The U.S. military has announced it will impose a blockade on all ships entering and leaving Iranian ports. The move comes after President Donald Trump accused Iran of breaking its promise to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The blockade was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, according to U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM.
“The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” Central Command announced in a Sunday news release.

Hunt Class mine counter-measures vessel HMS Bro

The US Army’s 1st Cavalry Division has recently conducted a live-fire counter-drone exercise at Fort Hood, Texas.

It’s game week!

Welcome to The Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum only for War on the Rocks members. Each Monday, we bring you a curated selection of articles from Ukrainian media offering insight into how Ukrainians themselves debate the issues shaping their country.American coverage often narrows the view to the battlefield — these pieces widen it, revealing the texture of daily life, politics, and public argument in a nation at war.

More than 80 years after he flew over occupied France in World War II, a 100-year-old American veteran received the highest French military honor.
Retired Staff Sgt. Phillip Bruce Cook was presented with the Legion of Honor on April 9 by Anne-Laure Desjonqueres, the French consul general. Cook, who flew as a ball turret gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress during some of the heaviest aerial fighting of the war in Europe, is now a Knight of the National Order of the French Legion of Honor.  
“Mr.

A Second World War Spitfire pilot has been reun

Ruth Kuehn picked the wrong boyfriend.
When Kuehn was 19 years old, she had an affair with Joseph Goebbels. The Nazi Party’s chief propagandist was married at the time and nearly twice Kuehn’s age, but those concerns were inconsequential. Goebbels broke up with Kuehn, the daughter of a German spy, only after discovering a fact about her heritage.
Related: Nazi sabotage teams were captured infiltrating the US during World War II
Kuehn was half-Jewish.

The US Government has awarded Lockheed Martin a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptor production contract.

When I teach the Civil War, I frequently encounter surprised faces when students learn that California, so far from the eastern battlefields of Gettysburg and Antietam, played a critical, strategic role in safeguarding the Union.
Central to that story is Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, a place synonymous with isolation, security, and notoriety.

RAF rugby union star and England vice-captain F

Sweden’s Gute II concept builds on a layered C-UAS system proven in Gotland in June last year, where conscripts tested several systems.

TWZ
A new and not immediately recognizable launcher has emerged on the U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Carl M.

A’st
The new Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) is part of the Digital GPS Anti-jam Receiver (DIGAR) system installed in the F-15E Strike Eagle following a contract to BAE Systems…

The Iranian Air Force has deployed at least two of its newly delivered Russian Mi-28 attack helicopters for a flight over the capital Tehran, in what appears to be a show of force following widespread Western claims that all the aircraft were destroyed. The Mi-28 is the only modern combat aircraft known to currently be active in Iranian service, with deliveries having been confirmed only in January 2025. The fact that Iran’s most high value aircraft have survived over a month of intensive U.S.

NGD

Stars & Stripes
The ship, named after a Medal of Honor recipient and retired Marine Corps colonel, now serves alongside the Navy’s fleet of Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers

Marine Corps Compass Points
The final eight Marines have passed through the iconic Scout Sniper Course as the Corps finishes a move to end the legendary and long-running program

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The UK Armed Forces have been a dominant force

In May 1953, in the desert west of Idaho Falls, a crew powered up the world’s first naval nuclear propulsion system. What made it possible was daringly aggressive innovation: Adm. Hyman Rickover insisted that the Submarine Thermal Reactor Mark I be built to exactly the specifications that would later be required inside a submarine. This meant hundreds of pounds of simulated sea pressure per square inch, shock resistance tested to the standards of a depth-charge attack, and air conditioning sized at three times the requirement.

