Laura Heckmann, National Defense
one of the service’s top priorities is its Organic Precision Fires concept

Nick Ulmer & Harrison Schramm, RealClearDefense
For the uninitiated, a token is a small piece of information, in text roughly three-quarters of a word, that a large language model processes…

NGN
HELIOS is a 60-kilowatt-class directed-energy laser with a range of up to 5 miles, offering layered defense against drones, fast attack craft, and incoming missiles.

Global Defense News
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace a $240.

Atharva Gosavi, IntEngineering
The Rydberg atom-based sensor could help soldiers detect complex electromagnetic signals across the battlefield.

China’s nuclear submarine industrial base has undergone one of the world’s most significant expansions over the past two decades, with a major landmark reached in early June when it was confirmed that the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai had launched its first nuclear powered submarine.

This video describes the military situation in

By Bob Morris, VMI grad
A new lawsuit accuses the governing board of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) — one of the nation’s last state military colleges and a primary commissioning source for the armed forces — of conducting the public’s business in the shadows.
The verified petition, filed June 1, 2026 in York County Circuit Court (Morris v. Virginia Military Institute, No.

Industry 4.

Congress rarely moves fast, but Reps. Rob Wittman and Pat Ryan are trying to change that. The two lawmakers founded the bipartisan House Defense Modernization Caucus in 2024 and have driven reforms through two consecutive defense authorization acts, targeting acquisitions and other bottlenecks. Jonathan sits down with both congressmen to discuss their initiatives, how a caucus without markup power actually moves legislation, and whether bipartisan cooperation on defense can last.Image: Sgt. 1st Class Rakeem Carter via DVIDS.

At the Port of Beirut, the new scanners did exactly what they were built to do. They saw the lithium batteries. They saw the drone propellers. They saw the fiber optic cable. They matched the scans against the paperwork, found no obvious deception, and cleared the cargo.That was the problem.The threat was not hidden in any single container. It was spread across many of them, arriving over weeks, through different vessels, different companies, and different bills of lading.

The Royal Canadian Air Force is projected to field a much expanded fighter fleet of 140 or more aircraft, according to informed sources who spoke to local media regarding the possibility of procuring Gripen lightweight combat jets. As the Swedish firm Saab has launched a renewed campaign to persuade Ottawa that the Gripen offers considerable advantages, a source with knowledge of the ongoing discussions between it and the Canadian government has reported that “there could easily be a fleet of 140 aircraft.

The British Royal Navy’s entire fleet of attack submariners is currently out of service, with all five sups currently in port undergoing maintenance or repair, highlighting worsening fleet readiness issues. Former First Sea Lord Admiral Alan West warned that the situation leaves the United Kingdom appearing “toothless” at a time of increasing Russian naval activity in the North Atlantic and Arctic. Tensions with Russia remain high, with the United Kingdom being actively engaged in the Russian-Ukrainian War including with ground force deployments to combat Russian forces.

Major General Curtis D. Taylor has been nominated for a third star, promotion to LT General in the United States Army. The U.S. Senate is deliberating his nomination.

This development has caused many servicemen and women who served under MG Taylor to reach out to Armed Forces Press, prompted by concerns about his ethics and leadership.
We have spoken to multiple individuals who worked under MG Taylor at the National Training Center (NTC) and experienced MG Taylor push the DEI agenda, a trait that Secretary of War Hegseth is trying hard to remove from the flag ranks.

The future of warfare will not be decided solely by who has the most advanced systems, but by who can afford to lose them, replace them, and scale them faster than their adversary.

For decades, the United States followed a twentieth-century playbook built around “exquisite” platforms—billion-dollar capabilities that are as lethal as they are difficult to replace. Quantity was traded for quality, rooted in the belief that a small number of high-tech systems could offset a larger force.

