Just six years after the start of the COVID-19 “pandemic,” people across the globe are being treated to non-stop coverage of something known as the Hantavirus.
Why all the attention? 7 deaths, 23 more cases, and 12 countries exposed to the virus and because symptoms can take weeks to appear, infected passengers may have unwittingly traveled across borders before realizing they’re sick.
What is Hantavirus? 
According to Dr.

Leading U.S. defence contractor Northrop Grumman has delivered the 1,000th AN/APG-83 radar for F-16 fighters, which are produced both for newly built F-16 Block 70/72 fighters, and more widely produced to modernise older F-16s to a similar ‘4+ generation’ avionics standard. The AN/APG-83 is an active electronically scanned array radar that first entered service in the mid-2010s, and uses many of the same technologies as the new F-35 fifth generation fighter’s AN/APG-81 radar, although it is significantly smaller to be accommodated by the much lighter older fighter type.

Summary and Key Points: Russia’s MiG 1.44 stealth fighter prototype flew for the first time on February 29, 2000 from the Gromov Flight Research Institute at Zhukovsky near Moscow — and effectively disappeared after just two test flights totaling less than 40 minutes.

-Test pilot Vladimir Gorboonov took the aircraft to roughly 1,000 meters and 600 kilometers per hour on the 18-minute maiden flight.

-A second flight in April 2000 lasted roughly 22 minutes. The MiG 1.44 was developed under the Soviet MFI Multifunctional Frontline Fighter program as Moscow’s answer to the U.S.

Grumman’s Super Tomcat 21 — and its ASF-14 evolution — was the company’s 1990s effort to transform the F-14 Tomcat into a long-range multirole strike fighter with limited supercruise at Mach 1.3, an active electronically scanned array radar, FLIR sensors, possible thrust-vectoring nozzles, more internal fuel, and General Electric F110-GE-429 engines. It was designed to replace both the canceled A-12 Avenger II and the retiring A-6 Intruder. The Navy chose McDonnell Douglas’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet instead. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney called the F-14 a jobs program.

The U.S. Army’s next-generation M1E3 Abrams tank and XM30 infantry fighting vehicle prototypes will arrive at the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood this fall for live testing. The M1E3 replaces the Honeywell AGT-1500 turbine engine with a hybrid power system, adds an unmanned turret with an autoloader, and reduces the crew to three soldiers in an armored capsule inside the hull — away from live ammunition. The XM30, developed by American Rheinmetall and Raytheon, replaces the M2 Bradley and swaps the long-serving M242 Bushmaster for a new XM913 50mm chain gun.

The British Royal Navy’s next-generation nuclear ballistic missile submarines — HMS Dreadnought, HMS Valiant, HMS Warspite, and HMS King George VI — are all currently under construction at BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard. Each Dreadnought-class boat displaces approximately 17,200 tonnes, making it the largest submarine ever built for the Royal Navy. They will be powered by the Rolls-Royce PRW3 nuclear reactor — a design influenced by the American SG9 reactor used on the Virginia-class — and will carry 12 Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles each.

Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle acknowledged this month that American shipyards are unlikely to consistently achieve the U.S. Navy’s target of two Virginia-class submarines per year until the early 2030s. The Virginia-class — built jointly by General Dynamics Electric Boat and HII Newport News Shipbuilding since 2004 — is now in its fifth production block. Block V introduced the Virginia Payload Module, an 84-foot hull extension that tripled Tomahawk capacity from roughly 12 missiles to 40.

Public Domain

The maniacal push for deploying U.S. forces on the ground in Ukraine is relentless. The Blob’s urge must be resisted.
In an oped recently at Real Clear Defense, William Courtney and Philip Wasielewski published a piece outlining their vision of why American troops should be on the ground in Ukraine to support ‘security guarantees’ for Kyiv in any pending ceasefire.
It should be noted that Courtney is former foreign service and Wasielewsi is former CIA.

