When Russian forces first crossed into Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin was convinced the war would be over in weeks, that Kyiv would fall, and Russia would return to business as usual before the end of the year.

But more than four years later, the conflict has become the defining challenge of Vladimir Putin’s presidency – and his decision to invade may prove to be the beginning of the end for his new Russian empire.

Putin in 2022. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Ukraine launched another major overnight drone strike against Moscow, reportedly damaging a major oil refinery and forcing flight restrictions across all four of the capital’s international airports.

Russian officials claim that more than 60 drones targeting Moscow were shot down, while over 170 were intercepted nationwide.

Putin New Year’s Message. Image Credit: Russian Government.

This was not an isolated incident; reportedly, this is the ninth consecutive day of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) hasn’t even been signed yet, but President Trump says the United States is fully ready to go back to bombing Iran if the deal isn’t satisfactory to the US.

Speaking at the G7 conference alongside Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in Évian-les-Bains, France, on Wednesday, the president said the U.S.-Iran agreement is not a final deal and warned that the U.S. could resume bombing Iran “if they don’t behave.”

President Donald J. Trump watches the liftoff of Artemis II in the Outer Oval Office, Wednesday, April 1, 2026.

BAE Systems has secured a $535m to manufacture extra M109A7 Paladin Self-Propelled Howitzers and M992A3 Ammunition Carriers for the US Army.

Sir Richard Knighton said the government’

A cruise missile capable of striking deep strategic targets from over 2,000km is at the centre of Rheinmetall Destinus Strike Systems’ future roadmap, as revealed at Eurosatory 2026 in Paris

The UK Defence Investment Plan is nine months late amid a funding debacle that has seen multiple government officials resign in protest.

The modern battlefield has changed.

Nothing lasts forever. Even headstones, which, for most of us, will be our lasting impression on Earth. Over time, they get discolored and work down by rain and sleet and whatever else mother nature can throw at it. Anyone who’s ever tried to visit an old grave can tell you that the wear and tear of time combined with cemetery record-keeping can leave some graves just… lost.

Representatives from the United States and Iran will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, to end the conflict that has been ongoing for several months.

The MoU lays out a 60-day window for further negotiating Iran’s nuclear program, ensuring the Strait of Hormuz remains open, and ensuring the conflict doesn’t restart.

President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump work the rope line at the Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn, Tuesday, May 19, 2026.

Earlier this month, Nick Ricigliano finally came face to face with a fugitive he’d been tracking since 2019 and whom the Army had been after for nearly 30 years.
“I was a bit taken aback by how much he had aged and how unhealthy he appeared,” Ricigliano, an Army veteran and long-time U.S. Marshal, told Task & Purpose. “I suppose 30 years of waiting for that knock on the door had taken a physical as well as mental toll.”  
The fugitive that Ricigliano finally got to meet was former Staff Sgt. Jesse Bussey, an “Army Most Wanted Fugitive.

Did President Donald Trump cave in to Iranian demands to make his deal on the Memorandum of Understanding a reality?

The devil is in the details, as the real negotiations will officially begin once the MOU is signed on Friday.

B-2A Spirit Stealth Bomber USAF Image.

It seems that the critics have come out in force, especially on Capitol Hill, where legislators are starving for more information about the agreement with Iran.

What If Israel Plays the Spoiler?
Trump may be concealing the MOU’s inner workings because he is not sure the agreement can be followed to meet his objectives.

Warsaw, Poland – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko has long been one of the most loyal and dependable allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Therefore, it was not much of a surprise that two Belarusian citizens were arrested this Monday after one of the former KGB Lt. Col.’s most vocal critics was shot dead here in Poland in the city of Biala Podlaska.

In what has been interpreted as the fear that the event could be targeted by Ukraine’s famous Flamingo FP-5 missiles, Russia’s Defense Ministry (MoD) is not planning to hold its main naval parade in St. Petersburg this year.

Fontanka, a news outlet based in Russia’s second city, reported the news on Tuesday, which it said came from an unnamed MoD source.

Yasen-Class Submarine Russian Navy. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The parade has been held in St.

According to intelligence assessments by more than one Western ally, Iran has rebuilt much of its pre-war arsenal of missiles with the help of a friend in Europe, and is believed to possess about 75 percent of the missiles it had before the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, the joint Israeli-American campaign that marked the start of hostilities between the three countries.

Tehran’s reconstituted missile stocks are thought to have been aided by missiles produced in Russia.

Tomahawk Block IV Missile. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

A Tu-22M3 strategic bomber of the Russian Strategic Forces crashed recently due to likely engine failure. “Fell like a brick”.
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From Monday night and on into Tuesday morning, dozens of Ukrainian long-range drones struck Moscow in what has been one of the largest attacks of the almost four-and-a-half-year war.