Challenger 3: Britain’s Formidable New Tank Has One Glaring Weakness — There Won’t Be Many Of Them – The British Army is building one of the most capable main battle tanks in Europe, yet building almost none of them. That is the paradox at the heart of the Challenger 3 program as it stands in mid-2026. The tank itself is a genuine leap forward, a Challenger 2 reborn with a NATO-standard gun, a new turret, and a digital nervous system that drags British armor into the modern era.

If Trump Can’t Restrain Israel: Netanyahu’s Options To Strike Iran After Tonight’s Missile Barrage: Iran fired missiles at Israel on Sunday evening, the first such bombardment since the fragile April ceasefire, and the opening question is what Benjamin Netanyahu does next. Four waves of Iranian missiles came down, all intercepted, with no damage reported, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This video describes the military situation in

This video describes the military situation in

Have you ever felt that gripping feeling deep in your chest? It catches your breath and slows time down as you imagine everything that could possibly go wrong in a moment.
That feeling isn’t unique to military families, but I would argue that military families stand alongside first responders with a familiarity that takes a toll. You get so used to that feeling, you start to rehearse the worst possible moments over and over again in your mind so that gripping feeling doesn’t stop you in your tracks.

Summary and Key Points: For two decades, Vladimir Putin has named one red line above all others: Ukraine inside NATO. He has been consistent, and on this narrow point, he may even get his way — Kyiv may never fly the alliance’s flag. But that, the argument goes, is exactly the wrong thing for the West to fight over. Because Ukraine doesn’t need a treaty signature to be safe.

Arm Ukraine Into A Powerhouse: How The West Can Hand Putin His Worst Nightmare Without The NATO Flag

T-14 Armata. Image Credit: Russian State Media.

T-14 Armata Tank. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Summary and Key Points: If Washington restarts its air war against Iran to force open the Strait of Hormuz and demand a nuclear surrender, Tehran will answer — and the uncomfortable truth is that it can still make a second round bloody.

-Iran came out of the first war badly weakened: a top U.S. commander testified that the campaign gutted its missiles and drones and crippled its ability to build more.

F-35 Fighter Heading Into the Sky. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

-But a regime convinced it is fighting for its survival calculates risk differently than one with a future to protect.

What A Second American Air War Against Iran Would Really Cost: The fragile truce between Washington and Tehran has hardened into a stalemate that satisfies no one. The shooting has mostly stopped, but the Strait of Hormuz, the artery through which close to a fifth of the world’s oil moves, remains effectively shut, and Iran shows no sign of handing it back. That leaves the United States staring at a tempting and treacherous option: restart the air campaign to force Iran to reopen the strait and abandon its nuclear program for good.

Ukraine has spent this week doing something it could not do for most of the war: striking deep into the heart of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, in his own hometown, during the one event meant to project Russian stability to the world. Twice in under a week, swarms of Ukrainian drones have crossed roughly 1,000 kilometers to hit naval targets around St. Petersburg, and the timing was no accident.

Ukraine Opens A New Front Against Putin In St. Petersburg — And Edges The War Closer To NATO

Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The raids bracketed the St.

Summary and Key Points: A nuclear-powered supercarrier is one of the most complex machines humanity has ever built — yet the part that gave the U.S. Navy the most grief on the USS Gerald R. Ford wasn’t the reactor, the hull, or the radar. It was the catapult: the system that flings a loaded fighter from a standstill to flying speed in the length of a basketball court.

-The Navy had traded a century of reliable steam for something far more ambitious — in essence, a rail gun built to throw airplanes.

 Summer looks a little different for every military family.
Some families spend the season surrounded by moving boxes and permanent change-of-station (PCS) checklists. Meanwhile, others settle into a new duty station and try to plan summer routines, camps, road trips, and moments of rest for their children. No matter what season of military life you are in, most parents try to find the balance between letting kids enjoy summer break while still keeping some sense of structure.

