A former Trump Administration economics adviser made a bold prediction when I spoke to him last week: “If the Strait of Hormuz isn’t opened by Labor Day, Trump will have a political problem worse than Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined.”

Well, that wasn’t the response I was planning on, that’s for sure. While clearly the former official was trying to make a dramatic point, the crisis is clear.

Iran habitually claims that it has shot down American aircraft. Whenever the United States does anything with its military during this tenuous ceasefire period, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is sure to come back with a propaganda statement that it has successfully reacted against the United States.

This happened again over the Memorial Day holiday. The IRGC boasted that it shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone on May 26 and that it fired on an F-35 and may have damaged it. The Iranians said that the Lightning II was forced to leave Iranian airspace as the pilot fled in fear.

This video describes the military situation in

Welcome to The Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum only for War on the Rocks members. Each Monday, we bring you a curated selection of articles from Ukrainian media offering insight into how Ukrainians themselves debate the issues shaping their country.American coverage often narrows the view to the battlefield — these pieces widen it, revealing the texture of daily life, politics, and public argument in a nation at war.

Ukraine’s Defence Procurement Agency DOT has finalised its largest procurement by value to date, for 155mm long-range artillery rounds.

“The GOP is in a silent state of panic.” That’s what a former 2016 and 2020 top Trump presidential campaign official told me this morning. And you don’t need a Princeton PhD in political science to understand why. The president’s political position as of late May 2026 is the worst of his career, and the people inside his own party who track these numbers professionally have stopped pretending otherwise. 

The most recent aggregate of Gallup, Reuters/Ipsos, YouGov, Quinnipiac, and Morning Consult places Trump’s approval at 38.6 percent against 58.

After Franklin D. Roosevelt returned from his meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Casablanca in January 1943, Hap Arnold knew something had to change.
Arnold, the legendary general who led the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, didn’t like that FDR flew to Morocco on a civilian plane. Believing it was the military’s job to transport the commander in chief, he ordered that a transport version of the B-24 bomber be converted for the president’s use.

Summary and Key Points: In 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates capped F-22 Raptor production at 187 aircraft — far below the hundreds originally planned — arguing the stealth fighter was too expensive and irrelevant to the wars the United States was actually fighting.

-The production line shut down permanently in 2011. At the time, the decision was defensible. In hindsight, it was a strategic miscalculation. China has since fielded more than 200 Chengdu J-20 stealth fighters, a number still climbing, while the United States cannot build additional F-22s at any price.

U.S.

On May 25, 2026, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov placed a phone call to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The substance of what Lavrov said in that call has now been confirmed by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s own readout and tracked across multiple Western and Ukrainian outlets. Moscow had decided to begin striking what it called the “decision-making centers” of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv.

Key Points and Summary: Operation Epic Fury against Iran exposed a critical problem: the United States lacks sufficient bombers. With only 19 B-2 Spirit stealth bombers and roughly 45 B-1B Lancers in the fleet, the Air Force found itself short of strike aircraft capable of hitting thousands of hardened Iranian targets including underground missile launchers and nuclear infrastructure.

-The B-21 Raider replacement is still five years from readiness. Rather than let both aircraft retire as planned, the Air Force is now proposing $1.

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In 2004, India struck what appeared to be the deal of the century — Russia handed over the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier at virtually no cost, desperate to offload a vessel it could no longer afford to maintain. India then invested over $2 billion in upgrades at Russia’s Sevmash shipyard, expecting delivery in 2008. The ship didn’t arrive until 2013. When it finally left Russia for India, it broke down mid-transit. Russian engineers blamed Chinese components. The Indians had no leverage to walk away.

Reigning cup champions 23 Parachute Engineer Re

During the 1970s, NASA wanted to conduct supersonic flight tests using the SR-71 Blackbird, but the aircraft’s existence was still classified and the Air Force refused to allow NASA to fly it openly. As a workaround, the Air Force delivered an actual SR-71 — the second production model — to NASA under the false designation YF-12C and assigned it the fictitious serial number 60-6937. NASA flew the aircraft openly at Edwards Air Force Base throughout the decade while officially pretending it was something else entirely.

Summary and Key Points: In March 2013, two Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom IIs scrambled to intercept an American MQ-1 Predator drone flying surveillance approximately 16 miles off the Iranian coast in international airspace. They did not know that two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors operating from a base in the United Arab Emirates were flying escort.

-Lt. Col. Kevin Showtime Sutterfield, an Air Force Reservist flying the lead F-22, eased his aircraft into a position under the lead Iranian F-4 to inspect its weapons loadout — the Iranian pilots never saw him.

UK Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard confirmed that contracts have been signed under Project Nightfall.

