J. Trevithick, The WarZone
Sentinel A4 offers a boost in detection range and other capabilities, especially for spotting and tracking cruise missiles and drones.

A. Capaccio, Bloomberg
The Army said it’s on track to field the first U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 17 announced at a meeting of the Defence Ministry board that the Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic system will be placed on combat duty by the end of 2025. Developed as Russia’s first post-Soviet intermediate range ballistic missile type, the Oreshnik was confirmed in June to have entered serial production, and is estimated to have a 4000 kilometre range while carrying multiple independently re-targetable warheads mounted on hypersonic reentry vehicles.

Growing questions have been raised regarding how the Republic of China (RoC) Ministry of National Defence will define a “first strike” in the Taiwan Strait, as tensions between the two rival Chinese governments, including the RoC based in Taipei, and the People’s Republic of China based in Beijing, remain high. TheRepublic of China Legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on December 17 invited the Defence Ministry and the National Security Bureau to report on and answer questions regarding the possibility of “first strikes” being launched in the Taiwan Strait.

The post ‘I Inherited A Mess And I’m Fixing It’: Watch President Trump Unveil ‘Warrior Dividend’, Signal Housing Reform, Not Mention Venezuela appeared first on Armed Forces Press.

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Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov on December 17 confirmed that the first regiment equipped with S-500 long range had entered combat duty, four years after the first components of the system began to join the Aerospace Forces in late 2021. Russian Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov had previously in late December, 2024, claimed that the first full regiment equipped with the S-500 had already been formed, raising questions regarding why the regiment required a full year to enter combat duty.

The Republic of China Ministry of National Defence headquartered in Taipei reported on December 17 that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s first supercarrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait. The strait separates the internationally recognised People’s Republic of China on the mainland, and the Republic of China on Taiwan island, which both claim to be the sole governments of the Chinese nation and are currently in a state of civil war.

The dramatic surge in U.S. military power in the Caribbean since August 2025 — anchored by the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the deployment of F-35s to Puerto Rico, expanded naval patrols, the buildup of some 15,000 U.S. personnel, and the announcement of a naval blockade of Venezuelan tankers carrying sanctioned oil — suggests that Washington is preparing for a forceful confrontation with Venezuela. The Trump administration initially framed the deployment as a counter-narcotics surge, but the scale of the buildup far surpasses what is typically required to interdict drug boats.

The Coast Guard is keen on expanding its use of drones and autonomous vessels, but service leaders and government officials foreshadowed to lawmakers this week the need to update regulations on their use, specifically in the face of cyber threats, questions over crew requirements and safety.

Transitioning out of the military is the most anxiety-inducing land nav course you will ever attempt. You go from having a clear mission and a chain of command to being a thirty-year-old freshman surrounded by teenagers whose idea of stress is a misplaced iPad charger.
You have the GI Bill, which solves the financial problem, but money cannot buy you peace of mind, and it certainly cannot buy you the sense that you belong.
Related: Everything there is to know about military pay and veteran benefits for 2026
The statistics are pretty brutal, too, no sugarcoating.

When people talk about Iran’s “axis of resistance,” they usually mean places like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, or Yemen. But Tehran has another partner thousands of miles away, sitting on the edge of the Caribbean and just a few hundred miles from the United States: Venezuela.
The relationship between Iran and Venezuela isn’t new. Their formal ties predate the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s, but they got much deeper under Hugo Chávez in the early 2000s and under Nicolás Maduro since 2013.

A 102-year-old Second World War veteran who ser

The head of the Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal

Starting this month, the Army has begun closing some dining facilities at major bases to begin renovations that will overhaul and privatize how soldiers eat on base. But according to documents posted on a federal contracting site, the Army’s next major dining makeover may be the chow halls that feed brand new soldiers as recruits at basic training and when they move on to advanced individual training schools.

In 2024, Shanshan Mei and Dennis J. Blasko wrote, “Don’t Ever Invade China: Xi Jinping Prioritizes Border, Coastal, and Air Defense,” where they argued that homeland protection has always been and will continue to be the Chinese military’s primary directive. A year later, amidst developments in both China’s military capabilities and geopolitical shifts, we asked them to revisit their article.Image: U.S.