The military’s latest attempt to create cheap and effective counter-drone weapons looks like a shipping container. And for the first time, it took out a mid-sized aerial drone with a Joint Air-to-Ground Missile.
The Army and weapons developer Lockheed Martin successfully took out the drone during recent testing at the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the Army and Lockheed announced. They used Lockheed Martin’s GRIZZLY platform, a missile launcher based on the M229 launcher system that is heavily used by the U.S. military. However this one has a shipping container built around it.

Summary and Key Points: Muammar Gaddafi had drawn a “line of death” across the Gulf of Sidra and swore to shoot down any aircraft that dared cross it. On the morning of April 15, 1986 — in the aftermath of an American bombing raid on Libya — an SR-71 Blackbird crossed that line anyway, at full throttle, to photograph the damage. When a missile alert flashed in the cockpit, the pilot pushed the legendary spy plane harder than it had ever flown.

Summary and Key Points: In the spring of 2005, the United States Navy set out to sink one of its own aircraft carriers — and for most of a month, it failed. The decommissioned USS America absorbed torpedoes, missiles, and bombs and refused to go under until the Navy finally scuttled her with charges set off inside the hull. To this day, she is the only supercarrier ever sent to the bottom, anywhere on earth. That ordeal is often cited as proof that the American aircraft carrier is nearly unsinkable — and in one sense, it is.

The British Army has deployed new Bolt loitering munitions in Estonia, less then 70 kilometres from the Russian border, highlighting NATO’s continued efforts to enhance its forward offensive capabilities near Russian territory at a time of continuing hostilities in the Ukrainian theatre. The Bolt is a single use attack drone capable of identifying and striking armoured vehicles and other battlefield targets with precision.

Summary and Key Points: For the first time in history, all 22 National Guard generals who command America’s Air National Guard fighter squadrons have signed a single letter to Congress — and the warning inside it is blunt. The U.S. Air Force, they say, has never been older, smaller, or less ready in its entire existence. The alarm comes at a striking moment: the same Air Force just proved its worth over Iran during Operation Epic Fury, even as the generals warn that pilots are being sent into combat in jets built before they were born.

The U.S.

The U.S. Air Force is facing an unexpectedly severe capability gap after suffering extensive combat losses of MQ-9A Reaper drones during operations against Iran and Iranian-aligned Yemeni Ansurullah Coalition Forces forces, leading the service to initiate an urgent search for replacement aircraft. This has included efforts to purchase unused MQ-9A Block 5 airframes from the producer, General Atomics, although fewer than ten new aircraft remain available worldwide.

Summary and Key Points: When two American pilots ejected from their F-15Es over Iran and were pulled to safety, they survived something most people never think about: one of the most violent experiences a human body can endure. The pilots who’ve been through it describe a brutal, split-second ordeal. The moment the handle is pulled, rockets blast the seat out of the cockpit with a force that can bruise shoulders to the bone and snap collarbones — and a pilot who fails to tuck in fast enough risks far worse.

What Every Fighter Pilot Fears: Ejection 

A U.S.

North Korean state media has shown footage of a major facility producing tactical ballistic missiles for the KN-23 system, as the country’s leadership has announced plants for a 2.5 fold expansion in ballistic and cruise missile production capacity over five years. The planned increase in capacity was ordered as North Korea faces both high demand for its missiles abroad, most notably from Russia, as well as an increasingly unstable security situation as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East continue.

This video describes the military situation in

Footage from Moscow’s Sokolniki District has shown continued operations by the world’s largest and most powerful transport helicopters to position Pantsir-SMD-E stationary air defence systems onto the rooftops of high rise buildings, which appears to be part of an effort to rapidly expand a multi-layered defensive network across the capital to respond to the threat of drone attacks from Ukraine.

The French Ministry of Defence has announced the first successful supersonic launch of the MICA NG air-to-air missile from a Rafale fighter, marking a significant milestone in efforts to keep the ageing mid-1990s missile design viable into the 21st century. The MICA NG is available in two primary variants, including one with infrared thermal imaging passive guidance and one with active radar guidance. Both are equipped with a new dual pulse motor, resulting in improved manoeuvrability and combining beyond-visual-range and close-range combat capabilities.

