The U.S. Air Force has reportedly deployed a second group of F-22 Raptor fifth generation fighters to forward bases in the Middle East, as part of a large scale military buildup in the region aimed at Iran. The Raptors were observed transiting through RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom on February 20. This closely follows the deployment of newer Air Force F-35A and Marine Corps F-35C fifth generation fighters to the region, and the British Armed Forces’ deployment of F-35B fighters to Cyprus where they will also be in range to support operations.

The Iranian Army has reportedly received multiple new batches of Russian Mi-28 attack helicopters, following confirmation in January that the first of the new aircraft had been delivered. The operationalisation of the Mi-28 marks the first significant improvement to the Iranian attack helicopter fleet in over half a century, with the aircraft expected to replace a fleet of approximately 50 Vietnam War era AH-1 Corbras that were supplied by the United States in the 1970s.

The U.S. Air Force is nearing an agreement with the B-21 Raider next generation strategic bomber’s primary contractor Northrop Grumman to accelerate the production of the aircraft, according to statements by the firm’s CEO Kathy Warden. Since its first flight in November 2023, the B-21 has moved into a low-rate initial production phase consisting of five lots, which will between them produce a total of 21 aircraft. Northrop Grumman has indicated it plans to invest between $2 billion and $3 billion over multiple years to support an increased production capacity, with the U.S.

China shows off robot riflemen assaulting en masse.
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The Army is incorporating artificial intelligence tools to help write doctrine, the service said Wednesday.
The Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, the Army’s hub for producing foundational publications meant to guide how soldiers operate, is training doctrine writers to “apply approved AI tools to their work immediately” — to include idea generation, according to a service press release.
The military has been aggressively applying large language models across virtually all parts of the force as Pentagon officials tout the emerging tech as a boon to operations.

…build more of what proves itself…

I know it is just a little bit more than a week after my last post on the outstanding performance of the under-appreciated Expeditionary Mobile Base (ESB)—by the way, can we get this class of ships a proper classification? We have other options.
However, they are doing the heavy lifting again in the post-Maduro takedown. Here we have U.S. forces capturing the tanker VERONICA III in the Indian Ocean. The tanker is linked to the illegal transportation of crude oil from Iran, Russia, and Venezuela.

An unprecedented flood of outrage from veterans groups, lawmakers, and individual veterans led the Department of Veterans Affairs to reverse course Thursday on a controversial regulation that would have based disability ratings on how well veterans function while medicated, instead of considering the severity of the actual condition they suffer from.
It’s a victory for veterans and advocates who mounted a quick and decisive public campaign against the policy. VA Secretary Doug Collins announced the agency would halt enforcement of the rule just two days after it took effect.

The Pentagon will adhere to existing laws and regulations associated with surveillance, security and democratic processes as it fast-tracks the military’s frontier AI adoption, but it won’t permit companies supplying the technology to determine its rules for operation, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael told DefenseScoop.
His comments come as the Defense Department is locked in a high-stakes dispute with Anthropic about the U.S. military’s use of the startup’s Claude AI model in real-world operations. 
“We want guardrails.

The Air Force has initiated a new effort to upgrade its central command-and-control systems with new capabilities, including artificial intelligence and enhanced data fusion.
The service’s software factory, known as Kessel Run, will soon kick off the Next-Generation Air Operations Center (AOC) Weapon System program to modernize command centers. According to an announcement posted Wednesday, Kessel Run expects to release the first request for information before the end of February and wants to award a contract by June 2027.

The British Army under-23s football team have r

On Saturday, Air Force Maj. Johnny Cruz Buckingham plans to set a new world record for sand skiing by swooshing down a sand dune in Peru at 76 miles per hour.
“I’ll be in shorts and a T-shirt and just skiing down a big old sand dune,” Buckingham told Task & Purpose.
Buckingham has already set 17 Guinness World Records and has five other recent attempts under review. He has set world records that circled the globe (the fastest time to travel to all seven continents) and records that circled him with fire (the most flaming-knife spins on a balance board in one minute).

China’s top military leadership has been shaken by a new round of purges at the highest level, raising urgent questions about loyalty, corruption, and combat readiness. What do these removals, and especially the purge of Zhang Youxia, signal about Xi Jinping’s grip on power, the health of the People’s Liberation Army, and Beijing’s appetite for risk abroad? We are joined by four seasoned analysts of China and its military, three of whom worked at the Central Intelligence Agency, to parse these questions and more. This episode is brought to you by Onebrief.

L Todd Wood and former Special Mission Unit Commander Pete Blaber discuss the continuing lies coming out of Europe on the Ukraine conflict.
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Service. Speed.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is “halting the enforcement” of a controversial new rule that could lower veterans’ disability ratings if their prescribed medications or treatment improves their illness or injuries, VA Secretary Doug Collins announced on Thursday.
“VA issued the rule to clarify existing policy and protect Veterans’ benefits in the wake of an ongoing court action,” Collins wrote in a Thursday X post. “But many interpreted the rule as something that could result in adverse consequences.

