Army Secretary Dan Driscoll before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is reportedly to leave his post as Secretary of the Army before the end of the year, reports The Wall Street Journal. He was likely ousted by the Trump administration after he refused to go along with two key initiatives that Secretary of War Hegseth wanted to push through the Army.

Nothing brings me to feel-good, ugly tears like a “welcome home” ceremony. In fact, fellow Americans share in this sentiment. We eat it up. There are countless reels that capture surprised and ecstatic military families when they spot their service member for the first time after a long deployment, whether it be a surprise or orchestrated.
Also Read: My spouse is deployed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. This is what’s really happening
The strength, stamina, courage, and sacrifice of military families is unmatched and is precisely why military divorce is such a travesty.

The Civil War challenged the loyalties of countless Americans across the nation, tearing apart families and destroying friendships. Far from the clear division between North and South that many subpar summaries of the Civil War project, the conflict forced some of the nation’s leading and rising military officers to choose sides based on competing loyalties, views on slavery and secession, political convictions, and their understanding of the obligations of federal service.

Edward Luttwak, UnHerd
Trump has compounded America’s decline

Doug Beck, Foreign Affairs
Why Washington Still Risks Losing the Tech Race

Lucas Ziller, Modern War Institute
A Vision of Readiness for the Future of Autonomous Warfare

RAF Typhoons can be airborne within minutes of

This video describes the military situation in

This video describes the military situation in

France leads the way as over 1,000 troops from

Footage released by Russian sources has shown a Russian Aerospace Forces Su-35 air superiority fighter firing a Kh-31PM anti-radiation missile, which was reportedly launched to target components from a Ukrainian MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence system. According to the target range cue, the missile was fired from 125 kilometre ranges. The missile reportedly has a 55 kilometre minimum range, with its maximum range approaching 300 kilometres.

The Yemeni Ansarullah Coalition has released footage showing one of its unmanned Rajum quadcopters dropping a munition onto a Saudi M1A2S Abrams main battle tank at a forward position in Yemen’s Marib Governorate. The video, released through Ansarullah-affiliated media on August 21, shows the munition that on or immediately adjacent to the tank, after which smoke and flames can be seen engulfing the vehicle. The strike causes the ammunition inside the tank to detonate in a large explosion.

Russian forces are reported by local sources to have eliminated 20 Brazilian mercenaries “various sectors of the front,” highlighting the continued role of Latin American combatants in the ongoing war effort. Brazilian nationals have become an increasingly visible component in the foreign frontline combat units, and by some estimates are second only to Colombians among Latin American mercenaries in the theatre.

Chinese weapons researchers say they have developed a new artificial intelligence system capable of recognizing simulated U.S. F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters based on their infrared signatures, and that it can do so in milliseconds.

The news could give future missile systems a new way to distinguish advanced aircraft from decoys and complicate U.S. planning in future military and combat scenarios.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Sean “Rambo” Loughlin, pilot for the F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team, performs aerial maneuvers during a practice flight at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, Jan.

America’s specialized counter-drone team is running a directed energy pilot program on multiple military bases to inform the government’s path to operationalizing high‑energy lasers, high‑power microwaves and other associated weapons, without shutting down airspace or disrupting missions on the ground.
Joint Interagency Task Force 401’s wide-scale series of technology tests will also pit select commercial capabilities against each other in “a directed energy shoot-off” event later this year, Brig. Gen. Matt Ross told DefenseScoop at a media roundtable on Friday.

Massive $30,000 Bass Pro Giveaway with Medal Hu

Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below.***IranU.S. strikes on Iranian soil tapered off in August after frequent exchanges throughout July.

Russia has received North Korean KN-30 ballistic missiles for the first time, according to reports from Ukrainian intelligence, supplementing deliveries of KN-23 and KN-24 short range tactical missile systems in July. The missile integrates a warhead weighing 2,500 kilograms, providing five times the payload of Russia’s primary tactical ballistic missile the Iskander-M.

Romania scrambled F-16 fighter jets to destroy

North Korea keeps expanding its military involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine, with the isolated dictatorship now supplying Moscow with hundreds of trained drone operators and sending ballistic missiles that could be used to strike Ukrainian infrastructure in the coming months.

Major General Vadym Skibitskyi, the deputy head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, says that a new contingent of roughly 8,500 North Korean personnel is also already deployed in Russia, alongside 400 drone operators who are expected to conduct reconnaissance and potentially launch attacks inside Ukraine.

After weeks of reports about horrible conditions on board, including that some sailors had attempted to throw themselves overboard, the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has departed the Middle East, bringing to an end a nine-month deployment.

The carrier’s 5,000 sailors and other personnel are headed back to San Diego, with the George Washington headed to the Middle East to take its place. The journey will take four to five weeks, the New York Times reported.

