Rocket Lab successfully launched a military payload into orbit on Friday less than 17 hours after receiving orders from the Space Force, once again advancing the service’s ability to quickly put new satellites on orbit.
The company’s Pioneer payload was launched aboard a Rocket Lab Electron space vehicle from the firm’s private launch site in Mahia, New Zealand, as part of the Space Force’s Victus Haze mission.

The Pentagon’s workforce shrank by roughly 10.7% during the height of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency implementation efforts, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
That decrease represents 82,940 employees — from a baseline 778,188 civilian employees at the Defense Department in December 2024 near the end of the Biden administration, down to 695,248 in January 2026.

More than a third of military families reported having less than $500 in emergency savings, or none at all, according to the results of a 2025 survey released this week. 
The findings were part of the Military Family 360 Survey, which was analyzed in a report released Monday by the Military Family Advisory Network. More than 10,000 people responded to the survey, with the majority being military spouses. They weighed in on topics like family, community connection, economic security, employment, and health care access.

Iran’s threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — in response to the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that began on Feb. 28 — effectively closed the strait, sending economic shockwaves around the world. As part of negotiations between Tehran and Washington, Iran has eased restrictions, and shipping traffic has picked up in recent days — albeit well below pre-war levels.Whatever the outcome of negotiations, Iran has clearly demonstrated its ability to shut down the strait. It could happen again.

The post Sheer Madness: UK Tests Long-Range Missile For Ukraine To Bomb Moscow – The US Needs To Pull Out Of NATO Immediately appeared first on Armed Forces Press.

The Speaker of the House of Commons and the Arm

Following the Prime Minister’s resignatio

This video describes the military situation in

The Marine Corps is releasing a new digital application that all units must use to meet requirements for operational Situation Reports, or SITREPs, the service announced.
The app, called the Operational Data Integration Nexus (ODIN), will be housed in the Defense Department’s Maven Smart System. The MSS platform, powered by AI, was built by Palantir and has been widely adopted across the military, including by combatant commands.

You probably never signed up for this part. You did not research your surgeon, read his reviews, or ask a single follow-up question. Nobody ever asked your opinion. One day you had wisdom teeth, and the next day the United States military snatched them from your face like they’re the secret component of a doomsday weapon.
It might come in basic training. It might come during your first months at your first duty station. But sooner rather than later, your wisdom teeth are more than likely coming out before you take off the uniform.

The NMESIS anti-ship missile launcher and MADIS

Military commanders face a profound operational dilemma: Their forces are inundated with vast and disparate networks of incoming data. Yet despite rapid technical advances, the military still struggles to securely manage that information and deliver critical intelligence where and when it’s needed.
The most pressing needs of today’s battlespace — and the battlespace of the future —increasingly revolve around accelerating data management solutions and getting new technical innovations into the hands of warfighters faster, say defense sector leaders.

Apocalyptic scenes unfolded in Moscow last week and bore stark testament to the effectiveness of Kyiv’s ongoing strike campaign against Russian energy infrastructure.

Russian social media was replete with images of the city burning, and thick clouds of acrid black smoke billowed into the sky from refineries and other energy-related infrastructure within the Russian capital, the result of Ukraine’s expanding campaign of drone strikes against Russia.

Ukraine Drone. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

A Warrior Is Built In Silence | A Military Trib

The Aviationist
The F-35 wearing the tail code “WW” will join Misawa’s 35th Fighter Wing and fly the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission from Japan.

Northrop Grumman has been awarded a five-year contract by the US Army to manufacture the M1147 Advanced Multi-Purpose (AMP) round, an advanced 120mm tank ammunition intended for use with the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank.

Three British-designed long-range weapons intended for Ukrainian use have passed initial flight testing, marking a milestone in a Ministry of Defence (MoD) programme launched in late 2024 to deliver affordable high-capacity strike systems.

Warrior M.

Sampson, Army T.
Autonomous boats helped escort a U.S.

Breaking Defense
From a weather restriction to a “serious” airworthiness risk, the Air Force’s newest training jet faces far more issues than previously reported

Howard Altman & Tyler Rogoway, TWZ
How L3Harris transformed the gifted Qatari 747-8i into a VC-25B presidential transport in just 10 months

One is a self-aware genre-defying comedy-slash-horror.  The other is true horror—and truly creepy—but made through unconventional means by a 20-something YouTuber.
And they’re both absolutely killing. Pun intended.
Also Read: The real-life military experiment that inspired ‘Stranger Things’
I’m gonna keep this as spoiler free as possible, but I really do recommend viewing both. They are getting buzz (and hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office) for good reason.

