The UK Defense Minister, John Healey, resigned on Thursday, 11 June, over a lengthy dispute regarding military spending commitments. He has also accused Labor ​Prime Minister (PM) Keir Starmer of failing to follow through on previous government spending commitments necessary to keep the nation secure in an international environment of rising threats from several hostile actors.

Healey’s departure also comes in the wake of a power grab by the UK Treasury to take control of spending on the multinational Global Combat Air Program (GCAP).

The US Department of State has approved a $330m potential foreign military sale to Brazil for FIM-92K Stinger Block I missiles and related equipment.

BAE Systems has announced the ongoing development of a new digital capability for indirect fires aimed at the UK military.

Trump Can Seize Kharg Island. He Can’t Seize Its Customer: Venezuela keeps coming up in the Kharg Island conversation, and not by accident. When Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday that the United States would at some point take “total control” of Iran’s oil and gas markets — Kharg Island and “other oil infrastructure points” — he made the comparison explicit. Washington did it to Venezuela, he said. It can do it to Iran.

That comparison is worth taking seriously because Trump is not wrong that the Venezuela operation worked.

There is a moment, just before a helicopter touches down in combat, when everything that is not essential disappears. The noise becomes a single frequency. The body does what it was trained to do. And somewhere beneath all of it, in a place you didn’t know existed until the first time you went there, something witnesses you, patient, recording, neither afraid nor unafraid. Just present. 
Also Read: 6 war movie legends who died in 2025
That thing has no name in the movies. Hollywood has never found it.

Contrary to gloomy predictions before the outbreak of the war in Iran, oil markets have risen somewhat but remain remarkably subdued. Although an estimated twenty percent of the world’s supply of oil and liquefied natural gas passes out of the Persian Gulf abroad via the Strait of Hormuz, much of the world appears unbothered. It is a bit of a mystery as to why.

But there is at least one theory that appears to hold water.

Oil Trickling Out of the Persian Gulf

A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB), S.D.

For the past several years, Iran has been facing severe water shortages due to drought and mismanagement. The country has entered a state of water bankruptcy, in which national demand exceeds what nature can reasonably provide. According to some estimates, per‑capita renewable water availability has fallen to roughly 850 cubic meters per year, well below the United Nations threshold for absolute scarcity.

Warsaw, Poland – An earlier this week report from the American CBS news service quotes several retired US generals and the former director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as stating that, given present circumstances, they assess that Ukraine now has both the initiative and the advantage in the war with Russia.

This video describes the military situation in

Former Cabinet and Home Office Minister Dan Jarvis will take up the reigns at Main Building as the new UK Secretary of Defence.

Satellite imagery has indicated that the Russian Armed Forces’ reserves of main battle tanks are suffering from increasingly serious depletion, and are close to exhaustion, following over four years of high intensity conflict in the Ukrainian theatre, and the expansion of the Army’s frontline armoured units. Preceding the outbreak of full scale hostilities in February 2022, Russia had for decades maintained by far the world’s the largest reserves of main battle tanks, which by several estimates stood at over 20,000 vehicles inherited from the Soviet Union.

Footage from the Ukrainian Army 160th Separate Mechanised Brigade has shown a new configuration of M1A1 Abrams main battle tank, the Lucifer, the design modifications of which appear to heavily prioritise increasing survivability against attacks by drones and loitering munitions. The tank integrates an extensive set of modular anti-drone cage structures on its turret and hull.

Missiles, drones, and maritime disruptions do not stop at national borders. Gulf defense architecture still too often waits for national permission to act. The Gulf Cooperation Council has spent decades building defense institutions, diplomatic forums, and a language of indivisible Gulf security. Recent crises in the Red Sea, the Strait of Hormuz, and the airspace above the Gulf have exposed a harder test: whether those institutions can move at crisis speed when a missile salvo, drone attack, or maritime disruption gives the region minutes or hours, not days, to respond.

