All Activity

Nuclear-powered battlecruiser returns to Severomorsk for first time in 27 years (Barents Observer)

For the first time, photographs of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile have appeared in public, showing the nose section of America’s future nuclear deterrent sitting on the floor of a test chamber in Redondo Beach, California, after completing a structural validation milestone that clears one of the last major engineering hurdles before the missile’s first […]View the full article

Serhii Beskrestnov, known by his call sign “Flash” and serving as an adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, published a public assessment that catalogs nine specific technological deficiencies he says are creating serious problems across the front, ranging from the absence of any mass-production solution against Russian glide bombs to a near-total lag in electronic […]View the full article

Ukrainian Presidential Adviser Denys Brasheuk told Kyodo News in an exclusive interview that Japanese-manufactured components have been identified in approximately 90 percent of the cruise missile and drone types Russia has used in its invasion of Ukraine, Kyodo News reported on June 28, 2026. Brasheuk presented internal Ukrainian government documents during the interview, including materials […]View the full article

Poland signed a $4.83 billion contract with Sweden’s Saab on June 29, 2026, for three A26 Blekinge-class submarines under its long-running Orka program, completing seven months of tense negotiations that at several points threatened to collapse over industrial offset demands, and delivering NATO its most significant Baltic Sea undersea capability expansion since the Cold War. […]View the full article

Barely a month after a rash of resignations from Labour’s defense cadre, we’re starting to see what this is about. The details only confirm what we have all seen coming: those given stewardship of the defense of the United Kingdom do not think it worth defending, nor do they think she should have the ability to effectively do her fair share in the collective defense with her allies. They most unquestionably do not believe that any future government of the United Kingdom, should the nation exist in its present form beyond the near future, should have the ability to project national will to any meaningful degree, anywhere. The decline of her most critical power, her sea power—already at a nadir unseen in centuries—is in its terminal phase. As the nation who relied on her the most as its most reliable and capable ally, the United States needs to see this for what it is. At best, poor vision by leaders beset by error and confused by advisors more versed in military fiction than military practice: at worst intentional destruction by a governing elite who hates their own nation as much as they seem to hate their own subjects. Behold, another seal is broken. The UK will replace a fleet of big, expensive destroyers with smaller, budget warships under an investment plan that seeks to rearm the military for less cash than officers say they need. The move - described by one source as a “pragmatic solution” to funding constraints - will form part of the long-delayed defence investment plan, which the government is finally expected to unveil on Tuesday. We will wait for confirming details with the official release, but it is so bad that I have confidence in what has leaked out. However, it will leave the Royal Navy without a like-for-like successor for its Type 45 destroyer. The £1bn warship is currently the only piece of British kit that can intercept ballistic missiles. Dan Jarvis, the defence secretary, is thought to have secured up to £1.5bn in additional money for the armed forces on top of some £13.5bn already fought for by John Healey, his predecessor. Yet the amount remains far short of the tens of billions of pounds of extra funding that military insiders say would be required to fix the UK’s hollowed-out defences in time for a potential war with Russia by 2030 - a timeline that Sir Keir Starmer has used. This government has no intent to go to war. The Labour government is doing what it can to make sure no other government will be able to either. …the Ministry of Defence that the navy’s six Type 45 destroyers will eventually be replaced by what the department is calling a “common combat vessel”. There is not yet a contract for this ship - the model does not even have a name - but it will be a crewed frigate, which is smaller than a destroyer, and could well be an iteration of the new Type 31 variant that is already being built. The “common combat vessel” will be focused on defending against incoming missiles and drones, which is a core task of a destroyer, rather than anti-submarine warfare, which is a key role of an ordinary frigate. The proposed new warship is also expected to operate alongside a suite of uncrewed air, sea and sub-surface drones, including missile barges to provide a layered air defence. It means, in theory, this “hybrid” capability - which is apparently due to enter into service from the early 2030s, though these sorts of procurements have a sorry history of running late - should be able to perform the same air defence role as a Type 45, but at half the price, according to the defence source. We’ve all seen this before. No one believes that by the early 2030’s, less than a decade from now, the British will be able to design, built, and bring to Full Operational Capability what we have been described so far. No. Serious. Person. This is worse than snake oil—this is a bold-faced lie. You will find few stronger advocates for Robotic Automated Systems (RAS) than me…but I also am clear-eyed about technology risk, programmatic risk, and the track record of compounding both with new technology on an unrealistic timeline. I am also firm in my conviction and consistent in my observations that through mid-century, RAS will be useful parts of any defense system, but they will not have resilience, robustness, code, nor more importantly—ROE—to be more than that. “Our Royal Navy is a formidable force, operating to protect our nation and our allies in the Atlantic and beyond,” Mr Jarvis said in a statement. “These common combat vessels will provide our dedicated sailors with hybrid ships that are designed and built for the increasing threats we face.” The announcement spells the end of naval aspirations to acquire a next-generation destroyer, called the Type 83, which would have been even more costly than the Type 45. Mr. Jarvis — is there something in Wales that tickles your fancy? If you want candor from the mother country, you can find it. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the previous chief of the defence staff, was scathing about how the armed forces had been allowed to whither under successive governments. In a sign of this decline, the UK is second from the bottom of a table that ranks which country is meeting its NATO commitments, propped up by Iceland, which does not have a military. “Hardly ‘leading in Europe’,” Sir Tony wrote in an article for The Times. “More ‘NATO 31st’ than ‘NATO First’. Awkward.” I think John Foreman put it well earlier this AM; …without a proven, deployable air defence capability vs emerging hyper fast and ballistic missiles the RN won't meet its commitments to the UK and oversea territories, be able to escort a UK task group, nor meet its NATO or OOA responsibilities. There's no operational analysis for any of this. Watching the broad-spectrum collapse of the United Kingdom—ranging from free speech and jury trials to equal protection under the law, quality of life, and national defense—is really sad to see. Self-inflicted by the governing elite that was given everything, but decided future generations did not deserve it. There is a lot of ruin in a nation. There can always be a self-correction, but the farther you get from where you should be, the harder and more painful it will be to get back. As for the rest of us—and by “us” I mean the 87% of my subscribers who are in the USA—what are we to do? Remember what I have been writing about for over two decades when it comes to problems in national defense. Look to the United Kingdom. If we do not take positive action, we are just a decade behind them. That was true, but the Mother Country has drifted so far, I don’t know if that connection is as strong as it once was. Perhaps now it is only as useful as looking to Italy or other more stable (amazing thing to say) medium powers. I really don’t know. I would say Japan or Poland might be good to look at, but they are growing powers, not mature powers, and only Japan is as the U.S. and UK are, a maritime and aerospace power. Helpful, perhaps…but the UK? I think she has drifted too far. After an extended sigh, that is probably best. We need to look for other more capable partners as we approach mid-century. Help the Mother Country as we can and help her return to where she should be, but leave assumptions of the past behind. Build newer partnerships with friends on a firmer footing and build our own power to compensate. Pray for peace. 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

