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SummaryIn this episode, the host reflects on personal experiences growing up in Florida’s East Coast during the Space Age, discusses the current state of naval ships, and addresses geopolitical concerns in Venezuela and Nigeria. The conversation also touches on the situation in Sudan and the rise of South Korea in military production, concluding with re… Read more View the full article

The Department of War and U.S. Space Force conducted an operational test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, in the early hours of November 5. The launch took place at 1:35 a.m. Pacific Time and was designated GT 254, according to the announcement. The Department of […]View the full article

The German Bundestag’s budget committee has approved roughly €490 million ($563 million) to develop and procure a new short-range missile intended to defeat small unmanned aircraft, paving the way for a contract between the Bundeswehr and MBDA Deutschland. The allocation, confirmed to the defense press by well-placed sources, follows approval earlier in the day by […]View the full article

The Texas National Guard is using airboats to conduct riverine patrols on the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, operating in shallow and marshy areas to detect and deter illegal crossings along the Mexico border. Photographs released recently show Guard personnel traveling on a Panther Lightning airboat, a flat-bottomed craft propelled by an aircraft-type propeller, during […]View the full article

Japan’s Ministry of Defense says a Chinese Dongdiao-class electronic intelligence ship transited the Miyako Strait into the Pacific on November 4, prompting a monitoring response from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who has led the ministry since October 2025, confirmed the movement and the nationwide surveillance posture in place as Chinese […]View the full article

The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) will begin introducing the Hermes 900 unmanned aerial vehicle as part of its long-term modernization plan, phasing out the older Hermes 450 system that has been in service for nearly twenty years. The RSAF announced the move on November 3, describing it as a key element of the […]View the full article

An open-source intelligence group says debris linked to a Chinese-made FK-2000 air defense missile system was found near the crash site of a Sudanese Air Force Il-76 transport aircraft downed near Babanusa. According to Mintel World, analysts reviewed images from the crash area and identified what they described as a possible launch or booster section […]View the full article

38 Sierra, a U.S.-based company specializing in Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) training resources, has introduced a new line of inert drone ordnance training aids designed to support military and public safety personnel facing an expanding threat from weaponized unmanned systems. The company says the products are intended to improve identification and safe handling of drone-delivered […]View the full article

British Army forces have conducted extended field testing of the Altra ISR and HX-2 reconnaissance-strike drone systems in Kenya, operating the platforms repeatedly in realistic tactical scenarios without direct support from the developer. The activity took place over an 18-day period as part of Exercise HARAKA STORM and was supported by the 4th Infantry Brigade […]View the full article

One of the great global political failures of the last century and a half—a failure drenched with blood and suffering—is Communism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Manifesto of the Communist Party in 1848, roughly 178 years ago. History has measured it and found it wanting. It is hanging on in corners, but it is a spent force on the global stage. Communism isn’t dead. Though it fails everywhere it is tried, its adherents still survive in academia and left-wing parties around the world (NYC just elected one as mayor), but you can count the nations remaining under the yoke of that disproven theory on one hand: The People’s Republic of China (PRC), Cuba, North Korea, and Laos. Did you think I missed one there? Well…not anymore. OK, I’m stretching a bit there, but even more than the PRC that still uses Marxist/Maoist word salad, Vietnam seems to be in the process of changing to something that, well, isn’t communist at all, though the Communist Party is still the only power in control. The Communist Party in the nations it took power was good at creating bureaucracies and nomenklatura inside a one-party state. There is a lot of institutional mass there that, even if the underlying political philosophy is defunct, can keep going to serve the state, whatever flavor that state may be. When communism fell in Europe as a basis for government, there was a transition to representative government and freedom for some former Soviet republics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and former Warsaw Pact members (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria). Another cohort devolved into kleptocracies (Moldova and Ukraine), one, Belorussia (as I prefer to call her), a Russian client state. The kleptocracies are trying to drift west, but that story has yet to be finished. The successor nations following the breakup of Yugoslavia have, to different degrees, successfully made the transition to Western, or Western-adjacent systems. Even Serbia has in the last few years. That isn’t what happened to the Asian former Soviet republics; Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The former communist nomenklatura mostly staying in power as they drifted towards different degrees of one-party state authoritarianism along the spectrum from not-so-bad Kyrgyzstan to comic-opera Turkmenistan. We’ve all watched the PRC morph into something unique to it, but there are even more interesting things happening in Vietnam that everyone in the more-free world should welcome. Stephen B. Young and Bradley A. Thayer over at American Greatness take things a bit further than I would (one must be careful of excessive optimism), but you can draw a trend-line here that is not insignificant. …Vietnam’s new General Secretary of the Communist Party, To Lam, has replaced Marxist-Leninism as the Party’s governing ideology with something more authentically Vietnamese: Truong Ton Dan Toc, or “Vietnamese nationalism.” That is a bombshell. Hanoi has just abandoned its Communist ideology, which governed it since 1954 and sustained it in its wars against the United States and its ally South Vietnam, and with its Communist neighbors, Cambodia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). … In his speech of April 27, 2025, To Lam presented his party as one dedicated to Vietnamese nationalism, not Marxist-Leninism, saying that honor will always be given to those who sacrificed for the Vietnamese people’s “happiness and prosperity” and “their truong ton and development.” He added that, today, all Vietnamese—no matter where they live—have the same ancestral mother, Au Co, and are equally “children of dragons and grandchildren of angels,” and affirmed that all Vietnamese—no matter where they live—should contribute to the future of “their” people, not to the imposition of an ideology. To Lam called for a new Vietnam, for a new era in Vietnamese history, one possessing “peace, wealth, civilized education, development, and pure Vietnameseness.” A few days later, on May 4, 2025, the Politburo of the Vietnamese Communist Party adopted Resolution 68, putting private enterprise at the center of economic development. … The rights of private property will be guaranteed and protected. The Vietnamese state will henceforth “serve and support” private enterprise and not contradict the “principles of the market.” Finally, on October 6, 2025, in remarks opening the 14th session of the Central Committee, General Secretary To Lam made no mention of Marxist-Leninism and only one passing reference to “markets oriented towards socialism.” Rather, again, he emphasized “strategic self-mastery, self-effort, and self-empowerment” as the Party’s chosen path to a prosperous Vietnam. One-party states do not give up power easily, and rarely give up power bloodlessly—but it is not unheard of. Most of Eastern Europe managed to do so, +/- a firing squad or tank-squashing aside. Vietnam is not going to be a representative democracy overnight, but if you are looking for trends, this is a good one. Every person I have talked to who has been to Vietnam in the last couple of decades has nothing but great and positive things to say about the Vietnamese people and their view of the U.S.A.—especially considering the late unpleasantness of previous generations. It is not a NORK-like hermit kingdom. This move is good for the Vietnamese people, good for Southeast Asia, good for the United States, and in general—the human condition. Let’s all wish the Vietnamese people the best in their journey and support them as we can. Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) say they shot down a Sudanese Air Force Il-76 Candid transport aircraft near the town of Babanusa on November 4, claiming that all personnel aboard were killed. The group published the claim during ongoing fighting against Sudan’s military, which continues more than a year into the country’s internal conflict. Footage […]View the full article

