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Japan’s US-2 advanced amphibious aircraft made its debut during Balikatan, the largest joint military exercises between the Philippines and the United States. A ShinMaywa US-2 aircraft of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) splashed down in South China Sea as part of a joint casualty evacuation drill for the Balikatan exercises last April 27, according to photos released by the US Indo-Pacific Command on May 2. The drill, which took place near Oyster Bay in Palawan—a staging point for Philippine military resupply missions to the Spratly Islands that is being developed with US assistance into a maintenance hub for patrol boats—…

Huntsville, Ala., May 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has been selected by U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command to develop capabilities supporting the Space-Based Interceptor (SBI) program. These agreements mark progress toward fielding core elements of an integrated, layered homeland defense solution.  This work will accelerate development, testing and integration of SBI capabilities, delivering an early engagement layer that expands coverage, enhances survivability and strengthens deterrence against emerging missile threats. Lockheed Martin’s SBI system leverages our experience with combat-proven interceptors like THAAD and PAC-3 as well as the Next Generation Interceptor, hypersonic strike systems and missile warning and…

With model devs pushing more aggressive rate limits, raising prices, or even abandoning subscriptions for usage-based pricing, that vibe-coded hobby project is about to get a whole lot more expensive. Fortunately, you’re not without cost-saving options. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen Anthropic toy with dropping Claude Code from its most affordable plans while Microsoft has skipped testing the waters and moved GitHub Copilot to a purely usage-based model. The whole debacle got us thinking. Do we even need Anthropic or OpenAI’s top models, or can we get away with a smaller local model? Sure, it might be slower,…

The Agriculture Department is relocating hundreds of additional employees away from its Washington-area and regional offices, this time focusing on food assistance program employees. The Food and Nutrition Service will relocate most of its staff to new hubs USDA has established around the country, including to Indiana, Texas, Missouri and North Carolina. The relocations are part of a larger reorganization of FNS, which will now go by the Food and Nutrition Administration, that a union representing the agency’s workforce said would lead to closures of regional offices in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco. The changes are part of USDA’s reorganization that…

5/1/26 National Security and Korean News and Commentary | Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University wpDiscuzInsert

People’s Daily Online (Xinhua) 13:26, May 02, 2026 UNITED NATIONS, April 30 (Xinhua) — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday warned of devastating consequences of prolonged disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. In a press encounter, Guterres offered three scenarios. In the worst-case scenario where the strait remained closed until the end of the year, global inflation would skyrocket past 6 percent, and growth would plummet to 2 percent. “Immense suffering takes hold, especially among the world’s most vulnerable populations. And we confront the specter of a global recession, with dramatic impacts on people, on the economy, and on political…

An F-16 Fighting Falcon simulator. Credit: Lerner Vadim/Shutterstock.com. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed receipt of the country’s first “mobile” F-16 simulators intended to support the training of fighter pilots. The arrival of these simulators is part of Ukraine’s MoD’s efforts to update pilot preparation and align it with Nato standards, as per a media release issued on 30 April 2026. Discover B2B Marketing That Performs Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms. Find out more In a post on Linkedin, Ukraine Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that the mobile units…

Contained within the Fiscal Year 2027 budget documentation, the U.S. Navy has laid out it’s plans for the new FF(X) program, seeking to rapidly field a new class of smaller surface vessels with the launch of the first Frigate taking place in the first Quarter of Fiscal Year 2029 (late calendar year 2028). Following the first FF(X)’s launch due in Quarter 1 FY 2029, the vessel is planned to be delivered by the end of Quarter 3 of Fiscal Year 2030 (April-June of calendar year 2030). If the FF(X) program adheres to this timeline, it would make one of the…

Today’s UFC Perth event was headlined by a key welterweight bout featuring Jack Della Maddalena taking on Carlos Prates. Della Maddalena (16-4 MMA) was returning to action for the first time since losing the promotion‘s welterweight title to Islam Makhachev at UFC 322 in November of last year. Prior to that setback, ‘JDM’ had put together an eighteen-fight winning streak, which included victories over Belal Muhammad, Gilbert Burns and Kevin Holland. Meanwhile, Carlos Prates (24-7 MMA) had most previously competed in the Octagon bck at UFC 322 in Madison Square Garden, where he scored a second-round knockout victory over former…

Users can now create challenges directly within their favorite SIG CONNECT games. NEWINGTON, N.H., (April 28, 2026) – SIG SAUER, an industry-leading manufacturer of cutting-edge firearms, optics, and ammunition, introduced today new features in its SIG CONNECT app. SIG CONNECT is a mobile training tool that turns shooting sessions at a range into interactive experiences with real-time hit detection. Through the new features, SIG CONNECT users can create custom challenges directly within their favorite games or jump into existing competitions. Users can choose their game type, set the distance, and select the Optical Hit Detection (OHD) target, then define rules,…