Astor Defence is a winner in the Business Expansion category in the 2025 Army Technology Excellence Awards.

“An incredibly busy year, operationally”✨
Tho

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force has or the first time deployed a contingent to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for joint exercises with the UAE Air Force. Spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defence Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang revealed that the drills were conducted from December 9 to 22, and represented the third iteration of the “Falcon Shield” exercises between the two countries, after the previous two rounds of exercises were hosted in China.

The Chengdu Aircraft Corporation has made significant further progress in the development of a very heavy ultra long range sixth generation fighter, bringing the program’s third flight prototype into flight testing. Images showed the aircraft in flight alongside a J-10C fighter on December 25, with the prototype having visible differences from its two predecessors signalling continued evolution and refinement of the design.

The Belarusian Air Force has received a new batch of Russian Su-30SM2 fighters, marking the latest in multiple deliveries since 2019 to significantly enhance the post-Soviet state’s aerial warfare capabilities.

The U.S. Army has confirmed that the M270A2 rocket artillery system has for the first time been involved in live-fire testing in South Korea, marking its debut in a forward-deployed environment. The deployment reflects the prioritisation of positions in Korea for the receipt of the most capable equipment available in the U.S. Armed Forces, as the Korean People’s Army deployed north of the inter-Korean demilitarised zone continues to field one of the most capable land forces in the world and to rapidly modernise its capabilities.

More people have completed the task of climbing

Eighty years ago, American troops were home for Christmas for the first time in years. For the previous four years, troops had faced holidays away from family, and in whatever conditions the war presented, from snowless tropics to brutal winters of northern Europe. But even in the most expansive footprint of the war, cooks, supply troops, and even frontline leaders did their best to make sure Christmas dinner wasn’t forgotten.

During World War II, some 9,000 chaplains served in the U.S. military, representing a wide spectrum of faiths, including Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish traditions. These men did not carry weapons, yet they repeatedly placed themselves in harm’s way to comfort the wounded, counsel soldiers, and uphold morale in the most dangerous theaters of the war. They marched with infantry units across Europe, stormed beaches under fire in Normandy and the Pacific, parachuted behind enemy lines, and ministered in muddy foxholes under relentless artillery bombardment.

Ryan Thomas LaBee, Military.

S&S

Tony Lentini, RCDefense
I grew up an Army Brat and served in the Army myself as a young man.

The announcement on December 22 that the U.S. Navy is scheduled to procure ten unprecedentedly large missile armed surface combat ships has fuelled considerable speculation regarding whether there will be a turning point in fleet capabilities in the 2030s. Informally referred to by U.S. President Donald Trump as ‘Trump class’ warships, and otherwise as ‘battleships,’ the vessels are expected to be large missile cruisers that succeed the Ticonderoga class cruisers which are currently being phased out of service.

From The Great Escape to Elf…🎄🎬
What wi

The Belarusian Defence Ministry has signed a new contract with Russia’s leading producer of air defence equipment Almaz-Antey for the maintenance and repair of Belarusian Armed Forces air defence equipment at a new centre in the country. The ministry reported regarding the agreement: “The air defence repair service centre, established this year in the Republic of Belarus, will begin servicing and repairing Minsk-owned air defence equipment in the coming months in cooperation with Russian companies.

A new batch of Su-35 fighter aircraft has ben delivered to the Russian Aerospace Forces, marking the latest delivery of the year following successful efforts to significantly expand the type’s scale of production. Russian state defence conglomerate Rostec reported regarding the delivery: “The United Aircraft Corporation of the Rostec State Corporation has manufactured and delivered another batch of Su-35S multirole fighters to the Russian Defence Ministry.

North Korean state media on December 24 published the first images of the country’s long anticipated first nuclear powered submarine, revealing that the ship is currently under construction and displaces 8,700 tons. This follows reports from South Korean military sources in October 2024 that the North had begun construction of the first nuclear submarine, an reports for several years from North Korean government sources that the development of such a ship is planned.

