Four days after a daring daylight rescue mission whisked a downed American fighter pilot out of Iran under heavy fire, a notice appeared on a federal contracting website. The Air Force, it said, was seeking to upgrade its fleet of combat search and rescue helicopters to fend off heat-seeking missiles.

The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for robotic and autonomous systems is gearing up to release a roadmap to industry to inform its marketplace for procuring maritime drones, according to a senior official.
The organization was stood up late last year as part of a broader acquisition shakeup at the Defense Department to consolidate and enhance capability portfolio management.

The Pentagon wants to add 44,500 active duty troops and reservists next year.
The Pentagon’s proposed $1.5 trillion budget includes funding to buy weapons, conduct research and develop new capabilities, and even enhance base facilities and barracks for junior troops. It also calls for plans to increase its total force.
The Pentagon wants to add 40,100 active duty troops and 4,400 reservists, according to Defense Department budget documents.
“Military recruiting in FY 2025 hit its highest level in over 15 years.

In 2024, Paul van Hooft and Tim Sweijs wrote, “Two-Theater Tragedy: A Reluctant Europe Cannot Easily Escape a Sino-American War Over Taiwan,” where they argued a war in the Indo-Pacific would likely draw in and weaken Europe, even if European states try to remain on the sidelines. Two years later, amidst heightened tensions in both theaters, we asked Paul to revisit their arguments.Image: U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth FleetIn your 2024 article, you argue a U.S.

The King’s Gurkha Artillery has welcomed

The Indian Ministry of Defence entered into agreements with BEML and EPHL for Trawl Assembly equipment for T-72 and T-90 tanks.

Could this one day carry UK special forces in j

The Marine Corps has upgraded valor awards received by Marines who guarded Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate in Kabul when a suicide bomber struck on Aug. 26, 2021, killing 13 service members and about 170 Afghans, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday.

A new air-delivered bunker-busting warhead has undergone a successful live-fire test by US Army Infantry Drone Operators at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

The Marine Corps is replacing the AV-8B Harrier

It’s the money, honey, not the warfighter or winning wars

Yesterday, the Pentagon held four hours of press briefing on the budget. All three services presented. The event was mostly attended by legacy media reporters from the previous credentialed Pentagon Press Corp. Not many of the new press showed up, which is a slight on them, as the budget briefs are critical to the future of the U.S. military and the ability of the United States to defend itself and project power over the next few decades. This is something the new press should understand and want to cover.

Combat soldiers will soon take a new fitness test that will determine whether they can stay in their jobs.
The Army’s new Combat Field Test, CFT, is a pass-fail assessment for soldiers in “designated close-combat” jobs like infantry and artillery. Beginning in Spring 2027, soldiers who cannot pass the test will have to reclassify into new jobs or separate from the Army.
“This initiative is not just about meeting metrics, but about ensuring our soldiers are prepared for the challenges of modern combat,” said Command Sgt. Maj.

The views and opinion expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities mentioned.On Apr. 3, 2026, President Trump signed an emergency directive to pay all Department of Homeland Security employees amid the DHS shutdown. We were grateful, but that doesn’t solve most of the agency’s problems, especially when it comes to Coast Guardsmen and their families.

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The Army and the Navy battle for wickets at the

Can the Army stop the reigning champions from t

Public Domain

AFP attended the four hours of budget briefings at the Pentagon yesterday as part of the Pentagon Press Corp.
The Department of the Air Force’s Fiscal Year 2027 President’s Budget request marks a fundamental strategic shift. This budget departs from previous practices and makes a conscious effort to prioritize investment in modernization and readiness, recognizing both as essential and non-negotiable. With a total request of $338.

This video describes the military situation in

Stefano D’urso, The Aviationist
Hours after the U.S.

D.F.

Shelbourne, USNI N.

The Vietnamese Defence Ministry has been widely reported by local sources to have shown a continued interest in procuring Russian Su-57 fifth generation fighter aircraft in the early 2030s, likely to replace a portion of its 12 Su-27 fourth generation air superiority fighters and approximately 30 Su-22 third generation strike fighters in frontline service. Reports first emerged in mid 2017 from Vietnamese paper Dat Viet that the Ministry planned the acquisition of 12-24 Su-57s from around 2030, after which further reports to this effect emerged in early January 2019.

