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.

Donald Trump Blames Volodymyr Zelensky for Rising Diesel Prices – U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to cease strikes against Russian oil refineries amid a worldwide diesel shortage.

Trump encouraged the Ukrainian President not to strike targets that produce diesel, arguing that the ongoing drone campaign was “hurting the world.”

President Donald J.

With the uptick in drones in both defence and c

What makes the Ineos Grenadier perfectly design

Croatian defence spending as a proportion of GDP was estimated to have crossed 2% in 2025, according to Nato statistics.

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According to AFSOC, two AGM-190As were fired at two different ground targets. During a call with reporters, officials from the command declined to say what types of targets were struck or identify the adversary that was on the receiving end.
“We work every day to disrupt the networks that have made Africa the epicenter of global terrorism,” Africom Commander Gen. Dagvin Anderson said in a statement. “These successful operational assessments prove we will continue to bring the unique capabilities only the U.S. can provide in order to defend U.S. interests alongside our partners.

As the High North gains in strategic importance

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink announced Monday that the Space Force has deployed weapons into space in order to combat adversary threats.
“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist. This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary actions,” Meink said during his keynote speech at AFA’s annual Air, Space and Cyber conference.

Gulf States Consider Future Priorities Amid Growing Regional Destabilization – It’s been almost 200 days since the United States and Israel launched a major military operation against Iran.

The initial six weeks of heavy fighting, followed by months of economic warfare, have reshaped the Middle East. Regional allies, many of whom have sought to avoid the conflict, have been targeted by Iran and its proxy militias.

Iran’s Drones That Russia Is Using. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Iran F-14 Tomcat Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

A new instruction approved by Pentagon CIO Kirsten Davies includes procedures for AI-assisted software development as the department adapts for an era of “software-defined warfare.”
The guidance on “Accelerated Mission Software” was signed by Davies on Aug. 31 and went into effect Sept. 8.
The far-reaching issuance sets policy, responsibilities and procedures for software modernization and management within the department and encourages enterprisewide software reuse.

Army, Navy, and Air Force were all defeated in their conference openers during Week 2 of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schedule. 
Also Read: Army, Navy, and Air Force football all notch wins in Week 1
The losses by the Black Knights and Midshipmen were especially disappointing for their fans, as each program entered its respective matchup as the favorite. For Navy, the loss to FAU dealt an early blow to the program’s hopes of finishing atop the American Conference.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Air Force is targeting to have 500 of its first Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) robotic wingmen by 2032, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said Monday.
General Atomics and Anduril are manufacturing Increment 1 CCA drones, which have already begun rolling off their respective production lines, Meink said during the annual AFA Air, Space and Cyber conference.
General Atomics’ platform is now known as the FQ-42A Vengeance, while Anduril’s has been officially designated the FQ-44A Fury, he added.

The weapons system officer from an F-15E that was shot down over Iran in April said it felt like the fighter jet was “hit by a freight train” when a shoulder-fired missile took out the plane.
The hit forced the two-person crew of the F-15E, dubbed “Dude 44,” to eject over Iran’s Zagros Mountains and the U.S. military to scramble to recover them before Iranian forces captured the two aviators. The effort spanned three days and put almost 100 U.S. troops on the ground in Iran. Several more U.S.

The Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing has formally entered a new era with the arrival of the F-35A fifth generation fighter at Barnes Air National Guard Base, replacing the F-15C/D Eagle long range air superiority fighter after 18 years of operations. The transition makes the 104th the latest U.S. Air National Guard fighter unit to transition from a fourth generation fighter type to the F-35, after the Air Force in April 2023 selected Barnes as the preferred location for an F-35A squadron.

The Malaysian Defence Ministry is planning to equip its fleet of 18 Russian-supplied Su-30MKM fighters with the BrahMo cruise missile, potentially giving the Royal Malaysian Air Force a major new long-range strike capability. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim confirmed during the BRICS summit in New Delhi that his government was exploring the acquisition air-launched BrahMos cruise missiles. The BrahMos was jointly developed by Russia and India, with the air launched variant developed specifically to equip Indian Air Force Su-30MKI fighters, on which the Su-30MKM design is closely based.

