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.

Jay Rogers, RCD
Memorial Day 2026 should have centered on flags at graves and the quiet dignity of remembering Americans who died in uniform. It didn’t.

Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven
Facing an eroding maritime advantage and China’s rapid 6th-gen fighter development, the Navy is accelerating its carrier-launched stealth platform

Mikayla Easley, DefenseScoop
The new Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) Speedline will be located at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Georgia

D.

T&P
The MK24 Mid-Range Gas Gun-Assault features a “quick-change swappable barrel”

Summary and Key Points: Seven weeks into the Pakistan-brokered ceasefire, the IRGC has continued to fire on U.S. naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz — and Washington keeps misreading the signal because Iran’s diplomats and its military do not share a command structure.

The Iran War Gets Complicated 

Littoral Combat Ship USS Cooperstown. Image Taken By National Security Journal October 14, 2025.

Seven weeks into the Pakistan-brokered ceasefire, shots were fired in the Gulf again last week.

Summary and Key Points: As Russia’s economy buckles under sanctions and drone strikes on its oil infrastructure, the elite consensus around Vladimir Putin is showing visible cracks — with a well-connected business leader telling The Guardian there is now “profound disappointment in Putin” and a growing sense that “some kind of catastrophe is looming.

This video describes the military situation in

The United States Department of War has signed a $100 million contract with the country’s largest defence contractor, Lockheed Martin, to address a serious thermal management issue affecting the F-35 fighter’s braking system. The contract covers the supply of 1,459 new brake assembly heat sinks for the aircraft, following findings that excessive heat generated during braking can spread into nearby avionics wiring and sensors, damaging components and forcing aircraft into lengthy depot-level maintenance.

Is it too late to stop criminals and American adversaries from exploiting AI to conduct cyberattacks or design novel pathogens? Has regulation kept pace with the threat civilian drones pose to critical infrastructure? AI researcher Lennart Heim, Army drone strategist Paul Lushenko, and CEO of Sentinel Bio Claire Qureshi join Jonathan to discuss the trade-offs between protecting the public and letting the private sector forge ahead. The conversation gets into synthetic DNA, the risk of drones at the FIFA World Cup, and whether the U.S.

Why are there more antennas on Svalbard than anywhere else on Earth? Svalbard of all places, where cats and childbirth are banned and there are more polar bears than people? This cluster of islands in the Arctic, one thousand kilometers from Norway, is key to everything from your weather forecast to your car’s navigation. At 78 degrees north, Svalbard is the highest-latitude satellite ground station on Earth and is a crucial point in humanity’s growing dependence on space. In fact, the polar regions — the Arctic and Antarctic — are both crucial to space access.

We had been tracking the contact for six hours.The acoustic signature was ambiguous. The geometry was incomplete. The tactical picture had shifted twice in the preceding hour.I ordered battle stations anyway. Not because I was certain, I was not. I ordered it because the decision window was closing. Waiting for certainty was no longer a strategy, it was a risk. That moment — the space between incomplete knowledge and irreversible action — is where submarine command lives. It is where I spent 14 years.Modern militaries have spent decades trying to eliminate that space.

The French Armed Forces have begun to transition the operations of their nuclear forces under a new concept of “forward deterrence,” which represents the most significant evolution in the country’s nuclear posture since the end of the Cold War.

Following the first flight of Russia’s first twin-seat fifth-generation fighter, the Su-57D, on May 19, the program’s chief test pilot Sergey Bogdan has elaborated on the aircraft’s expected future export sales. “I believe this aircraft is very much needed. It will be in high demand. First and foremost, it will be in demand with foreign customers. It’s crucial when training for any type of aircraft to have a similar twin-seat (cockpit) configuration. Currently, we have a certain level of continuity. We easily retrain pilots who have flown Su-27, Su-30, and Su-35 aircraft.

The first images of a new Korean People’s Army rocket artillery and tactical ballistic missile system have been released by North Korean state media, highlighting the ongoing rapid modernisation of its frontline tactical firepower which poses growing threats to U.S. and allied ground capabilities. The new system features two fire modules that can select either one KN-24 tactical ballistic missile with a 300 kilometre range, or nine 240mm rockets with 67 kilometre ranges.