Washington is set to outline what it termed the “toughest sanctions in history” on Iran from next week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday.

President Donald Trump also said “tremendous economic consequences” could follow for states that offer Tehran assistance.

Ford-Class. Image Credit: Creative Commons

The Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) and the Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour (CVH 550) transit the Atlantic Ocean March 20, 2021, marking the first time a Ford-class and Italian carrier have operated together underway.

Take a tour of HMCS Ville De Qubec👀
We got a

The Polish Ministry of National Defence has responded to mounting criticisms regarding its decision to donate remaining surface-to-air missile interceptors from its U.S.-supplied MIM-104 Patriot long range air defence systems to Ukraine. This follows the donation of the country’s longest range system, the S-200D, as well as S-125 medium range systems, which have left Polish airspace increasingly exposed.

Washington says it is preparing to launch its toughest-ever economic campaign against Tehran – and while China has so far rebuffed the White House’s attempt at economic warfare, the threat poses a serious risk to the Islamic regime. It also comes as Iran struggles to contain existing economic problems at home.

Iran’s Shrinking Oil Supply

A U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler prepares to refuel from a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, March 29, 2025. The Growlers are assigned to the Harry S.

Reports of food shortages and other serious issues on a major U.S. aircraft carrier have shocked many in the public, even as the Pentagon has rushed to insist sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln are well-supplied.
But for the Navy, the situation aboard the Lincoln is larger than just one ship and underscores the strain that attacks on logistics hubs can place on a fleet when supply chains are interrupted.
Iranian missile and drone attacks on a major U.S.

Is This How Ukraine Will Overcome Its Patriot Shortage? – Ukraine’s Patriot interceptor shortage is becoming impossible to ignore following another enormous Russian missile attack that killed 17 people in Kyiv and the surrounding region overnight. The strikes are becoming so devastating that Ukraine is now looking for entirely different ways to stop the attacks, with Patriot deliveries not expected to arrive in time to fend off Russian attacks over the coming winter.

A U.S. Navy messman, Doris “Dorie” Miller, was a Black 22-year-old sharecropper’s son from Waco, Texas. Because of his rating, he was restricted from handling any weapons. His duties included serving the officers’ mess, collecting laundry, and shining shoes. Despite the institutional racism built into the Navy at the time, Miller found success as the boxing champion of his ship, the battleship USS West Virginia.
That didn’t change the fact that he was Black, and as a result, he was segregated from his white shipmates in both his duties and berthing.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman if it got in the way of his plans for the Iran war.

Later, he suddenly announced a scaling down of a planned military exercise with South Korea, citing what he called South Korea’s refusal to involve itself in the Iran war.

President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

President Donald Trump meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in the Oval Office.

In the now-famous 2016 Republican primary process, part of Donald Trump’s pitch to Republican voters was that he would avoid foreign policy mistakes like the Iraq War.

His opponents, he implied, would get the country into more wars like Iraq, and one of them, former Gov. Jeb Bush, was the brother of the president who had launched that war.

President Donald J. Trump speaks to the press during a presentation of the Religious Liberty Commission Report in the Oval Office, Friday, June 26, 2026. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N.

Unexpected passenger joins British Army’s

Ask any military historian and they’ll probably tell you that tactical aggression is a game changer. Throughout the history of armed conflict, forces who were more aggressive saw more success. Say it however you want: Seize the day. Take the initiative. Fortune favors the bold. It’s all the same maxim.
In a game of strategy and tactics like NFL football, the same kind of aggression pays off—and there’s a mathematical reason for it.
Also Read: Patton’s famous speech was way more vulgar than the one in the movie
Ulysses S.

The first batch of three F-16 Block 70 fighters ordered to equip the Republic of China Air Force have departed from Lockheed Martin’s Greenville plant in South Carolina and transited to the Fort Worth base in Texas, with the aircraft expected to arrive in Taitung in the coming days for delivery. Although the United States was originally scheduled to deliver all 66 aircraft by the end of 2026, production delays have pushed deliveries significantly behind schedule.

Russian Drones Are Crossing into NATO Territories – NATO’s southeastern border is being violated by Russian projectiles with growing frequency, and Romania is increasingly shooting back.

Izmail, one of Ukraine’s key Danube River ports, sits directly across the river from Romania, with parts of the waterway forming the international border. Last week, a civilian Togo-flagged vessel sustained damage near the port, and four people were injured in the attack.

Gulf Shipping Data Paints Complex Picture: While the White House insists it maintains full control over the Strait of Hormuz, data show that the number of commercial ships passing through the Strait has fallen back to single digits. Only seven commodity vessels crossed the strait on Thursday, August 20, according to the latest ship-tracking data from Kpler.