Estonian soldiers successfully tested a signals intelligence system mounted on a lightweight FPV racing drone during Exercise Spring Storm, the country’s largest annual military exercise, detecting hostile electronic emitters at ranges that ground-based sensors could not reach, the companies behind the system announced June 29. The technology pairing combines Sky Spy’s SkyAgent 001 autonomous passive […]View the full article

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces recruited 11,177 personnel in Fiscal Year 2025, surpassing 10,000 for the first time in three years and marking a 1,453-person increase over the previous year. The turnaround reversed three consecutive years of declining recruitment that had culminated in fiscal 2023, when the SDF hit a record-low recruitment rate of just 51 percent […]View the full article

South Korea successfully completed a technical flight test of its domestically developed long-range air-to-ground missile Cheonryong on June 25, 2026, following two consecutive failures in January and March that forced engineers to remotely shut down the engine and ditch the prototypes in the Yellow Sea, Seoul Economic Daily reported on June 28. The test, conducted […]View the full article

South Korean Air Force fighters scrambled on June 27, 2026, after nearly 10 Chinese and Russian military aircraft successively entered and exited the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone over the country’s eastern and southern waters, prompting Seoul to lodge a formal diplomatic protest with both Beijing and Moscow the following day. China’s Ministry of National […]View the full article

Japanese warships and aircraft conducted simulated attacks against China’s aircraft carrier Liaoning during its 40-day deployment to the South China Sea and Western Pacific that concluded on June 22, 2026, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, which described the actions as “outrageously audacious”. The claim, first reported by CCTV commentator Teng Jianqun and cited by […]View the full article

Britain has abandoned plans to build a conventional successor to its Type 45 destroyers, instead ordering at least six new warships designed to command networks of autonomous drones across the air, surface, and subsurface, as reported by UK Defence Journal. The new class, called the Common Combat Vessel, will be the Royal Navy’s first hybrid […]View the full article