New footage released by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command Air Force has for the first time shown a J-10C fighter carrying a new type of air-launched ballistic missile. The missile closely resembles the YJ-21 anti-ship ballistic missile which is carried by H-6K bombers, and appears to be a miniaturised version. The YJ-21 was first unveiled at the 2022 Zhuhai Airshow, and combines a 1500 kilometre range and Mach 10 speed, making it among the most potent anti-ship weapons fielded anywhere in the world.

As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force has continued to retire its Russian-sourced fighter aircraft from service, state media outlets have revealed that the first retired J-11A fighters from the type’s first production batch have been sent to the Air Force Engineering University for ground crew training. These aircraft can be seen carrying the Russian-made R-27 air-to-air missile, as well as its successor domestically produced PL-12 missile, with ground crew seen arming the aircraft and servicing them.

An annual report by the U.S. Department of Defence to Congress on Chinese military capabilities has highlighted that the country’s increasingly capable new fighters being offered for export appear poised to gain more dominant positions on global markets. The report specifically singles out the J-35 fifth generation fighter, J-10C lightweight fourth generation fighter, and its very light counterpart the JF-17, as aircraft which have particularly high export prospects.

Ukrainian forces repelled a Russian cavalry assault using FPV drones in Donetsk Oblast. Cavalry, in this case, actually using horses.
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In 2020, Justin Lynch wrote “Yet Another About Information Technology and the Character of War,” where he argued that the character of war changes over time and the United States should write the future character of war rather than allow it to be written by somebody else.Image: Imperial War MuseumIn your 2020 article, “Yet Another About Information Technology and the Character of War,” you argue that the United States should seek to shape the next character of war rather than merely predict it.

…manage expectations and be content…

With this Monday’s announcement of USS Defiant (BBG-1) absorbing all the oxygen, it is easy to forget that just five days ago we found out about our next frigate. As I mentioned in my Tuesday article, I spun off this discussion just to focus on Defiant.
Well, I did more than that. I deleted it all. It was just too complicated. The frigate announcement was the second, after the LST announcement, of steps we are taking after the cancellation of my poor, abused baby—he Constellation Class FFG.

The B-29 Superfortress was not designed to be nice. It was a pressurized, four-engine behemoth built for one specific purpose: to carry 20,000 pounds of explosive steel to the Japanese mainland. It was one of the machines that ended World War II by turning cities into cinder blocks. It was serious about its job too, carrying eight .50-caliber machine guns in remote-controlled turrets, plus two more .50-cals joined by one 20mm cannon in the tail turret. Just the sound of it in the sky caused fear.

It’s been a year of livestreaming firsts, und

Well, it’s nearly Christmas and very nearly the end of 2025. It’s been quite a year in military news, and while we’re grateful you’ve been with us through it all, we (like you) are ready for a break.
Over the past year, we’ve covered many stories that are worth acknowledging. Now, the typical format for a note like this is for me to rattle off a bunch of examples of our coverage, link to them, and basically pat ourselves on the back while getting a few more clicks for the website before the year wraps up.

The postwar decades crackled with technological ambition. As defense contractors sketched the future of aviation, the space race accelerated with new spacecraft designs. Amid this ferment, a quieter revolution was brewing.

Tyler Rogoway, The WarZone
The lack of an American amphibious aircraft capability has become more glaring as the possibility of a conflict with China looms larger.

CDR Salamander
What am I surprised the most about?

Jennifer Hlad, Defense One
III MEF includes the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, which is “leading the service” in various capabilities.

Gidget Fuentes, USNI News
Confidence in Amphibious Combat Vehicles Grows as Landing Craft Deploy

Jeff Schogol, Task and Purpose
President Donald Trump announced that the Navy’s new “battleships” will each be armed with “state-of-the-art electric railguns.

Saab has secured a contract from Lithuania to supply AT4 weapon and Carl-Gustaf ammunition, with the total order valued at $141.3m.

This video describes the military situation in

Have you heard the phrase “Long War”?

If you are reading this, it’s late December; you are likely hiding in different rooms of your house, playing an annual game of hide-and-seek to keep everyone guessing or avoid your in-laws. Possibly, you’re stuck on a 24-hour shift staring at a clock that seems to be moving backward. You have reached the point in the holiday timeline where high-speed motivation breaks down, and the only objective is survival.