Following confirmation on May 26 that the Russian Aerospace Forces had received a new batch of Su-35S fighters from the state run United Aircraft Corporation, significant questions have been raised regarding the capabilities of these aircraft to provide an effective defence against the F-35 stealth fighters fielded by the country’s NATO adversaries.

You might have heard about how the weather almost capsized the Allied invasion on D-Day (literally). We’ve told this story. We’ve even shared the incredible planning documents used across branches and nations to plan the attack. Maybe you even know that D-Day was originally planned for June 5, 1944.
Also Read: The way Dwight D. Eisenhower coped with stress could kill lesser men
So what exactly happened to change the date to June 6, 1944? It was not just a date change—it was an entire logistical campaign adjustment.

Summary and Key Points: When the Soviet Union launched the MiG 1.44 (MFI program) in the late 1970s, the goal was to field a heavy air-superiority fighter capable of Mach 2 speeds, supercruise, and extreme maneuverability — Moscow’s answer to America’s Advanced Tactical Fighter program that produced the F-22 Raptor. The Soviet Union collapsed before the program yielded an operational fighter; the prototype flew twice in 2000 and the program was officially canceled in 2002

The MiG 1.44 Was No F-22 Raptor 

MiG 1.44 Russian Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

MiG 1.

In August 1988, F-15 pilot Daniel “Fig” Leaf experienced total hydraulic failure while taxiing back to parking, leaving him with no brakes and no nose gear steering. With a security forces pickup truck carrying two airmen crossing his path and a parked F-16 from the 314th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron directly ahead, Leaf pushed the right engine into afterburner.

The F-15 That Averted Disaster 
As the U.S.

Summary and Key Point: The Air Force plans to keep the B-52J Stratofortress a core component of America’s long-range strike capability for decades, but the bomber faces a fundamental problem: modern integrated air defenses have made it too dangerous to fly over contested airspace.

The B-52J Problem

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress assigned to the 23rd Bomb Squadron sits on the flightline during exercise Prairie Vigilance 25-1 at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, April 12, 2025. Vigilance series exercises are conducted with a focus on the safe and secure handling of equipment. (U.

The Justice Department charged former Cuban President Raúl Castro and other Cuban officials with murder for their roles in the February 24, 1996, shoot-down of two unarmed Brothers to the Rescue aircraft over international waters, and U.S. Southern Command has confirmed the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and her Carrier Strike Group are now operating in the Caribbean.

The USS Nimitz Has One Last Mission: Make Cuba Think Twice 

The U.S. Navy aircraft carriers USS Nimitz (CVN-68), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) underway in the Western Pacific on 12 November 2017.

Summary and Key Points: During a May 13 House Armed Services Committee hearing, Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence Lt. Gen. David H. Tabor signaled that the long-standing requirement of 100 B-21 Raiders no longer reflects operational reality, given China’s rapidly expanding air defense and missile capabilities. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth subsequently confirmed that the United States will need “a lot more” than 100 Northrop Grumman stealth bombers.

Over Memorial Day weekend this year, as most Americans were paying exorbitant prices on beef and other meats for significantly pared-down barbecues, the United States military blasted Iranian naval facilities. Per the White House, the US military attacked Iran in self-defense and in no way violated the carefully agreed-upon ceasefire between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States.

Nor, according to the White House, did these attacks represent the abandonment of what many had hoped would be a successful end to the war that the United States initiated on February 28.

A U.S.

Special operators are getting a new rifle that can fire both 7.62mm and 6.5mm Creedmoor rounds as a replacement for the MK17 SCAR-H Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle-Heavy, according to U.S. Special Operations Command.
The MK24 Mid-Range Gas Gun-Assault features a “quick-change swappable barrel” that allows the weapon to fire both kinds of ammunition, said Navy Cmdr. Joe Vermette, a spokesperson for U.S. Special Operations Command.
Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, expects to begin receiving the MK24 later this fiscal year, which runs until Sept.

