Sidorov Appointed to Lead 17th Army Corps
Ukraine has appointed Colonel Yaroslav Sidorov, former commander of the 14th Mechanized Brigade, to lead the 17th Army Corps, replacing Colonel Volodymyr Silenko after recent losses in the Zaporizhzhia direction. Sidorov brings extensive tank warfare experience, having led units from company to brigade level and participated in the 2014 Slovyansk liberation. His tenure follows a controversial period in the 14th Brigade, where soldiers accused his decisions of raising casualties and micromanaging operations. The appointment signals a leadership shift aimed at stabilizing the front.
Japan’s EC-2 Stand-Off Jammer Aircraft Breaks Cover
Japan’s Ministry of Defense unveiled the EC‑2 Stand‑Off Jammer, a new electronic‑warfare aircraft derived from the Kawasaki C‑2 transport. The prototype, spotted at Gifu Air Base, replaces the single‑airframe EC‑1 that has served since 1986. Four EC‑2s are planned, with...
Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – Requiem for Nuclear Arms Control
With the New START treaty lapsing on Feb. 5, 2026, the United States and Russia lost the last binding caps on their strategic nuclear forces. The article warns that the primary instability stems not from overt arsenal growth but from three...
American Stealth Fighters Arrive in UK in Iran Build-Up
Six U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters arrived at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, escorted by KC-46A Pegasus and KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refuelers. The deployment is part of a broader U.S. force posture aimed at deterring Iran amid...
UK Awards Contract for Common One-Way Effector Launcher
The UK Ministry of Defence awarded a direct‑award contract to Estonia‑based Threod Systems for additional CATA launchers supporting the Army’s one‑way effector (OWE) capability under the ASGARD programme. Valued at £4.996 million net (£5.996 million including VAT), the contract runs from 2 March 2026...
UK Extends Light Mobility Vehicle Engagement Deadline to March
The UK Ministry of Defence has extended the engagement deadline for its Light Mobility Vehicle (LMV) programme, now requiring RFI responses by 3 March 2026. The six‑year contract, running from 30 April 2027 to 30 April 2033, is valued at up to £900 million including VAT and...
Attributing Russian Information Influence Operations: Testing the Information Influence Attribution Framework with Real-World Case Studies
The NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence released a report that tests the Information Influence Attribution Framework (IIAF) against real‑world Russian information influence operations aimed at Ukraine, neighboring states, and European pro‑Kremlin groups. Using data from the Ukrainian Centre for...
AtkinsRealis and Anduril UK Partner on Autonomous Aircraft
AtkinsRéalis has entered a teaming agreement with Anduril UK to speed the development and fielding of autonomous aircraft for British defence programmes. The partnership focuses on safety, assurance and navigating emerging certification pathways with the Military and Civil Aviation Authorities....
Peace Talks Moved to Geneva
The episode reviews the latest developments in the Ukraine‑Russia conflict, focusing on the relocation of the third round of peace talks to Geneva. Kyiv cautions against overly optimistic expectations, noting the limited progress in previous rounds and the complex diplomatic...
Techscaler Plans New York Trip in Expanded Export Push
Scotland’s Techscaler programme is expanding its international itinerary, adding a June 2025 visit to New York and New Jersey and outlining a 2026 schedule that includes Japan, Silicon Valley, Singapore, and Hong Kong/China. Backed by £42 million and serving more than 1,400 tech...
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Defense & Aerospace Daily Podcast [Feb 17, 2026] Look Ahead W/ Byron Callan
The Defense & Aerospace Daily podcast highlighted key takeaways from the Munich Security Conference, focusing on Europe’s push to lessen dependence on U.S. defense suppliers. It examined Canada’s new industrial strategy, which shifts 70% of purchases to domestic firms and...
An Inside Look Into DARPA’s RACER Program
DARPA’s RACER program is advancing high‑speed autonomous vehicles that operate in unstructured off‑road terrain without relying on maps or GPS. The initiative has field‑tested modified Polaris RZR and Textron M5 platforms across the Mojave Desert, Camp Roberts, and Fort Hood....
