The Russian Su-35 long range air superiority fighter in 2025 achieved a major turnaround on global export markets, with leaked Russian government documents that year showing that 48 of the aircraft had been ordered to re-equip the Iranian Air Force, and six more to equip the Ethiopian Air Force. Combined with the delivery of 18 aircraft to Algeria from February that year, this represented a quintupling o confirmed export orders in 2025, from a previous 24 fighters sold to China, to 96 fighters sold to four separate foreign clients.

John Phelan is departing his role as secretary of the Navy, effective immediately, and Hung Cao will step in as acting SECNAV, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell announced on social media late Wednesday.
Phelan’s surprise exit comes a day after he delivered a keynote address at the Sea-Air-Space symposium, in which he touted plans for a next-generation battleship, one of President Donald Trump’s signature military modernization initiatives.
“Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately,” Parnell said in a statement.

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Washington — In a surprise move, the Pentagon announced Wednesday that Secretary of the Navy John Phelan is leaving his post effective immediately, marking the first departure of a service secretary under President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Reuters is reporting Phelan was fired with no details given.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the news in a social media post, stating: “Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately.

Navy Secretary John Phelan is “departing the administration, effective immediately,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell announced on Wednesday.
Undersecretary Hung Cao will serve as the Navy’s acting secretary, Parnell wrote in a brief statement on social media.
Parnell did not provide any reasons why Phelan is departing his current role. No further information about Phelan’s departure was immediately available.
Phelan was confirmed as Navy secretary in March 2025.

This video describes the military situation in

The Royal Navy Cricket team just made a huge st

Roy Hallums was rescue during the Iraq war after spending approximately a year buried alive. CMDR Dan O’Shea gets his story on tape.
Dan O’Shea is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL, combat-veteran, world traveler, history buff, and storyteller. He is known for his hostage terrorism subject matter expertise and counterinsurgency experience, as well as two decades of reporting on terrorism as a military analyst for BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, News Nation and NewsMax. He writes and speaks on topics related to terrorism, leadership, teamwork and the warrior creed.

In less time than NBA teams receive for one possession, the USS Juneau was gone.
It took only 20 seconds for a Japanese torpedo to strike the USS Juneau, split the light cruiser in half, and cause it to disappear below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The tragic incident during the Battle of Guadalcanal killed 687 men.
Also Read: A Nazi was the only person convicted of spying in connection with Pearl Harbor“The ship just blew up in my face,” U.S. Navy veteran Frank Holmgren recalled in a 2020 article from the National World War II Museum. “My hand landed on a life jacket.

For the first time the Ceremony of the Constabl

The post How defense agencies can stay mission-ready in the AI era appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Early into his tenure leading U.S. Southern Command, Marine Corps Gen. Francis Donovan is ramping up drone and AI-enabled operations to disrupt maritime drug trafficking and dismantle networks of so-called “narco-terrorists.”
To drive those efforts, the commander recently initiated the launch of the Southcom Autonomous Warfare Command (SAWC), which will refine and deploy aerial, surface, and underwater drones to degrade cartel threats and respond to crises across the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

The Marine Corps has issued award upgrades to seven Marines who guarded Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate in Kabul when a suicide bomber struck on Aug. 26, 2021, killing 13 service members and about 170 Afghans, defense officials announced on Wednesday.

Invoking the immortal words of Victorian-era scribe Charles Dickens, the Coast Guard’s top uniformed leader said Wednesday “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” for the service — a conflicting duality wrought by a lengthy legislative jam and unprecedented funding. 
Fueled by $25 billion from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last July, the single largest investment in the service’s history, the Coast Guard has “beg[u]n to emerge” from a “readiness crisis” that was decades in the making, commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday said at the Sea-Air-Space symposium.

Statement from Chairman of the Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel Sean Parnell 
Following the Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel’s recommendation and at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the United States Marine Corps has upgraded the valor awards for the Marines of Company G, 2d Battalion, 1st Marines, who stood at Abbey Gate on 26 August 2021.

Ever wondered what goes into the iconic ceremon

Four days after a daring daylight rescue mission whisked a downed American fighter pilot out of Iran under heavy fire, a notice appeared on a federal contracting website. The Air Force, it said, was seeking to upgrade its fleet of combat search and rescue helicopters to fend off heat-seeking missiles.