This video describes the military situation in

The enormous fireball covered almost the entire width of one end of the USS Midway after an airplane crashed into the aircraft carrier’s deck. One look at the flames, and it defies logic that someone could survive an accident of that magnitude.
But someone did. On June 23, 1951, USS Midway crew members got Navy Cmdr. George Duncan out of the damaged cockpit of his F9F-5 Panther fighter jet. They brought him directly to medical personnel, who treated Duncan’s injuries.

A Russian drone struck a Ukrainian passenger train near the Polish border on September 13, shortly after a separate train carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt and other senior European officials had departed the same station. Ukrainian Railways claimed  the diplomatic train had deliberately departed Yahodyn earlier than scheduled because of the changing security situation. The company subsequently assessed that it was “highly probable” that the Russian drone had actually been intended to strike the diplomatic train.

Michael Aaron Cody, RCD
The Department of War just announced on August 31, 2026, that it is expanding GenAI.

Singsit, Naval Technology
U.S.

Lawrence, DScoop
The Army awarded two electronic warfare-related contracts with a combined value of nearly $196 million, officials said Thursday, marking the first production deals under a…

Cristina Stassis, AF Times
The U.S.

Joseph Trevithick, The WarZone
We have new details on Lockheed’s tailless CCA, including about its exotic “submerged” air inlet and how its design puts a premium on survivability.

USS George Washington (CVN 73) conducts flight operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations, Sept. 13, 2026. Photo: U.S. Navy / DVIDS (public domain)
Hormuz oil shipments up sharply under US Navy protection. Oil shipments through the Straits of Hormuz are rising under the protection of US Navy carrier strike groups and their escorts, the highest level for several months.
According to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz increased to just under 11 million barrels per day over a seven day average, as he told Bloomberg News on Wednesday.

This video describes the military situation in

For decades, the United States’ nuclear weapons enterprise has wrestled with an institutional paradox. On one hand is the imperative to make the complex more “responsive” to global tumult and technical surprise, able to field new weapons quickly in reaction to unanticipated threats. On the other are the unforgiving engineering requirements of thermonuclear warheads, devices whose development is measured in years. No silver bullet solution to this unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object conundrum will likely present itself.

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The space economy has surpassed $600 billion in annual value, with some projecting it will reach a trillion by the 2030s. Jonathan Panter is joined by Joseph Yaffe (Cowboy Space), Brian Weeden (The Aerospace Corporation), and Dan Wald (Booz Allen) to weigh where the real growth is. They discuss how AI infrastructure is blurring the line between the space economy and the regular economy, the regulatory tangle, the leap toward autonomous constellations of hundreds of thousands of satellites, competition with China, and the dual-use risks of data centers in orbit.

Major powers are increasingly trying to shut out their rivals. Russia invaded Ukraine in part to prevent the latter’s further integration with the West. The United States is restricting China’s access to advanced semiconductors and encouraging allies to do the same. China’s Belt and Road Initiative secures privileged positions in strategic infrastructure and economic relationships. Though these examples vary in aims and methods, they reflect a growing willingness of major powers to restrict rivals’ access and influence.

No matter what your opinion of the war in Iran, we at AFP, where many of us have experience in Air Force Resue and Special Operations, are proud of our brothers in arms.
“That others may live…”

The post VIDEO: Dude 44 Shootdown/Rescue Interview appeared first on Armed Forces Press.

The United Kingdom’s military position in the Falkland Islands has come under renewed scrutiny after the United States approved the possible sale of UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters to Argentina in a deal valued at approximately $140 million. The decision comes amid a renewed diplomatic confrontation over sovereignty of the islands, and follows recent comments by U.S. President Donald Trump indicating that Washington’s position in a future conflict could differ from the unequivocal support it provided Britain during the 1982 war. The sale is particularly notable because of its timing.

The U.S. Air Force is accelerating a roughly $2 billion infrastructure programme at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota as it prepares to receive the B-21 Raider next generation intercontinental range strategic bomber. The scale of the construction effort reflects the substantial infrastructure required to support a penetrating strategic bomber whose low-observable characteristics, nuclear mission and advanced maintenance requirements differ considerably from those of the B-1B Lancer bombers currently operating from the facility.

