Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

The European Union today faces a set of external challenges that threaten its very existence. In December 2025, Pentagon officials told European diplomats that the continent must assume leadership of NATO by 2027, suggesting that the transatlantic alliance may be coming to an end. Meanwhile, Washington’s decision to go to war with Iran, made without serious consultation with its European allies, has produced a global energy crisis and raised further doubts about U.S. reliability. And growing Russian military aggression and Chinese commercial and technological pressure pose serious economic and security problems for Europe.Europe simultaneously faces an acute danger from within.…

Defense companies Thales (France) and Hanwha Aerospace (South Korea) signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) at Eurosatory on June 17. The objective of this strategic partnership is to make the guided missiles of the South Korean Chunmoo family compatible with Thales’ new European X-Fire launch platform, in order to jointly tap into export opportunities on both the international and European markets. Chunmoo missiles for Deep Strike The technical cooperation involves adapting three specific missile types for Thales’ Deep Strike system. These include the immediately available CGR080 guided missile with a range of approximately 80 kilometers, a medium-range missile in the…

Jamahal Hill has made his next move clear as the former UFC light heavyweight champion says he is heading to heavyweight, and he wants Josh Hokit for his first fight in the division. In the same stretch of interviews, Hill also named Sergei Pavlovich as the fallback option and ruled out Curtis Blaydes and Serghei Spivac because of his relationships with both men. Jamahal Hill names Josh Hokit for first heavyweight fight Hill publicly announced that he is moving up to heavyweight after spending months adding weight and muscle for the change. In a June 17 video from his “What…

What does “big” really mean when you’re talking about a military base?Is it the amount of land? The number of troops? The aircraft, tanks, and equipment packed inside its borders? Or is it the influence that base has on military operations around the world?The answer is a little bit of everything.Across the United States, military installations serve as the backbone of national defense. Some cover hundreds of square miles of rugged desert terrain.Others function almost like self-contained cities, with schools, hospitals, shopping centers, fire departments, and populations larger than many American towns. Drive through one of these installations and you…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Coalition of veterans, investigators, and researchers unites to support awareness, historical research, and recovery efforts connected to America’s missing service members from the Vietnam War. Reno, Nev. (June 2026) – Task Force Garrison (TFG) and The Retired Investigators Guild (RIG) today announced a significant expansion of the Bright Light Continuum Initiative, a collaborative effort focused on honoring, locating, and accounting for American service members who remain missing from the conflicts in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. At a time when public awareness of the POW/MIA issue continues to fade from national attention, the Bright Light Continuum Initiative seeks…

The Federal Regulatory Council is giving the federal community one more chance to speak up before the first set of major revisions to acquisition regulations becomes final. In Tuesday’s Federal Register, the FAR Council will release the first tranche of proposed rules for 17 sections of the FAR. “Industry and government have largely seen these changes in the deviations, but there are additional differences or changes from what we have in deviations,” said an OMB official, who requested anonymity in order to discuss the proposed rules. “The general premise for each of the rules should already be familiar to most…

By RFE/RL June 21, 2026 When Sadbarg and her husband tried to name their newborn Tayeeba, they thought they simply were naming their daughter after her grandmother. Instead, they were entering the latest round of a Tajik name game that in recent years has seen the promotion of Persian-rooted and patriotic names, part of a campaign by Tajik authorities trying to purge divisive and overtly Islamic traditions. Sadbarg and her husband went to their local civil registry office to register their newborn, the clerk refused to issue a birth certificate, saying the name did not appear on a government-approved list…

The TWZ Newsletter Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy. On Thursday, U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) stood up a new command to speed up reaction times and sustain operations within the anti-access/area denial environments of the Pacific. To help achieve that goal, the commander of this new unit told TWZ he wants to be able to saturate any future adversary with so many drones they have trouble operating.  “We have learned, particularly looking at Ukraine, there really is no sanctuary area that is protected from observation and potential targeting,” Maj. Gen. Bernard…

Manel Kape made history with his finish over Kyoji Horiguchi in the UFC Vegas 119 main event as he now holds the record for the most knockouts in flyweight history with six. The win also helped Kape avenge a past loss to Horiguchi when they met in RIZIN back in 2017 so there was a lot riding on the fight, and “Starboy” delivered in emphatic fashion.“Of course, any victory makes anyone happy,” Kape said about the win at the UFC Vegas 119 post-fight press conferene. “This victory because this is revenge, I’m so happy because everything I’ve been working [on]…

Already anticipating a future sale, the US Air Force displayed this C-130J Hercules at the VIDEX 2024 exhibition in Hanoi. (Gordon Arthur)The US government announced on 2 June that it had approved sustainment services for Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules transport aircraft on behalf of Vietnam. The notification was significant, since the Vietnam People’s Air Force (VPAF) does not currently operate any Hercules platform.This notice by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) therefore indicates that Hanoi is planning to procure second-hand C-130s, possibly C-130Hs or early C-130Js, to increase its airlift capacity.The sustainment deal, estimated to cost US$100 million, is being…