Reports and videos circulating on social media in recent days show U.S. military vehicles and MV-22 Osprey aircraft operating in Trinidad and Tobago, prompting questions about an ongoing deployment near the coast of Venezuela. The footage was shared by OSINTdefender, which wrote, “Military equipment, possibly with the U.S. Marine Corps’ 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (22nd […]View the full article

New satellite imagery reviewed on November 2 shows a notable concentration of U.S. military aircraft at Naval Air Station Roosevelt Roads in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, suggesting an elevated operational posture in the southern Caribbean. The imagery and analysis were shared by defense observer MT Anderson, who stated that the airfield “remains the primary staging point […]View the full article

Ukrainian Special Operations Forces say they carried out a raid with a partisan group inside Russia’s Kursk region, destroying a transport-and-loading vehicle for the Iskander-M tactical missile system and a 1L122 “Garmon” radar station. According to the statement, the strike took place during the night of October 4 near the village of Ovsyannikove. The transport-and-loading […]View the full article

Swarmbotics AI, a robotics developer, is pitching a new class of ground-based, modular unmanned systems that operate in coordinated swarms and carry anti-tank effects, the company says. The firm confirmed that its antitank variant is called FireAnt, a lightweight, attritable unmanned ground vehicle intended to work in groups under a single operator to detect, track […]View the full article

Katwijk-based aerospace company Destinus has announced the successful field test of its Hornet Counter-Drone System during the TEC2 Exercises in Viator, Almería, organized by the Spanish Army under its 2025 Tactical Experimentation Campaign. According to the company, the Hornet successfully demonstrated its capability to autonomously intercept an aerial target during a Concept Demonstration Exercise led […]View the full article

Azerbaijan publicly displayed a Chinese long-range air-defense system for the first time during a military parade rehearsal in Baku, the defence outlet Militarnyi reported. Video from the rehearsal shows a characteristic FD-2000B launcher mounted on a four-axle transporter, matching export variants of the HQ-9B family, the report said. The appearance of the FD-2000B, an export […]View the full article

Russian military propagandists and lawmakers are calling for Moscow to supply Venezuela with large numbers of attack drones. The proposal appeared in Rybar, one of Russia’s largest and most influential pro-military outlets, which urged the transfer of “a mass of Russian FPV drones with equipment” to strengthen Venezuela’s defense and repel “a potential strike.” Rybar’s […]View the full article