Iran’s attacks on the 5th Fleet’s base in Bahrain were severe, the acting Secretary of the Navy admitted this past week. 
“They blew the hell out of Bahrain,” acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said in an interview with The Epoch Times. 
The military has largely been quiet on the extent of damage to Naval Support Activity Bahrain since the outbreak of the war, with Cao’s remarks being a rare admission of the severity. 
At the outbreak of the war, Iran launched waves of attacks at U.S. installations around the Middle East, including deadly strikes in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

This video describes the military situation in

This video describes the military situation in

For a Gold Star spouse, life after loss isn’t just learning how to live without the person they loved. It’s about figuring out how to carry the life they planned together, even when one half of that future is suddenly gone.
When U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton was killed in Iraq, his wife, Mia Gonzalez-Swinton, didn’t just lose her husband—she lost the future they had spent years imagining together.

North Korea displays ballistic missiles during a military parade. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), North Korea has recently completed construction of a new two-story uranium enrichment facility at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. A second site at Yongbyon, the Kangson enrichment facility, has recently had an expanded annex brought online. The director general of the IAEA described the findings as “serious concern.

USS Princeton (CG 59) transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Photo: U.S. Navy / DoD
An Iranian commercial container ship has been attacked near Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz early on Sunday morning. The attack killed one crew member and injured four others. Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted the governor of Qeshm Island said that an “enemy, terrorist, [has attacked] the Islamic Republic of Iran”. He added that he had not yet found out whether the attack had been carried out with a rocket or not.

Out of the aircraft. Into the sky.

An Iranian ballistic missile strike on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan has depleted an estimated $120 million worth of surface-to-air interceptors from U.S. Army MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence systems, after over 30 interceptors were fired to intercept the attack. The strike nevertheless appears to have penetrated the defences around the air base, according to reporting subsequently cited by Reuters, with eight U.S. F-15E fighters and at least one A-10 attack jet damaged.

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“Celebrate and commemorate the service of their

The French defence sector has accelerated development of the Rafale F5 following the effective collapse of the Franco-German Future Combat Air System (FCAS) next generation fighter program that had been intended to provide a peer competitor to the U.S. F-35. The decision is set to make the Rafale F5 considerably more important to French air power than originally envisaged, with the aircraft now expected to provide a high-end combat capability well into the 2030s.

The Russian Armed Forces has significantly intensified strikes on Odessa, as Russian ground forces move towards the key Ukrainian port city. “The Palma, Raben-Ukraine, and Odessa-22 logistics centres were hit in the city of Odessa. These centres held cargoes meant for the Ukrainian army,” the Russian Defence Ministry reported, adding that Russian forces struck a drone production facility and a Ukrainian missile depot in the city.

The last of the Air Force’s longest-deployed airplanes finally retired earlier this month, as the last in-service EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare plane took its final flight over Arizona. For its final on-duty sortie, it shared the sky with the modern jet that is replacing it.
An EC-130 Compass Call from the 55th Electronic Combat Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, flew side by side with an EA-37B that will replace it at the 55th Electronic Combat Group on a “fini flight” for the older plane.

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A F-22 pilot had to think quickly and work out a plan to save his plane when a tribute flight went wrong. After losing a landing wheel, Capt. Michael Cloninger of the 90th Fighter Squadron had to find a way to safely land the jet. 
His successful belly landing of the F-22 earned him the Air Force’s top flight safety award. This week, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach presented him with the 2025 Koren Kolligian Jr. Trophy.
The award is named for Air Force 1st Lt. Koren Kolligian Jr., who vanished in 1955 off the coast of California while flying a T-33.

On September 11, 2001, two planes flew into the Twin Towers, one crashed in a Pennsylvania field, and another struck the Pentagon. In Lower Manhattan, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum operates and maintains the site where the towers fell. While the National Park Service established and operates the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Penn., the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial has remained separate under the Pentagon Memorial Fund.
Also Read: How the last survivor of 9/11 made it out alive after the Twin Towers fell
On Sept.

When we think of deployments these days, we think of long separations and physical distance. We don’t think of a total lack of communication. Between video calls, internet messages, texts, emails, and care packages, communication can pretty much stay constant using the myriad technologies available to us.
Also Read: Italian women quietly enabled a new front for the Allies in World War II
But as we all know, that was not the case in decades past. Military spouses at one time got nothing: no forms of communication at all.