies over Mia

Vladimir Putin signed a revised Russian nuclear doctrine on November 19, 2024 — exactly 1,000 days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. The new doctrine declares that any conventional attack on Russia by a non-nuclear state with the support of a nuclear power will be treated as a joint attack on Russia, providing the legal basis under Russian law for nuclear retaliation.

A new bill could offer surviving family members of troops and veterans a slight increase in monthly compensation, along with a more sizable annual increase in benefits for the most severely disabled veterans.
The House of Representatives recently passed the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, which calls for a 1.5% increase in Dependency and Indemnity Compensation over the next two years. Experts told Task & Purpose that the increase would be modest — coming in at less than $100 a month. 
If the Senate also passes the bill, it would also provide an $833.

The USS New Jersey, “The Big J” — the most-decorated battleship in United States Navy history — completed a $10 million dry-docking overhaul in spring 2024 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and returned to her berth as a floating museum in Camden, New Jersey. The 12-week project replaced 1,300 zinc anodes and repaired 132 through-hull openings. During her single tour in Vietnam, the battleship fired 5,866 of her 16-inch shells — only 1,500 rounds short of her total output during World War II, both Korean War tours, and training cruises combined.

Summary and Key Points: Iran’s state-run media on May 27 unveiled a peace plan demanding that the U.S. Navy withdraw from the Persian Gulf before Tehran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is also demanding war reparations and refusing to ship its enriched uranium out of the country. About 42 American aircraft have already been destroyed in the conflict, including aerial refueling tankers, drones, and an AWACS early-warning aircraft.

-Pakistan is mediating, but Russia would veto any UN attempt to break the deadlock because Putin views Iran as an ally.

Ukraine’s drone war against Russian logistics

In 2025, Nazmelis Zengin wrote, “The Fragility of U.S. Space Power in a Multipolar World,” where she argued Washington’s space superiority could be challenged if the United States doesn’t rethink its course, taking lessons from mid-tier space powers. A year later, we asked Nazmelis to revisit her arguments.

Summary and Key Points: For centuries, Russia’s enormous size has been its greatest defense, swallowing armies from Napoleon to Hitler. Ukrainian drones are now flipping that strength into a weakness.

-Ukraine’s domestic Firepoint FP1 and RS1 Bars kamikaze drones, paired with British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, have shut down six of Russia’s ten oil refineries, cost Moscow more than one trillion rubles in refinery damage, destroyed 250 Russian air defense units in April alone, and forced Moscow to close civilian airspace below 5,100 meters starting June 1.

T-72 Russian Tank.

Summary and Key Points: Russia’s State Duma passed legislation on May 27 authorizing Sberbank, the central bank, and other financial institutions to install electronic warfare systems and arm employees to shoot down Ukrainian drones threatening their facilities.

-The same day, a British-made Storm Shadow cruise missile struck the Russian central bank’s office in Sevastopol, Crimea, setting the building on fire.

-Royal United Services Institute researcher Thomas Withington said the law shows that “military-level drone defense capabilities in Russia are failing.

A new poll from Russia’s independent Levada Center is being widely cited online as evidence that Russians are finally turning against the war in Ukraine and, by extension, against President Vladimir Putin himself. But the actual findings are considerably more complicated.

The survey, conducted between February 18 and February 25 across 137 localities in 50 Russian regions, found that two-thirds of Russians now support peace negotiations with Ukraine, while support for continuing the war has fallen to 24%, the lowest level recorded since Levada began tracking the issue.

Summary and Key Points: Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz without firing a single shot. By threatening cargo ships with drones, missiles, sea mines, swift boats, and midget submarines, Tehran has created a fear-based blockade — global insurance companies are now raising premiums and refusing to pay claims, and shipping firms are avoiding the strait entirely. Iran is also demanding that Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon pay licensing fees on their undersea internet cables, with exclusive repair rights given to Iranian firms.

23 Parachute Engineer Regiment delivered a ruth

The Pentagon’s latest set of Navy promotions, advancing more than 20 Navy captains to one-star admiral, included zero women, reinvigorating a debate about the barriers women face in their climb to the highest rungs of the military.
Last week, the Pentagon released a list of 22 appointments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of Navy captains to rear admiral, lower half, which are one-star flag officers at the O-7 paygrade.
Promotion from captain to admiral is the first of the flag ranks among the naval officer corps, and is the most selective for officers in the Navy.

U.S. Special Operations Command’s Joint Acquisition Task Force and the SOFWERX innovation hub are looking to partner with industry to develop a proving ground for autonomous systems. 
Officials have selected NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi — a location used by special operations forces for training — as the site for the effort, according to a special notice posted on a government contracting website.

Vladimir Putin and his military are struggling. The army may be losing around 30,000 troops a month. Russian forces cannot maintain the initiative and are back on their heels. Ukraine is making great use of long-range one-way drones that continually sting Russia. Volodymyr Zelensky is also deploying excellent new homegrown ballistic and cruise missiles, such as the FP-5 Flamingo.

Russia Has Violated the Principles of Warfare

Ukraine Switchblade Drone. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

T-64 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The Squire Sea Glider is making use of somethin

Can Ukraine Prevail and Win the War Against Russia? The Russian invasion of Ukraine has dragged on for more than four years, and it appears, at least outwardly, that neither side is capable of winning the war strictly in a military sense. Most analysts believe that without Western support, Ukraine would lose the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to paint the “special military operation” as going to plan, but it has been anything but.