The Russian army is now losing ground in Ukraine for the first time since January 2024. As one top retired British Army commander told me several hours ago: “Ukraine might actually have a path to something that might look like a victory.”

The Ukraine War Is Changing Fast: Russia Has a Problem

MSTA-S Russian Army. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

That’s a big deal. This is not a minor tactical development, and it is not propaganda from Kyiv.

Europe’s biggest joint defense project has huge ambition, but its top players just cannot seem to get along on how it should proceed. The so-called “FCAS” (Future Combat Air System) was formerly touted as the poster child for European military unity. France and Germany kick-started the program back in 2017, with Spain jumping on the bandwagon in 2019. The program, worth some €100 billion, was intended to deliver much more than a cutting-edge fighter jet.

Surprise strikes inside southern Iran on May 26 are risking fragile negotiations between Washington and Tehran, which are beginning to collapse only weeks after both sides suggested that they could be close to an agreement over the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command confirmed on Tuesday that American forces carried out “self-defense strikes” targeting Iranian missile infrastructure and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval assets near the Strait of Hormuz.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently renamed and restructured two, well-established technical offices, in a move that officials said is meant to expand the defense innovation hub’s research scope to better confront contemporary technology challenges.
The Microsystems Technology Office is transforming into the Multi X Office (MXO), while the Information Innovation Office is becoming the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) in a nod to its historic roots.

Summary and Key Points: In 2014, a company called the USA Firefighting Air Corps proposed converting retired A-10 Warthog ground-attack jets into aerial firefighting tankers, calling the concept the “Firehog.”

-The converted aircraft would fly low through smoke at night, drop retardant with precision, and refuel in midair — capabilities that sounded ideal for wildfire suppression. The proposal collapsed against basic physics.

An A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft from the 303rd Fighter Squadron, Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., arrive at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, April 10, 2014.

Yeah, yeah, yeah… We know grenades in movies aren’t like the real thing. But that could make you wonder: “why not?”
Real grenades are puffs of smoke with a bit of high-velocity metal. Why not give troops mobile fireballs that instill fear and awe in the hearts of all that see them? Why not arm our troops with something akin to Super Mario’s fire flower? Why Why Why…
Also Read: The inside joke names soldiers have for different unit patches
First, we should take a look at what, exactly is going on with a real grenade versus a movie grenade.

Summary and Key Points: The Trump administration has described Operation Epic Fury as a resounding success, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly citing low casualties and met strategic objectives.

-A Congressional report tells a different story. In 40 days of operations against Iran, the United States lost up to 42 manned and unmanned aircraft with a combined value of $2.6 billion.

F-15C Fighter on the Tarmac. Image Credit: National Security Journal. Taken on August 13, 2025.

Summary and Key Points: The House passed the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act 235-179, marking the first increase in Dependency and Indemnity Compensation since the 1990s. The bill would raise survivor payments to 500,000 Gold Star families whose loved ones died in the line of duty or from service-related conditions.

-Veterans with traumatic brain injuries could see up to $10,000 more per year. Severely disabled veterans who lost limbs are also included.

(Sep 30, 2025) — Recruits perform Instructional Training Exercise (ITE) at U.S.

The Dassault Rafale F5 is the most recent iteration of the Rafale, which is currently under development. It gives the aircraft’s avionics a thorough overhaul and improves various other systems. The goal is to keep the Rafale relevant until the 2040s, when sixth-generation aircraft become available. The F-22 is likewise receiving extensive upgrades, unofficially dubbed the “Super Raptor,” or the “Raptor 2.0.

Does anyone still remember way back when the prospect of a missile or other aerodynamic weapon system launched from Ukraine hitting a target on actual Russian territory was a terrifying prospect?  This would result in horrific “E” word coming to pass –escalation of the conflict into a global war – those of us who were calling for Ukraine to receive long-range weapons from the US, we were told repetitively.

