Operation Underworld, a secret pact between the United States government and the American Mafia, began as a desperate gamble in the earliest days of World War II. With German U-boats attacking merchant ships, docks vulnerable to sabotage, and East Coast supply lines under constant threat, federal authorities made a choice almost unthinkable in peacetime. They turned to the underworld.
Together, government agents and mob lieutenants secured the ports, protected the waterfront, and even contributed intelligence that shaped the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Marine Corps Compass Points
What do the rusty struts on the ACV have to do with the future of the Marine Corps?

Benjamin Van Horrick, Modern War Institute
Strategy, Credentialism, and the Pursuit of Intellectual Depth

DN
Cold, calculating, and ruthless adversaries do not hesitate.

Tyler Rogoway, The WarZone
We go in-depth with Anduril on their machine learning-infused loitering munition that the USMC just ordered, including how they intend to produce it at…

Stefano D’urso, The Aviationist
The USAF is introducing an improved version of its deployment construct, called Air Expeditionary Wing 2.

Life in certain parts of Ukraine has become dystopian as drone netting covers everything, to prevent FPV drone attack damage. Of course, this won’t stop the heavier projectiles but it will stop a small FPV drone with a warhead attached.
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In 2021, a single explosion in Minden, Louisiana, sent shockwaves across the U.S. defense industrial base. For nearly two years, the nation’s only domestic producer of black powder stopped operating. Ammunition manufacturers were forced to draw down stockpiles and delay deliveries because there was nowhere to get the main ingredient for their product. That episode captures a reality often missed in debates about defense production.

Moscow’s “Oreshnik” strike on January 9, 2026 is best understood as strategic signaling designed to shape what NATO will and will not do. Russia’s use of nuclear-capable delivery systems in the Russo-Ukrainian War underscores a returning logic: nuclear weapons as instruments of coercion and risk manipulation, not only city destruction. RAND Europe’s 2025 scenario analysis similarly includes a coercive diplomacy pathway in which Russia might threaten or conduct a limited nuclear strike to compel political concessions or sanctions relief.

In late 2003, I was asked to take on the task of demobilizing Iraqi militias. This would later be named the “transition and reintegration” program. Shortly after the program commenced, efforts to stabilize and rebuild Iraq veered off in directions no one wanted.The task I took on was conceptually simple but practically daunting: persuade Iraq’s armed factions to lay down their weapons and trust in a future they could not yet see while violence escalated.

Head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Sergey Naryshkin has reported that the combat use of the newly operationalised Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile on January 8 against targets in western Ukraine had a “staggering” effect on defence planners in the Western world. The West perceived it “as a warning against their military’s direct involvement… in the hostilities,” he claimed, adding that it highlighted the vulnerability of any Western Bloc forces that may be deployed in the country.

The United States Air Force is currently preparing Misawa Air Base in northern Japan to support a planned permanent deployment of F-35A fifth generation fighters, as part of a much broader expansion in F-35 deployments in the region. The Pentagon plans to deploy 48 of the aircraft to the facility to replace 36 aging F-16CM fourth generation fighters, in parallel to the replacement of 48 F-15C/D air superiority fighters at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa in southern Japan with 36 newer F-15EX fighters.

The U.S. Space Force officially stood up a new element focused on Latin America this past week, nearly three weeks after Guardians were taking part in a major combat operation in South America.
On Jan. 21 Space Force Force Southern was formally activated. The new component, operating under U.S. Southern Command, is based out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. Under this new purview, it will coordinate space-related matters dealing with Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, where U.S. forces have been massed for months.

Three days before Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California, some of the biggest names in professional football will attend a ceremony on February 5 that honors individual excellence. The NFL’s MVP will be announced, as will the Coach of the Year and Rookie of the Year, among other awards.
One honor that night will stand above all others, though, when it comes to impacting the military community. Since 2011, the NFL Salute to Service Award has been presented to an honoree who has made a significant impact on service members and veterans.

An operational mindset that fostered a “false confidence of safety” as well as poor mission planning contributed to an Air Force demonstration gone wrong last year, when a helicopter crew in Japan accidentally caused a civilian to suffer a fatal fall.
An Air Force accident report was released this past week, looking into a mishap at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. A Japanese civilian working as a Department of Defense Education Activity teacher at Kadena Elementary School was knocked off balance by the helicopter’s rotor wash, causing her to suffer a fall. She would die five days later.