The Space Force’s acquisition arm has tapped SpaceX to expedite development of a proliferated low-Earth orbit constellation that’s expected to serve as the foundation of the Pentagon’s future space-based communications architecture.
The $2.29 billion Other Transaction Authority agreement announced by the service Tuesday evening is for the Space Data Network (SDN) Backbone. Per the contract, SpaceX is required to deliver a “fully operational prototype” by the end of 2027, according to a Space Systems Command press release.

This video describes the military situation in

Vladimir Putin and his senior military leadership did not believe they were starting a multi-year war in Ukraine when they attacked back in February, 2022. And to be honest, at the time, I agreed. Things did not look good for Kyiv, and I was very careful the night of the invasion to be supportive of Ukraine when I went on TV or radio when the news broke. I felt like Kyiv would be taken, and I said so on hit after hit on Fox News, but that Ukraine did have a chance to save their country if they fought an asymmetric war and made Putin pay a heavy price for every inch of land Russia took.

The Eurofighter Typhoon is often positioned as a comparatively lower-cost alternative to the F-35 Lightning II. Despite lacking comparable stealth systems, the Eurofighter is still a highly capable multi-role fighter.

Recent delivery tranches, such as tranches 4 and 5, have further enhanced the aircraft’s multi-role capabilities, with state-of-the-art avionics and electronic warfare suites.

Eurofighter Typhoon Training in Sky. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Summary and Key Points: This summer, the U.S. Navy will conduct an unprecedented test, exporting electricity from the USS Gerald R. Ford’s two A1B nuclear reactors to Naval Station Norfolk — the world’s largest naval base — to prove the carrier can keep the facility running if cyberattacks, missile strikes, or drone strikes take down the civilian power grid.

-Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed the plan at a May 14 House Armed Services Committee hearing, telling lawmakers “This summer, Norfolk Naval Base is going to be powered from an aircraft carrier.”

The U.S.

Summary and Key Points: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claims it has opened fire on an American F-35 stealth fighter, shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone, and forced an RQ-4 intelligence aircraft to retreat from Iranian airspace — claims neither U.S. Central Command nor independent observers have confirmed.

-The announcements followed U.S. self-defense strikes on Bandar Abbas, a southern Iranian port city on the Strait of Hormuz, targeting Iranian missile launch sites and IRGC boats reportedly attempting to lay mines.

U.S. Air Force Capt.

Tanks are officially evolving from heavy Cold War-era brawlers into networked, semi-autonomous battlefield systems that are built for drone-saturated combat zones rife with lethal anti-tank munitions. This evolution was a long coming. And the Russians were the first major power to make the shift (because they have been engaged in a major war in Ukraine since February 22, 2022).

Now, the Western powers are doing their best to catch up to the adaptations their rivals are making in the arena of tank warfare.

K3 Tank from South Korea National Security Journal Photo.

Summary and Key Points: The F-16V is the most advanced fighter Taiwan currently fields, equipped with the AN/APG-83 AESA radar, the Viper Shield electronic warfare suite, and components shared with the F-22 and F-35. But against China’s Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon — the PLAAF’s first fifth-generation stealth fighter — the F-16V is outmatched in nearly every scenario.

Summary and Key Points: When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Black Sea Fleet had 74 vessels, a Slava-class flagship cruiser, and overwhelming superiority against a Ukrainian Navy that had almost no operational warships.

Four years and three months later, approximately 30 percent of the fleet has been destroyed or seriously damaged.

Russian Navy Kirov-Class. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

How the Russian Navy Fell Apart in the Ukraine War
Nothing has gone right for Russia during the Ukraine war, especially when it comes to Putin’s Air Force.

In service since 2009, the MK17 SCAR-H is being

Key Points and Summary: The Russian Aerospace Forces entered Ukraine in February 2022 with approximately 1,400 frontline combat aircraft and a plan to establish air superiority within 72 hours. Four years and three months later, Russia has lost approximately 361 combat aircraft to confirmed visual tracking, with actual losses likely substantially higher.

-The Su-34s and Su-35s that survived the war are now being cannibalized for parts because the production pipeline cannot keep pace with attrition.

Wojskowe Zaklady Elektroniczne (WZE), a Polish government-owned defence company, has received a purchase order from L3Harris Technologies to produce Attitude Control Motors (ACMs) for the US Army’s Patriot (PAC-3) missile system.

Norway has signed the Framework Agreement under the Patria-led Common Armoured Vehicle System (CAVS) programme, clearing the way for the country to begin serial procurement of Patria’s CAVS 6×6 armoured vehicles.

Nine of the 18 countries participating in a Czech-led initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine have now withdrawn from the effort.

The number of countries has been falling since Prime Minister Andrej Babiš returned to office in December, having campaigned on a pledge not to make Czech citizens pay for Ukraine’s weapons.

Ukraine Has Artillery Shell Problems Now

An ATACMS missile being launched from an M270 MLRS.

Reports today state that Russian President Vladimir Putin will close Moscow and most of the airspace of European Russia to all private planes and helicopters. The closure comes from his fear of both Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes and increasing rumors of possible assassination plots against him internally.

The boundaries of this restricted area extend over most of central Russia. It begins at the border with Belarus in the west, extends north to the St.

Two years after the United States military pulled out of Vietnam in 1973, the Communists moved ever closer to overrunning South Vietnam.
Before Saigon fell, President Gerald Ford threw a supposed lifeline to children in Southeast Asia that the war left without parents. So on April 3, 1975, he authorized Operation Babylift—a bold endeavor that resulted in the evacuation of roughly 3,300 Vietnamese orphans from the embattled country.