Okay, Curtis LeMay wasn’t a judo champion in the sense that he was winning awards for tossing people around. He did, however, popularize the martial art for the postwar world, bringing it into the U.S. Air Force, and through the military, to the rest of America.
Time has not been kind to LeMay. He’s remembered for firebombing cities across Japan, especially Tokyo, an attack that killed 100,000 Japanese civilians in a single night. He also built the Strategic Air Command into a nuclear powerhouse with the belief that he would one day nuke the Soviet Union “back into the Stone Age.

1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Re

Top Defense Department officials focused on combating cybercrime said Thursday that artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency are making it easier for nefarious actors to threaten national security and circumvent traditional financial tracking systems.
The warning comes amid what the officials described as a rapidly changing threat environment, one that allows for low-level criminals to adopt sophisticated cyber exploitation methods and adversarial countries to obscure their actions, often in tandem.
“Cyber threats are no longer theoretical, episodic or isolated.

On Feb. 13 to 15, leaders and specialists from around the world — especially Europe and the United States — attended the 62nd Munich Security Conference. This year’s conference highlighted an ongoing European interest in maintaining the trans-Atlantic relationship, an emphasis on European “derisking” from reliance on the United States, and general agreement — tinged with grief or celebration, depending on who you ask — that the post-World War II liberal, rules-based world order is gone. U.S.

The Prime Minister says we are going to have to

The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment – or a

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has secured a contract from the US Department of Defense’s Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO) to support test and evaluation activities for thermal protection systems in hypersonic vehicles.

Elbit Systems has secured a contract to supply 30mm turret systems and munitions to an unnamed international customer under contracts valued at approximately $277m.

Early in his second presidential term, George Washington led troops during the Whiskey Rebellion. Harry Truman was the only U.S. president to see combat during World War I. Ronald Reagan desperately wanted to serve overseas during World War II, but he could not because of severe nearsightedness. Instead, he made himself useful by churning out 400 training films for the Army Air Forces.
As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, 45 men have been elected its president. Nearly 70% of them, or 31, have risen to the nation’s highest office after serving in the military.

When troops don’t show up for work, commanders should quickly presume that they are “potentially in danger,” a federal watchdog said, after finding that over 90% of troops with “involuntary” absences are eventually found dead.
In a new report, the Government Accountability Office found that in 295 cases of involuntary absences across the military services from fiscal years 2015 to 2024, 93% (274) resulted in a service member’s death. In most cases, troops had suffered an accident, while about 10% were eventually found to have died by suicide.

This video describes the military situation in

The Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle is a contradiction wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in titanium and carbon fiber. It is a 1940s solution to a 21st-century problem, a rifled pipe that doesn’t give a hoot about electronic countermeasures, budgetary constraints, or the sweet optics of modern warfare.
“Goose” is of a different time. Think of it as a village blacksmith, one that uses a heavy hand and can hold generational grudges.

David Cenciotti, The Aviationist
Claims about modifying the F-35’s software raise legitimate sovereignty questions.

IntEng
The Venom platform showcases rapid defense hardware development using digital manufacturing, modular open systems, and software driven engineering.

Global Defense News
From an operational standpoint, LTAMDS paired with

Bloomberg
RTX Corp.

B. Vincent, DefenseScoop
The U.S. military’s urgent need to counter cheap adversarial drones in multiple regions has heightened calls for directed energy weapons.

 **Please note, as a matter of house style, War on the Rocks will not use a different name for the U.S. Department of Defense until and unless the name is changed by statute by the U.S. Congress.Image: United States Department of Commerce via Wikimedia Commons.
The post Economic Statecraft and the Federal Institutional Architecture appeared first on War on the Rocks.

This video describes the military situation in

GPS denial is no longer a theoretical future threat. It is the environment in which modern forces increasingly operate.China has invested heavily in space and counterspace capabilities designed to degrade U.S. positioning, navigation, and timing. Other state and non-state actors are following close behind. Cheap jammers, spoofers, and electronic warfare tools now allow adversaries to disrupt GPS and radio frequency navigation with minimal funding or expertise. The result is a battlespace where signals cannot be assumed.

The U.S. Air Force has redeployed two squadrons of F-16CJ fighters from bases in the U.S. and Europe to the Middle East, with their location in the region remaining unknown. Open-source tracking data and related reports indicate that 36 F-16s were flown to bases in the region on February 19, around 24 of which were F-16CJs, with this reflecting part of a much wider military buildup being staged against Iran.