The UK’s sons and daughters need to be pr

Nine billion pounds is not an insignificant amo

For generations, the Indian Scouts served as the essential eyes and ears of the United States Army across the vast, unforgiving landscapes of the American West. Decades before radios, satellites, night-vision devices, drones, or GPS changed warfare, these Indigenous warriors perfected the arts of tracking, reconnaissance, infiltration, and survival.

Douglas Matty is exiting his role as the Pentagon’s chief digital and artificial intelligence officer and moving on to focus on the Trump administration’s “Golden Dome for America” missile defense initiative, DefenseScoop has learned.
Congress was sent notification regarding the move this week and the Defense Department is expected to announce its plans on Wednesday. 
Principal Deputy CDAO Andrew Mapes will lead the department’s AI hub in an acting capacity until a new CDAO is hired.

The UK government has missed its own self-imposed deadline to publish the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) in the autumn of this year.

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Check out why over 10,000+ customers join Odoo

The military has long struggled with keeping enlisted troops’ barracks clean and safe, for a variety of reasons ranging from age, deferred maintenance, and that properly maintaining them tends to slide to the bottom of a long list of budgetary priorities. However, the Navy’s top enlisted leader said he believes one possible solution would be to have sailors make repairs to their own living quarters, but no final decision on the matter has been made.

Renk Group has obtained orders worth more than €45m ($52m) to supply transmissions for the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr).

A fully automated, industrial-scale foreign drone production line for the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be established in Germany through a JV.

This service will be streamed here live.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will be hosting a Christmas Worship Service, with special guest Franklin Graham and Christian artists Matthew West and Anne Wilson, at 3:30 p.m. EST, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, at the Pentagon.
The post LIVE 3:30pm EST: Pentagon Christmas Worship Service appeared first on Armed Forces Press.

Information technology firm ISACA has been chosen to lead the training and certification of assessors within the Pentagon’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 (CMMC 2.0) program.
ISACA officially assumed responsibility as Cybersecurity Assessor and Instructor Certification Organization (CAICO) on Tuesday, according to the company. Moving forward, it will be charged with administering training, examinations and professional certification for individual assessors within the program — including CMMC certified professionals, CMMC certified assessors and CMMC certified instructors.

The phrase shows up everywhere, whether in headlines, video games, or posts written by people who couldn’t name a single unit behind it. U.S. Special Forces has become the cultural shortcut, a lazy stand-in for any shadowy American commando matching night-vision goggles with immaculate gear.
It is also fundamentally incorrect.
Related: How US troops quietly crushed Russian mercenaries in Syria
Inside the U.S. military, one space and one capital letter separate a single regiment from an entire ecosystem. “Special Forces,” capitalized, refers only to the U.S. Army’s Green Berets.

Gary Anderson, RealClearDefense
Technology caught up and passed the original Force Design concept.

Keith J.

Army Officer, RealClearDefense
Modern generals like to say they serve their country. Increasingly, they serve their own legacy.

B.

Mallory Shelbourne, USNI News
The future USS Idaho (SSN-799) is the second attack boat the Navy has received this year

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Editor’s Note: This is the fourth article in a four-part series exploring quantum technologies and industrial policy. Please also read the first, “America’s Quantum Manufacturing Moment,” the second, “The Supply Chain Chokepoints in Quantum,” and the third, “Igniting the American Quantum Economy.”Manhattan. Apollo. The defining projects of American power each share one trait: urgency met with overwhelming national will. Recently, Washington signaled it’s time again.Quantum technology is not arriving in some distant future, it is here.

It’s almost cliché but nonetheless true: The U.S. military’s AI-enabled platforms are only as good as their inputs.Across the force, these systems are transforming how to analyze threats, develop targets, and plan operations. From Palantir’s Maven Smart System to various service-specific initiatives, these systems promise unprecedented speed and precision in processing vast amounts of battlefield data. The impact of this technology is hailed as revolutionary, transforming the way the military thinks, plans, and fights.

The Polish Army 16th Mechanised Division on December 16 announced the handover of the final 12 K9A1 Thunder self-propelled howitzers to its 1st Masurian Artillery Brigade, completing deliveries under the first executive contract for the procurement of 212 of the systems from South Korea. A $2.4 billion contract was signed for the procurement of these systems on August 26, 2022, and included including ammunition, logistics support, training packages, and simulator-based training for Polish personnel.

Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov has confirmed at the Defence Ministry’s final board meeting that it has been operating under austerity due to the significant expenses incurrent by the ongoing war effort against Ukraine and its strategic partners. “In 2025, the Defence Ministry operated under severe financial constraints related to the federal budget’s capacity. However, military operations led to an increase in military spending.

Public Domain

Published at Zero Hedge.
More major Pentagon reshuffling is coming down the line, driven by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, but this time it’s being reported this will involve far more than just staffing and personnel changes – it will impact the entire US global command and headquarters structure.
Washington Post reports this week that the Pentagon is drafting a sweeping overhaul of American military command structures that would downgrade several major headquarters and reshape the balance of influence among senior generals.

The Russian Armed Forces have deployed Yars road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile launchers for combat patrol routes in Siberia, as part of exercises testing the capabilities of strategic nuclear assets built to wage full scale nuclear war. Reporting on the exercises, the Russian Defence Ministry stated: “Yars land-based mobile missile system crews have deployed to combat patrol routes in Siberia as part of a scheduled exercise. The large-size equipment left the designated facilities and began marching, including at night.

Russian Defence Minister Andrey Belousov on December 17 confirmed that efforts to reverse the wartime decline in Russian arms exports had been successful, observing: “We have transitioned to a new system for promoting Russian weapons to our allies and partners. Demonstrations of the weapons’ combat capabilities are held for foreign delegations, in conjunction with foreign armies’ modernisation programs.” “Representatives from more than 20 countries went through this system this year. This positively impacted military-technical cooperation.

The year 2025 marks 50 years since the commissioning of the U.S. Navy’s first twin reactor nuclear powered supercarrier, the USS Nimitz, which was be the first ship of a class that went on to dominate waters across the world for over half a century. The began its final deployment on March 26, departing San Diego Bay that day before docking in Guam in April, it then proceeding to the Philippine Sea for joint exercises with Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers.

The Sultan’s Armed Forces, the official name of the armed forces of Oman, have procured laser weapons as part of the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation SkyShield system, with photos published by Al Badr Transport LLC showing several mobile laser systems in the country in desert camouflage. The SkyShield systems combines radar and optical sensors for detection and tracking with both electronic warfare and laser-based weapons, and is built around a layered defence concept integrating both “soft kill” and “hard kill” options within a single battery.

Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Alexander Moiseyev has confirmed plans to construct two additional Lada class diesel-electric attack submarines, with these intended to be laid down at the JSC Admiralty Shipyards in 2026. “We have commissioned another vessel, and two more are at various stages of construction. Contracts have already been signed under the current state defence order for two more [Lada class ships]. And I think we will be participating in the keel-laying ceremony of these vessels very soon, early next year.

The Army is on the hunt for a new, large drone it hopes to equip its first unit with by fiscal 2028, according to government contracting documents and a service official, an ambitious effort that may replace a more than decade-old platform.
The Army posted a request for information on Friday outlining half a dozen “desired characteristics” for a short/vertical takeoff and landing (S/VTOL) drone.

One of World War II’s legendary figures, Gen. George S. Patton, loomed large in the war’s narrative for many reasons.
While no one would accuse the great general of being humble or unassuming, his ego and pride are well-deserved, to the betterment of mankind and the Allied cause. Patton, with his ivory-handled revolvers and propensity to quote the Hindu scripture of “The Bhagavad Gita,” was as eccentric in life as he was effective in combat. No example of this was more telling than his belief in reincarnation and his own numerous past lives.

If you spent 2025 watching the news, you probably need a drink (go ahead, we’ll wait, you deserve it). Between the political BS and the ouroborous of “breaking news” that wasn’t actually breaking anything except our patience, it was easy to miss the stuff that actually mattered.
But while the rest of the country was doomscrolling through another argument with country-sponsored bots, there were our veterans and those currently serving, in the mud, the water, and the labs, doing what they do best: helping others.

All medical shaving waivers issued to airmen and Space Force guardians before March will be invalidated at the end of January 2026, according to a new policy released by the service’s Surgeon General. 
The move does not apply to religious waivers, a Dec. 15 memo from the surgeon general says. The memo appeared on social media on Monday.
“Airmen and guardians who have medical shaving profiles issued prior to March 1, 2025, should schedule an appointment with a military health care provider for further evaluation before the January deadline,” an Air Force news release says.

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