Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Navy Lt. Cmdr. David Westerberg knows how to grin and bear it. After a successful 38-year career in dentistry in Southern California, Westerberg wasn’t quite ready to put down his scalers. Watching his son graduate as a U.S. Navy officer inspired Westerberg in 2022 — at the age of 64 — to also pursue a commission in the sea service. Now, at the age of 67, the naval officer has become the oldest recipient on record to earn the Fleet Marine Force qualification insignia pin, according to a recent release. Attainment of the FMFQO designation signifies that a Navy officer…

Paris, France, 16th June 2026: Alpine Eagle, the European counter-drone defence technology company, and Origin Robotics, the Latvian developer of autonomous unmanned aerial weapons systems, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to combine Origin Robotics’ BLAZE interceptor with Alpine Eagle’s Sentinel architecture, creating a layered sensor-to-effector counter-drone capability. The agreement marks a significant step in Alpine Eagle’s strategy to build the next generation of air defence, connecting sensing, decision-making and interception into a single layered network. It also reflects a broader shift towards integrated air-defence architectures that combine sensors, command-and-control and multiple interception layers into a single operational system.…

Every few months, a new round of obituaries for NATO arrives. Commentators declare the alliance finished, analysts speak of irreparable rifts, and foreign policy veterans reach for the language of unprecedented crisis. This week’s G-7 meetings, taking place under the shadow of new threats from Trump and longer-standing disagreements between Europe and Washington over the war in Ukraine and the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, have occasioned the latest fit of fatalism.Their alarm is understandable. In his return to the U.S. presidency, Donald Trump has challenged the transatlantic status quo. He began his second term by criticizing Europe for its paltry…

Credit: Hanwha AerospaceDefense Feeds, Paris – The Hanwha Chunmoo MLRS Europe orders trend is gaining momentum as European countries accelerate efforts to modernize their artillery forces and expand long-range strike capabilities.At Eurosatory 2026, South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace highlighted growing interest in its Chunmoo Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), a platform that has emerged as one of the most successful defense export products from Asia in recent years.The increasing demand reflects a broader shift in European military planning. Lessons from the war in Ukraine have reinforced the importance of long-range precision fires, prompting many governments to invest heavily in rocket artillery…

Two of the people on board the B-52 Stratofortress that crashed Monday at an Air Force base in California were employees of the defense and aerospace corporation Boeing, the company confirmed.On Monday morning, the bomber aircraft crashed and went into flames shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base, killing all eight individuals on board, including military personnel, government civilians and government contractors.The U.S. Air Force has yet to release information regarding the individuals’ identities, but Boeing has confirmed in a social media post that two of its employees were among those killed.“We are in contact with their families and…

The UFC really held an event on the White House lawn.On Sunday, UFC Freedom 250 took place on the South Lawn of the White House, and Justin Gaethje added the crown jewel to his Hall of Fame career, scoring a massive upset over Ilia Topuria in the main event. It was the capstone to the most unique evening in MMA history, so let’s talk about everything that happened.1. Did UFC White House live up to the hype?Heck: If you say no, you’re just flat-out lying. Don’t do that!Lee: Big time! An unquestionably memorable card for mostly positive reasons, and one…

The shoulder-fired missile that Ukrainian soldiers have used to destroy hundreds of Russian tanks is about to become the subject of one of the most significant American weapons procurement planning exercises in years, as the U.S. Army Contracting Command issued a sources sought notice on June 15, 2026, asking defense manufacturers to identify whether they […]

Mat Lock is the Technical Director of HYROX. I spoke with him prior to the kick off of The 2026 HYROX World Championships in Stockholm to find out what goes on behind the scenes when judging, how HYROX are embracing technological advancements, and what he puts in place to make the races as smooth and fair as possible. Enhanced VAR (Video Assistant Referee) “On the technical side, we have significantly enhanced our VAR capabilities throughout this season. The system now comprises dedicated spotters, a VAR operator, and the Race Director, all supported by strategically positioned cameras designed to provide optimal…

Every year, the federal government spends trillions of dollars on programs meant to improve lives. It spends remarkably little figuring out whether they work — and even less making sure those findings reach anyone who can act on them. That needs to change.The federal government has been doing serious program evaluation, imperfectly but deliberately, since the Johnson administration. Agencies like HHS, Labor, Education, HUD and SSA have a long track record of large-scale experiments to identify what works in major social programs. Congress expanded that tradition in 2018 with the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act — signed by President Trump…

A new memo aims to safeguard military, intelligence and classified systems from advanced security threats, amid concerns about AI-driven cyber attacks. Justin Doubleday@jdoubledayWFED June 15, 2026 6:21 pm 3 min read A new White House memo aims to strengthen the cybersecurity of sensitive government systems by centralizing oversight of those systems, while also setting aggressive deadlines for updating incident response procedures and other policies. In a national security presidential memorandum signed out Friday, President Donald Trump re-establishes and updates the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS), a decades-old interagency body that sets security policies for military and intelligence systems, as…