15 years on, veterans of the Iraq War Mike Bate

After years of considering how to leverage in-space refueling and servicing technologies, the Space Force is kicking off a number of near-term efforts to chart a path toward operationalizing the capability.
The service is planning to host two demonstrations in 2027 for on-orbit logistics — one focused on refueling satellites in space and another on augmented maneuver, Col. Scott Carstette, Space System Command’s director of servicing, mobility and logistics (SML), told reporters Wednesday.

The F-35A Lightning II has been certified as a Dual-Capable Aircraft, allowing it to deliver both conventional and thermonuclear weapons. It is the first fifth-generation stealth fighter ever certified for the nuclear mission and the first tactical fighter to receive the designation since the early 1990s. The F-35A can carry two B61-12 thermonuclear bombs internally, preserving its stealth profile. The B61-12 features a Boeing guidance tail kit, inertial navigation, and a variable yield from 0.3 to 50 kilotons. The aircraft uses an isolated Nuclear Aircraft Monitoring and Control system.

The U.S.

The MOD has announced the launch of the UK&#821

In 2012, two German Eurofighter Typhoons notionally shot down U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors during a Red Flag exercise over Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. The F-22s were flying with external fuel tanks that compromised their stealth, and the engagement was a close-range dogfight rather than the beyond-visual-range fight the Raptor was designed to win. Colonel Andreas Pfeiffer and Major Marco Gumbrecht of the Luftwaffe later called the F-22’s capabilities overwhelming at long range.

This video describes the military situation in

This video describes the military situation in

A company violated federal law for acting as a vetted agent and charging veterans fees to help file disability claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs, a North Carolina court ruled this week.
The federal circuit court ruling issued Wednesday found that Veterans Guardian VA Claim Consulting, LLC, also referred to as “Guardian” in court documents, ran afoul of federal law. The class action lawsuit brought by veterans also alleges that the company violated North Carolina laws around deceptive trade practices, but the court has not ruled on it yet.

The Defense Department is requesting close to $30 billion in fiscal 2027 to purchase and enable next-generation AI supercomputers and modernize the military’s computing infrastructure to power them. 
According to recently published budget documents, the Pentagon aims to build out its portfolio of highly secure data centers, and ultimately centralize and scale supercomputing assets across the joint force through its new “AI Arsenal initiative.” The fiscal 2027 proposal comes with a $29.5 billion spending plan.

The U.S. Navy’s FY2027 shipbuilding plan strongly signals that the Trump-class nuclear-powered battleship has effectively superseded the DDG(X) destroyer program. The Navy had planned to begin DDG(X) procurement around FY2028 to replace the Arleigh Burke-class and assume roles once held by the retired Ticonderoga-class cruisers.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Duchaine Paul knows something about working in hot places.
As a Security Forces airman, Paul is assigned to Moody Air Force Base in southern Georgia, which sits adjacent to two federally protected swamps and ranks among the hottest and most humid military duty stations in the U.S.
But Paul recently spent time in an even hotter spot, making some history as he did, becoming the first member of the Air Force to graduate from the Army’s Jungle Operations Training Course-Panama.

Iraq War veteran Ben Powell explains how a gene

Landing a fixed-wing aircraft on an aircraft carrier is one of the most demanding procedures in all of aviation. The aircraft is arriving at 130 to 150 knots while the ship is moving at 25 to 30 knots into the wind. A modern supercarrier’s flight deck is about 1,000 feet long but the usable landing area is far shorter, compared to roughly 10,000 feet for a standard Air Force runway. The pilot does not flare — the aircraft is flown directly onto the deck and the tail hook catches an arresting wire.

Memorial Day is a day to remember those who gave their lives in service to the nation. The fight for many War on Terror veterans didn’t stop when they came home from Iraq or Afghanistan. For some families, the battle was waged silently—and lost—at home. 
Cydney Guard was enjoying a well-deserved celebration trip to Hawaii in 2009 after graduating college with her degree in nutrition when she met her soon to be husband, Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Kau’ilokoikaika Franklin Guard.

