Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

BÖBLINGEN, Germany—More than 80 firefighters gathered from around Germany to test their firefighting skills at U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart’s fourth annual Firefighter Combat Challenge Aug. 15 on Panzer Kaserne. The five-part physical test known as the “toughest two minutes in sports” brings together local German host-nation fire departments and U.S. Army garrison teams from across Europe to build partnership and test core skills.Participants have two minutes to climb a five-story tower carrying a hose pack, hoist the hose to the top of the tower, smash and drive an obstacle with a hammer, extend a charged hose line and hit a…

Growing doubts about Washington’s approach to Tehran are fueling concern within Israel’s defense establishment. Israeli officials increasingly believe that mixed signals from the White House are encouraging Iran to act more aggressively — not only in the Middle East but beyond. As tensions continue to rise, some in Israel fear that any future effort to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat may ultimately fall to Israel alone. Israel Fears It May Have to Face Iran Alone Israeli security officials are expressing growing concern that the United States continues to believe Iran remains a viable partner for diplomatic engagement, despite Tehran’s increasingly aggressive…

RAND has spent more than a decade surveying educators across the United States and has now expanded this effort to include the perspectives of students and parents. Our seven standing panels of teachers, principals, superintendents, students, parents, adults from the general population, and veterans offer one-of-a-kind insight into the state of American public education. Among the hundreds of survey questions we fielded this past year, the results depicted in these five charts stood out the most. They have a common thread: American educators and students are navigating real headwinds. Monitoring our survey data is an important step…

Spring 2026 Young Global Professionals – Atlantic Council Meet our YGPs August 17, 2026 Spring 2026 Kate Burnett Global Energy CenterBurnett earned her Master of Public Affairs and Master of Science in environmental science from Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, where she concentrated on energy and climate change solutions. While completing her graduate capstone, she collaborated with the US Department of State on disaster risk reduction and energy security in Central Asia. Most recently, she worked as a congressional intern in the US House of Representatives. Burnett has also done work at the local…

Red Cat Holdings, Inc., a U.S.-based provider of advanced all-domain drone and robotic solutions for defense and national security, and Havoc, a leader in all-domain collaborative autonomy, announced a partnership, formalized through Red Cat’s maritime division, Blue Ops. Red Cat press release Under the partnership, Blue Ops and Havoc plan to integrate Havoc’s collaborative autonomy software and command-and-control capabilities across multiple Blue Ops uncrewed surface vessels, including the Variant 7 and additional platforms as they are introduced. The integration is intended to enable coordinated multi-vessel operations and expand the range of autonomous functions available to U.S. and allied defense customers. The…

Here’s something I haven’t done in a while: dig through Xbox Game Pass to check out all the turn-based RPGs and strategy games currently available on the popular subscription service, which I’ve been faithfully paying for despite having very little time to actually play. The last time I used the service was when Clair Obscur launched, and since then I haven’t checked what’s new or what’s still available for players who share my passion for turn-based games. That said, I can confidently say that the service has plenty of great titles to get your money’s worth out of the subscription,…

Call the SVD Dragunov a sniper rifle and most people will know exactly what you mean. But that label misses an important part of the story.When the Soviet Union adopted the SVD in 1963, it was not intended to turn ordinary infantrymen into dedicated snipers. The rifle was designed to give selected soldiers within an infantry squad greater reach than the standard assault rifles carried by their comrades. In that sense, the SVD occupied a space between the conventional rifleman and the specialized sniper. Designed by Yevgeny Dragunov, the rifle uses the Soviet 7.62×54mmR cartridge and a semi-automatic action. Its adoption…

Those who are the targets of terrorism—and who are prepared to defend themselves by doing whatever is necessary in order to beat it—start with a major advantage. The advantage is that success or failure depends upon them alone. Terrorism wins only if you respond to it in the way that the terrorists want you to; which means that its fate is in your hands and not in theirs. If you choose not to respond at all, or else to respond in a way different from that which they desire, they will fail to achieve their objectives.The important point is that…

Two top commanders in the New Mexico Air National Guard were removed from their posts recently, a spokesperson confirmed to Military Times.Col. Christopher George was relieved of his duties as commander of the 150th Special Operations Wing, located at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday. Separately, Col. Jeffry Heggemeier, the wing’s deputy commander, was “reassigned” to Headquarters, New Mexico, Air National Guard.“[Heggemeier’s] reassignment is a personnel assignment action and is not a relief from duty or command,” New Mexico National Guard spokesman Hank Minitrez told Military Times on Monday.In place of George, Col. Angela Black will…

EOTECH offers a variety of Hybrid Holographic Sights (HHS) that combine a Holographic Weapon Sight and a fixed magnifier. This combination provides the user with uncompromised speed and precision at either close- or long-range situations. Today, EOTECH is proud to collaborate with UNITY Tactical to provide HHS systems that incorporate their high-performance mounting systems. The EOTECH HHS UNITY I combine the battle-proven EXPS3-0 and G33 3X magnifier with the UNITY FAST™ FTC OMNI Mount and FAST™ Optic Riser for rapid transitions from CQB to distance engagements. Available in either Black or Tan, these systems feature a 2.26-inch optical centerline height…