This video describes the military situation in

The Republic of Korea Defense Acquisition Program Administration has selected a new design for the KDDX next generation destroyer program, with the long delayed development effort expected to provide the country’s navy with six new 6,000- to 6,500-ton surface combatant. The vessels areintended to bridge the gap between South Korea’s KDX-II destroyers and larger KDX-III Aegis ships, adding more capable hulls without overusing the fleet’s top-tier missile-defence assets.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force has continued to rapidly withdraw remaining J-8 interceptors from service, with these being the tactical combat aircraft from the Cold War era that are still widely in service. The J-8is being retired through a gradual phasing-out, with most frontline interceptor squadrons that once operated the type having already transitioned to field more modern aircraft such as the J-11 and J-16. Unlike the wholesale retirement of older J-7 fighters, many remaining J-8s were first reassigned to secondary missions, particularly high-altitude reconnaissance.

Congressional Republicans introduced a nearly 600-page veterans benefits package on June 10 that would end a longstanding pay offset for combat-injured veterans but would cut disability compensation for up to 1.5 million other veterans to cover the cost.
Also Read: ‘The Deadly Gap:’ Veterans wait to get benefits until it’s too late
The bill, called the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, was introduced by House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jerry Moran.

Public Domain

By Jay Rogers
This week, a divided D.C. Circuit panel issued a 2-1 ruling finding that the Pentagon’s policy disqualifying individuals with gender dysphoria from military service likely violates equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment. The majority held that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s implementing guidance was driven by animus toward transgender people rather than legitimate readiness requirements — blocking the discharge of currently serving plaintiffs while leaving the enlistment ban intact.

At least one French Air Force Rafale fighter deployed on NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission intercepted a Ukrainian Maya drone after it entered NATO airspace from the direction of Russia. The incident occurred amid a growing number of cases in which long-range Ukrainian drones targeting Russia have entered NATO airspace. Analysts have assessed many of these deviations are caused by intensive Russian electronic warfare systems, which jam or spoof GPS signals, causing hostile autonomous drones to drift from their programmed routes.

The last two days have seen another whirlwind of military threats and purported diplomatic action in the Persian Gulf. A day after insisting that the United States was on the verge of launching extensive strikes against Iran, including the seizure of Kharg Island, President Trump canceled those strikes based on the claim that Iran had agreed in principle to an accord that would end the war. As of yet no reaction from the Iranians indicates that such an accord is on the table.

More than four years after Putin announced the “special military operation” in Ukraine, the war shows no sign of ending any time soon. Russia occupies large portions of Ukrainian territory – around 20% by some estimates -, and it continues to bombard Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones. It also maintains significant advantages in manpower and resources.

But the dynamics have changed, and the fight is no longer only on Ukrainian soil.

One of the biggest issues of the Russo-Ukrainian War is the question of Ukraine’s military allegiance. Ukraine envisions a future where it joins NATO and becomes a full-fledged Western-aligned European nation. Moscow, however, wishes for Ukraine to become its ally or, at the very least, remain neutral. Many other NATO states have expressed their own desires to see Ukraine join the military alliance.

There are still numerous barriers preventing Ukraine from joining NATO in the near future, most obviously the current war.

T-84 Tank Ukraine. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

President Trump recently revealed that the US military has quietly helped escort roughly 200 commercial vessels carrying more than 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. The administration is presenting the operation as evidence that global energy markets remain under control—but this is political spin. Naval escorts and dark tanker operations are unlikely to prevent a major oil shock. At best, the operations may buy time and temporarily stabilize prices, but they do not solve the larger supply problem created by the war in Iran.

KYIV – Ukrainian citizens attacked Zelenskiy’s mobilization bounty hunters with shovels to prevent a man from being press-ganged to the front.
UKRAINIAN SOURCE: “People do not understand what Civil war is. A modern Civil War in Ukraine is a war against bounty hunters who obtain USD 200 per head of any male person they can catch on streets of any village or city in Ukraine.

The Revolutionary War ended long before photography was a refined process, but the gap between the two historic events was still enough to allow some of America’s true patriots—literally American patriot troops—to sit for a photo.
Also Read: DNA science and public databases offer a new way to identify soldiers’ remains
America became and independent nation in 1783 when the U.S. and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. The history of photography began much later, and the earliest surviving photo dates back to 1826. a 43-year difference.

