Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

ANZAC Day I’ll be thinking of you as your sun rises and you honor your heroes and I want to thank you for being a friend and standing shoulder-to-shoulder. As we did on that beach in Kuwait, I’ll tip back a pint (or three) this day in memory of all the ANZAC troops, from World War One’s Battle of Gallipoli to the battles in the Middle East. I’ll think of friends in both the Australian and New Zealand militaries and good times deployed to bad places. This entry was posted on Saturday, April 25th, 2026 at 02:00 and is filed…

I remember waking up on 25 April, 1980 to news reports about an accident in the desert of Iran involving US aircraft and hints of a failed rescue attempt of American hostages. You’ll often hear references to “Desert One” and discussion of a failed mission into Iran that occurred 46 years ago. That was the location of the aircraft accident which claimed eight American lives. The actual operation was named “Eagle Claw” although during planning it had been aptly named “Rice Bowl.” On April 4, 1979 Iranian militants who would ultimately form the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Council, stormed the US…

The U.S. Marine Corps is looking for a new anti-tank loitering munition to field for the Fleet Marine Force. The service wants the kamikaze drone, called the Organic Precision Fires–Medium, or OPF-M, to have a range of at least around 15 miles and be light enough to be carried by two dismounted Marines. “Marines will employ OPF-M at the tactical level to enable engagement of armored targets beyond the range of direct fire weapons while minimizing collateral damage and exposure to enemy direct and indirect fires during distributed operations,” a Request for White Paper from Marine Corps Systems Command states.…

In the months leading up to the brief but violent 12-Day War in June 2025, when U.S. and Israeli strikes targeted Iranian nuclear sites, Tehran quietly but steadily crossed critical nuclear thresholds. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that, by May 17, 2025, Iran’s stockpile had reached 408.6 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity. This did not represent a marginal increase but marked a sharp and deliberate acceleration from earlier in the year, leaving the regime only a short step away from weapons-grade capability (Al Jazeera 2025). What makes this surge important is that it unfolded while…

Jamel Herring and Nate Maness are set to clash for the vacant bantamweight championship at BKFC 89 on May 22nd and a former two time title challenger for the BKFC 135 pound crown has weighed in on that fight. The combatant in question is Ryan Reber who clashes with former BKB Bare Knuckle title challenger Joshua Oxendine at BKFC Clearwater tonight. This battle of former title contenders across different bare knuckle promotions not only makes for an exciting fight but also a possible title eliminator. When touching upon the next bantamweight title clash in BKFC in the coming weeks and…

The U.S. Air Force plans to more than double its F-15EX Eagle II fleet to 267 aircraft, up from the previously planned 129, as part of the fiscal 2027 budget request rolled out this week. The revised plan calls for 24 additional Eagle IIs next year at a cost of roughly $3 billion, according to the service’s fiscal 2027 budget request. “This will complete building existing F-15EX units and then begin to recapitalize the aging F-15E fleet,” an Air Force spokesperson told Military Times. The service’s future fighter force “will be comprised of a mix of 4th, 5th and next-gen…

American anti-ship missile launchers have been deployed to the Northern Philippines near the Luzon Strait in support of planned maritime strike, coastal defense and sea denial operations during Balikatan 2026. Around 1,300 Marines and Sailors from the Hawaii-based 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment are in the Southeast Asian archipelago for Washington and Manila’s largest annual military drills. The regiment, designed to provide maritime sensing and anti-ship capabilities in littoral environments to joint and allied forces, routinely deploys to the Philippines for drills with local forces. While this is not the first time American forces have deployed the Naval Strike Missile-equipped Navy-Marine…

Twelve companies are now competing to build space-based interceptors for President Donald Trump’s sprawling Golden Dome missile defense shield, the Space Force announced Friday. In late 2025 and early this year, the Space Force awarded 20 Other Transaction Authority agreements, flexible contracts not bound by certain federal procurement regulations, Space Force Systems Command said in a news release. The awards are worth up to $3.2 billion, and the dozen companies range from well-known prime contractors to smaller and defense players. They include Anduril, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, GITAI USA Inc, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Quindar Inc, Raytheon, Sci-Tec Inc, SpaceX, True…

Americans have spent generations watching detectives in dark trenchcoats pore over complex crime scenes in movies and on television. They examine the room, snap photos and break out the familiar blue powder to dust for fingerprints. The ritual is so familiar that it can seem almost automatic. What those scenes rarely capture is how much effort goes into making fingerprint examination more accurate, more consistent and easier to teach. That quieter work is exactly what the National Institute of Standards and Technology is trying to strengthen.NIST recently released two resources aimed at helping forensic fingerprint examiners do their jobs better. One…

UFC legend Jon Jones took issue with former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman siding with Brock Lesnar in a potential wrestling match. Former two-division UFC champion Jon Jones remains at odds with Dana White and the matchmakers after he was excluded from a spot on the upcoming White House card. Despite announcing his retirement from MMA last summer, Jones quickly reversed course when U.S. President Donald Trump announced the UFC’s upcoming card on the White House lawn. Jones was briefly linked to a potential showdown against either Alex Pereira or Tom Aspinall, but according to Jones, he was ‘lowballed’ financially by…