For Nazi history in US buffs like me, a very interesting report by Commander Kenneth T. Klima, U. S. Navy was put forth in 2024 in the form of an MA thesis at Harvard University.
The effectiveness of Nazi-era espionage in the US had been downplayed. But his review of a declassified intelligence batch in the early 2000s appears to tip that over.

From a secret US underground base housing a nuc

AFP Publisher L Todd Wood appears on Bannon’s War Room after attending the grand opening of the LTG James M Gavin Joint Innovation Outpost at Fort Bragg, NC, where army innovation in collaboration with industry and academia is happening.
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Leonardo has been left in the lurch due to UK defence spending inertia, leaving decision delay on AW149 medium lift helicopter

Multiple Pakistan Air Force Il-78 aerial refuelling aircraft have been confirmed to have landed at an airbase in China’s Sichuan province on 19–20 January, with two of the aircraft seen parked on the apron before departing the airfield. Multiple reports have indicated that they were dispatched to receive up supplies for the Pakistan Armed Forces, for which China is by far the largest foreign supplier. The brevity of the aircraft’s time in China indicates a specific logistics-related visit.

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Engineers on HMS Tamar test firefighting system

The Russian Aerospace Forces have made use of the secondary land attack capabilities of the S-400 long range air defence system during strikes on Ukrainian targets, with Ukrainian sources reporting that 48N6E2 surface-to-air missiles from the system were used to strike unknown ground targets. The 48N6E2 is one of three long range missile types integrated onto the system, and is significantly slower and less costly than the newer 48N6DM and 40N6 missiles which have respective 250 kilometre and 400 kilometre engagement ranges. The missile has a 200 kilometre range and Mach 8.

Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has confirmed that fighter aircraft were scrambled to intercept a Russian IL-20 intelligence-gathering aircraft conducted a surveillance flight near the country’s western regions, after it flew into the Sea of Japan and proceeded southwest. The Russian aircraft changed course off the coast of Kyoto Prefecture, before returning northwest toward the continent.

Chinese shipyards have made progress with deep modernisation of People’s Liberation Army Navy’s Type 051C class destroyers, with unconfirmed reports indicating that the ships could integrate advanced new vertical launch systems and modern radars to revolutionise their combat capabilities. Only two Type 051C class destroyers were built for the Navy, with these launched in January 2006 and January 2007.

The Russian strategic aircraft manufacturer Tupolev has reportedly seen a new chief executive, Yuri Ambrosimov, appointed to replace Aleksandr Bobryshev, a year after prior management rotations at the firm in late 2024. The firm is currently the only one in the world producing strategic bombers for frontline service, namely the Tu-160M which begun production in 2021.The aircraft are built at the Kazan Aircraft Plant, where Tu-214 passenger planes are also produced, and where Tu-22M3 bombers were previously built and have in recent years been modernised.

The U.S. military struck a small boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Friday, killing two people in the first such attack on a ship in Latin American waters this year, after nearly three dozen in the second half of 2025. 
U.S. Southern Command announced the airstrike on Friday in a post on X, saying that forces struck a boat allegedly operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations,” killing two people on board and leaving one survivor. 
The command noted that it “immediately” notified the U.S. Coast Guard about the survivor to begin search and rescue efforts.

Members of the Minnesota National Guard are mobilizing around Minneapolis after a 37-year-old man was shot and killed by federal agents in the city today.
The National Guard confirmed it was mobilizing to support local law enforcement following a request from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office earlier today. Troops will be “assisting in securing the Whipple Federal Building and the site of this morning’s shooting, providing depth and capability to state and local law enforcement,” Army Maj. Andrea Tsuchiya, a spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard, said in a statement.

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This story was updated Saturday, Jan. 24, with up-to-date snow and ice predictions for major bases based on National Weather Service forecasts.
Garrison leadership at Fort Bragg, North Carolina announced on Friday that it would reducing personnel down to only mission essential staff this weekend, as a massive winter storm bears down on the East Coast. It’s the latest move by a military base as snow begins to blanket several states and many military installations.