New U.S.–AU Infrastructure Working Group Could Thrive With Strong Values-Based Safeguards
U.S. Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau and African Union Chair Mahmoud Ali Youssouf announced a Strategic Infrastructure and Investment Working Group to deepen U.S.–AU cooperation on trade‑enabling projects. The initiative marks a shift from bilateral deals toward a continent‑wide partnership, but...
The Institutional Battlefield: Why Irregular Warfare Must Contemplate Path Dependence
Ian Murphy’s Spring 2026 commentary argues that irregular‑warfare analysis overlooks institutions, treating them as a secondary concern. Using Russia’s occupation of the Donbas, the piece shows how governance tools—passportization, education reform, and economic extraction—function as bureaucratic weapons that reshape identities and...
SOCOM: The Speedboat the Services Built
The episode examines how USSOCOM’s acquisition model delivers combat capabilities in months rather than decades by embedding operators and acquisition professionals together, recruiting seasoned service acquisition officers, and maintaining a small, flat decision structure. It highlights concrete examples such as...
Side-Channel Attacks Against LLMs
Recent research uncovers multiple side‑channel attacks that exploit timing, packet‑size, and speculative decoding characteristics of large language model (LLM) services. By monitoring encrypted network traffic, attackers can infer conversation topics with over 90 % precision, fingerprint specific prompts with up to...
The F-15E Crew that Pulled 10.5g to Evade Iraqi SAMs and Other Operation Desert Storm Eagle’s Tales
During Operation Desert Storm, F‑15E Strike Eagle crews faced intense Iraqi SAM fire, with some missions encountering up to 17 SA‑2 and SA‑3 missiles. To survive, pilots jettisoned fuel tanks, expelled most of their chaff, and performed extreme evasive maneuvers...
Building the Royal Navy’s General Purpose Frigates: Type 31 Programme Update
Britain’s Type 31 frigate programme has entered serial production, with multiple hulls now being built in parallel at Rosyth. The first ship, HMS Venturer, serves as a prototype, while HMS Active and HMS Formidable represent pre‑production and reference models, incorporating process improvements such as...
BAE Systems Agrees Deal to Acquire Swedish Supplier
BAE Systems announced a share purchase agreement to acquire Aston Harald Mekaniska Verkstad, a Swedish precision‑machining specialist with about 100 employees. The acquisition is intended to broaden BAE’s industrial capacity in Europe and reinforce supply‑chain resilience for its Bofors portfolio....
AI-Intelligentized Naval Mines and U.S. Subsea Access in the Paracel Islands
China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy is modeling AI‑intelligentized seabed mines that could hide in the Paracel Islands’ acoustic shadow zones, creating a persistent anti‑access/area‑denial (A2/AD) field. The concept builds on an estimated 50,000‑100,000 existing Chinese naval mines, adding adaptive target...
Chemical Weapons by Violent Non-State Actors in Combat
The paper reviews chemical weapon use by violent non‑state actors, highlighting the Tamil Tigers’ 1990 chlorine attack and Islamic State’s 76 documented chlorine and mustard strikes between 2014‑2017. It notes the relative ease of acquiring industrial chemicals and the primitive...
WEBINAR (2/24/26): The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s
Veteran journalist Jason Burke will discuss his new book, *The Revolutionists*, in a New America webinar on Feb. 24, 2026. The book chronicles the surge of international terrorism in the 1970s, from plane hijackings to hostage crises, and traces the ideological...
Transnational Organized Crime in Mexico: Continuity, Change, and Uncertainty Under the Sheinbaum Administration (Part I)
The Sheinbaum administration inherits a record‑high homicide baseline of over 190,000 deaths, reflecting entrenched violence from the López Obrador era. While the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG remain the dominant criminal coalitions, organized crime has diversified into extortion, fuel theft, kidnapping, and...
National Guard Forms Two Artillery Brigades
The Ukrainian National Guard announced the creation of two new artillery brigades, the 7th and 8th, to support its 2nd Khartia and 1st Azov corps respectively. The move completes the Guard’s transition to a corps‑brigade structure, addressing a long‑standing artillery...
