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.

Two of the Army’s most anticipated ground platforms will be put to the test next spring at one of the military’s combat training centers, according to the commander in charge of the division that will receive them, a marked step in the rapidly changing future of armored warfare.
By fall 2026, prototype models of the M1E3 tank and XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle will track to 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood Texas where soldiers will begin training on the new systems.

The Trump administration’s spending plan for next year allocates more than $70 billion for military drones and counter-drone weapon systems, according to two senior defense officials who said that proposed funding surge would mark the Pentagon’s most substantial investment in the technologies to date.
On Tuesday, Jules “Jay” Hurst III, the official performing the duties of comptroller and undersecretary of defense, and Space Force Lt. Gen. Steven Whitney, director for force structure, resources and assessment, briefed reporters on the Defense Department’s fiscal 2027 budget request.

The price tag for the lead vessel in a new Trump-class series of battleships is expected to exceed $17 billion, according to Navy budget documents released Tuesday.
The service’s spending plan includes $1 billion in advanced procurement funding requested for the program in fiscal 2027 and $16.47 billion in net procurement funding for fiscal 2028, when the service plans to buy the first platform. The gross weapon system cost for the lead ship is estimated at $17.47 billion.

Your Marine survived boot camp, and now they’re heading to the School of Infantry West (SOI-W) at Camp Pendleton, California. This next phase is where they transition from recruit to Marine, learning the skills and discipline that will define their career. As a family, understanding what happens at SOI-W and what your Marine needs to bring can make a real difference in how smoothly this transition goes.
What Is the School of Infantry?
SOI-W is the follow-on training every Marine attends after boot camp. It is a demanding, structured environment focused on building combat-ready Marines.

This video describes the military situation in

Dressed in immaculate full kilt attire, Balakla

When the U.S.–Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28, there were immediate impacts on the countries to Iran’s west — as Iran struck multiple Gulf Arab states and Jordan, Iraq absorbed direct attacks while facing renewed risks of internal stability, Israel launched intensive airstrikes and ground operations in Lebanon, and other countries and territories in the region struggled to cope with short-term and potential long-term ripple effects. However, Iran’s neighbors to its north and east are not immune to the risks — and opportunities — that the war poses.

“It holds so many memories to my heart”🗣️

As thousands of citizens fled East Germany in the early 1960s, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev became irate.
Berlin became a particular source of irritation. Khrushchev detested how the German capital was divided into four zones after World War II that the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union oversaw. 
Related: How a bidding war inspired a WWI veteran to push for an NFL draft
Cold War tensions became white-hot after the Soviets shot down a U-2 spy plane in 1960.

Jules W. Hurst III, performing the duties of the undersecretary of war comptroller and chief financial officer, and Space Force Lt. Gen. Steven P. Whitney, Joint Staff director of force structure, resources and assessment, brief the media on the War Department’s fiscal year 2027 budget request at the Pentagon, April 21, 2026.

The post DOW Leaders Brief FY27 Budget Request appeared first on Armed Forces Press.

🇬🇧 A New Chapter for the King’s Gurkha

Japan lift arms trade restrictions in a rare and pragmatic move to interoperate with partner nations in the “severe” Pacific theatre.

L3Harris Technologies has been awarded a contract to manufacture solid rocket motors for the US Army’s Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).

The Pentagon’s proposed $1.5 trillion budget for next fiscal year includes funding to fix longstanding problems with barracks, defense officials recently told reporters.
The budget calls for spending $57 billion on U.S. military bases and other facilities, a large portion of which would go toward addressing “critical updates” identified by the Pentagon’s barracks task force established by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a senior military official told reporters on Friday.

WHEN FEAR SPEAKS — YOU MOVE FORWARD | Militar

Denmark has signed the first export contract for the European SAMP/T NG long-range air and missile defence system.

M1E3 Abrams and XM30 prototypes will arrive at

President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced Ed Yeilding to the SR-71 Blackbird. Thus began a wonderful, long-lasting relationship.
When LBJ announced the development of a “super plane” capable of traveling at more than 2,000 mph, Yeilding was still in high school and living in Alabama. He couldn’t turn away from the news conference.
Related: Ukraine’s JEDI drone hunts Shaheds so your Patriot missiles don’t have to
Yeilding was so intrigued that he made a vow to himself that day.

Soldiers in the 1st Cavalry Division will soon get their hands on the latest versions of the Army’s Abrams tank and the first prototypes of the infantry combat vehicle.
Soldiers with the division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team at Fort Hood, Texas, will begin training with prototypes of the new XM30 Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle and M1E3 Abrams tank this fall.

Jack Buckby, NSJ
The Air Force planned to buy 100 B-21 Raiders. The head of U.S.

Michael Scanlon, Air Force Times
“In consultation with [Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth], we will EXTEND the A-10 ‘Warthog’ platform to 2030,” Meink wrote

The WarZone
Collaborative Combat Aircraft will “bridge” the Marines to a family of new capabilities that could include a new stealth fighter based on F/A-XX.

Carter Johnston, Naval News
An urgent requirement for JDAM LR comes amid the depletion of various long-range strike capabilities currently fielded by the U.S. Air Force and U.S.

LaGrone, USNI N.

This video describes the military situation in

China controls 99 percent of the world’s primary gallium, a critical mineral and semiconductor crucial for building the microchips of the future. In 2023, it placed export controls on gallium to retaliate against American restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China. In December 2024, China escalated to an outright ban on gallium exports to the United States. The U.S. National Defense Stockpile had zero gallium reserves when that ban landed.The United States has been here before. The United States pioneered and scaled modern silicon semiconductor infrastructure.

Recent experiments placing large language models in simulated nuclear crises have produced alarming headlines. “Bloodthirsty” AI systems escalate conflicts, threaten nuclear strikes, and behave erratically under simulated pressure.

The Russian Aerospace Forces deployed Su-35 long range air superiority fighters to escort a pair of Tu-22M3 strategic bombers for a flight over the Baltic Sea on April 20. The Tu-22M3 is one of the longest ranged combat aircraft in the world, with the Su-35 being unable to accompany the aircraft throughout the duration of its flight, instead taking turns with Su-30SM fighters to perform escort duties.

South Korea’s security is no longer confined to the peninsula. That is the real lesson from the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. And if decision-makers in Seoul didn’t understand this before, they surely understand this now.The U.S.-South Korean alliance was built to deter North Korea, defend South Korea, and stabilize Northeast Asia. That mission remains indispensable, but a serious disruption in the Strait of Hormuz now hits South Korea directly through energy imports, shipping, industrial production, and economic confidence.

Belgian Chief of General Staff Frederic Vansina has stressed that European states need to urgently strengthen their defences, and have an approximately four year window to build up a sufficient capability to deter Russia without U.S. support. He stressed the necessity of European militarisation over the next four years, adding that Ukraine was “buying time for us,” and “that’s why we support them so strongly.” By 2030, he stated, “the war in Ukraine, we hope, will be over. Russia will be there with its army of 650,000 to 700,000 seasoned troops.

Swedish Air Force Gripen fighters were scrambled on April 20 to intercept Russian Su-30SM fighters, which were escorting Tu-22M3 strategic bombers over international waters in the Baltic Sea at the time. The mission was carried out under Sweden’s Quick Reaction Alert system in coordination with NATO allies. The Gripens remained in close proximity, and maintained visual contact with both the bombers and their escorts throughout the encounter.

Multiple Russian government sources have issued explicit warnings regarding European production and supplies of unmanned attack aircraft to Ukraine, in several cases indicating that these facilities could become targets.