The Army commissioned a new batch of tech executives into its reserve ranks this week, the service said, the second cohort to enter a new unit officials say is meant to bring the private sector and military closer together to boost defense technology.
The Army established Detachment 201 last year to recruit tech execs into the reserves as senior advisors, ones who are tasked with helping the Army quickly develop and scale modern capabilities. At the time, the service tapped four technologists from Palantir, OpenAI and Meta into the Army Reserve as lieutenant colonels.
Now, Det.

The Armed Forces pay rise has sparked plenty of

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.***Iran Hostilities have increased notably in the last few days, effectively ending the U.S.-Iranian truce that had somewhat held since April. At the start of June, fighting further intensified between Israel and Hizballah in Lebanon, complicating U.S.-Iranian negotiations, as Iran has insisted on linking U.S.-Iranian talks with an end to Israeli actions against Hizballah.

Former MP Col (Ret’d) James Sunderland re

America Missed It: China’s J-35 Is Headed to Every Carrier in China’s Fleet – Most analysts believed that China’s fifth-generation carrier-based warplane, the Shenyang J-35, would primarily operate from the Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian because the Type 003 Fujian has electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) catapults. At the same time, Fujian’s predecessors, Liaoning and Shandong, kept flying the older fourth-generation J-15s.

That assumption is increasingly looking wrong.

J-35 Factory in China. Image Credit: CCTV Screenshot.

China J-35 Fighter on Aircraft Carrier.

Iran has claimed to have launched attacks on United States military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan again, and targeted two vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US airstrikes on the country.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it launched drone strikes on Bahrain’s Shaikh Isa airbase and Kuwait’s Ali Al Salem and Ahmad Al-Jaber airbases early on Thursday.

(Left to right) Australian ANZAC Class frigate HMAS Stuart (FFH 153) and USS Jack H.

This video describes the military situation in

If President Donald Trump decides to order the U.S. military to capture Kharg Island from Iran, the operation would require at least 1,200 troops, experts told Task & Purpose. Whether or not that number would be enough to hold the island is less clear.
For the moment, it is uncertain whether U.S. troops may be tasked with capturing the island, which processes about 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports. 
Trump initially wrote in a Thursday social media post that “at some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island.” He later announced that he had canceled further U.

Is A Peace Deal Imminent on Iran? U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on June 11, 2026, that a deal with Iran is imminent and that a “time and place of the signing” will be announced shortly. The president also confirmed that planned strikes on Iran, scheduled to begin this evening, have been canceled. The statement is the clearest indication yet that a deal with the Iranian regime could be arriving soon.

Veteran and podcaster on Defence Secretary Heal

It might come as a surprise to some veterans, but there are service members who leave the military and just kind of drop off the system’s radar. They don’t make VA appointments, submit benefits claims, or try to join veterans organizations.
Sometimes, veterans just pack away their uniforms and move on—until they need something because of their time in the military. Wounded Warrior Project calls this “the deadly gap.”
Also Read: Find all your veterans benefits in one place with the HonorEarned tool
Jessica Baltazar, a national service officer with WWP, is trying to close it.

The House Armed Services Committee pushed through its version of the fiscal 2027 defense policy bill late last week, adopting new “right to repair” provisions.

The committee adopted the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a 44-12 vote, with Democrats making up all of the “no” votes. However, despite most of the amendments being split along party lines, the “right to repair amendment was one of the rare moments that enjoyed wide bipartisan support.

The amendment, which was introduced by a bipartisan duo of Reps.

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense policy bill for fiscal 2027 gives the green light for the Defense Department to establish a separate combatant command dedicated to autonomous systems.
SASC’s $1.14 trillion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) “encourages the department to adopt the future of warfare by permitting the establishment of the Robotic and Autonomous Systems Combatant Command,” according to a summary of the draft legislation published Thursday.

The war in Ukraine has now officially surpassed the length of World War I. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has lasted longer than the four years, three months, and 14 days (1,568 days) of the First World War.

And just like the muddy, static lines of 1914–1918, the fighting in Ukraine settled into a grueling war of attrition where soldiers from both sides operate from thousands of kilometers of trenches and bunkers. Maneuver warfare has virtually disappeared in the stalemated fighting.

