The Iranians said on Monday that any deal with Oman on controlling shipping in the Strait of Hormuz would not lead to the waterway being fully reopened until the United States agreed to several of its demands.

These demands show that the Iranians believe they are winning and that the US consistently stopping the air campaign for negotiations demonstrates US weakness.

President Donald Trump delivers delivers remarks to troops at Al Udeid Air Base, Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Doha, Qatar.

Ukraine on Monday pulled off a major drone strike, killing 13 people and injuring 39, in the city of Nizhnekamsk in the Tatarstan ‌region, which is an oil industry hotbed more than 600 miles east of Moscow, CNN reported.

It was described as the deadliest attack to hit Russia in more than two years.

Neptune Missile from Ukraine Creative Commons Image

Neptune Cruise Missile Ukraine Government Photo

A subsequent AP story listed the number of injured at 75 and, citing Russian authorities, stated that a child had been killed.

The Strait of Hormuz will not fully reopen to traffic unless the US meets Iran’s demands, the Islamic Republic said on Monday.

The busy maritime corridor, which usually carries around one-fifth of the world’s oil trade, has been the focus of recent talks.

The 354th Fighter Wing conducts a 75-fighter jet formation at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, Aug. 12, 2022, in honor of the U.S. Air Force’s 75th Anniversary. This capabilities demonstration included F-35A Lightning II, F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-22 Raptor aircraft from across Pacific Air Forces. (U.S.

Romania’s F-16s are on the frontline of NATO’s eastern flank, ready to respond to threats in the skies as war continues in neighbouring Ukraine. BFBS Forces News goes inside the cockpit and around one of Romania’s F-16s with Captain Alexandru “Tweak” of the Romanian Air Force’s 53rd Fighter Squadron. From its fire-control radar and targeting pod to Sidewinder and AMRAAM missiles, the pilot explains how this multi-role fighter is equipped for air-to-air, air-to-ground and air-maritime missions. And why does he call it a “smiling killer”? The F-16 may have been flying for decades, but Romania’s pilots say this veteran fighter still has what it takes to defend the skies and support NATO’s eastern flank. Watch as Captain Alexandru gives us a close-up look at one of Romania’s most important fighter jets. #F16 #Romania #NATO #FighterJet #Military #Defence #Ukraine #AirForce

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), a division of General Dynamics, has secured a $1.3bn contract to provide enterprise IT and cybersecurity services for the US Army National Guard and other federal government partners.

Trump Is Preparing to Redefine Victory In Iran – President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing for the possibility that he cannot force Iran to make the nuclear concessions he promised his war would achieve, with a Wall Street Journal report claiming on Sunday, August 9, that he is preparing a significant retreat from the objectives he outlined when the conflict began.

According to the report, which cited U.S.

After a little over eight months, the USS Thomas Hudner pulled into its home port this weekend. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer returned to Naval Station Mayport, Florida after more than half a year taking part in major U.S. combat operations and blockading oil tankers.
The ship left Mayport on Dec. 1, with its crew of 300 sailors heading south. The ship sailed to the Caribbean, as part of an armada of U.S. ships already there.

More than a week ago, President Donald Trump, after several days of threatening a major attack on Iran, instead announced that a deal was close to reopening the Strait of Hormuz and bringing the months-long war to a close.

What followed was several days of reports that Iran and Oman had reached a framework and were close to a final deal for a new control structure for the Strait, in which Iran would control incoming traffic, Oman would control outgoing traffic, and each would have their own lane.

President Donald J.

The Army wants thousands of new missiles to replace the venerable Stinger air defense system amid the growing threat of relatively cheap and small attack drones.
First introduced in 1981, the shoulder-fired Stinger missile proved deadly against Soviet and Afghan government aircraft after the United States provided the weapon system to  Mujahadeen rebels. 
Over time, the Stinger became a major part of American air defense. The U.S. military also mounted Stingers on vehicles, including one named for Army Sgt.

As President Ronald Reagan prepared to give a speech to West Berlin in 1987, Peter Robinson got to work.
Trying to figure out what Reagan should talk about, Robinson visited the German capital. The speechwriter spoke with an American diplomat, who advised him not to include any controversial statements regarding the Berlin Wall. The diplomat even told Robinson that West Berliners actually were accustomed to the wall, which first separated the city in 1961.
Also Read: When the CIA used Howard Hughes as a cover to retrieve a Soviet submarineRobinson couldn’t believe that.

This video describes the military situation in

Morgan Phillips, Fox News
Elbridge Colby leads classified effort to expand shorter-range nuclear capabilities to deter China and Russia

The Overton Shift, X
Strip the marketing off the BBGN program and you find one thing: a 35,000-ton floating power plant with sensors and weapons bolted to…

NatInterest
There are six compelling reasons the U.S.

Seth G. Jones, The Wall Street Journal
The Iran war proves it, and the Chinese threat is greater. We need new thinking about defense.

Atlantic Council
What’s in a name?