Munich Security Conference 2026 Key Takeaways & Outlook
The 2026 Munich Security Conference highlighted a shift from cooperative interdependence to a world of managed strategic rivalry, where military posture, technology control, and capital flows are increasingly intertwined. Delegates discussed how this new security architecture reshapes alliances, supply‑chain resilience,...
Press Release: Satys Completes Strategic Realignment, Focuses on Aero
Satys Group has completed a strategic realignment that concentrates exclusively on aeronautics, shedding its cabling, cabin and rail‑interior divisions and acquiring Sabena Technics' four aircraft‑painting facilities in Toulouse. The new assets add capacity for 140 aircraft per year and bring...
Mapping Weaponized Drone Attacks Attributed to Mexican Drug Cartels
The NCITE research center documented 221 weaponized drone incidents in Mexico between 2021 and 2025, with 27 attacks killing 77 people. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) accounted for the largest share, linked to 42 attacks, while La Nueva Familia...
Israeli Reservist Indicted for Polymarket Gambling on IDF | The Jerusalem Post
An Israeli civilian and an IDF reservist were indicted for allegedly exploiting classified military intelligence to place bets on the prediction‑market platform Polymarket. Authorities say the suspects used insider knowledge of operation timing to profit, prompting a joint Shin Bet, Defense...
India’s Deep Strategic Culture Beyond the Skies
India’s space programme is driven less by pure technology ambition than by a deep strategic culture that prizes autonomy and global status. The country has invested heavily in dual‑use assets such as NavIC, GSAT, and indigenous launchers, culminating in the...
Greens Demand US Military Flights Be Barred From Prestwick
The Scottish Greens have demanded that the Scottish Government evict US military forces from Glasgow Prestwick Airport, citing over 550 landings since April 2025 as evidence of routine use. They plan to raise the issue in a parliamentary debate, arguing...
Cognitive Warfare Fails the Cognitive Test
The article critiques the emerging label “cognitive warfare,” arguing it is merely a re‑branding of traditional political warfare. It traces the concept’s roots to Cold‑War era strategies and highlights a persistent “Maginot mentality” that over‑emphasizes military solutions while sidelining diplomatic,...
Driving PME Transformation for the Total Force: CGSS’s Modernization of the ADL Common Core
The U.S. Army Command and General Staff College has overhauled its Asynchronous Distance Learning Common Core, slashing the program from 36 months to 12 months and introducing a three‑phase, scaffolded curriculum. The redesign adds multimodal instruction, cohort advisors, and a...
Beyond Swarming: Documenting Harassment, Assault, and ICAD by Chinese Maritime Militia
A new study documents 270 harassment, assault and ICAD incidents by China’s People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM) in the South China Sea between 2012 and 2025. The research shows that nearly half of these events occurred alongside Chinese Coast...
Dutch Defence Secretary Boldly Claims F-35 Software Could Be ‘Jailbroken’
Dutch Defence Secretary Gijs Tuinman told Dutch radio that the F‑35’s software could potentially be “jailbroken,” hinting at a future where the Netherlands might operate the jet without U.S. approval. He stopped short of confirming any concrete plan, noting the...
65th and 151st Mechanized Brigades Reassigned Between Army Corps
The Ukrainian army has swapped the 65th and 151st Mechanized Brigades between the 12th and 17th Army Corps. The 65th, seasoned on the Zaporizhzhia front and the 2023 Robotyne offensive, now supports the 12th Corps defending Kyiv. The 151st, formed...
B-58 Navigator Recalls Nose-High Stall During Night Training Mach 2 Bomb Run over Dallas. His Hustler Pilot Turned in His...
Richard “Butch” Sheffield, a B‑58 Hustler navigator, recounts a night Mach‑2 training run over Dallas that ended in a nose‑high stall when the altitude‑hold was left on. The stall caused a loss of power, autopilot lock‑out, and a rapid descent,...
Recommended Weekend Reads
This weekend’s reads dissect the shifting geopolitics of NATO under Trump’s “quiet‑quit” strategy, the erosion of U.S. reliability among European allies, and Germany’s push to become Europe’s new defense hegemon. They also examine the economic fallout of Trump’s expansive tariff...
