Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Excalibur International, part of the CSG group, has signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense of a NATO member country in Western Europe for the supply of tens of thousands of artillery and mortar ammunition worth a total value in the low hundreds of millions of euros. The contract was awarded on the basis of an accelerated tender procedure due to the urgent need to replenish the ammunition stocks of the armed forces of a NATO member country. “This contract is another example of the CSG group’s strategy to establish new relationships and develop existing partnerships with customers in…

With multiple naval assets in place and more on the way, the U.S. military is “prepared to strike Iran as early as this weekend,” CNN reported Thursday, one day after top national security officials met in the White House’s Situation Room. “Trump has not yet made a final decision about whether to strike,” CBS News reported Thursday as well, noting “the timeline for any action is likely to extend beyond this weekend.” U.S. and Iran negotiators met Tuesday in Geneva for indirect talks about the future of Iran’s nuclear program. That meeting was inconclusive, and follow-on talks have not yet been scheduled. The…

Olympic wrestling gold medalist, Gable Steveson, took a big step up in competition versus veteran slugger, Hugo Lezama, just moments ago (Thurs., Feb. 19, 2026) from inside Showcenter Complex in Monterrey, Mexico in the main event of MFL 3.Steveson’s MMA career is less than a year old, and he’s already the most hyped up prospect in the sport. That’s what happens when you take a wildly accomplished wrestler, put him in a weak division, and have Jon Jones in his corner! The one critique against Steveson so far has been the level of competition, but Lezama holds a respectable 11-3…

Unilateral exercises like the single-leg Romanian Deadlift—aka the RDL— reduce muscle imbalances, strengthen stabilizer muscles, and enhance muscle development. But there are some drawbacks to these types of moves—the biggest possibly being the inevitable wobbles. Once you go heavy, fighting to stay upright oftentimes become a bigger challenge than building muscle. The fix, however, is simple: By holding a secure anchor, you’ll take the awkwardness out the exercise. Adding stability will drive more action to the working muscle. That’s the thinking behind the assisted single-leg RDL. By holding onto a rack or wall for light support, you remove balance as…

It had been one week since roughly 60,000 service members rushed ashore the sulfurous outcropping that was Iwo Jima.Despite the island being barely 10 square miles in area, “assault troops,” writes the Naval History and Heritage Command, “were to be subjected to a step-by-step battle of attrition, slowly progressing from one well-defended killing zone to the next.”American air superiority by this late state of the war left the Japanese ground forces virtually unprotected, forcing them into the earth. On Iwo, a system of mutually supported network of caves, tunnels, concrete pillboxes and fortified strongpoints and artillery positions allowed for the…

Editor’s Note: This is a new occasional series brought to you by War on the Rocks. If you would like to pitch your own version, please refer to the contact information and guidance on our submissions page.Wars very often inspire great American literature about the experience of war and its legacies — think of Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, or Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. We are fortunate now to be living through a great renaissance of veteran writing of policy analysis, memoir, poetry, and prose literature. All three of the works I’ve selected…

To close our investigation into why early accounts payable (AP) automation wins do not translate into gains at scale, we set out the metrics that show whether AP automation is working at scale. Most AP teams know how to measure efficiency. They track invoices per FTE, cost per invoice, cycle time, straight-through processing rates and backlog. These metrics are useful early in an automation journey. They show whether manual effort is being reduced and whether invoice flow is improving. The problem is that these metrics stop telling the truth as automation scales. An organization can process more invoices faster and still…

ROME — Fincantieri is to build four U.S. Marine Corps landing vessels at its U.S. Marinette Marine yard in a new deal that follows the cancellation of its contract to build Constellation class frigates for the U.S. Navy.Fincantieri will work with Bollinger Shipyards, which was previously given a contract for engineering and long-lead-time procurement on the new Medium Landing Ship (LSM) for the Marines.The Navy has also issued a request for proposals for a Vessel Construction Manager (VCM) to oversee the program and act as a buffer between the Navy and the yards, the Naval Sea Systems Command Office said.The…

Residents in western Belarus have reported sudden reserve call-ups and rapid deployment orders near the country’s border with NATO member states, according to statements from opposition officials and local accounts published Feb. 2026, raising attention over what critics describe as an undeclared mobilization effort. Reports from the regions of Grodno, Slonim, and the village of […]

After shedding more than a quarter of its employees last year, the IRS is looking for opportunities to eliminate and consolidate office space. Before the Trump administration, the IRS workforce had about 100,000 employees, but now has fewer than 75,000 full-time staff. Most employees either accepted voluntary separation incentives or retired. IRS Chief Financial Officer Todd Newnam said at an industry conference on Thursday that the agency is looking at opportunities to shrink its real estate footprint to reflect a smaller workforce. Newnam said several IRS facilities have become underutilized following staffing cuts, and that the agency is looking to…