Special operations units might rely on uncrewed glider drones to get resupplied in the near future. At the very least, the concept was put to the test during the largest special operations training exercise in Europe this month.
NATO forces, including elements from Army Special Forces, took part in the Trojan Footprint Exercise. During one part of the exercise, U.S. troops and members of the Romanian Air Force dropped Grasshopper autonomous aerial resupply vehicles from an Alenia C-27J plane over North Macedonia to reach troops on the ground.

Summary and Key Points: China has spent the last decade constructing a full-scale replica of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier on a weapons range in the Gobi Desert, practicing the tactics and weapons systems needed to destroy it.

-The United States has spent roughly the same period arguing about whether EMALS electromagnetic catapults are worth the maintenance headaches.

China Aircraft Carriers In Focus. Image Credit: X Screenshot.

China New Carrier Type 003 CCTV Screencap Photo.

CV-18 Fujian aircraft carrier from China. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Thirty years on, the questions surrounding the

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the two highest honors the United States can bestow on civilians, and the only one chosen by the President of the United States.. It is usually presented for contributions to the nation or great achievement in a person’s field. Anyone is eligible, and past recipients run the gamut of presidents, popes, and generals, as well as Audrey Hepburn, Ted Williams, and Richard Petty.

New footage released on Chinese social media has shown a J-16 fighter aircraft with a heavy payload of air-to-air missiles, highlighting the type’s very considerable weapons carrying capacity which contributes to its potency for air defence operations. The fighter was seen carrying eight PL-15 active radar guided medium-long range missiles and two smaller PL-10 infrared guided missiles for visual range combat. The fighter was operating under the 6th Air Brigade based at Suixi, southern Guangdong province, near major economic heartlands such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao has inherited the Ford-class aircraft carrier review launched by his predecessor, John Phelan, and, with it, the decision on the future of the USS William J. Clinton and USS George W. Bush, neither of which has been assigned to a defense contractor. Phelan was fired recently. President Donald Trump has mulled an executive order requiring traditional steam catapults and hydraulic elevators on future U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. The USS Enterprise and USS Doris Miller now cost more than the $13.3 billion USS Gerald R. Ford — $14.25 billion and $15.

The USS Connecticut (SSN-22), one of only three Seawolf-class submarines ever built, struck an underwater mountain in the South China Sea in October 2021, causing damage severe enough that early speculation suggested it might never return to service. After more than four years of repairs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the boat is now scheduled to rejoin the fleet by the end of 2026.

The WarZone
LTC Alan Wood, SOCOM’s Program Manager for Lethality, offers some exclusive insights into the future of SOCOM small arms.

Madelyn Creedon, Eric S. Edelman, Franklin C. Miller, Vipin Narang & Keith B. Payne, RealClearDefense
Defining U.S.

Brent D.

BrDef
Armed drones, loitering munitions…

Global Defense News
The U.S.

This video describes the military situation in

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has deployed its first frigate of the new heavily enhanced Type 054B class, the Luohe, as part of the carrier task group led by the aircraft carrier Liaoning, marking the new class of warship’s first far-seas mission since entering service. The ability of Chinese frigates to contribute to the operational capabilities of carrier groups has long been overshadowed by the capabilities of the much larger Type 052D and Type 055 destroyers, which carrier larger sensor and armaments suites and more diverse arrays of more capable missiles.

This video describes the military situation in

In 2019, the Missouri River flooded at historically high levels and damaged 137 facilities, destroyed 1.2 million square feet of workspace, and flooded 3,000 feet of runway at Offutt Air Force Base. Repairing the installation cost $1.2 billion. The Trump administration and Department of Defense justified $1.2 billion in budget reductions to the U.S. Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Defense Department climate programs as cuts to “woke” climate or environmental initiatives, but a singular event caused sufficient damage to erase those savings.

In 2004, I was a boot (translation: brand new) first lieutenant in 1st Battalion, 7th Marines at a retransmission site in the middle of nowhere, al-Qa’im, Iraq. I heard a sudden explosion and small-arms fire two kilometers away. The battalion radio net burst with chatter, with someone saying there were three casualties: two urgent surgicals (send help quickly!) and one routine (no rush to provide aid). Someone in the operating center asked about the status of the routine casualty, and the radio crackled with the kind of transmission that changes everything.

Editor’s note: This is the ninth article in an 11-part series examining how the United States should organize, lead, and integrate economic statecraft into strategy, defense practice, and the broader national security ecosystem. The special series is brought to you by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and War on the Rocks. Prior installments can be found at the War by Other Ledgers page.In September 2010, after a Chinese fishing trawler captain was detained near the Senkaku Islands, Beijing halted rare-earth exports to Japan. The embargo lasted weeks. China showed, on a U.S.

The post The Exclusion Of Tomorrow’s Defenders appeared first on Armed Forces Press.

A growing body of reports has indicated that the Bohai Shipyard in the Chinese city of Huludao has launched the first Type 095 class nuclear powered attack submarine, marking a major milestone on the modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army Navy as the first of a large fleet of planned third generation submarines. The Type 095 class is intended to succeed and significantly outperform the earlier Type 093 class ships that currently form the backbone of the nuclear powered combat fleet.

The Russian Aerospace Forces have received a new batch of Su-35S long range air superiority fighters from the state run United Aircraft Corporation, as sustained wartime efforts to expand production have allowed for significantly higher delivery rates. The fighter type has increasingly formed the backbone of the Russian combat fleet, with continued deliveries since the aircraft’s service entry in 2014 now bringing estimated numbers to over 150 aircraft.

U.S. forces carried out attacks on multiple Iranian targets along the Persian Gulf Monday night, in what U.S. Central Command called “self-defense strikes.”
“U.S. forces conducted self-defense strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” CENTCOM spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins said in a statement. “Targets included missile launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to emplace mines. U.S. Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.

Summary and Key Points: NASA received an SR-71 Blackbird in the 1970s despite being officially prohibited from possessing the strategic reconnaissance variant. To conceal the jet, the agency disguised it as a YF-12A interceptor and assigned it a fake tail number — 60-6937 — that actually belonged to a classified Lockheed A-12 whose existence remained secret until 1982.

-The primary visual difference between the two aircraft was the nose shape and forward chine configuration.

-The jet was eventually returned to the Air Force.

Japan’s Soryu-class diesel-electric attack submarine achieves something once considered impossible for non-nuclear boats: weeks of submerged operation without surfacing. The Kockums Stirling AIP engine, licensed from Sweden, burns diesel fuel with liquid oxygen to generate power without breaching the surface. Later Soryu models replaced lead-acid batteries with lithium-ion systems, increasing speed, endurance, and stealth simultaneously.

HMS Vanguard was laid down in 1941 and commissioned on August 9, 1946 — after the war she was built for had already ended. At 814 feet, 30 knots, and armed with 97 guns, including four twin 15-inch main turrets, she was the largest and most capable battleship the Royal Navy ever produced. She never fired those guns in anger. The Cold War made her obsolete before she could prove herself. In 1960, just before decommissioning, she was used to film interior scenes for “Sink the Bismarck.” Two years later, she was scrapped at Faslane.

Summary and Key Points: Seven weeks after the Soviet Union dissolved, a Russian Sierra-class submarine designated K-276 Crab surfaced directly beneath the USS Baton Rouge in the Barents Sea, striking the American Los Angeles-class attack submarine from below. Both boats returned to port under their own power. The Russian crew painted a victory star on their sail.

-The USS Baton Rouge was quietly decommissioned in 1995 — the first Los Angeles-class ever retired — with analysts attributing its early exit to pressure-hull damage the Navy never publicly acknowledged.

Ukrainian ‘mobilization’ has reached demonic levels as old women are assaulted by the depopulation police for protecting their family.
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Two and a half centuries after they died in battle, nearly four dozen Continental Army soldiers were formally laid to rest.
On Friday, May 22, the remains of 44 American soldiers and dependents from the Revolutionary War were buried next to a new monument honoring their and others’ deaths. The soldiers’ remains were transported in a ceremony May 20, moved from the New York State Museum to Lake George Battlefield Park. Two days later they were formally buried with full military honors.

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Summary and Key Points: Naval service demands a sacrifice that goes beyond combat risk. Sailors routinely deploy for six to twelve months, missing children’s birthdays, family milestones, and the ordinary moments that sustain adult mental health. Ships are crowded, private space is almost nonexistent, and family contact is limited. The Navy’s Operational Stress Control program classifies sailors into readiness zones — ready, reacting, injured, or ill — and deploys counselors aboard ships to catch problems early.

Summary and Key Points: The USS Massachusetts (BB-2) was America’s first modern battleship and arguably its worst. Designed for coastal defense rather than blue-water warfare, it rode dangerously low in rough seas, listed when its main turrets rotated, lacked the stabilizing fins standard on comparable ships, and carried armor positioned too low to protect against enemy fire. Its propulsion system broke down constantly. It missed its only real battle, killed sailors in two separate accidents, and spent more time in drydock than at sea.

Summary and Key Points: The Skipjack-class nuclear attack submarines were the fastest SSNs in the world when they debuted in 1959, capable of 33 knots submerged and armed with six torpedo tubes including nuclear weapons. Six boats were built. Five served without major incident through the Cold War. The sixth, USS Scorpion, blew up and sank on May 21-22, 1968, taking all 99 crewmen to the bottom of the Atlantic, 400 miles southeast of the Azores, at a depth of more than 10,000 feet. A Navy Court of Inquiry could not determine the cause. No definitive explanation has ever been established.

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