The strikes are confirmed to have seriously damaged a major oil refinery and have also prompted flight restrictions that disrupted air travel at all four of the Russian capital’s international airports.

Putin with a Rifle. Image Credit: Russian State Media.

“Over the past 24 hours, an attack by enemy drones on Moscow has continued.

Ukraine launched several dozen drones at Moscow on Tuesday night, marking the ninth consecutive night of strikes in the Russian capital city.

Moscow’s four major airports, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, and Zhukovsky, all experienced delays or disruptions, and an oil refinery complex was struck.

Putin In Airplane Simulator Russian Government Photo

Posting to his Telegram channel, Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin explained that “twenty-five unmanned aerial vehicles have been destroyed by the Ministry of Defense’s air defense system.

Ending the Iran War Increases Political Liability: Conventional wisdom suggests the Iran war is a political liability for President Donald Trump, as it will relieve political pressure on Republicans. Conventional wisdom, however, is wrong.

Certainly, the pressure is real as Americans suffer under inflation. As prices edged up at the gas pumps and grocery stores, pressure grew at the White House and among Republicans fearful of what popular discord might mean in mid-term elections. By almost any metric, prices are now higher than they were under President Joe Biden.

Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited (KSSL) and Paramount unveiled a new Light Armoured Multi-Purpose Vehicle during Eurosatory 2026 in Paris.

This video describes the military situation in

Mel Brooks’ stomach almost didn’t survive the trip overseas to fight during World War II.
In February 1945, the comic legend and other troops left the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York on a ship bound for France. As they navigated their way across the North Atlantic, the icy weather and stormy seas relentlessly rocked the vessel. What’s more, the ship sometimes zigzagged to avoid German U-boats—which only added to the tossing and turning.
Also Read: Summer blockbusters we’re already freaking out over
The passengers suffered the consequences.

Some Western intelligence analysts believe Iran has largely reconstituted its ballistic missile stockpiles during the ceasefire, according to a new intelligence assessment posted by Bloomberg.

The article added that Tehran has probably added new-build Russian weapons to its inventory and reconstituted large numbers of its missile arsenal during the eight-week ceasefire, giving them plenty of firepower to restart the conflict.

Iskander-M. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

It may be premature to speak of Ukraine’s victory in the ongoing war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, or it may not.

After all, if there’s one thing we know for sure about the conflict, it’s that the impossible or unlikely has proven to be very possible and very likely.

Putin Back in 2023 Creative Commons Photo

Kyiv was supposed to fall in three days, but didn’t.

Ukraine was to be occupied in three weeks, but wasn’t. The war wasn’t supposed to last four years, but it has.
In addition, all the trends in Russia are negative.

In this war of incessant drone and missile attacks, the Ukrainians have endured many Russian strikes that continue to take a toll on civilian targets.
No target is off limits, even religious sites like churches, cathedrals, and monasteries, which are considered awful war crimes instigated by Vladimir Putin’s forces, are endangered.

While Volodymyr Zelensky’s military has done an admirable job fighting back and eliminating Russian unmanned kamikaze drones and other dangerous projectiles, its air defenses are suffering.

Tabitha Reeves, National Defense
The maritime services are prioritizing sea-mine countermeasure technology as tensions intensify across the globe

Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven
The Navy’s first next-generation high-tech new Columbia-class submarine will arrive in 2028 as the service works intensely to build its first two nuclear-armed…

Bill Sweetman, The Strategist
More than a year ago, I speculated

Hope Hodge Seck, Sandboxx News
An experimental high-velocity ammunition could breathe new life into the legacy M4 carbines used by special operations forces.

A&SF
The B-21 Raider stealth bomber flew with both an developmental test pilot and an…

This video describes the military situation in

Iranian Air Force F-5E/F fighter pilots involved in a penetration strike operation against Camp Buehring in Kuwait on March 1 have shared details regarding how they carried out the operation and evaded multiple layers of local and U.S. air defences. Although Iranian state media widely publicised footage of F-4 and F-5 fighters taking off to participate in the war effort, after the U.S. initiated an assault on the country on February 28, little has been know regarding their roles before these penetration strikes were confirmed in late April.

Saab launched the Giraffe AMB D radar at Eurosatory, where it was revealed that the FMV already placed an order for units in previous weeks.

LRMV displayed its new Main Battle Tank, now under consideration to replace Italy’s Ariete MBT fleet, at the Eurosatory 2026 exhibition.

