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At some point in the next decade, a historian is going to look at the first quarter of the 21st century from the perspective of the national security establishment and the blessings it had as it rose to global power status, and will publish the foundational reference book for those trying to understand that moment in time. Its primary rivals distracted and drained themselves in unnecessary quixotic quasi-imperial police actions, one in Central and Southwest Asia (U.S.A.), the other bled itself white attempting to reconstruct at least part of its predecessor’s empire (Russia). All the while, its economy grew, its diplomatic influence expanded, and its military became an impressive, if untested, colossus. Yes, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had its problems and setbacks: demographic collapse, massive debt, economic fragility, and poor messaging—but so did its greatest competitors. In 2026, while most have been focused on the Iranian-Israeli-American conflict and the Russo-Ukrainian War rooted in unsolved issues from the end of the 20th century, the PRC continues its march forward into the future. Returning to the Midrats Podcast today from 5-6 PM Eastern to discuss will be Dean Cheng. You can join us LIVE at this link, or if you are reading this after the show, check back to this Substack page later Sunday night for the podcast upload links. We’ll dive into: Chinese mobilization/military-civil fusion activities. Chinese space actions, including delays to their lander for the lunar south pole. Chinese political warfare, including efforts against US AI/data centers Chinese worries about Japan Possible lessons learned by the Chinese from the Ukraine war Dean is a Non-resident Senior Fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and Non-resident Fellow, George Washington University Space Policy Institute. He recently retired after 14 years with the Heritage Foundation, where he was a senior research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs, and wrote on various aspects of Chinese foreign and defense policy. Prior to joining the Heritage Foundation, he was a senior analyst with the China Studies Division (previously, Project Asia) at CNA from 2001-2009. Before joining CNA, he was a senior analyst with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) from 1996-2001. From 1993-1995, he was an analyst with the US Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment in the International Security and Space Division, where he studied the Chinese defense industrial complex. He is the author of the book Cyber Dragon: Inside China’s Information Warfare and Cyber Operations (NY: Praeger Publishing, 2016), as well as a number of papers and book chapters examining various aspects of Chinese security affairs. 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

Ukrainian drone maker Buntar Aerospace raised $10.4 million in funding from Axon Enterprise and Munkene AS, placing the round among the six largest disclosed funding rounds in Ukraine this year, according to venture capital firm Defence Builder, citing data from Vestbee. The full list, in order of size: language-learning platform Preply at $150 million, UFORCE […]View the full article

Voltaic Marine has completed live trials pairing its AEU39 uncrewed surface vessel with a Moog Space and Defense RIwP remote weapon turret, the company said this week. During the trials, the turret drew power directly from the AEU39’s 300 kilowatt-hour battery bank through standard interfaces, while the vessel held position on the water. The RIwP, […]View the full article

The first production-standard HÜRJET jet trainer, distinct from the program’s two earlier flight-test prototypes, completed its maiden flight on Victory Day, August 30, marking the transition from prototype testing to a working production line for the Turkish Air Force, according to a social media announcement. The HÜRJET is a single-engine, tandem-seat supersonic jet trainer built […]View the full article

Lockheed Martin fired multiple training rockets from a HIMARS launcher during a second flight test of its new Joint Reduced Range Rocket at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, the company said Friday. The test measured range, trajectory, accuracy and the performance of the rocket’s marking payload, which allows crews to see where a round would have […]View the full article

The U.S. Army will send its M1E3 Abrams prototype to the 1st Cavalry Division for testing, the division confirmed in a social media post responding to an Army announcement about the next-generation tank. The 1st Cavalry Division said it will receive both M1E3 prototypes and XM30 prototypes, testing the vehicles and providing feedback that will […]View the full article

A commercial supply ship the length of a football field just spent nine days getting a robot brain installed, and then drove itself across open water in Hawaii with the U.S. Army watching. The ship is called the HOS Resolution, a 257-foot (78-meter) offshore supply vessel normally used to haul equipment and supplies to oil […]View the full article

Something big and mysterious rolled down a Japanese road late last week, and the internet is obsessed with figuring out what it is. A user on X posting under the name Yuzu snapped photos of a tracked military vehicle riding on a flatbed truck at night, completely wrapped in a yellow tarp. You could still […]View the full article

Uzbekistan’s state television broadcast footage of a Chengdu J-10CE fighter jet on the ground during coverage of the country’s 35th independence anniversary celebrations, confirming for the first time that Uzbekistan has received the Chinese-made aircraft. The footage aired on Uzbekistan 24, a state channel, and showed the jet taxiing on a runway. The first batch […]View the full article