There is absolutely nothing wrong with admitting you were wrong and foolish. It’s OK. You can be fooled by people who take advantage of your good nature. Fair-play and high-trust societies can, if they are not wary, be taken advantage of by bad-faith actors. The key is that when your vision becomes clear about what has happened, you take appropriate action. You learn your lesson, and you carry on in a more productive manner. This did not happen by accident, nor was it inspired by capitalist desire alone, though that was the mechanism. Behold the fruit this tree bears. Via Angus Grigg, Alex McDonald, and Will Nicholas at the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Chinese companies are the largest shareholders in two Australian mines producing minerals vital for Beijing’s hypersonic missiles and nuclear programs, helping it overcome “severe challenges” to accessing key resources. In a rare admission of its vulnerability, China says it depends on imports for its supply of zirconium, a little-known critical mineral. Australia is the world’s largest producer and supplies China with 41 per cent of its imports. And you thought only the West had the problem with access to critical minerals. This next bit is amazing…a nation is literally at cross purposes with itself and its allies. Not only did Australian regulators allow Beijing-backed companies to become major shareholders in the two Western Australia mines, the federal government even gave one of them a $160 million soft loan to help it into production. Australia is supplying these raw materials vital for China’s military build-up, while at the same time signing up to be a partner of choice for the United States as it seeks to break Beijing’s stranglehold over the processing of rare earths and critical minerals. Don’t worry, it gets worse. China is not just processing zirconium for its own use. Data obtained by Four Corners shows it is re-exporting some of it to Russia, helping to fuel President Vladimir Putin’s war machine. Since the war with Ukraine began in 2022, zirconium exports from China to Russia have surged more than 300 per cent. Remember recent discussions here and on the Midrats Podcast about China’s growing nuclear weapons stockpiles? China has sought to plug its zirconium shortfalls by taking major stakes in those two West Australian miners. One of those is the ASX-listed Image Resources. Its largest shareholder is China’s LB Group which, like many mainland companies, has close links to the government in Beijing. China receives 100 per cent of Image Resources’s product. Through a subsidiary, LB Group is its primary customer. … In 2017, its chief executive Patrick Mutz told a trade publication that Image Resources’s primary customer was “one of the only companies, if not the only company in China, licensed to produce nuclear-grade zirconium sponge”. While zirconium sponges are vital for nuclear energy, they are also used in nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers, and play a role in any nuclear weapons program. When the US bombed Iran’s Isfahan nuclear facility in June, the targets included a zirconium production plant. … In 2020, FIRB approved Chinese company Yansteel purchasing a 50 per cent share in the Thunderbird mine. The first export shipment from the Thunderbird Project arrives in China as a traditional owner calls for further land clearing suspensions at the mine after the discovery of a direction stone. The mine, which sells 100 per cent of its production to China, was given a major leg-up by the federal government. In 2022, it received a $160 million concessional loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), which was a key factor in getting the mine into production. This next line is the problem. This reflects a historical ignorance conveniently created by simple mercantilist greed. Despite the clear military uses for zirconium, Defence Minister Richard Marles does not believe tighter controls are needed. “There are other sources of zirconium from around the world, such that Australia withdrawing from the zirconium market would not mean the military use of zirconium would also stop,” he said. Mr Marles said Australian jobs and prosperity continued to rely on trade with China, even as military planners worried about a regional conflict between Beijing and Washington. “China is our largest trading partner on the one hand, and our biggest source of security anxiety on the other. And that’s just the way the world is,” he said. The Chinese Communist Party has no right to have its fingers in Australian mines, American farmland, or European ports. They do today because our nations were asleep to the long game being played by the PRC, and in come cases, simply easily corruptible. A very few prosper personally, while the entire nation is put further at strategic risk. We are approaching 2026. Nations have agency, and they have sovereignty over their national resources. We all know who the PRC is and what they want. The people should demand action. Nothing is worse than being enslaved by the weapons you sold to your enemies. Leave a comment Share This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

South Korea is preparing to take a key step toward propulsion self-reliance, as Hanwha Aerospace begins ground testing of a homegrown engine for Korean Air’s Low Observable Unmanned Wingman System (LOWUS) stealth drone in January 2026. According to Energy Economy News, the new 5,500-pound-class turbofan engine, developed jointly by Hanwha Aerospace and the Agency for […]View the full article

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has confirmed that North Korea has begun transferring thousands of military personnel to Russia, in what appears to be a growing partnership between Pyongyang and Moscow amid the war in Ukraine. According to a closed-door briefing delivered to South Korea’s National Assembly Intelligence Committee on November 4, the NIS […]View the full article

Japan’s 2025 defense expenditures have reached their highest level in postwar history as Tokyo continues to expand its military capabilities in response to what officials describe as an increasingly severe security environment in East Asia. The Ministry of Defense reports that the country’s base defense budget for the 2025 fiscal year totaled ¥8.7 trillion (around […]View the full article

Japan’s Ministry of Defense and the Air Staff Office have issued a new round of formal requests for information and proposals as part of an accelerated effort to field next-generation uncrewed systems. The announcement, dated October 31, 2025, outlines three core technology areas: armed UAVs for naval attack roles, high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), and satellite […]View the full article

China’s newest and most advanced amphibious assault ship, the Sichuan, has been spotted dockside ahead of its expected first sea trials. Known as the Type 076 landing helicopter dock (LHD) — and referred to by NATO as the Yulan-class landing helicopter assault ship — the Sichuan is the first amphibious ship in the world designed […]View the full article

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) is preparing to headline the 25th anniversary of the International Fighter Conference in Rome as the event’s sole Four-Star Lead Partner. In a statement ahead of the event, GA-ASI emphasized its leadership in autonomous flight and manned-unmanned teaming through its MQ-20 Avenger, XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station, and the newly […]View the full article