At the commissioning ceremony of the Korean People’s Army Navy’s first destroyer, the Choe Hyon, chairman of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party Kim Jong Un reaffirmed plans for the construction of two destroyers each year over the next five years as part of a naval expansion program. The Navy had been the weakest service in the Korean People’s Army, the chairman noted, adding that modernisation would bring its capabilities to a level “incredible beyond imagination.

At some points during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a defeat for Kyiv has seemed inevitable. The war appeared to be a constant drain on Ukrainian and Western resources at times when Russian forces were making significant gains on the frontlines. Today, though, Kyiv is fighting back with domestically made long-range drones and missiles, putting Moscow on the back foot, and causing so much visible damage that it’s hard for any Russian to ignore the fact that not all is going to plan.

This video describes the military situation in

This month, Marines on Okinawa got some additional firepower designed to take out enemy warships. Late on Sunday, the 3rd Marine Division announced that the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment took custody of two of the Marine Corps’ newest weapons: the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction Systems, or NMESIS, and Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems, or MADIS.
The arrival of the two weapons platforms comes as the military reorganizes its Pacific forces to deter or outright fight China.

AM General, the builder of the enduring Humvee vehicle, will repurpose the chassis for a new uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV).

In the public perception, it seems like a big deal for Germany to publish a military strategy for the first time. But let me pour a little cold water on that. A form of military strategy has always existed. Where today we have a National Security Strategy paired with a military strategy and Plan for the Armed Forces, the past offered the White Paper, Defence Policy Guidelines, and the Bundeswehr concept, which spelled out the armed forces’ structure in more concrete terms.

The Korean People’s Army Navy on June 23 brought its first destroyer, the Choe Hyon, into active service, marking the first time a destroyer has ever become operational in the country. The warship joined the Navy’s West Sea Fleet, which operates in the Yellow Sea, just 14 months after its launch on April 25, 2025.

Multiple Ukrainian sources have reported that the North Korean KN-23 tactical ballistic missile, otherwise known as the Hwasong-11A, has achieved a new improved level of accuracy with a Circular Error Probable of 1–5 meters. The missile has been used extensively in the Russian-Ukrainian War, as first confirmed in January 2024, supplementing Russia’s domestically developed Iskander-M ballistic missile system.

Airports in Moscow temporarily suspended flights on Monday, June 22, after local officials reported dozens of Ukrainian drones targeting Russia’s capital city.

The news comes as Ukraine steps up its long-range attacks against Russian energy infrastructure and major cities in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described as a campaign of “long-range sanctions.

A Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter crashed Monday morning during a training flight in Alaska.
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter had four people onboard when it went down near Harbor Mountain in Sitka, a town in the Alexander Archipelago in southern Alaska several dozen miles south of Juneau. The Jayhawk and its aircrew are assigned to Coast Guard Air Station Sitka.
The crash happened Monday morning at around 10:07 a.m. local time, the Coast Guard said. It took nearly an hour for rescue crews to arrive on the scene. Rescue.

After months of testing between two major defense companies, the Army has picked Anduril to lead its common data layer baseline for its Next Generation Command and Control initiative, officials announced Monday, boosting the California-based company’s role as a key integrator in the service’s crusade to get its systems to talk to each other.

On Sunday, June 21, Russian authorities in Crimea completely suspended the sale of fuel to civilians until at least Wednesday, June 24.

It comes after weeks of fuel rationing measures, including the introduction of fuel coupons and the later slashing of fuel coupon sales to just 20 liters in May.

President Donald J. Trump and President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. White House Photo.

In a statement published on Telegram, Sergei Aksyonov, the governor of Crimea, confirmed that fuel was in such short supply that it would be sold only to government agencies.

The emerging US-Iran framework increasingly looks less like a decisive breakthrough and more like a mutual exit ramp.

Both sides are likely exhausted by the costs of continued escalation, with Washington hoping to end an increasingly expensive regional conflict and refocus on the Indo-Pacific, while Tehran wants economic relief and room to rebuild.

A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1B interceptor missile is launched from the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) during a Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy test in the mid-Pacific.