The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for robotic and autonomous systems is gearing up to release a roadmap to industry to inform its marketplace for procuring maritime drones, according to a senior official.
The organization was stood up late last year as part of a broader acquisition shakeup at the Defense Department to consolidate and enhance capability portfolio management.

The Pentagon wants to add 44,500 active duty troops and reservists next year.
The Pentagon’s proposed $1.5 trillion budget includes funding to buy weapons, conduct research and develop new capabilities, and even enhance base facilities and barracks for junior troops. It also calls for plans to increase its total force.
The Pentagon wants to add 40,100 active duty troops and 4,400 reservists, according to Defense Department budget documents.
“Military recruiting in FY 2025 hit its highest level in over 15 years.

In 2024, Paul van Hooft and Tim Sweijs wrote, “Two-Theater Tragedy: A Reluctant Europe Cannot Easily Escape a Sino-American War Over Taiwan,” where they argued a war in the Indo-Pacific would likely draw in and weaken Europe, even if European states try to remain on the sidelines. Two years later, amidst heightened tensions in both theaters, we asked Paul to revisit their arguments.Image: U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth FleetIn your 2024 article, you argue a U.S.

The King’s Gurkha Artillery has welcomed

The Indian Ministry of Defence entered into agreements with BEML and EPHL for Trawl Assembly equipment for T-72 and T-90 tanks.

Could this one day carry UK special forces in j

The Marine Corps has upgraded valor awards received by Marines who guarded Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate in Kabul when a suicide bomber struck on Aug. 26, 2021, killing 13 service members and about 170 Afghans, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday.

A new air-delivered bunker-busting warhead has undergone a successful live-fire test by US Army Infantry Drone Operators at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

The Marine Corps is replacing the AV-8B Harrier

It’s the money, honey, not the warfighter or winning wars

Yesterday, the Pentagon held four hours of press briefing on the budget. All three services presented. The event was mostly attended by legacy media reporters from the previous credentialed Pentagon Press Corp. Not many of the new press showed up, which is a slight on them, as the budget briefs are critical to the future of the U.S. military and the ability of the United States to defend itself and project power over the next few decades. This is something the new press should understand and want to cover.

Combat soldiers will soon take a new fitness test that will determine whether they can stay in their jobs.
The Army’s new Combat Field Test, CFT, is a pass-fail assessment for soldiers in “designated close-combat” jobs like infantry and artillery. Beginning in Spring 2027, soldiers who cannot pass the test will have to reclassify into new jobs or separate from the Army.
“This initiative is not just about meeting metrics, but about ensuring our soldiers are prepared for the challenges of modern combat,” said Command Sgt. Maj.

The views and opinion expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities mentioned.On Apr. 3, 2026, President Trump signed an emergency directive to pay all Department of Homeland Security employees amid the DHS shutdown. We were grateful, but that doesn’t solve most of the agency’s problems, especially when it comes to Coast Guardsmen and their families.

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The Army and the Navy battle for wickets at the

Can the Army stop the reigning champions from t

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AFP attended the four hours of budget briefings at the Pentagon yesterday as part of the Pentagon Press Corp.
The Department of the Air Force’s Fiscal Year 2027 President’s Budget request marks a fundamental strategic shift. This budget departs from previous practices and makes a conscious effort to prioritize investment in modernization and readiness, recognizing both as essential and non-negotiable. With a total request of $338.

This video describes the military situation in

Stefano D’urso, The Aviationist
Hours after the U.S.

D.F.

Shelbourne, USNI N.

The Vietnamese Defence Ministry has been widely reported by local sources to have shown a continued interest in procuring Russian Su-57 fifth generation fighter aircraft in the early 2030s, likely to replace a portion of its 12 Su-27 fourth generation air superiority fighters and approximately 30 Su-22 third generation strike fighters in frontline service. Reports first emerged in mid 2017 from Vietnamese paper Dat Viet that the Ministry planned the acquisition of 12-24 Su-57s from around 2030, after which further reports to this effect emerged in early January 2019.

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IntEng

In the 1986 World Cup, Diego Maradona scored his infamous “Hand of God” goal — an obvious handball that went uncalled, because the referee did not have the tools to see it. Today, soccer has addressed that vulnerability with sensors and video review, ensuring the game is adjudicated fairly. U.S. defense industrial policy faces a similar challenge. In America’s defense industrial base, the issue is not a lack of oversight, but distorted incentives that steer work toward private vendors even when the organic industrial base is well-positioned to perform it.