The French Joint Staff on June 5 published footage showing a Rafale fighter conducting a close-range visual interception of a Russian Aerospace Forces Su-35 long range fighter,in a tense encounter over the Baltic Sea. The engagement, which took place on June 2, occurred after the Su-35 was deployed to escort five other Russian aircraft, including a An-30 reconnaissance and survey platform, two transports, and Su-24M and Su-34 strike fighters.

The New Zealand Army has deployed infantry platoon to South Korea for a three-month rotation, which was designed to improve interoperability with both the Republic of Korea (ROK) Armed Forces and the United States Army, exposing personnel to operational scenarios and force structures that are significantly larger and more technologically advanced than those normally available at home. Stationed primarily at Camp Casey alongside the U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, under 20 kilometres from the inter-Korean Demilitarised Zone and 20-25 kilometres from the North Korea’s borders.

Summary and Key Points: It is being built to do something no weapon ever wants to be used for: survive the unthinkable and strike back. The U.S. Navy’s first Columbia-class submarine is expected to arrive in 2028, and its developers are already calling it the quietest and most lethal submarine ever built.

Summary and Key Points: For more than three decades, the official story of the SR-71 Blackbird’s retirement has been simple: the legendary spy plane that flew at the edge of space, faster than three times the speed of sound, simply cost too much to keep flying once the Cold War wound down. Now, a man who sat in the back seat says that the story was never the whole truth.

Summary and Key Points: China is building aircraft carriers at a pace not seen since World War II. By 2035, the Pentagon expects Beijing to triple its fleet to nine flattops — and the next one may be a nuclear-powered supercarrier larger than the USS Gerald R. Ford, capable of carrying more than a hundred aircraft. On paper, it’s a staggering rise. But the numbers hide a very different story.

China Has Thousands Of Missiles Aimed At The Pacific. The War With Iran Was The Warm-Up Act: The recent war against Iran strained the United States military in ways that rattled defense planners, and Iran fired its missiles by the hundreds. China can fire them by the thousands. That difference in scale is the most important fact in any honest discussion of a Pacific war, because it converts a problem the United States managed against a regional power into one it cannot fully solve against Beijing.

Ankara, Turkey – Ukraine’s military – and specifically its “drone army” – has proven that it can now hit any target anywhere in Russia at will. Today, there is also little that Moscow’s armed forces can do to stop them.

Ukraine Proves Its Ability to Now Hit Russian Targets Anywhere and at Any Time

Russia’s President Putin Sitting at a Desk. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The proof came on Saturday, 6 June, when residents of St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city and the hometown of Russian President Vladimir Putin, were told not to leave their homes.

84 years ago

Back in 2007, I did a Battle of Midway FbF that featured one of my favorite aircraft, the Brewster Buffalo. In the post, I focused on then 2LT William “Bill” Brooks, USMCR.
In the mid-60’s Mr. Brooks helped found Bellevue University, among other things. Back in 2010, I was notified by the President of Bellevue University that Mr. Brooks passed away. In his honor, I would like to repost that FbF from 2007 and 2010.
You could spend a lifetime on Battle of Midway posts – that is what I like about it.

The Army wants you…to leave nicotine pouches behind when traveling through France. Seriously, the Army says don’t take Zyn or any other brand with you inside French borders.
On Friday, the 21st Theater Sustainment Command and Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz issued a formal travel advisory, calling on soldiers to not bring any kind of nicotine pouches into or through France, after the country criminalized them.
“France has criminalized the possession, importation, and use of non-medically approved nicotine pouches (such as Zyn and Velo),” the joint message from the command garrison said.

This video describes the military situation in

“Their sacrifice will not be forgotten”
A momen

Jason Hanson, HansonWriter
Pressure and a Permanent Riddle

The post The Greatest Generation: 82 Years Ago And The Longest Day appeared first on Armed Forces Press.