U.S. Army armor officers argue that armored formations remain viable on the modern battlefield despite the spread of drones and precision-guided weapons, according to an essay published by the Modern War Institute at West Point. The piece, written by Lt. Col. Alan Hastings, Maj. James Casey and Capt. Elijah Leroux, responds to years of debate […]View the full article

General Dynamics Land Systems delivered its XM30 Wolf infantry fighting vehicle to the U.S. Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, last Friday, according to a post by Geoffrey Norman, a retired Army brigadier general now working on the GDLS team. Norman, who spent 30 years in the Army as a tanker and cavalryman, joined the […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy’s Harpoon Coastal Defense System successfully launched a Harpoon missile from land and struck a target vessel in near-shore waters during a two-day test in late July at Point Mugu Sea Range, California, the Navy said. The event, designated Developmental Test 1, brought together the Strike Weapons Program Office known as PMX-201, the […]View the full article

Somebody has to build the little wings and fins that steer America’s main air-to-air missile, and this week that job went to a small manufacturer most people have never heard of. BK Manufacturing, based in the small town of Arab, Alabama, just picked up a U.S. Air Force contract worth up to $28 million to […]View the full article

The U.S. Army just bought a small fleet of drones from a company most people have never heard of, and interestingly, only one company even bothered to bid for the job. The Army awarded Integrate DG LLC a contract worth up to $27.8 million to supply its Alphawing drone system, along with support gear and […]View the full article

The engine maker behind America’s most advanced fighter jet just got a quarter-billion-dollar boost to fix problems with that engine and make it more powerful. Pratt & Whitney, the company that builds the F135 engine powering every F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, received a contract modification worth up to $240.8 million from the Department of War. […]View the full article

ESOX Group has completed development of its X2 unmanned ground vehicle and opened the platform to client pilot programs, the company announced this week. The X2 uses four in-wheel electric motors, called Theron motors, delivering a combined 1,000 newton-meters of torque directly to the wheels. ESOX said the design eliminates the gearbox and driveshaft found […]View the full article

Firehawk successfully fired six Hydra-70 rockets in a live-fire test at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, the company said Friday, achieving a 100 percent success rate. The rockets were built at Firehawk’s facility in Crawford, Mississippi, and fired from an M261 rocket launcher, the launcher used operationally with the Hydra-70 system on aircraft including the AH-64 […]View the full article