Green Berets are testing if glider drones can c

Summary and Key Points: The U.S. Air Force originally planned to build 381 F-22 Raptors. Only 187 were built. Approximately 120 are combat-ready today. The aircraft was designed in the late 1980s and early 1990s around the Intel i960 processor architecture — a closed system where adding capabilities often requires millions of code changes rather than a simple patch.

-The F-35, by contrast, uses Open Mission Systems for modular upgrades. The Raptor is rated for 8,000 hours of certified airframe life, and the small fleet has burned through hours faster than expected.

A U.S.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center has officially launched a dedicated facility that will allow the service to more quickly integrate its F-15E Strike Eagles with modernized survivability equipment.
Located at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Georgia, the new Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) “Speedline” will enable the Air Force to upgrade its Boeing-made F-15E fighter jets with critical electronic warning capabilities outside of routine maintenance, AFLCMC announced Tuesday.

In a phone call to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Russia’s Foreign Minister-for-life Sergei Lavrov warned that Russia would now be conducting an escalatory program of airstrikes on Ukraine in general and on the capital Kyiv in particular. Lavrov vowed that Moscow would carry out “systematic” attacks on the city to include [destruction of decision-making centers].

The latter is interpreted as meaning all the chief Ukrainian government buildings, including the presidential administration offices of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Neptune Missile.

This video describes the military situation in

The Oman defence market will surge in the coming years, as funds are directed to air defence needs, among others requirements.

A former Trump Administration economics adviser made a bold prediction when I spoke to him last week: “If the Strait of Hormuz isn’t opened by Labor Day, Trump will have a political problem worse than Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined.”

Well, that wasn’t the response I was planning on, that’s for sure. While clearly the former official was trying to make a dramatic point, the crisis is clear.

Iran habitually claims that it has shot down American aircraft. Whenever the United States does anything with its military during this tenuous ceasefire period, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is sure to come back with a propaganda statement that it has successfully reacted against the United States.

This happened again over the Memorial Day holiday. The IRGC boasted that it shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone on May 26 and that it fired on an F-35 and may have damaged it. The Iranians said that the Lightning II was forced to leave Iranian airspace as the pilot fled in fear.

This video describes the military situation in

Welcome to The Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum only for War on the Rocks members. Each Monday, we bring you a curated selection of articles from Ukrainian media offering insight into how Ukrainians themselves debate the issues shaping their country.American coverage often narrows the view to the battlefield — these pieces widen it, revealing the texture of daily life, politics, and public argument in a nation at war.

Ukraine’s Defence Procurement Agency DOT has finalised its largest procurement by value to date, for 155mm long-range artillery rounds.

“The GOP is in a silent state of panic.” That’s what a former 2016 and 2020 top Trump presidential campaign official told me this morning. And you don’t need a Princeton PhD in political science to understand why. The president’s political position as of late May 2026 is the worst of his career, and the people inside his own party who track these numbers professionally have stopped pretending otherwise. 

The most recent aggregate of Gallup, Reuters/Ipsos, YouGov, Quinnipiac, and Morning Consult places Trump’s approval at 38.6 percent against 58.

After Franklin D. Roosevelt returned from his meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Casablanca in January 1943, Hap Arnold knew something had to change.
Arnold, the legendary general who led the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, didn’t like that FDR flew to Morocco on a civilian plane. Believing it was the military’s job to transport the commander in chief, he ordered that a transport version of the B-24 bomber be converted for the president’s use.

Summary and Key Points: In 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates capped F-22 Raptor production at 187 aircraft — far below the hundreds originally planned — arguing the stealth fighter was too expensive and irrelevant to the wars the United States was actually fighting.

-The production line shut down permanently in 2011. At the time, the decision was defensible. In hindsight, it was a strategic miscalculation. China has since fielded more than 200 Chengdu J-20 stealth fighters, a number still climbing, while the United States cannot build additional F-22s at any price.

U.S.

On May 25, 2026, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov placed a phone call to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The substance of what Lavrov said in that call has now been confirmed by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s own readout and tracked across multiple Western and Ukrainian outlets. Moscow had decided to begin striking what it called the “decision-making centers” of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv.