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.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is scouting industry for technologies and concepts designed to restore space assets that are damaged or destroyed on orbit.
DARPA’s Strategic Technology Office published a request for information on Sam.gov on Friday soliciting industry solutions for the Rapid Reconstitution of Space Capabilities effort. The program builds upon ongoing work within the Space Force to improve the Defense Department’s ability to quickly launch new space systems to replace those that have been damaged or destroyed by adversaries or in accidents.

The T-14 Armata was supposed to be the newest addition to the Russian Armed Forces, replacing the older Soviet-era T-72 and T-90. Originally unveiled in 2014, the tank is, on paper, the most advanced tank in the Russian Army and a strong contender for one of the most advanced tanks in the world. More than a decade later, however, the project seems to have been put on indefinite hold. Once the centerpiece of parades, the tank is now barely mentioned in Russian news media, which instead focuses on the T-90M.

This video describes the military situation in

A ceremony to celebrate the commissioning of th

Former head of the Royal Marines Major General

The Ukraine War Is Going Badly for Russia: Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to admit that Ukrainian drone strikes are causing real damage – but he warned that Moscow is preparing to respond with its own escalations and attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.

The news comes as Ukraine continues its long-range drone and missile strikes, hitting critical Russian energy infrastructure and pushing Russia to consider how it could escalate through the rest of the year.

A major factor for service members as they consider whether to stay in the military is how frequent moves to new assignments affect their children.
An Army program is designed to ease that burden on military families by allowing soldiers to remain at one duty station through a child’s last two years of high school.
Roughly 4,000 soldiers took part in the High School Stabilization Program over the past year, according to a recent Army news release. The program was established in 2000 for families with a high school senior and later expanded to juniors.

China Says It Didn’t Train Russian Troops, But Europe Says Otherwise: China has this week denied allegations from the European Union that its military trained Russian personnel who later fought in Ukraine. Chinese officials described the bombshell claims as “slander” and warned against what they claim are attempts to damage Beijing’s international reputation. The accusation was made by Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, following a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

Al Carns explained to the House of Commons his

Ukraine has increased attacks on Russian energy facilities in recent months, and it is having a devastating effect on the country’s oil and gas infrastructure as well as the already stretched Russian economy.

Fuel shortages are affecting Russia everywhere, even in Moscow, where the nation’s fifth-largest oil producer, Tatneft, has implemented restrictions on the sale of gasoline and diesel at all its stations across Russia, limiting purchases to 20 liters of gasoline and 40 liters of diesel per car for Russian consumers.

Recent Drone Attacks In Moscow And Elsewhere

Ukraine Drone.

Two weeks ago, the heads of American oil firms trundled up to the White House to inform President Donald Trump that America’s energy buffers–the reserves stored up to get the country through an energy crisis–are depleting so fast that a true oil crisis is possible.

America’s Energy Buffers Are Running Out 
Not long thereafter, the forty-seventh president appeared to have reversed his previous hardline stance on waging war with Iran and sought a 60-day ceasefire with the intention of fully restoring traffic through the Strait of Hormuz immediately.

Russia retains one of the largest fleets of strategic bombers in the entire world, behind the U.S. and China. Despite its bombers dating back to the Cold War, its fleet remains world-class in range and overall payload capacity. They form the air wing of Russia’s nuclear triad and a central pillar of the country’s nuclear deterrence strategy.

The issue with Moscow’s strategic fleet is not that its bombers are incapable, but rather that its bombers are old Soviet designs, almost all of which have been out of production for several decades.

Congress is considering a proposal that would grant full retirement and disability benefits to combat veterans, while slashing future disability checks for veterans with tinnitus and sleep apnea.
The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act is a package with dozens of legislative proposals for veterans, caregivers, and survivors. Among the bundled bills is the Major Richard Star Act, which allows veterans with fewer than 20 years of service to collect both disability compensation and retirement pay at the same time.

Israel and Hezbollah Could Blow Up Iranian-American Peace Plan: The U.S.-Iranian peace framework is complex, immature, and fraught with risk. There are no guarantees that this agreement can stand the test of time. One wild card in the whole effort is how much Israel’s strategic aims would affect the ceasefire. Keeping Israel and Hezbollah from fighting in Lebanon will be a critical requirement for the peace framework between the Americans and Iranians to succeed.

There Is Always the Fear of Missile Strikes Between Israel and Hezbollah

Israel’s F-35I Adir Fighter.

This video describes the military situation in

John Healey has criticised the government&#8217

Rheinmetall has unveiled its new L60 155mm artillery weapon system at the ongoing defence and security exhibition, Eurosatory.

A Russian Warfare Expert who survived missile a

The Finnish Defence Forces and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) have entered into an Implementation Arrangement aimed at cooperation on the potential procurement of tracked armoured personnel carriers.

Vladimir Putin could still use a tactical nuclear weapon. People who now speak as though that possibility has evaporated are displaying a confidence the evidence does not support.

Russia has the weapons. Russian doctrine continues to allow for nuclear first use. And the war has grown larger and stranger than almost anyone expected when it began in February 2022.

An ATACMS missile being launched from an M270 MLRS.

Shortly before getting a tenuous 60-day ceasefire with the Islamic Republic of Iran, US President Donald J. Trump gloated at a press conference in the White House Oval Office about how he was presiding over the largest covert commercial-maritime operation in history.

According to the White House, under the cover of darkness, Gulf oil producers loaded supertankers. Thanks to this daring wartime operation, oil reached Asia, Europe, and elsewhere, explaining why the world never faced the truly catastrophic collapse in oil supplies that everyone feared.

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Oct.

A midair collision last year that ripped the refueling boom off of one of the Air Force’s newest tanker aircraft, sending the multi-million-dollar fueling arm tumbling into the Atlantic Ocean, came moments after the tanker’s probe became stuck in a fighter jet’s fuel port.
The 2025 accident was the second time in 11 months that a KC-46A Pegasus’ refueling boom was ripped off the plane and fell to earth after becoming stuck in a trailing jet during refueling.

The girl who later frustrated the Nazis’ secret police once wore a bracelet of live snakes to school.
Virginia Hall was different. She became one of World War II’s most notable spies and a persistent problem for the Germans.
Also Read: A Nazi was the only person convicted of spying in connection with Pearl Harbor
Hall’s gait was distinctive, the result of losing part of her left leg in a hunting accident in Turkey. Still, “The Limping Lady” proved too slippery for the Nazis to catch.
“We must find and destroy her,” the Gestapo ordered.
They never did.

…it didn’t have to be like this…

Remember, we must revisit the failures of the past in order that they shall not be repeated. Well, that’s the theory.
Of all the disastrous series of failures this century to build a surface combatant, none were as unnecessary and avoidable as the failure of the Constellation Class FFG.
Over six years ago, we found out that we were going to build a U.S. version of the Franco-Italian FREMM in a push to finally get a proper frigate into the fleet. I was ecstatic…but wary.