Europe has been rocked by incursions into its airspace by rogue Ukrainian loitering munitions and unattributed drones in recent weeks.

Russia is continuing to push across multiple fr

The US Department of State has approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Ukraine, authorising Hawk Missile System sustainment.

France’s next-generation aircraft carrier — formerly designated PANG, now renamed France Libre — will displace 80,000 tons, making it nearly twice the displacement of the Charles de Gaulle and the largest warship in Europe. Two TechnicAtome K-22 nuclear reactors will power the carrier to a maximum speed of 27 knots.

Libre Aircraft Carrier: This Will be the Biggest Ship in Europe

PANG France Aircraft Carrier. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

If the subject is “liberty and freedom,” you know the French are interested.

Israeli F-35I Adir stealth fighters suppressed Russian-made S-400 air defenses inside Iran without losing a single aircraft during the recent operation. The S-400 Triumf has a range of 249 miles, can track 80 targets simultaneously, and fires the Mach 14 40N6 interceptor. Russia considers the system comparable to the American Patriot PAC-3 or THAAD. The F-22 Raptor’s extremely low radar cross-section makes it hard for the S-400’s early-warning radar to lock on. The F-35 acts as a flying quarterback, detecting SAM batteries and sharing targeting data across the strike package.

By now you might be thinking that it would be hard to look at World War II in a way that hasn’t already been done. This is Tom Hanks we’re talking about. Few individuals have done more to remember World War II, its veterans, and their sacrifices than Tom Hanks. If anyone can do it, it’s him.
Read Next: The immense challenge of teaching World War II in 270 minutes
On Memorial Day 2026, History launches an ambitious 20-part series, “World War II with Tom Hanks.

The F-35 Lightning II has no kill switch — but Washington still retains enormous leverage over every foreign operator. The Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin have both confirmed no hidden kill switch exists; building one would be antithetical to the Joint Strike Fighter program’s global partnership model. What the U.S. does control: spare parts, the Operational Data Integrated Network software backbone that replaced ALIS, and the Mission Data Files.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said on May 20 that its investigators detected elevated radiation on fragments of a Russian Vympel R-60 air-to-air missile mounted on a modified Iranian-designed Geran-2 attack drone, recovered near the village of Kamka in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region after an April 7 strike. The R-60 — NATO codename AA-8 — was replaced in the 1980s by the R-73. Ukrainian specialists measured gamma radiation of 12 microsieverts per hour at the impact site, dozens of times above the natural background.

A $14 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan — one of the largest in the island’s history — remains in limbo for a fifth month as President Donald Trump considers using it as a negotiating chip with China. Congress approved the package in January 2026. Trump told reporters this week he will speak with Taiwan President William Lai Ching-te by phone — which would be the first direct U.S.-Taiwan presidential call since 1979, when Washington cut formal ties under the One China policy.

THE LAST WARRIOR | Military Motivation
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The Financial Times reported that during Donald Trump’s recent visit to Beijing, Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping told the U.S. president that Russian President Vladimir Putin might end up regretting his invasion of Ukraine. A PRC Foreign Ministry spokesperson, the Trump administration, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov all denied the report. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in March that Russia is now losing almost two dead soldiers for every one wounded — and Seth Jones of CSIS said Russian soldiers leave their wounded on the battlefield to die.

Summary and Key Points: China has 50,000 to 100,000 naval mines in 30 different varieties — the U.S. Navy has fewer than 10,000, mostly shallow-water Quickstrike bomb-conversion weapons. Only Russia has more, with an estimated 125,000. A PLAN officer wrote that the People’s Liberation Army Navy assesses the U.S. Navy’s mine warfare capabilities as extremely weak and has built its inventory around that gap. The historical record is striking: since World War II, more U.S. Navy ships have been damaged or sunk by sea mines than by torpedoes or missiles.

Summary and Key Points: Ukraine is now one of the most heavily mined countries on earth. Current U.S. and international estimates put contaminated territory at approximately 139,000 square kilometers — more than a fifth of Ukraine, larger than Greece, and roughly the size of North Carolina.