The U.S. Armed Forces’ fleets of F-35 fifth generation fighter aircraft operated by the Air Force, Marines, and Navy have continued to suffer low availably rates, which the Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General’s latest report revealed remained at just 50 percent. Published on December 19, the report observed that although “the aircraft were not available to fly half of the time,” and the maintenance issues meant they didn’t meet “minimum military service requirements,” the Pentagon still paid the fighter’s primary contractor, Lockheed Martin, $1.

As the year comes to a close, Dara Massicot and Mike Kofman talk with Ryan about the state of play from diplomacy to the battlefield.Image: ArmyInform
The post No End in Sight? The Russo-Ukrainian War at the End of 2025 appeared first on War on the Rocks.

The Air Force conducted an experiment in November that further demonstrated how artificial intelligence can speed up battle management — an event that included participants from three other U.S. military services and all Five Eyes partners.
Capstone 2025 was led by the 805th Combat Training Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and served as the unit’s latest in a series of experiments broadly focused on modernizing command-and-control missions with AI-enabled capabilities.

We’re not quite at space battleships yet, but the U.S. Navy plans to bring the big warships back to the fleet with a new guided-missile battleship. On Dec. 22, 2025, President Donald Trump, Navy Secretary John Phelan, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the planned construction of the USS Defiant (BBG-1).
Read Next: A US Marine went to Somalia and became a warlord
Billed as the most lethal surface combatant ever constructed, the Defiant would be the first Trump-class battleship and the Navy’s first designated guided-missile battleship.

L Todd Wood and Pete Blaber bring the latest lies from the EU and the neocon globalists…they’re still lying. Trump works for peace while the EU works for global war.

The post While Trump Works For Peace, EU Works For Global War – Ukraine SitRep 12/23/25 appeared first on Armed Forces Press.

President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that the Navy will build “battleships” again was not the only blast from the past. If they are ever built, the ships would each feature an electromagnetic railgun, even though the Navy paused the program four years ago.
Railguns use electricity to create a magnetic field to launch a projectile at up to 5,600 miles per hour, or more than seven times the speed of sound. Unlike traditional artillery, they do not require chemical propellants such as gunpowder to fire rounds.

Get a free 15-day trial of Odoo’s all-in-

The Akrotiri Elves have visited!

The Navy and Palantir recently announced a $448 million deal that will integrate the tech firm’s advanced AI software into multiple public and private shipyards and suppliers to optimize naval construction and readiness, and help surge U.S. nuclear submarine production under the second Trump administration.
Senior officials from the sea service and the company briefed a small group of reporters on their plans for this AI-powered shipbuilding operating system — ShipOS — during an industry day event for the Navy’s new Rapid Capabilities Office earlier this month.

President Donald Trump and Navy leadership presented plans Monday evening for a new class of modern battleships that would be armed with a variety of high-tech weapons and aided by artificial intelligence.
Their ambitious vision for the platform and a so-called “Golden Fleet” could run into a variety of technological and budgetary challenges, analysts say.

Key Points and Summary – President Donald Trump has unveiled plans for a new “Trump-class” of large surface combatants, billed as modern battleships and the centerpiece of a revitalized “Golden Fleet.”

-Based on Arleigh Burke–era technologies but with heavier gun armament—and even artwork hinting at a railgun—the ships are meant to signal naval dominance as the Navy cancels its troubled Constellation-class frigate.

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) sails alongside Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) on Dec.

Key Points and Summary – At dawn in Moscow, Russia, a car bomb killed Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff’s operational training, in the latest high-profile blast near the capital.

-Investigators are probing suspected Ukrainian involvement, echoing earlier attacks that killed generals Igor Kirillov and Yaroslav Moskalik.

Putin in 2019. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Putin in August 2025. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

-The strike comes as U.S.

Some of the risks for global security in 2026 are obvious — such as increasing tensions between the United States and China, the grinding continuation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, more direct conflict between the United States and Venezuela, and a return to major fighting between Israel and the Palestinians — even if the solutions are less clear. However, governments must also prepare for the many less apparent risks, so we asked three experts to identify one important but underrated risk to global security to watch for in 2026.Read more below.Patrick M.

Donald Trump is going to sea… without leaving