In our 21st century minds, it is easy to forget that 250 years ago, residents of the 13 Colonies had only a vague concept of themselves as ‘Americans’ and of America as a nation. They were, before anything, residents of their colony/state. Indeed, in less than a century, this concept had become so strong that it was one of the issues over which we fought our Civil War. Any yet, just over a month after the 13 Colonies declared their independence, at the southern end of Long Island in New York, a few hundred men from Maryland and Delaware, part of an Army led by a Virginian fighting in a revolution started by New Englanders stood in front of a massive host of British and Germans. They stood. There is no reason for the American military to celebrate so far out of proportion to what is necessary the 300 Spartans and their allies at the Battle of Thermopylae. 250 years ago, we had our own Thermopylae—not 300 strangers, but 400 of our fellow Americans from Maryland and Delaware. They stood before of King George III’s legions, outnumbered 2,000 to 400, in a holding action so George Washington and the rest of the army could successfully retreat from an army 10,000 strong—and survive to fight and win our independence years later. On 27 August, 1776 the Battle of Brooklyn Heights gave us our Immortals from Maryland and Delaware. …a month before, the First Maryland Regiment had already left for New York, Maryland’s most disciplined and well-equipped force. Many of the Marylanders even had bayonets for their weapons, which others in the Continental Army lacked. Bayonets turned muskets into spears for close contact fighting. The regiment was under the command of Colonel William Smallwood with the assistance of Thomas Stone’s brother, Captain John Hoskins Stone. By late August, the First Maryland Regiment, totalling about 1,100 men was positioned in the vicinity of Brooklyn on Long Island. While George Washington was an able and skilled commander, his task would be extremely difficult; trying to determine exactly where the British would land, and not having enough men to defend every area. Added to that, he made several significant mistakes in the lead up to the Battle of Brooklyn. He divided his forces between Manhattan, where he expected the main British attack, and Long Island. Even after the British landed 10,000 infantrymen on Long Island, Washington did not move to support the Marylanders and other American forces on Long Island. Early on August 27, 1776, a column of several thousand British soldiers under the command of Generals Cornwallis and Clinton marched through the barely defended Jamaica Pass on Long Island. At 9:00 am, the British commenced an attack on the Americans from the rear, while Hessian (German) mercenaries attacked from the front. In the battle, Colonel William Smallwood was not with the First Maryland Regiment, instead assisting in a court martial proceeding. General William Alexander, self-proclaimed as Lord Stirling, took command of the Marylanders and the First Delaware Regiment. As the morning progressed, the enemy began to encircle the Americans. The only possible escape route was to cross under heavy fire, a marshy area about eighty yards wide called Gowanus Creek. On the other side was the stronger American position of Brooklyn Heights. Lord Stirling ordered most of his men towards the Gowanus Creek, and about half the First Maryland Regiment and most of the First Delaware Regiment was able to retreat, including Stone’s first company. Stirling stayed with about 400 battle-weary Maryland and Delaware survivors to serve as a rear guard. Two thousand British infantrymen and Hessians surrounded the Marylanders and Delawareans. Many of the British fired from the windows of a building known locally as the “Old Stone House.” In the smoke and confusion of battle the house must have looked like a fortress. Then Lord Stirling and the “Maryland 400” did the unexpected. They charged towards the Old Stone House with their muskets and bayonets. According to survivor accounts, the British “infantry poured volleys of musket balls in almost solid sheets of lead” at the Marylanders and Delawareans. Forced to retreat, they regrouped over their dead and wounded friends and colleagues and charged a second time with their fixed bayonets. Then they did it a third time. When the fighting was ended, 256 Marylanders and Delawareans lay dead on the ground in the vicinity of the Old Stone House, over 60% of the attacking force and one of the largest fatality percentage rates for any battle in American history. Over 100 were captured, but many of those Marylanders and Delawareans died as prisoners of war. Only a few dozen of the “Maryland 400” escaped alive back to American lines. One of those survivors was brilliant and ever-proud Lord Stirling, who refused to surrender to the British that surrounded him. Instead, he slipped past these foes and surrendered to a group of Hessian mercenaries. Captain John Hoskins Stone would later fight alongside the men of the Maryland Line in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. A bone shattering battle wound in his ankle at Germantown in October 1777 left him lame for the rest of his life. The significance of the "Maryland 400" cannot be understated. The intense fighting near the Old Stone House lasted almost an hour, which allowed many Americans to escape with their lives. More importantly, it halted the British offensive for the day, which otherwise may have led to the capture of General Washington and his army. The sacrifice of the "Maryland 400," although a more apt term should be the "Maryland and Delaware 400," quite possibly saved the Revolutionary War. We should know, and celebrate, our own history more. The fact we still do not have a great movie about this stand is, really, a bit of a national disgrace. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Leave a comment Share View the full article

Ukraine’s Security Service struck a Russian Tu-95MS strategic bomber at the Engels-2 airbase in Russia’s Saratov region overnight Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, citing operations by the agency’s Alpha special operations unit, Militarnyi reported. The strike marks the second time in roughly six weeks that Ukrainian drones operated by the SBU’s “Alpha” Center for Special […]View the full article

The U.S. Army signed a deal worth up to $99 million for a small handheld gadget that can detect drones and other radio signals on the battlefield. The device is called MOTH, short for a spectrum analyzer, and it’s made by a California company called Heaviside Industries. The Army’s contract runs through 2031, according to […]View the full article

Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation held a keel-laying ceremony this week at its Admiralty Shipyards for a new Project 677 Lada-class diesel-electric submarine for the Russian Navy, the company said. The submarine, designed by United Shipbuilding’s Rubin Design Bureau, has been named Maloyaroslavets. United Shipbuilding described it as the sixth submarine in the Lada series, though […]View the full article

Raytheon has completed a 17,000-square-foot (1,579 square meter) expansion of its manufacturing facility in Forest, Mississippi, the company said Thursday. The $50 million project is expected to create 100 high-skill jobs by 2028, according to Raytheon, an RTX business. The expansion will serve as a production, test and integration hub for Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band […]View the full article

A firearms and military analyst who posts under the handle Gatnerd has drawn attention on X to a pattern in recent Western weapons development: several systems now being marketed as new technology closely mirror concepts first tested during the final years of the Cold War in the 1980s. The commentary centers on the FireAnt uncrewed […]View the full article

Spain’s first two S-80 Plus class submarines put to sea together for the first time this week, the Spanish Navy said. The Isaac Peral (S-81) and the Narciso Monturiol (S-82) represent what the Navy described as another step in Spain’s strategic autonomy and its submarine force’s deterrent capability. Isaac Peral, the lead boat of the […]View the full article

MSI Defence Systems has won a £16.6 million ($22.6 million) contract to supply three 30mm naval gun systems to an unnamed NATO country, according to Navy Lookout. The deal includes MSI-DS’s own radar and optical fire-control system, which the company says allows the gun mounts to engage aircraft, drones, surface vessels and semi-submersible threats. Deliveries […]View the full article