The head of the First Naval Construction Regiment was removed from his post on Friday, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command announced.
Capt. Douglas Whimpey was relieved of his role as commodore of the regiment after more than two years “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command,’ the Navy said.
“Navy leaders are expected to uphold the highest standards of responsibility, reliability, and leadership personally and professionally, and the Navy holds them accountable when they fall short of those standards,” the statement said.
Whimpey was removed from the post by Capt.

The American Revolution did not begin with a musket shot. Long before armies marched and cannons thundered, the decisive struggle unfolded in the minds of the colonists themselves. The winter of 1776 marked a turning point not because of a single military victory, but because a fundamental transformation occurred in how Americans understood power, authority, and their place in the world. In January and February of that year, the revolution became not merely a resistance to British policy, but a moral and ideological struggle for independence.

Hat Tip to writer Drew Magary, who pioneered his Hater’s Guides for Deadspin (RIP), which inspired this series, originally written in 2015. We had no idea WATM would survive this long.
It’s been said before that the U.S. military is a big family. Happy? Never. Dysfunctional? Absolutely, always and forever. We’re like the children of divorce whose mother keeps bringing home a new stepdad every few years.

Wavell Room
It’s hard to shake the feeling that conflict no longer behaves the way we expect it to.

Marine Corps Compass Points
It was 35 years ago this month when Operation Desert Storm began.

CDR Salamander
a solution to a well-appreciated problem?

Defense News
Rep. Jeff Crank believes in the “Golden Dome” missile defense shield proposal — but worries that the U.S.

Naval Tech.
The Tomahawk Block V cruise missile is the latest iteration of the long-serving design.

It’s the fastest racquet sport in the wor

This video describes the military situation in

Pilot Brad Hall shows off the Bobsleigh Olympic

Amid continuing uncertainty regarding the future of the U.S. Navy’s carrier air wings, and a deprioritisation of the service’s F/A-XX sixth generation fighter program by the Department of War, the firm Stavatti Aerospace has unveiled an independent proposal to provide a next generation fighter built on an entirely different design concept.

The Russian Aerospace Forces on January 24 for the first time launched Kh-22 cruise missiles to strike the Ukrainain capital Kiev, with 12 reportedly fired against targets in the city. The missiles are carried by Tu-22M3 strategic bombers exclusively, with their 6,000 kilogram weights making them to large to be effectively deployed by fighter-sized aircraft.

The German Defence Ministry has placed an additional order for Meteor active radar guided long range air-to-air missiles, which are expected to equip both its modernised Eurofighter fourth generation combat jets, and its F-35A fifth generation fighters that have yet to begin deliveries. The missile’s primary developer MBDA reported that the order was placed through the Meteor Integrated Joint Programme Office, and follows a year of further testing and investment activity across the program in 2025.

The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence has confirmed the awarding of a £453.5 million contract to produce 40 ECRS Mk2 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, which are intended to modernise the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Tranche 3 Eurofighter aircraft. The Eurofighter was one of the last two fighter types in the world alongside the Swedish Gripen to be produced with a mechanically scanned array radar, which seriously limited its combat performance with below average situational awareness, an underwhelming electronic warfare capability, and high vulnerability to jamming.

Like it or not, Benedict Arnold was one of the most capable American commanders during the Revolutionary War. The list of his amazing accomplishments is a long one. Without history’s most infamous turncoat, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys would probably have gotten drunk instead of moving Fort Ticonderoga’s guns to Boston. At Fort Stanwix, Valcour Island, and Ridgefield, Arnold won stunning victories against impossible odds.

The Department of Defense has removed a loot box vending machine from the Pentagon after just a month of operations. A department spokesperson told Task & Purpose on Friday that the Lucky Box Vending machine was “temporarily” moved out of the food hall it has been in since late December.

The Marine Corps is seeking intelligence specialists to apply for its most elite unit — a recruitment push driven by high demand for the skillset, but amid difficulties in filling the unique roles, according to an official and service announcement.
Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARFORSOC, or MARSOC), is soliciting enlisted Marines with intelligence backgrounds to join its Special Operations Capability Specialist stable — positions within the formation that support Marine Raiders through various proficiencies.

457 Armed Forces personnel lost their lives in