Those figures include four ships entering the Persian Gulf and three departing. None of the vessels were very large crude carriers (VLCCs) or liquefied natural gas tankers.

Capt.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Army is on the hunt for AI agents to help defend its cyber infrastructure from attacks without draining the bank for tokens or letting loose a horde of bots that create new network vulnerabilities. 
Project Griffin, a pilot program, aims to build an ecosystem of agents that will ingest feeds from the service’s vast array of network sensors and automatically execute defensive actions against malicious cyber actors, according to Army officials and a newly public solicitation.

This video describes the military situation in

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao released an administrative message to the force this week warning them to stay vigilant against a multi-pronged campaign by adversaries targeting service members, department civilians and military installations.
Since the launch of Operation Epic Fury against Iran earlier this year, the Department of the Navy — which includes the Marine Corps — has faced an evolving threat landscape, he noted.
“In the current global security climate, adversaries and hostile actors are executing a coordinated, multi-domain campaign against the DON enterprise.

Power Size Technologies’ modelling indicates the feasibility of integrating laser weapons onto British Army Foxhound and Boxer vehicles.

Iran threatens “devastating” response to the U.S – The United States and Iran aren’t quite in a shooting war right now, but they’re certainly not at peace, either. In the place of both, at least in recent weeks, there has been a lot of tension and many threats.

According to Reuters, President Donald Trump on Thursday promised economic consequences to countries that offer “any type of lifeline to Iran.”

President Donald Trump plays golf in the Senior Club Championship at Trump National Golf Club Jupiter, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Jupiter, Florida.

The United States military hasn’t operated a seaplane, or amphibious flying boat, since the Coast Guard retired the HU-16 Albatross in 1983. For 73 years, this kind of aircraft had been essential for everything from search and rescue to resupply. With the vast expanses of the Pacific theater in mind, an argument can be made that the versatile seaplanes of yesteryear should return to their former glory.
United States Pacific Command is made up of over one hundred million square miles of territory, which is over half the Earth. The majority of that is water.

Drivers in Moscow have been forced to queue for hours, as Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure prompted a second wave of fuel shortages.

The return to fuel rationing comes after a period of looser rules following an improvement in supplies in June.

Putin Interview from Back in 2012 Image Credit Creative Commons

Putin Back in 2012 Creative Commons Image

Kilometer-Long Lines 
Despite the impact of the war, Russia remains the third-largest oil-producing nation in the world. On Monday, Reuters said lines at some gasoline stations were a kilometer long.

Immortal | Military Motivation
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Multiple sources have reported that Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-16 fighters deployed to Pakistan in 2019 to participated in the Shaheen air-combat exercises demonstrated vast superiority over other participating aircraft in simulated engagements. The J-16 currently forms the backbone of China’s fighter fleet, alongside its lighter single engine counterpart the J-10C, and the newer J-20 stealth fighter. The aircraft reportedly achieved 51 simulated kills involving five different fighter types, including the J-10C, J-11B, and Pakistan Air Force JF-17, J-7 and Mirage III.

AEVEX Aerospace has been awarded a $41m contract to supply one-way attack uncrewed systems to US government customers.

Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (Kongsberg) has finalised an agreement with General Dynamics Land Systems–Canada (GDLS-Canada) worth Nkr1.1bn ($117.8m) for the supply of Protector RS4 Remote Weapon Systems.

Being prepared to scramble at a moment’s

A New York National Guard mobilization that put soldiers into state prisons to work as guards was so expansive that at least a handful of soldiers were airlifted by Black Hawk from a baseball field in the Bronx to report for duty at a small prison 250 miles away.
The flight was part of a strikingly large-scale mobilization that tapped thousands of New York National Guardsmen to work as replacement prison guards in 42 of the state’s 45 prisons last year, according to a 2025 annual report on the New York National Guard published in July.

One is the fastest jet ever produced, capable of outrunning anti-air missiles while capturing reconnaissance in some of the most hostile airspace on Earth. The other was a state-of-the-art warship… from the 17th to 19th century.
Also Read: The SR-71 Blackbird was almost the most versatile fighter plane ever
But, weirdly enough, the SR-71 and ships of the line have more in common than being featured in Hollywood blockbusters that fundamentally misunderstand the military and how it works: They both rely on (very different) materials staying swollen in order to function normally.

Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Army (CC)

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed Thursday that North Korea fired approximately ten short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, with the launches happening within hours of President Trump announcing that he would like to hold a new summit with Kim Jong Un. The missiles traveled approximately 300 kilometers before splashing down in the East Sea. The launches were also tracked by the coast guard of Japan, who issued advisories to all of the maritime traffic in the region as a result.