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The war in Iran has done more than rattle energy markets. It has exposed an ordinary farm input as a strategic commodity. Urea is a concentrated, easy-to-transport nitrogen fertilizer that increases the yields of many crops, especially staple grains like corn, rice, and wheat. These small white pellets are essentially natural gas in solid form, bound with nitrogen fixed from the atmosphere through the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process. They are literally a building block of the Green Revolution and critical to global food security.While the recent U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started the Iran war off with a bang — not just the bang of bombs and rockets, but the rhetorical bang of declaring their intent to spur the Iranian people to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Chinese state media outlets have confirmed that the country’s first supercarrier, the Fujian, will undergo a full transition from initial to full operational capability before the end of the year. Commenting on the transition, state media quoted defence expert Wei Dongxu observed: “When we see the Fujian achieving full aircraft loadouts and demonstrating the ability to launch and recover aircraft across its entire deck, we can consider its combat capability to be fully developed.

The Taoyuan-based National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology has developed a major upgrade package for the U.S.-supplied M60A3 main battle tank, the M60A3 TTS, which addresses a number of issues related to the vehicles’ growing obsolescence in the Republic of China Army. The upgrade package centres around the integration of a new turret, all-electric digital fire controls, and high-resolution observation and aiming systems. These are intended to significantly improve survivability, situational awareness, and firing accuracy, while shortening engagement times.

Following the unveiling of North Korea’s first ever class of destroyer, the Choe Hyon class, and after subsequent confirmation that the country’s shipyards will be launching destroyers at rates of two per year, significant questions have been raised regarding how the ships’ capabilities compare to those of U.S. Navy Alreigh Burke class destroyers.

The Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah has increased its drone strikes on Israeli Army armoured units using First Person View (FPV) drones, mirroring similar technological trends seen in the Ukrainian theatre, as part of a broader war effort to repel Israel’s invasion of Southern Lebanon. There are indications that Hezbollah has learned from Russian and Ukrainian experience in utilising fiber-optic guided drones to evade Israeli electronic interference, fuelling speculation that a sharing of experience between Hezbollah and Russian forces may have taken place.

A man was arrested on Saturday after climbing onto and attacking the hull of an Air Force C-130 at an airport in Ireland. The attacker was able to strike the military transport aircraft several times before being arrested.
The incident happened early Saturday morning, with the Garda Síochána (the Irish national police) and defense forces responding, in an incident that briefly shut down Shannon Airport in County Clare. In a video of the incident posted to social media including the U.S.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer the USS Stockdale returned to its home port in San Diego on Thursday, April 10. As it pulled into Naval Base San Diego after a seventh-month deployment, two flags billowed in the wind: an American flag and a black and white one with a very familiar gun-adorned “007” on it. 
It’s not a random flag flown by James Bond enthusiasts. Instead, it’s a cheeky nod to the ship’s namesake, Medal of Honor recipient Vice Adm. James Bond Stockdale.
Stockdale joined the Navy in 1946, serving as a naval aviator at the start of the Vietnam War.

After a first deployment to Afghanistan in 2010 and a second to Kuwait in 2014, Sgt. Terrence Hinton and his family received orders to a highly coveted duty station amongst the Army community: Hawaii. In 2016, Sgt. Hinton, accompanied by his spouse, son, and daughter, was assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division in Oahu, Hawaii. 
Also Read: Some military nonprofits are MIA at a time when families need them most
Months later, Sgt. Terrence Hinton was tragically killed in a training accident.

The United States has approved the first ever integration of the AIM-120 radar guided air-to-air missile to equip South Korean FA-50 fighter aircraft, with the AIM-120C-5, C-7, and C-8 variants all expected to be integrated onto FA-50PL fighters in the Polish Air Force from 2027. The Polish Defence Ministry ordered 48 FA-50 fighters from South Korea in 2022 to replace the MiG-29 fighters it donated to Ukraine, with these very lightweight aircraft having high availability rates and very low maintenance needs and operational costs.

The U.S. Air Force has received its 105th KC-46A Pegasus airborne tanker, with the aircraft intended to serve under the 22nd Air Refuelling Wing. The KC-46 is a military derivative of the Boeing 767 freighter family with an internal fuel capacity of 96,290 litres, of which up to 94,200 litrescan be transferred to receiver aircraft. The aircraft combines a strategic range and heavy fuel load with a flexible cabin and cargo architecture that gives commanders far more utility than older tanker types. Although the U.S.

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“There is a threat.