-The mines include antipersonnel mines, anti-tank mines, cluster munitions, unexploded artillery shells, drone-dropped munitions, and booby traps.

-One estimate has put the cost to Ukraine at more than $11 billion in lost annual GDP.

This video describes the military situation in

Lockheed Martin broke ground on its new Munitions Production Center in Troy, Alabama, on 21 May 2026, to meet increase customer demand.

The U.S. Navy decommissioned all four Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships from Bahrain in September 2025 — USS Devastator, USS Dextrous, USS Gladiator, and USS Sentry — six months before Iran mined the Strait of Hormuz. Four additional Avengers remained at Sasebo, Japan. When the crisis hit, USS Chief and USS Pioneer departed Singapore on April 10, weeks after Iran had already mined the Strait. On April 11, CENTCOM sent the Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen Jr.

The Dassault Rafale is a French-built multirole fighter aircraft developed by Dassault Aviation to fulfill a wide variety of combat missions within a single platform. Conceived in the late 1970s to replace multiple legacy aircraft types, the Rafale was designed as an “omnirole” fighter capable of conducting air-superiority, ground-attack, reconnaissance, anti-ship warfare, and nuclear-deterrence missions with minimal reconfiguration.

U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio told reporters this week that Cuba poses a national security threat to the United States and said the likelihood of a peaceful agreement with Havana is not high. The comments came one day after the U.S. Justice Department charged former Cuban president and military chief Raúl Castro with the murder of U.S. nationals.

War with Cuba Coming Soon? 

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

Service members are required to take annual suicide prevention training each year, so they can learn about the warning signs and mental health resources available to them. However, a new federal watchdog report found that the majority of military services do not “effectively monitor training completion” for annual suicide prevention courses, with the exception of the Air Force.

Memorial Day means so much more than a day off work.
This is just not another long weekend. Memorial Day is not just about recognizing the unofficial start of summer when we fire up the barbecue grill, reconnect with friends and family, and start to work on your tan again. Full stop: There is nothing wrong with that.
But how many Americans truly devote more than a passing thought to why we have Memorial Day in the first place? Our guess is not as many as they should.
Related: How Ronald Reagan healed scars from Vietnam on Memorial Day in 1984
It doesn’t have to be that way.

We all know that China’s primary geopolitical objective is to reunite Taiwan with the Mainland, either by peaceful means or by force. Part of this effort is to keep the United States out of the Taiwan Strait and stop the Americans from interfering. This means that the Chinese want to play defense against the United States, and they have created a new “Great Wall” of anti-ship missiles to keep the Americans and their aircraft carriers down and out in East Asia.

Keeping the Americans Down and Out in the Indo-Pacific

ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sept.

The Eurofighter Typhoon’s CAPTOR-E AESA radar is mounted on a pivoting mechanism that gives the aircraft a wider field of view than any rival fighter. The Tranche 4 aircraft recently unveiled by Germany received the ECRS Mk 1 AESA radar, developed jointly by Italy, the UK and Germany. The Tranche 5 — still under development — will reach operational status in the 2030s. Phase 1 Enhancements turned the Typhoon from an air superiority fighter into a multirole aircraft capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground missions in the same sortie.

Ukraine’s June 2025 Operation Spiderweb destroyed roughly 7 Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers and damaged 2 others in a single coordinated strike — the worst Russian bomber loss since the Second World War. Ukrainian first-person view drones were smuggled deep inside Russia in hidden compartments atop commercial transport trucks and struck Olenya, Belaya, and other air bases at the same time. Across the war, Ukraine has damaged or destroyed about a dozen Russian Tu-95s.

This video describes the military situation in

James F. Tobin, RealClearDefense
In the past year, Washington has begun to treat maritime power as what it truly is: national security infrastructure.

Global Defense News
U.S.

Schogol, T&P
The Scorpion Light 81mm mobile mortar system allows crews to digitally enter data needed to hit targets and automatically moves the tube into firing position.