One of every four Air Force staff sergeants eligible for promotion in 2026 will get the chance to sew on an extra stripe as a technical sergeant, according to Air Force officials, the highest promotion rate in five years.
The Air Force announced on Monday that 26.59% of eligible staff sergeants were selected for technical sergeant for the 2026 promotion cycle, covering a total of 6,668 mid-career noncommissioned officers, or NCOs. Those promoted will be notified when the official list of promotees is released on Thursday, June 25.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins has announced that the agency will fire an employee who is accused of abusing a Marine veteran at a state-run veterans home in New York, where he also worked.
Collins wrote on social media that the Department of Veterans Affairs “will immediately initiate removal proceedings for this employee.” He added in the Sunday post that the “incident didn’t happen at a VA facility.

When President Donald Trump announced military operations against Iran in February, the intent was not just to knock out the country’s nuclear infrastructure, but to place extreme economic and political pressure on the regime.

Trump even urged the Iranian people to “rise up” against the regime, and use what he described as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overcome an authoritarian government.

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

The Russian military has been steadily losing more troops than it is recruiting, and Ukrainian drone attacks are taking a major toll on its energy infrastructure, forcing Russia to face critical shortages.

However, the Russian military is going all-in on taking the strategic city of Kostyantynivka in the Donbas Oblast of eastern Ukraine, and is trying to surround it.

Lancet Drone from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The city is important to Putin’s army because it is a primary gateway to the Kramatorsk-Sloviansk metropolitan area.

This video describes the military situation in

The Defense Intelligence Agency is taking steps toward the potential launch of an artificial intelligence prototype project as it seeks new technologies to overcome inefficiencies in its procurement enterprise.
The DIA — which has a workforce of more than 16,000 personnel and is tasked with providing intel support to the military and Intelligence Community — issued an RFI on June 17 to inform its pursuit of a next-generation, AI-powered “acquisition platform.

Exercise Ramstein Flag is Nato’s largest

The battlespace of the future hinges more than ever on fusing data, making it actionable and building the means to transmit it from the enterprise to the edge securely, GDIT President Amy Gilliland told defense and industry leaders at a recent defense conference in Washington.
Saying the U.S. is at a pivotal moment during what is “arguably the most significant transformation in technology in a generation,” Gilliland asserted that the defense industry must step up in bringing emerging technology together for the military.

Acquisition budgets are increasing for the French Armed Forces, with growth across all domains as sectors like munitions forecast to rise.

Armed with heavy shovels, a hastily assembled work force of Moscow women and elderly men gouge a huge tank trap out of the earth to halt German Panzers advancing on the Russian capital. In the feverish effort to save the city, more than 100,000 citizens labored from mid-October until late November digging ditches and building other obstructions. When completed, the ditches extended more than 100 miles.

Warsaw, Poland – The city of Moscow has come under attack from Ukraine’s drone army for the third time in six days. Reports state that at least 60 drones were launched overnight from 21-22 June, which, among other disruptions, created temporary closures for the third time at all of the Russian capital city’s four major airports.

Ukraine Hits Moscow with Third Round of Attacks in Six Days

An Estonian Defense Forces M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) fires a training rocket during a live-fire exercise in Undva, Estonia, July 11, 2025. U.S.

What did Keir Starmer do for defence?

On Monday, June 22, Vice President JD Vance expressed optimism that a deal with Iran was possible, and outlined what he called a “lot of good progress.”

The comments came a day after the vice president was visibly snubbed by the Iranian delegation in Switzerland, who avoided handshakes and deliberately declined a planned photo opportunity with the negotiating teams present.

U.S. Senator J. D. Vance speaking with attendees at the 2023 Turning Point Action Conference at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Image Credit: Gage Skidmore.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has publicly demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reject the US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU).

This is a manifestation of a broader tension and raises questions about what happens if Israeli and American definitions of “victory” diverge, suggesting a potential fracture between allies pursuing different strategic objectives.

Israeli Air Force F-15I Image Credit IDF

Israeli F-16 Fighter Jet IDF Flickr Photo

Israeli Balancing Act
Netanyahu is balancing multiple pressures simultaneously.

The Strait of Hormuz and the IRGC’s continued insistence on controlling the Strait are once again fast-tracking the two sides back into open conflict.

Iran said it is closing the Strait again in response to renewed Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

B-1B Lancer Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

A B-1B Lancer with a Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) flies in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base, California, Nov. 20. The flight was a demonstration of the B-1B’s external weapons carriage capabilities.