Iran Threatens Hell Over Hormuz, But Trump May Have Just Prevented It – As the White House weighs putting boots on the ground in Iran and insists that the Strait of Hormuz is still open, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander has warned that Iran will turn the region into “hell” if the regime’s control of the Strait of Hormuz is challenged.

“We will bring the region into hell for you from across Iran if you make the sacred Strait of Hormuz safe,” IRGC Aerospace Force commander Brigadier General Majid Mousavi warned this week. 

Iran Missiles.

Today, the war in Ukraine has been raging for 1,569 days, meaning it has continued longer than WWI. The war has been raging for four years and has become the most devastating war in Europe since the Second World War.

Despite all the devastation, the war continues and shows little sign of stopping. Given the current state of the battlefield, neither side can bring the war to a quick military close, so it is up to diplomacy to end the conflict.

However, considering the current state of negotiations, it is unlikely that either side will reach an agreement anytime soon.

Ukraine’s latest barrage of long-range attacks inside Russia has struck military and energy infrastructure at shocking distances – and they can thank the domestically-made “Flamingo” for the chaos it’s causing for Moscow.

Flamingo Missiles Hit Russia’s Defense Industry

Neptune Cruise Missile Ukraine Government Photo

Ukraine Cruise Missile. Image Credit: Government of Ukraine.

MI5 says Chinese intelligence have been trying

With negotiations between Tehran and Washington stalled, the American President is on the offensive, though only verbally so far. But in order to break the deadlock, President Trump is seemingly interested in pummeling Iran yet again — and suggested a Venezuela-style takeover of at least some of the country’s energy infrastructure and an invasion of what is perhaps the crown jewel of Iran’s oil and gas infrastructure.

A Texas lawmaker has sparked hopes to award the Medal of Honor to an Air Force pilot killed while protecting classified information during the Vietnam War. Air Force Maj. Robert A. Lodge was shot down during Operation Linebacker I while flying with the most advanced radar system of the day. Rather than bail out of his burning plane and risk capture, he drove his F-4D Phantom II into the ground, keeping the technology and his knowledge of it out of enemy hands.
Rep.

Logistics and supply chains are everything in warfare. Without “beans and bullets,” it is difficult, if not impossible, to be successful in warfare. Of course, military supplies have become much more advanced since World War Two, when America pursued its “Arsenal of Democracy” strategy, which helped win the global conflict. The Russo-Ukraine war has seen a depth and breadth of logistical needs in Europe not seen since the 1940s.

The supply requirements in Ukraine and Russia have been under-reported during media coverage of the war.

Most Western fighters are designed around the assumption that air superiority comes first and logistics follow. The Gripen was designed around the assumption that Sweden would be fighting for survival against a larger adversary while its air bases were under constant attack.

That distinction matters.

The Saab JAS 39 Gripen was built from the outset to operate from austere environments in a dispersed manner. Highways and improvised airstrips are just some of the places from which this fourth-generation warplane can operate.

SAAB JAS 39 Gripen Fighter. Image Credit: SAAB.

Washington appears to be searching for an Epic Fury off-ramp. With public patience fading, costs mounting, missile stockpiles dwindling, and naval assets tied up, the administration likely recognizes that it’s time to pivot. Doing so will require political tact and a claim to victory, even if a decisive strategic victory remains elusive. The most likely outcome is a managed de-escalation, followed by declarations of victory.

Washington Wants Out of Iran War

A U.S.

Is This How Putin Plans to Fight Back In Ukraine?: Amidst slowing gains on the front lines and an increasingly aggressive drone campaign by Ukrainian forces, Russian President Vladimir Putin is said to be planning a “Hail Mary” winter offensive that, he hopes, will turn the tide and put Ukraine back on the defensive. After more than four years of war, in what was meant to be a weeks-long “special military operation,” Moscow is now facing a growing list of challenges.

In 2022, Scott Sweetow wrote, “Of Roadside Bombs and Drones: Putin’s Looming Insurgency Problem,” where he argued Ukraine’s fight against Russia would rely on a combination of conventional and asymmetrical insurgent tactics. Four years of combat later, we asked Scott to revisit his arguments.Image: National Information Warfare Center PacificIn your 2022 article, you argued that Ukraine’s tech-driven resistance could rapidly evolve into an insurgency-style force.