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Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast [Feb 14 ’26 Business Report]
The Defense & Aerospace Report podcast highlighted a turbulent week on Wall Street, where a tech sell‑off produced the market's worst performance since November despite softer inflation and stronger jobs data. Canada announced a down payment for an additional 14...
Week Signals: The European Unicorn
This episode of Week Signals examines why Europe, often dismissed as stagnant, is actually a strong investment "unicorn" despite its self‑deprecating narrative. It contrasts the bleak rhetoric from Munich Security Conference speakers with data showing European equities outperforming US markets,...
DOJ Press Conference on Charges Announced Against Chinese Nationals Involved in Sham Marriages
The Department of Justice announced an indictment of eleven individuals accused of operating a marriage‑fraud and bribery ring that targeted U.S. service members, primarily at Jacksonville Naval Air Station. The scheme paired Chinese nationals with servicemen to secure permanent residency,...
![CAVASSHIPS Podcast [Feb 13, ’26] Ep: 230 Bryan Clark Unpacks CNO’s New Fighting Instructions](https://hixhlmpcokxhartfkpyi.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/images/articles/ba86ce863899c728fbaf1c1ad33f586e.webp)
CAVASSHIPS Podcast [Feb 13, ’26] Ep: 230 Bryan Clark Unpacks CNO’s New Fighting Instructions
The CAVASSHIPS podcast episode 230 features Bryan Clark dissecting the U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations’ new Fighting Instructions released by Adm. Daryl Caudle. The guidance reshapes force posture, unit training, doctrine, capability development, and future naval investments. Clark explains...
Italy Evaluating F-35 Highway Operations To Boost Fleet Survivability
Italy’s air force is assessing the use of highway strips to land and operate its F‑35A fighters if traditional bases become vulnerable. The idea, voiced by Lt. Gen. Silvano Frigerio at a Rome geopolitics forum, mirrors Cold‑War dispersal tactics and...
World’s Largest Drone Fleet Deployed to Deter Russia
NATO has moved to operationalize its Task Force X Baltic, signing a letter of intent with eight member states to launch the second phase of the programme. The initiative demonstrated the rapid fielding of a fleet of over 50 commercially‑available...
Labour MP Calls for NATO ‘Neighbourhood’ Model for Decisions
Labour MP Graeme Downie argues NATO’s consensus‑based decision‑making is too slow for modern crises. He proposes a “neighbourhood” model that empowers regional allies, especially those closest to a theatre, to act quickly. Downie cites the UK’s anti‑submarine capabilities in the...
2/13/26 National Security and Korean News and Commentary
The Small Wars Journal roundup highlights a surge of geopolitical flashpoints, from the United States covertly shipping thousands of Starlink terminals into Iran and deploying its largest warship to the Middle East, to Germany’s preparation for offensive cyber operations and...
Inside the High-Stakes U.S. Pressure Campaign on Iran
The Trump administration is deploying a second aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, to join the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East, intensifying pressure on Iran over its nuclear, missile and regional proxy activities. Former intelligence manager Norman...
Confidence, Interoperability, and the Limits of U.S. Decision Systems
The article argues that the United States’ national‑security decision‑making suffers from a systemic confidence illusion: analysts routinely express 80‑90 percent confidence that only materializes at 50‑70 percent accuracy. This mis‑calibration stems not from data scarcity but from institutional architectures that...
Suspend Your Judgment? The Role of International Courts in Ending Wars
International courts are increasingly handling wars as they unfold, moving from traditional dispute settlement to real‑time adjudication. The Balkan conflicts set a precedent, while recent cases involving Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel‑Hamas hostilities illustrate both the ambition and limits...
A Sustainable Approach to Counter Piracy and Armed Robbery?
Julian Pawlak and Deniz Kocak explore the persistent threat of piracy, armed robbery, and kidnapping in the Gulf of Guinea, contrasting it with past successes off the Horn of Africa. They argue that counting incidents is insufficient and advocate for...
Iran’s Future Hinges on IRGC-Artesh Power-Sharing
Iran’s strategic trajectory now depends on how the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the regular armed forces (Artesh) negotiate power. The IRGC’s performance in the 2024‑25 conflict with Israel exposed operational weaknesses, eroding its dominance. This vacuum has allowed...