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It has been a bit more than six years since then Commandant of the Marine Corps, General David Berger, USMC, initiated what became known as Force Design 2030 (now just known as Force Design). What followed was a controversial change to the structure of the United States Marine Corps intended to address the challenge posed by the People's Republic of China in the western Pacific. Now more than halfway to the original 2030 target, and informed by events from Ukraine and Southwest Asia since 2020, both long-standing critics of the design and other voices are readdressing the changes—and the critique—to see if it remains the right path. Joining the Midrats Podcast this Sunday from 5-6 PM Eastern will be General Anthony Zinni, USMC (Ret.). You can listen live at this link. If you can’t catch us live or are reading this after the show, reload the substack page later Sunday night for the uploaded podcast audio. General Zinni’s record of 35 years of service in uniform covers the breadth of service from the Vietnam War to his tour as Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) from 1997 to 2000. Following his retirement from active duty, General Zinni continued to serve in senior diplomatic roles, including as the U.S. Special Envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (2001–2003) and later as Special Envoy to Qatar (2017–2019). He is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestsellers Battle Ready (with Tom Clancy) and The Battle for Peace, as well as Leading the Charge and Before the First Shots Are Fired. Additionally, he continues working in academic positions and as a speaker on geopolitics, ethical leadership, and America’s role in the world. 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

Somewhere in a desert exercise or an Arctic field camp, a U.S. Navy microbiologist or hospital corpsman can now pull out a portable DNA sequencer, run a sample, and identify harmful pathogens in less than 30 minutes and provide data that can help detect unknown or potentially genetically modified biological threats. The U.S. Naval Research […]View the full article

Flying a military helicopter in combat means managing a constant stream of radio chatter from multiple sources simultaneously, often while navigating at low altitude, coordinating with other aircraft, and making time-sensitive tactical decisions. For decades, U.S. Army aviation pilots have handled all of that through a single mono audio channel in their headsets, meaning every […]View the full article

Michigan National Guard soldiers loaded a HIMARS rocket artillery launcher onto a C-130J transport aircraft in Michigan and flew it more than 3,200 km (2,000 miles) to the California desert, where they executed simulated precision strikes before extracting, completing a long-range joint Army-Air National Guard HIRAIN training event as part of the Army’s premier combat […]View the full article

A nuclear-powered attack submarine completed its scheduled maintenance period at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard nearly a month ahead of schedule, handing the U.S. Pacific Fleet a combat-ready boat 29 days earlier than planned at a moment when undersea readiness in the Indo-Pacific has become one of the Navy’s most closely watched metrics. USS Colorado, a […]View the full article

A submarine squadron that the U.S. Navy decommissioned fourteen years ago has been reestablished, this time not in Hawaii where it once operated but at a Royal Australian Navy base near Perth, in one of the most concrete steps yet taken to turn the AUKUS security pact from a diplomatic agreement into a working military […]View the full article

A swarm of autonomous boats operated by U.S. Army soldiers spread across a Philippine waterway during Exercise Salaknib 2026, screening a military cargo ship and relaying real-time surveillance data to commanders ashore as American and Philippine forces conducted a combined maritime security demonstration in Casiguran Sound in the northern Philippines. The mission showcased how U.S. […]View the full article

Soldiers from a Michigan Army National Guard unit spent June 10, 2026 at Camp Grayling firing one of the most iconic heavy machine guns in American military history through a brand-new optic system that no other unit in the entire U.S. Army had fielded before them. The 126th Theater Public Affairs Support Element, a Michigan […]View the full article

In what Air Force officials described as the earliest such integration in modern test history, an operational test pilot flew the B-21 Raider alongside a developmental test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in California, signaling that America’s next-generation nuclear bomber is transitioning from proving it can fly to proving it can fight. The flight […]View the full article

A factory in Louisiana is producing armored vehicles for Ukraine for the first time, as Textron Systems announced that full vehicle builds of the Mobile Strike Force Vehicle have begun at its Slidell manufacturing facility. The $163.4 million contract is funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative via the Foreign Military Sales mechanism, covering 65 […]View the full article

A matte-black Mitsubishi Delica D:5 minivan bearing no license plates, no unit markings, and a rooftop loaded with cameras, sensors, antennas, and a loudspeaker was photographed operating near Japan’s largest Ground Self-Defense Force live-fire exercise in Shizuoka Prefecture on June 7, 2026, according to Japanese military photo journalist Masaya Takewaka, writing for Transport News. The […]View the full article