What happens when a country develops a cyber strategy that depends on the capabilities it is actively cutting?The White House’s new cyber strategy offers exactly that kind of contradiction by pairing a strong vision for resilience and competition with policy choices that pull in the opposite direction. On the merits, it gets several important things right. It treats cyberspace as a domain of sustained strategic competition rather than a compliance problem. It puts unusual and welcome emphasis on national resilience.

The reality that regime change is not going to happen as a result of this war seems to have settled in at the White House. When American policymakers reflect and wonder why Iran did not react like Venezuela under pressure, they will not just be misreading Iran — they will be misreading how coercive pressure works. Iran’s resilience rests on internal and external pillars that a Venezuela comparison completely misses. Internally, the Supreme Leader’s authority is anchored in a theocratic order where religious legitimacy underwrites a sprawling economic system.

The official publication of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has announced a new AI-assisted task dispatch smart artificial intelligence system for its aerial tankers, which has streamlined its aerial refuelling operations to improve efficiency and safety. Referred to as the Aerial Refuelling Area Management System, it is reported to have first been introduced during training in late 2025. The system monitors real-time airspace situations, employing built-in algorithms to automatically calculate real-time fuel levels for all participating aircraft within the area.

The second of two Chinese Type 052B class destroyer, the Wuhan, has completed its refit and been brought back into the People’s Liberation Army Navy, as part of a program to enhance older warship types across the fleet through integration of new weaponry, sensors and electronics. The most significant change is the removal of the twin-arm surface-to-air missile launcher integrating missiles from the Russian BuK system, and their replacement with a 32-cell vertical launch system integrating significantly more modern and longer ranged HHQ-16 medium range surface-to-air missiles.

The United States has made major progress in technical negotiations with India for the production of U.S. F414 fighter engines in the country under license, concluding an agreement for an 80 percent technology transfer that will significantly bolster the South Asian state’s engine industry. General Electric Aerospace and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited are cooperating closely to begin production of the F414 by the end of 2027. The engine is intended to power an enhanced variant of the Tejas lightweight fighter, the Tejas Mk2.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s Eastern Theater Command has organised a formation of ships to transit the Yokoate Waterway and conduct routine training exercises in the Western Pacific, shortly following the conclusion of ajoint combat readiness patrol in the East China Sea. The waterway is a strategic maritime passage located between Japan’s Amami Oshima and Yokoate Island in the Ryukyu Islands, and represents a key transit point for vessels navigating between the East China Sea and the Western Pacific Ocean.

A Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk of the 66th Rescue Squadron, 563rd Rescue Group, 355th Wing, preparing to pick up infantry while another HH-60G flys past and an A10 Thunderbolt II does a mock show-of-force maneuver during Aviation Nation 2017.Image. by Noah Wulf

Pentagon, Washington, DC – The U.S. Air Force has reversed course on retiring its iconic A-10 Thunderbolt II, commonly known as the Warthog, announcing that the close air support aircraft will remain in service through at least 2030.
Secretary of the Air Force Troy E.

The Coast Guard will be “surging” counter-drone capabilities to upcoming, high-security events, officials said, training existing enlisted rates on the new UAS defense systems as the service stands up a specialized role focused on robotics.
Service officials said support for gatherings such as the FIFA World Cup and America 250 celebrations over the summer bring “a whole new mission set for us.” The comments, delivered at the Sea-Air-Space conference on Tuesday, come as the Coast Guard builds out its robotics repertoire.

The U.S. military today ended its flu vaccine mandate for active-duty and reserve service members and civilian personnel, the U.S. Department of War announced today. Pam Long, director of the Children’s Health Defense Military Chapter, said that up until this week, service members were still being punished for refusing the vaccine. She called the policy change a “major victory” for individual liberty.

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.
The U.S. military today ended its flu vaccine mandate for active-duty and reserve service members and civilian personnel, effective immediately, the U.

The Air Force is once again pivoting its strategy to develop a sixth-generation tanker platform and will focus immediate efforts on developing supporting mission systems rather than a new aircraft.
The service wants to move funds from the Next Generation Air-refueling System (NGAS) program in fiscal 2027 and allocate them towards a new effort known as Advanced Tanker Systems (ATS), Maj. Gen. Frank Verdugo, Air Force deputy assistant secretary for budget, said Tuesday.