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IntEng

In the 1986 World Cup, Diego Maradona scored his infamous “Hand of God” goal — an obvious handball that went uncalled, because the referee did not have the tools to see it. Today, soccer has addressed that vulnerability with sensors and video review, ensuring the game is adjudicated fairly. U.S. defense industrial policy faces a similar challenge. In America’s defense industrial base, the issue is not a lack of oversight, but distorted incentives that steer work toward private vendors even when the organic industrial base is well-positioned to perform it.

What happens when a country develops a cyber strategy that depends on the capabilities it is actively cutting?The White House’s new cyber strategy offers exactly that kind of contradiction by pairing a strong vision for resilience and competition with policy choices that pull in the opposite direction. On the merits, it gets several important things right. It treats cyberspace as a domain of sustained strategic competition rather than a compliance problem. It puts unusual and welcome emphasis on national resilience.

The reality that regime change is not going to happen as a result of this war seems to have settled in at the White House. When American policymakers reflect and wonder why Iran did not react like Venezuela under pressure, they will not just be misreading Iran — they will be misreading how coercive pressure works. Iran’s resilience rests on internal and external pillars that a Venezuela comparison completely misses. Internally, the Supreme Leader’s authority is anchored in a theocratic order where religious legitimacy underwrites a sprawling economic system.

The official publication of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has announced a new AI-assisted task dispatch smart artificial intelligence system for its aerial tankers, which has streamlined its aerial refuelling operations to improve efficiency and safety. Referred to as the Aerial Refuelling Area Management System, it is reported to have first been introduced during training in late 2025. The system monitors real-time airspace situations, employing built-in algorithms to automatically calculate real-time fuel levels for all participating aircraft within the area.

The second of two Chinese Type 052B class destroyer, the Wuhan, has completed its refit and been brought back into the People’s Liberation Army Navy, as part of a program to enhance older warship types across the fleet through integration of new weaponry, sensors and electronics. The most significant change is the removal of the twin-arm surface-to-air missile launcher integrating missiles from the Russian BuK system, and their replacement with a 32-cell vertical launch system integrating significantly more modern and longer ranged HHQ-16 medium range surface-to-air missiles.

The United States has made major progress in technical negotiations with India for the production of U.S. F414 fighter engines in the country under license, concluding an agreement for an 80 percent technology transfer that will significantly bolster the South Asian state’s engine industry. General Electric Aerospace and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited are cooperating closely to begin production of the F414 by the end of 2027. The engine is intended to power an enhanced variant of the Tejas lightweight fighter, the Tejas Mk2.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s Eastern Theater Command has organised a formation of ships to transit the Yokoate Waterway and conduct routine training exercises in the Western Pacific, shortly following the conclusion of ajoint combat readiness patrol in the East China Sea. The waterway is a strategic maritime passage located between Japan’s Amami Oshima and Yokoate Island in the Ryukyu Islands, and represents a key transit point for vessels navigating between the East China Sea and the Western Pacific Ocean.

A Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk of the 66th Rescue Squadron, 563rd Rescue Group, 355th Wing, preparing to pick up infantry while another HH-60G flys past and an A10 Thunderbolt II does a mock show-of-force maneuver during Aviation Nation 2017.Image. by Noah Wulf

Pentagon, Washington, DC – The U.S. Air Force has reversed course on retiring its iconic A-10 Thunderbolt II, commonly known as the Warthog, announcing that the close air support aircraft will remain in service through at least 2030.
Secretary of the Air Force Troy E.

The Coast Guard will be “surging” counter-drone capabilities to upcoming, high-security events, officials said, training existing enlisted rates on the new UAS defense systems as the service stands up a specialized role focused on robotics.
Service officials said support for gatherings such as the FIFA World Cup and America 250 celebrations over the summer bring “a whole new mission set for us.” The comments, delivered at the Sea-Air-Space conference on Tuesday, come as the Coast Guard builds out its robotics repertoire.

The U.S. military today ended its flu vaccine mandate for active-duty and reserve service members and civilian personnel, the U.S. Department of War announced today. Pam Long, director of the Children’s Health Defense Military Chapter, said that up until this week, service members were still being punished for refusing the vaccine. She called the policy change a “major victory” for individual liberty.