Two of Europe’s largest defense companies are about to put their first jointly developed main battle tank on public display, revealing a new chapter in European armored warfare that has been building since the Italian Army decided its aging Ariete tank could no longer carry the weight of the country’s ground combat ambitions. Leonardo Rheinmetall […]View the full article

Russia has sharply accelerated its use of jet-powered attack drones against Ukraine in 2026, with its forces already launching 1,400 such weapons since January, compared to just 180 recorded throughout all of 2025, according to Militarnyi, the Ukrainian defense outlet that reported the figures from a briefing by Colonel Alexander Zaruba, Chief Researcher at Ukraine’s […]View the full article

Swedish fighter jets launched twice in a single Friday to intercept Russian military aircraft operating near Swedish airspace over the Baltic Sea, in what Stockholm’s top military commander described as a serious pattern of Russian behavior threatening both territorial integrity and NATO alliance security. The Swedish Armed Forces confirmed on June 13, 2026 that its […]View the full article

Hypersonic weapons have long been the most expensive category of precision strike munitions in any military’s arsenal, costing tens of millions of dollars per round and taking decades to develop. The U.S. Navy is now betting on a different model entirely, awarding Castelion Corp., a defense technology startup based in Torrance, California, a $23.4 million […]View the full article

The United States Air Force has awarded $400 million in construction contracts to seven Spanish companies to maintain and improve Morón Air Base, a strategically critical installation in southern Spain, even as the base sits at the center of one of the most significant diplomatic ruptures between Washington and a NATO ally in recent memory. […]View the full article

The U.S. Marine Corps operates the most powerful helicopter in the American military inventory, a machine capable of lifting 16,329 kg (36,000 lb) of cargo externally and hauling 12,247 kg (27,000 lb) of payload to a destination 203 km (110 nautical miles) away under demanding hot and high-altitude conditions. Keeping that helicopter not just flying […]View the full article

The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin a $2.3 billion contract to establish and sustain new operating sites for the F-35 Lightning II, the American-built stealth multirole fighter that has become the backbone of air power for the United States and allied operators across the global F-35 fleet, covering site activation, interim contractor support, fleet […]View the full article

Australia’s fleet of advanced electronic surveillance jets is nearly complete, with the Royal Australian Air Force confirming the arrival of its third MC-55A Peregrine at RAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia. Three of the four aircraft in the planned fleet have now been delivered, bringing three of the planned four aircraft to Australia, with one […]View the full article

This is such a great video, and we have thousands of new followers and subscribers now than we did seven years ago…time to bring this FbF back. As I have often mentioned, I have a soft spot for the name "Shangri-La" for aircraft carriers. It has a great story to it, and just sounds cool as hell. Bill Schultz reminded me that there is a simply awesome video available of a unique and under-appreciated time in naval aviation; the early 1960s. What an incredible time of change and advancement ... and a time yet warped by the war that would dominate the rest of the decade. So, let's take a moment to give tribute to those Sailors of the early-60s ... in glorious technicolor, on the USS Shangri-La (CV 38), circa 1962, somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. Crusaders, Skyrays, Skyhawks, Skyraiders ... just glorious. From the film Flying Clipper, (1962). Narration by Burl Ives. In color…great quality video…simply superb. Share Leave a comment This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. View the full article

Russia has publicly released footage of its Zubr automated counter-drone system operating for the first time, showing the weapon detecting, tracking, and engaging aerial targets with minimal human involvement. The release came alongside confirmation from Rostec, Russia’s state-owned defense conglomerate, that the first batch of Zubr systems has already entered active duty protecting critical infrastructure […]View the full article

A new batch of Canadian-built Roshel Senator armored vehicles has arrived in Europe, being unloaded and prepared for final handover to Ukraine under Operation UNIFIER, Canada’s long-running military support mission. Images released by the Canadian Armed Forces confirm the delivery is underway, adding to a fleet that has already proven its worth on some of […]View the full article

A ship that spent nearly a year in harm’s way, operating under persistent threat from Iranian missiles and one-way attack drones while the Ford Carrier Strike Group carried out or coordinated hundreds of strikes against Iranian targets, now needs fixing. The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics NASSCO-Norfolk a $17.6 million contract modification to perform […]View the full article

The United States has awarded Northrop Grumman an additional $31 million to keep Poland’s advanced air and missile defense command system operational, deepening the American industrial commitment to one of NATO’s most strategically positioned frontline air defense networks. The contract modification, awarded by Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, adds $31 million to a […]View the full article

The United States is building a new training facility for the nuclear missile that will replace the country’s aging intercontinental ballistic missile force, awarding a $114 million construction contract for a dedicated school at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California where airmen will train for Sentinel maintenance and operations. Korte Construction Co., based in St. […]View the full article