Europe’s most fragile region is not sleepwalking toward war, but it is quietly recalibrating for it. Across the Western Balkans, military procurement decisions once framed as technical upgrades are evolving into something more consequential: a shifting balance of power unfolding at a moment when Europe’s security order strains under growing transatlantic tension. These regional dynamics emerged unevenly, with Serbia clearly leading the way a decade ago. In response, neighboring countries have also modernized their militaries, though in different ways.

Known as the world’s toughest air combat

The Polish Air Force’s F-35A Husarz fifth generation fighter fleet has surpassed 1,000 flight hours during training in the United States, after they crossed the 500 flight milestone in December 2025. The service’s first stealth fighter was unveiled during a rollout ceremony at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on August 28, 2024, with the first of the aircraft expected to arrive in the country near the end of 2026.

The Russian defence sector has completed the development of the new Khrizantema-M anti-tank guided missile, which combines an extended engagement range and a new capability to fly supersonically. A representative of the High-Precision Systems holding company noted that the missile was designed to be deployed from combat helicopters, and is already being used in air-defence missions. He explained that the missile’s extended range allows the launching aircraft’s crew to remain outside the “kill zone” of enemy man-portable air defence systems thanks to its greater firing distance.

Image by Rhododendrites

Sometimes, politics is best explained using metaphors. At no time in the relatively short history of America have Americans been more in need of simplifying the information morass that unduly influences the ability to make truly informed decisions on the future they want or that they want to leave behind. Like many lessons in life, nature often holds interesting parallels. Consider the allegory of the Red Herring and the Dart Frog.
We swim with a never-ending school of Red Herrings. Red herrings often lead fishers of truth toward a mistaken conclusion.

The Germany Defence Ministry was reported on February 19 to be considering placing an order for up to 35 additional F-35A fifth generation fighters, doubling the number of the aircraft it plans to field, in response to the continued stalling of the pan-European Future Air Combat System (FCAS) stealth fighter program being pursued jointly with France and Spain.

Public Domain

Posted Zero Hedge
Last week we and others reported that American forces finally after many years withdrew from the remote Al-Tanf Garrison, a base in southern Syria near the borders of Iraq and Jordan. US troops had long operated out of Tanf to pressure the Assad government as part of the long-running US-backed regime change project. The US primarily trained the Syrian Free Army (FSA) in that remote desert area – which was an umbrella group of various factions, among them jihadists, armed and funded by Washington.

Roddie Edmonds never spoke about his time in a German prisoner of war camp. This week, his family learned he’ll soon receive the nation’s highest valor award for an act of heroism in which he never fired a shot.
A master sergeant thrust into command of 1,200 POWs in a German camp, Edmonds will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, his family confirmed to Task & Purpose. The award honors a moment, not of direct combat action, but of Edmonds’ refusal to identify Jewish soldiers in the camp, instead daring a German commander to execute him.

Veterans and advocates are struggling to understand the ramifications of a new federal rule, under which the Department of Veterans Affairs will consider the effectiveness of medications when assigning disability ratings.
“If medication or treatment lowers the level of disability, the rating will be based on that lowered disability level,” according to the new VA rule published in the Federal Register that went into effect on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump’s recent call for a $1.5 trillion defense budget as part of a broader effort to modernize and strengthen the nation’s defense posture has reignited long-running debates in Washington about how much the United States should spend on its armed forces. That conversation is healthy. But the more important question is not simply how much we spend but where to invest those dollars to ensure real military readiness.
After decades in uniform, I have learned that platforms alone do not win wars.

This video describes the military situation in

There is a long history of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, often involving the United States as the primary negotiator. However, as the Oct. 7 attacks and war in Gaza demonstrated, neither Israelis nor Palestinians feel safe. As Israel’s recent moves to expand its control over the West Bank showed, the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state — and thus a two-state solution — is a dimmer prospect than ever. Nonetheless, U.S. President Donald Trump successfully negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October 2025, based on a 20-point peace plan.

From Royal Marine to world-first daredevil🏔️🪂 Tim Howell has been the first person ever to make base jumps in Kenya, Angola, Vietnam and from Aconcagua👀 More: https://www.forcesnews.com/services/royal-marines/under-canopy-former-royal-marine-finding-his-freedom-free-fall #bfbsforcesnews #forcesnews #news #uk #shorts #military #marine #parachute #freefall

SAN DIEGO — The Navy must embark on an aggressive push to integrate advanced lasers, high-power microwaves and other directed energy weapons across the fleet as part of its broader plan to counter intensifying and emerging drone and missile threats, according to two of the sea service’s top officials. 
Largely due to technical, environmental, industrial and other complexities, Navy insiders have struggled for decades to make DE capabilities a shipboard reality at-scale.
More recently, the U.S.