The Marine Corps awarded self-described “neo-prime” Epirus $11 million for its high-powered microwave program, including a system the company says can attach to different vehicles to zap down drones swarms on the move.
The High-power Microwave Autonomous Vehicle Operation Capability, or HAVOC, is based off of the company’s Leonidas weapon and comes with a “universal sled mount” so it can append to different vehicles, according to the company.

This video describes the military situation in

Editor’s note: This is the seventh article in a limited series celebrating American defense technologies born from wartime and their effects on broader national security, politics, and society. This series will run for several weeks to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, and winners will be selected by a reader vote undertaken through our newsletter later this summer. Prior installments can be found at the Arsenal of Innovation page.On the night of 24 March 1999, U.S.

The United States has bluntly signaled a deprioritization of the Indian Ocean at a peculiar time. The reversion of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to its former name, U.S. Pacific Command, signifies no material change in force posture or organizational responsibilities, but it unavoidably signals less focus on the Indian Ocean, presumably in favor of its consistent top priority in the western Pacific, although it’s not clear anyone really knows.

In April 2026, over a month after the United States launched its attack on Iran, leading to thousands of reprisal strikes across the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates shut down a network of money changers connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iranian exchange houses and the shell companies built around them — vehicles for laundering billions in offshore Dubai-based holdings and funneling funds to help Iran evade sanctions — are reported to have knowingly operated on Emirati soil for over a decade.Washington’s pivotal Gulf ally proved useful in the fallout of the Iran war.

A Ukrainian drone strike launched by the country’s Unmanned Systems Forces has destroyed a launcher from a Russian S-400 long range air defence system, which was deployed near the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik in Russia’s Krasnodar region. According to Ukrainian sources, the launcher was part of a system that had carried out six ballistic missile launches against Ukraine the day before the strike. The drone strike was but part of a broader overnight operation that struck multiple Russian targets, including other air defence systems.

L Todd Wood and Pete Blaber discuss the attempted merging of the Iran and Ukraine war – who’s behind it? What is the agenda?
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How Trump Plans to “Win” the Iran War and Prepare for the Next One –  U.S. President Donald Trump promised that the war with Iran would end with nothing less than total surrender, but as the Iran war approaches the six-month mark, it is becoming more likely that the president will make concessions to the Islamic regime in the hopes of ending the war and opening the Strait of Hormuz.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing U.S.

Marines in South Korea carried out their first live-fire tests with new first-person-view one-way attack drones, which give infantry squads the ability to strike enemy positions as far as kilometers away.
On July 30, Marines from the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion conducted one test, while last week on Aug. 5, Marines from 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment carried out a live-fire test only a few miles south of the demilitarized zone. In both tests, Marines operated Neros Archer drones, a small quadcopter model meant to fly into targets and take them out.

The Army quietly moved III Armored Corps to its new Western Hemisphere Command in recent weeks, part of ongoing restructuring of the service.
The change, ordered by Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll last month, was effective immediately. It’s the second time in a year that III Armored Corps has been moved to a different command. Late last year, the corps was reassigned to Army Europe and Africa after Army Forces Command was shuttered. 
An Army official confirmed the shift to Task & Purpose last week.

"There is an absolute clarity to your purpose"🫡 Chief of the General Staff General Sir Roly Walker addresses the British Army’s newest officers at Sandhurst’s Sovereign’s Parade. 238 Officer Cadets from 31 countries completed 44 weeks of intensive training, ready to begin their careers in uniform. #ForcesNews #Forces #SovereignsParade #News #RMAS #Army Subscribe to Forces News: http://bit.ly/1OraazC Check out our website: https://www.forcesnews.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ForcesTV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forcesnews/?hl=en X: https://twitter.com/ForcesNews

The term “milspouse” is a portmanteau of “military” and “spouse,” which might not be the most creative construction, but it gets the point across, and that’s what matters. Its origin is about as clean as these things get.
“Army brat,” on the other hand, is a genuine mystery. Nobody actually knows where it came from. What we’ve got instead is a handful of competing theories, each with a little evidence behind it and none with a smoking gun.

Words hold significant power; they shape thoughts, impact emotions, and influence behavior. This makes them one of the sharpest tools humans possess. Ultimately, the power of words should never be underestimated, which is why the word “dependent” doesn’t sit well with some in the military spouse community.
Also Read: Overqualified, underemployed, and still showing up: the military spouse employment challengeMerriam-Webster provides a simple definition of “dependent” as: “Decided or controlled by something else, Needing [sic] someone or something else for support, help, etc.

“Everyone just went into medical mode, just sea

The U.S.-led war effort against Iran is reportedly placing increasing pressure on U.S. Armed Forces stocks of air-defence interceptors and precision-guided weapons, raising concerns that Washington’s ability to respond to a major contingency in East Asia could be seriously weakened. According to a report by The New York Times, the conflict has resulted in severe munitions shortages and forced the United States to divert hundreds of advanced missile-defence systems from South Korea and elsewhere in East Asia to protect American forces and bases in the Middle East.