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
The U.S. military today ended its flu vaccine mandate for active-duty and reserve service members and civilian personnel, effective immediately, the U.

The Air Force is once again pivoting its strategy to develop a sixth-generation tanker platform and will focus immediate efforts on developing supporting mission systems rather than a new aircraft.
The service wants to move funds from the Next Generation Air-refueling System (NGAS) program in fiscal 2027 and allocate them towards a new effort known as Advanced Tanker Systems (ATS), Maj. Gen. Frank Verdugo, Air Force deputy assistant secretary for budget, said Tuesday.

Two of the Army’s most anticipated ground platforms will be put to the test next spring at one of the military’s combat training centers, according to the commander in charge of the division that will receive them, a marked step in the rapidly changing future of armored warfare.
By fall 2026, prototype models of the M1E3 tank and XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle will track to 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood Texas where soldiers will begin training on the new systems.

The Trump administration’s spending plan for next year allocates more than $70 billion for military drones and counter-drone weapon systems, according to two senior defense officials who said that proposed funding surge would mark the Pentagon’s most substantial investment in the technologies to date.
On Tuesday, Jules “Jay” Hurst III, the official performing the duties of comptroller and undersecretary of defense, and Space Force Lt. Gen. Steven Whitney, director for force structure, resources and assessment, briefed reporters on the Defense Department’s fiscal 2027 budget request.

The price tag for the lead vessel in a new Trump-class series of battleships is expected to exceed $17 billion, according to Navy budget documents released Tuesday.
The service’s spending plan includes $1 billion in advanced procurement funding requested for the program in fiscal 2027 and $16.47 billion in net procurement funding for fiscal 2028, when the service plans to buy the first platform. The gross weapon system cost for the lead ship is estimated at $17.47 billion.

Your Marine survived boot camp, and now they’re heading to the School of Infantry West (SOI-W) at Camp Pendleton, California. This next phase is where they transition from recruit to Marine, learning the skills and discipline that will define their career. As a family, understanding what happens at SOI-W and what your Marine needs to bring can make a real difference in how smoothly this transition goes.
What Is the School of Infantry?
SOI-W is the follow-on training every Marine attends after boot camp. It is a demanding, structured environment focused on building combat-ready Marines.

This video describes the military situation in

Dressed in immaculate full kilt attire, Balakla

When the U.S.–Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28, there were immediate impacts on the countries to Iran’s west — as Iran struck multiple Gulf Arab states and Jordan, Iraq absorbed direct attacks while facing renewed risks of internal stability, Israel launched intensive airstrikes and ground operations in Lebanon, and other countries and territories in the region struggled to cope with short-term and potential long-term ripple effects. However, Iran’s neighbors to its north and east are not immune to the risks — and opportunities — that the war poses.

“It holds so many memories to my heart”🗣️

As thousands of citizens fled East Germany in the early 1960s, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev became irate.
Berlin became a particular source of irritation. Khrushchev detested how the German capital was divided into four zones after World War II that the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union oversaw. 
Related: How a bidding war inspired a WWI veteran to push for an NFL draft
Cold War tensions became white-hot after the Soviets shot down a U-2 spy plane in 1960.

Jules W. Hurst III, performing the duties of the undersecretary of war comptroller and chief financial officer, and Space Force Lt. Gen. Steven P. Whitney, Joint Staff director of force structure, resources and assessment, brief the media on the War Department’s fiscal year 2027 budget request at the Pentagon, April 21, 2026.

The post DOW Leaders Brief FY27 Budget Request appeared first on Armed Forces Press.

🇬🇧 A New Chapter for the King’s Gurkha

Japan lift arms trade restrictions in a rare and pragmatic move to interoperate with partner nations in the “severe” Pacific theatre.

L3Harris Technologies has been awarded a contract to manufacture solid rocket motors for the US Army’s Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).

The Pentagon’s proposed $1.5 trillion budget for next fiscal year includes funding to fix longstanding problems with barracks, defense officials recently told reporters.
The budget calls for spending $57 billion on U.S. military bases and other facilities, a large portion of which would go toward addressing “critical updates” identified by the Pentagon’s barracks task force established by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a senior military official told reporters on Friday.

WHEN FEAR SPEAKS — YOU MOVE FORWARD | Militar