For almost two years, the war on the Continent had been raging. The Battle of Verdun has already happened, but the real bloodshed had not even started yet, with the Battle of the Somme only a month away. While the European land armies have been fighting on a scale not seen since Napoleon a century earlier, major conflicts at sea were rare in spite of the major belligerents having great and powerful fleets. Like two heavyweight boxers wary of each other, the surface fleets of the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine stared at each other across the North Sea, throwing a jab here or there, but not committing for a hard fight. Then, in the early morning hours of May 31st, Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper's I Scouting Group got underway from the Jade estuary and headed north. This Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern on The Midrats Podcast, we are going to look back at the Battle of Jutland with Simon Harley, naval historian, Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and co-editor of The Dreadnought Project online resource. For his day job he sells vintage British motorcycle spares. You can listen live at this link and join the live chat with your observations and questions. If you are reading this after the show, just refresh the Substack page later Sunday night for all the podcast links and show summary. 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

U.S. Army soldiers attached a solar-powered fixed-wing aircraft to a high-altitude balloon at Orote Airfield on Naval Station Guam on June 24, 2026, and prepared to launch the combination into the stratosphere as part of Valiant Shield 2026, the largest U.S.-led joint exercise in the Indo-Pacific. The aircraft is the Apollo R, built by Icarus, […]View the full article

U.S. Marines from III Marine Expeditionary Force were photographed calibrating and evaluating the Medium-Range Intercept Capability system on Mason Range, Guam, on June 24, 2026, as part of Valiant Shield 2026, the biennial U.S.-led exercise that assembles joint and allied forces across the Indo-Pacific to practice the kind of high-end multi-domain combat the Pentagon considers […]View the full article

A drone climbed into 40 km/h (25 mph) gusts above a high desert training range in Oregon on June 22, 2026, carrying a live Bangalore torpedo, a metal tube packed with Composition B4 explosive, and dropped it directly onto a wire obstacle before soldiers detonated the charge from cover. Army doctrine normally assumes half the […]View the full article

Two U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers have completed a comprehensive mid-life modernization that gives them the most advanced shipborne electronic warfare capability the Navy has ever fielded, making them significantly harder to kill with anti-ship missiles and dramatically more capable of disrupting enemy radar and communications at the same time. The Navy confirmed the completion of […]View the full article

The U.S. Air Force is looking for industry solutions to upgrade one of the most tactically valuable but persistently underdeveloped sensors on its F-15 fleet — a heat-detecting system that can find and track enemy aircraft without ever turning on a radar, without alerting the enemy that it has been spotted, and without being fooled […]View the full article

A British laser weapon capable of destroying drones for roughly $13 a shot is on track to be installed aboard Royal Navy destroyers in 2027, making the UK the first European NATO member to field an operational shipborne directed-energy weapon, and the system’s makers used a major NATO industry forum in Portsmouth last week to […]View the full article

Ukraine is on the verge of test-launching its first domestically produced long-range ballistic missile capable of striking Moscow, the founder of the company building it said in a rare on-camera interview filmed inside one of the firm’s production facilities, according to the Ukrainian YouTube channel Pressing. Denys Shtilerman, chief designer and co-founder of Fire Point, […]View the full article

Russian media published footage of a Geran-4 kamikaze drone striking a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 as the aircraft prepared for a mission at an airfield in southern Ukraine, destroying it completely. Ukrainian sources confirmed the aircraft was lost but said no personnel died in the strike. Separately, the Ukrainian Air Force Command confirmed in an […]View the full article

A Ukrainian robotic ground vehicle took a direct hit from an enemy FPV drone, shrugged off the shrapnel damage, and kept driving until it delivered nearly a ton of supplies to front-line positions, Militarnyi reported. The same vehicle later struck a mine on the return leg of a subsequent mission and was lost, too damaged […]View the full article

With the first operational B-21 Raiders scheduled to arrive at Ellsworth Air Force Base in 2027, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $44 million construction contract to build the permanent outdoor shelters that will protect America’s most advanced stealth bomber from the harsh South Dakota winters, extending its service life and keeping […]View the full article

The U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Virginia awarded Seattle-based Overland AI a $20 million contract to supply unmanned ground vehicles and accompanying software in direct support of the Marine Air Defense Integrated System, the Corps’ primary mobile air defense capability, with deliveries required by October 2027. The Marine Air Defense Integrated System, known […]View the full article

Boeing secured a contract worth up to $2 billion from the U.S. Space Force on June 25 to build two new satellites that will extend the life of the military’s primary secure voice communications network, knocking out the constellation’s original builder, Lockheed Martin, in the process. The program is called the Mobile User Objective System […]View the full article