Russia is assessing the viability of integrating first-person-view (FPV) drones onto its main battle tanks, as part of efforts to combine conventional armoured warfare with rapidly evolving unmanned systems. Dmitry Kuzyakin, the chief designer at the Centre for Integrated Unmanned Solutions, said Russian forces had already experimented with armoured vehicles capable of carrying and launching FPV drones, including while moving. The concept will allow tank crews to launch FPV drones over considerable distances for reconnaissance and strike missions without leaving their vehicles.

Russia is reportedly preparing to receive between 30,000 and 50,000 additional North Korean military personnel, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, potentially representing a dramatic expansion of Pyongyang’s military involvement in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian War.

The first deployment of M1A2 Abrams tanks during the Republic of China Army’s Han Kuang 42 exercises has represented a landmark in the modernisation of the service’s armoured warfare units, and drew particular attention after the vehicles were deployed to defend Taoyuan International Airport. The Abrams began deliveries to the Army in December 2024, and were the first new tanks procured in almost 30 years.

U.S. Military Academy at West Point / Public Domain

The Department of War is considering its most sweeping remake of military higher education, according to an unreleased draft memorandum obtained by CBS News that would abolish civilian tenure and overhaul course offerings at the military service academies and senior war colleges that educate future military officers.
The memorandum, labeled “Refocusing the Military Service Academies and Senior Service College on Warfighter Education,” would direct institutions like the U.S.

The Russian Navy has begun installing extensive anti-drone netting over nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines at the Rybachiy naval base on the Kamchatka Peninsula, according to newly released commercial satellite imagery. The images, obtained from Vantor, shows multiple Russian submarines at Rybachiy covered by large overhead nets, with protection extending across several submarine berths.

Sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are dealing with food shortages, moldy showers and poor morale, according to military family members concerned for their well-being. It’s the second time this year that an aircraft carrier on an extended deployment has seen poor conditions.
The poor situation on the Lincoln was reported this week by MS Now, citing conversations with a dozen family members of sailors and Marines on the ship, as well as recordings of meetings between family and Navy leadership.

Israeli Air Force F-15I / Public Domain

Israeli Channel 13 is reporting that Israel is preparing to strike Iran on its own if the United States pulls back from further military escalation. The IDF is maintaining active contingency plans for independent action even as Washington pushes toward a diplomatic exit from the conflict.
The backdrop matters: President Trump has been explicit that he wants this war ended through negotiation, not escalation.

Inside the Type 31 programme
Defence Secretary

Iran Says Hormuz Deal Isn’t Enough – Iran and Oman are reportedly close to an agreement on a new system for managing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, but Tehran warned on Saturday, August 8, that the arrangement alone won’t be enough to open the waterway. The news further complicates U.S. expectations that normal commercial traffic could resume soon, as Washington also faces a missile shortage that makes continued military action unlikely.

On July 24, 2026, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) announced the future sale of military M14 rifles, converted to semi-auto only, to eligible civilian customers. This extraordinary news electrified the firearms market, but rumors of a $4,000+ price tag quickly circulated. After all, the more numerous M1 Garands sell for around $1,000 and M14 reproductions go for about twice that.
In an interview with Shooting USA at the National Matches, CMP Chairman and CEO Gerald O’Keefe dropped a daisy cutter of a bombshell: CMP M14s will cost under $2,000.

Frank Kendall, former Secretary of the Air Force. (Official DoD photo / Public Domain)

The Department of War moved swiftly Friday to strip former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall of his security clearance, accusing him of making an unauthorized disclosure of classified information about Air Force One’s capabilities to a media outlet. The action was announced by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell and takes effect immediately.

Donald Vandergriff
Restoring Maneuver, Mission Command, and the Generations of War in the Unmanned Age

Michael P. Jenkins, RCD
The most dangerous failures in defense technology are not sensor failures or algorithm failures.

Jay Rogers, RealClearDefense
The Army has decided that airpower close to the ground doesn’t need a pilot’s name on it as often as it used to, and it plans to cut close to 6,500 active-duty…

The Aviationist
Iranian state media has released images of a display of aircraft wreckage from the U.S.

James Wirtz, Military Strategy Magazine
Midway reveals much about the connections among tactics, operations, and strategy when it comes to war at sea, connections that remain relevant…

Since July 18th, Ukrainian forces have made a concerted effort to take out much of the physical infrastructure owned by Wildberries, a Russian e-commerce website. The attacks, which have occurred nearly every night, have set much of the company’s warehouse and storage space ablaze. One Reuters evaluation found that over one-fifth of the retailer’s physical storage space has been wiped out or damaged by Ukrainian strikes.

Russia’s Largest Online Retailer

Putin Reading a Statement. Image Credit: Russian Government.

Russia’s President Putin Sitting at a Desk.

“People don’t realize that this is truly more than just a ticket to an event. It’s a ticket to the rest of our lives.” — Adrienne Perez
For many military spouses, life is measured in countdowns. We always seem to be the keepers of information, tallying the number of days until homecoming, weeks until another move, and months until retirement. And we do it somewhere between packing boxes, finding new schools, grieving friendships, and maintaining households.

“No veteran should be disadvantaged by their se