More than 1 in 10 military family homes have be

In early March, French President Emmanuel Macron stood at a windswept submarine base on the Breton coast and quietly buried four decades of French nuclear orthodoxy. The arsenal would grow. The numbers would be hidden. And for the first time, nuclear weapons that France built to defend Paris might one day be deployed to protect Berlin.

Editor’s Note: This is a new occasional series brought to you by War on the Rocks. If you would like to pitch your own version, please refer to the contact information and guidance on our submissions page.Every war, it seems, produces its famous novel, a book that captures not merely the tactics and the terrain but the moral weather of its time. The American Civil War gave us The Red Badge of Courage. World War I gave us All Quiet on the Western Front.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has provided new information on the factors that led the Russian Armed Forces to suffer major setbacks in the early stages of its military campaign in the Ukrainian theatre in February-March 2022. He assessed the conflict could have ended quickly in the early stages, when Russian forces were near the Ukrainian capital, observing: “At the time, not only I, but everyone in the world understood that the war would end quickly with a Russian victory. This was primarily because the Russians were in Kiev.

The Russian Navy frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired warning shots near a British yacht in the English Channel, with the Russian Defence Ministry having reported that this was done after the yacht took“a dangerous course that would bring it into close proximity with the warship,” and after other options had been exhausted. The Admiral Grigorovich was sailing in international waters between the Isle of Wight and Normandy at the time of the incident near midday on June 16.

New enhancements made to the U.S. High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) design have quadrupled its missile firepower, while providing a 67 percent increase in engagement range, which is a potential game changer for the strike capabilities of the very widely deployed assets. The most important improvement is the integration of the new PrSM ballistic missile, which are significantly smaller than the ATACMS ballistic missiles that were previously relied on.

Lockheed Martin has unveiled a new variant of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), the HIMARS FLEX, which was designed to address several operational shortcomings that have become increasingly apparent through recent conflicts and evolving military requirements. In particular, the new variant has responded to requirements for greater firepower, improved versatility, enhanced survivability, and reduced logistical burden. One of the principal issues with the original HIMARS was its limited ammunition capacity.

Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union was a world leader in the production and development of tanks. Tanks like the T-64 and T-72 were considered among the world’s most advanced main battle tanks (MBTs) upon their introduction, and their continued service is a testament to their timeless design.

For years, the quality of Soviet tanks has been a topic of endless debate among experts and enthusiasts alike.

Russian T-90 Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

T-90M. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

President Donald Trump’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran hasn’t even been officially released yet, but analysts and commentators are speculating – based on comments made by U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance – that it involves the unfreezing of hundreds of billions of dollars of Iranian assets.

It could prove to be the most controversial element of the entire deal – and that’s saying something.

U.S. Senator J. D.

The newly leaked US-Iran memorandum suggests the Trump administration may be on the brink of a domestic controversy. Of course, we have no idea at present whether what has been leaked is the final version, but if it is, things in Washington are going to get pretty interesting, pretty fast.

At the center of the controversy is a proposed $300 billion investment and reconstruction framework intended to help reintegrate Iran into the global economy following the conflict.

President Donald J.

Did Trump’s Iran War Change the U.S.-Israel Relationship Forever?: For decades, the relationship between the United States and Israel has been widely considered to be unbreakable – but that may no longer be the case after the announcement of President Donald Trump’s memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran. The announcement of the deal, which lays the foundation for a future deal expected within 60 days, has shut Israel out almost entirely, and public statements from Jerusalem and Washington seem to suggest all may not be well between them.

Virginia-based, data-labeling and AI startup Enabled Intelligence is expanding its repository of curated datasets that government and commercial partners use for model training and deployments to include a new collection of drone footage recorded in Ukraine amid the ongoing war.
Since Russia’s large-scale invasion of its territory in 2022, Ukraine has generated staggering volumes of frontline videos capturing real-world combat operations.

More than 1 in 10 military family homes were tr

The Iran Conflict And The Effect On The Global Economy: The conflict in Iran is set to officially end on Friday if both parties sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Geneva. And… if the peace can be kept.

While the conflict primarily involved the United States, Israel, Iran, and Lebanon, the other Gulf countries were all affected to some degree. However, the war greatly affected the rest of the world, specifically the global economy.

U.S.

The U.S.

The Hormuz Crisis Could Reshape Global Oil Markets Forever: U.S. President Donald Trump said this week that “ships are starting to move” through the Strait of Hormuz after announcing the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the regime in Tehran.

The MOU lays the foundation for a potentially lasting peace deal between the United States and Iran in the next 60 days – and should all go to plan, the Strait of Hormuz should remain open to commercial oil traffic for the foreseeable future.

F-15I Fighter Israeli Air Force. Image Credit: Creative Commons.