“Hopefully it lasts much longer than two week

Unexpected encounter of a sleeping Russian trooper in the field with a Ukrainian FPV drone on the Pokrovsk direction.
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On April 10 a Swedish Air Force Gripen fighter intercepted a Russian Navy Kilo class attack submarine, with the aircraft tracking the ship’s movements into the Baltic Sea in coordination with allied countries. The Swedish Armed Forces described the operation as part of regular activities aimed at maintaining situational awareness in the country’s surrounding waters and ensuring the territorial integrity of Sweden and its allies.

A fire at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant in the Russian Far East has raised questions regarding the future of production of the Su-35 and Su-57 fighters, which are assembled exclusively at the facility. Open-source intelligence indicates that the fire broke out in Shop No. 46 of the plant, a crucial facility responsible for producing polymer composite material (PCM) components used in the Su-57’s airframe. Around 300 different part designs are manufactured there, including roughly 100 large structural elements.

The Navy plans to use underwater drones in the coming days as part of its new effort to clear Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command announced Saturday.
The strait is a critical maritime chokepoint for oil exported from the Middle East, and reopening it to more shipping traffic has been a top objective of President Donald Trump amid the shaky ceasefire between the United States and Iran that began a few days ago and paused Operation Epic Fury, the military name for the American war effort against Tehran that kicked off Feb. 28.

Public Domain

Washington — The Selective Service System plans to begin automatically registering all eligible U.S. men ages 18 to 26 for the military draft database by the end of December 2026, aiming to close a longstanding compliance gap that has left nearly one in five young men unregistered.
The agency submitted a proposed rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on March 30, kicking off the formal review process needed before the change takes effect.

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Two U.S. Navy destroyers are now in the Persian Gulf after crossing the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, U.S. Central Command announced. The warships are now working on “ setting conditions for clearing mines” in the important waterway.
Two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, the USS Frank E. Peterson. and the USS Michael Murphy crossed the strait earlier today and are now sailing in the Persian Gulf, also known as the Arabian Gulf. Axios reported that the move was not coordinated with Tehran, en as negotiations began earlier today. It’s the first major move by U.S.

Hawaii mobilized more National Guard personnel ahead of this weekend, as another heavy storm hits the state. 
More than 300 National Guard troops are now mobilized, up from “just over 200” still active from the previous month’s storm response mission, a spokesperson for the Hawaii National Guard confirmed to Task & Purpose on Friday. The activation came as state and local governments spend several days preparing for what is expected to be a week of severe weather from another “Kona Low” storm.

The USS North Carolina (BB-55) was the lead ship of the North Carolina-class of fast battleships—the first vessel of that type built for the U.S. Navy.

Built during the time of the Washington Naval Treaty, the North Carolina’s design was limited in displacement and armament. However, the United States turned to a clause in the Second London Naval Treaty to increase the main battery from its original armament of twelve 14-inch guns in quadruple turrets to nine 16-inch guns in triple turrets.

In any future naval war between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the navies of the two nations will lead the fight. Specifically, the submarine forces of these countries will likely be among the first units to engage each other in combat.

Quantity vs. Quality: A Dangerous Equation
While the United States Navy’s submarine force is undoubtedly qualitatively superior to China’s growing submarine force, China’s force is growing larger.

Francis P. Sempa, RealClearDefense
In June 2025, President Trump made the command decision to strike Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

(USAFA Press Release) In preparation for a change of command ceremony next month, Col. Brandon J. Tellez, Class of ’01, has been assigned as the Academy’s 32nd Commandant of Cadets, succeeding Brig. Gen. Gavin P. Marks, who will retire this summer after a distinguished Air Force career.
Col.

Please read that again.
We lose a military spouse by suicide every eight days. This is unconscionable. 
Today’s military spouses are not the stereotypical post-World War II spouses shaped and modeled by generations of spouses of yesteryear (traditionally female spouses from that time period) operating with societal expectations with a stern focus on reproducing, raising children, and domesticity in the home. 
Also Read: The most famous ‘war brides’ and how they served their country behind the scenes
Military spouses are anything and everything—except vanilla.

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