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Thales LOCADA RAT terminals are equipping the standard radio mounts of US Army vehicles, and form part of the force’s overall modernisation of its Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System infrastructure. The terminals are also optimised to work with future transceivers supporting the army’s Next Generation Command and Control System.Armada’s monthly roundup of all the latest news in the military communications product, programme and operational domains.LOCADA RAT Terminals for US ArmyOn 23rd June Thales announced it had won a contract from the United States Army to provide up to 5,000 of the company’s Low-Cost Data Architecture (LOCADA) Radio Adaptable Transport…

Military analysts are captivated by how the material nature of war is transforming in Ukraine. Unmanned systems have captured Russian infantry units, battered Russian naval and commercial ships, and even, with the help of on-board AI, conducted autonomous strikes deep into areas where Russian jamming foils remote piloting. These technologies are powering a dramatic democratization of military capability, allowing a country to hold off an invader many times its size.But that democratization is only part of the story, and is in fact driven by an equally dramatic consolidation. Strip down any of these battlefield-transforming tools, and you will find remarkably…

HJ Heavy Industries handed over the first PKX-B Batch-II fast patrol boat to the ROK Navy on 14 August 2026. (DAPA)The Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) has received the first of what will be an eventual 18 Geomdoksuri-B (PKX-B) Batch-II fast patrol boats, with the vessel due to be commissioned later after force integration.The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) announced that this first-of-class vessel was handed over by shipbuilder HJ Heavy Industries on 14 August.It had been built at HJ Heavy Industries’ Yeongdo shipyard in Busan, and three more craft are slated for handover before the end of this year.…

The Pentagon is defending the safety of M17 and M18 handguns — military versions of the controversial SIG Sauer P320 — saying that “there has never been a mechanically caused accidental discharge” involving the service weapon.The Aug. 7 statement followed a review of the Modular Handgun System, a program led by the Army’s Project Manager Soldier Lethality, initiated after an airman was shot and killed because of an alleged “uncommanded discharge” with an M18 handgun. Last year’s incident resulted in an immediate inspection of all M18 handguns issued by the Air Force Global Strike Command as well as a temporary…

Issue Brief August 20, 2026 • 9:00 am ET Print this page By the US-Colombia Strategic Alignment Coalition Bottom lines up front President Abelardo de la Espriella has made Venezuela a foreign policy priority, positioning Colombia to work with the US to support Venezuela’s democratic transition and economic recovery.The recent earthquakes in Venezuela and Colombia have created urgent needs for sustained international support; Colombia could eventually support Venezuela’s recovery.Colombia and Venezuela can gradually expand their cooperation to other shared priorities, including border security and trade, especially if Venezuela makes progress in strengthening the rule of law. Colombia and Venezuela are…

This summer at RIMPAC 26, Lockheed Martin collaborated with the U.S. Navy to successfully demonstrate a rapidly retrainable AI/ML sonar expert for antisubmarine warfare (ASW). The system, known as SensorMAX™, monitors spectral energy including subsurface acoustic data to assist the crew with rapid threat detection. Augmented by over-the-air (OTA) model update capability, SensorMAX aims to dramatically improve the U.S. Navy’s subsurface detection capabilities. Lockheed Martin press release SensorMAX uses AI/ML technology to understand ocean sounds. Taking in subsurface acoustic data from a network of sensors, SensorMAX provides a continuous data stream to the aircrew and sends information to the ground station.…

A machine gun can look deceptively simple: a barrel, an ammunition belt, a receiver, and a mechanism that keeps cycling. But once you start comparing the most powerful machine guns ever fielded, the numbers get serious.Some fire bullets large enough to threaten lightly armored vehicles, while others combine long-range reach with sustained automatic fire that can dominate a wide area.And here’s the interesting part: “most powerful” doesn’t simply mean “largest caliber.”A 14.5mm machine gun has an obvious advantage in projectile size over a 12.7mm weapon, but raw caliber is only one piece of the puzzle. Effective range, ammunition performance, rate…

What BJJ Really Is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is commonly described as a martial art defined by leverage, technique, and positional control. While these descriptions accurately capture its mechanics, they remain incomplete. They explain how BJJ operates, but not what it fundamentally represents. At a deeper level, BJJ can be understood as a system of creative problem-solving in motion, where two practitioners continuously generate, interpret, and resolve constraints in real time. Each movement presents a question, and each reaction attempts to answer it. Within this dynamic exchange, success depends not on physical dominance alone, but on the ability to navigate an…

“The Middle East has oil, China has rare-earth elements,” Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping declared in the early 1990s. This quote has been repeated a lot lately as Beijing has used its near monopoly on the rare-earth industry to effectively push back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest trade war. It is often cited as evidence that implicit in Deng’s statement was a coercive threat: just as Arab oil states weaponized their petroleum exports in 1973—cutting off the West to punish it for backing Israel in the Yom Kippur War—China would one day do the same with rare earths.The events of…

At Contender Series last night, Dana White dropped this little nugget:”This thing started July 17, 2017. From that date to today, the fighters who have made it into the UFC from Contender Series have made a $225.3 million. Talk about an opportunity.”Yes, let’s talk about that opportunity. First off, that’s 9 years. So, doing some quick math and rounding, that $25 million per year. Now, the show has officially awarded 333 contracts, though White later noted that 420 fighters have competed in the UFC from Contender series. So, take that $225M and split it up by 420, and we’re talking…