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U.S. Navy awarded $200 million this week for the production of low-cost Blackbeard hypersonic missiles that will be fiel...
09/17/2026

U.S. Navy awarded $200 million this week for the production of low-cost Blackbeard hypersonic missiles that will be fielded from carrier-based fighter jets, according to USNI News. The Portfolio Acquisition Executive Aviation office and low-cost missile start-up Castelion announced the delivery order investment Monday, with the funding supporting additional Blackbeard production beyond the 50 early operational capability missiles previously funded in June. According to Defense Department contract records, $43 million of the award will go toward producing 444 Blackbeard missiles, with Castelion aiming to keep the unit cost around half a million dollars to enable mass, affordable production.

Designated in Navy service as the Multi-mission Affordable Capacity Effector, or MACE, Blackbeard is an air-launched hypersonic strike weapon giving carrier-based strike fighters a responsive, long-range, high-speed option against maritime and land targets. According to the Navy's release on the funding, the missile is designed to enhance survivability against advanced air defenses while significantly increasing magazine depth — the number of weapons a strike aircraft can carry into a fight. MACE represents the next generation of naval fighter-launched weapons, joining the recently revealed AIM-242 Malice and AIM-174B air-to-air missiles in extending the reach of carrier strike aircraft against ground, maritime, and aerial threats.

The Navy's frontline F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is planned to carry up to four Blackbeards per strike mission. While the missile carries a smaller warhead than in-service weapons like the AGM-84 Harpoon and LRASM, its Mach 5-plus speed and extended range are intended to enable strikes from beyond the reach of increasingly sophisticated air defenses, including those fielded by the Chinese Navy's advanced destroyers. Castelion is one of several new firms addressing U.S. military demand for low-cost cruise missiles amid concerns over munitions shortages, with the Pentagon signaling interest in procuring up to 12,000 Blackbeards through a five-year plan. The company is also partnering with Saronic to demonstrate a containerized Blackbeard launch from the Marauder unmanned surface vessel by 2027.

📸Office of the Secretary of War Public Affairs

Hunt Military Communities has entered into a $1.7 billion development deal with the Pentagon and Navy to expand unaccomp...
09/17/2026

Hunt Military Communities has entered into a $1.7 billion development deal with the Pentagon and Navy to expand unaccompanied housing for junior sailors in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area, the Navy announced Wednesday, according to USNI News. The development will add 8,098 beds through new construction and renovation projects, replacing the current Huntington Hall facility and adding retail amenities to the site. The agreement also involves the city of Newport News, Virginia.

Part of the package is HomePort Hampton Roads 2, a roughly $450 million project featuring two 17-story residential towers with approximately 750 two-bed rooms each, a 1,050-space parking garage, and ground-floor commercial space. The city of Newport News is contributing $10 million toward the project, with the state of Virginia approving an additional $40 million treasury loan, according to The Virginian-Pilot. The five-year plan also includes 712 bedrooms across seven buildings at Naval Air Station Oceana, 614 bedrooms at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, and 5,272 bedrooms across six buildings at Naval Station Norfolk, according to Destiny Sibert, spokesperson for Commander, Navy Installations Command.

The Navy and Hunt Military Communities have partnered on sailor housing for more than a decade, with Hunt's prior project performance factoring into its selection for this expansion. According to the Navy, the broader housing push is part of a series of quality-of-life initiatives for the Hampton Roads area, alongside separate efforts to reduce sailors' workload during major ship overhauls in the region.

📸Jennifer Castillo / U.S. Navy

U.S. Navy has selected three new shipyards — Conrad Shipyard of Orange, Texas; Master Boat Builders of Coden, Alabama; a...
09/16/2026

U.S. Navy has selected three new shipyards — Conrad Shipyard of Orange, Texas; Master Boat Builders of Coden, Alabama; and Saronic Technologies of Brownsville, Texas — to build seven Landing Craft Utility vessels, part of a $280.5 million deal aimed at expanding production of the service's heavy-lift amphibious connector, according to USNI News. Each shipyard will construct two or three prototype craft while refining manufacturing processes to support future high-rate production.

The LCU-1700 is a 139-foot vessel that displaces 425 tons fully loaded, crewed by 13 Navy personnel, and built to carry the equivalent of two M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks or 350 combat-loaded troops. It has a top speed of 11 knots and a range of 1,200 nautical miles at eight knots, and is designed to replace the much older LCU-1600 design that has served the fleet since the 1950s. LCUs typically deploy alongside the Navy's amphibious warship fleet, ferrying troops, vehicles, and equipment from ship to shore.

According to the Navy, selecting three separate shipyards is intended to expand the country's shipbuilding industrial base and create a resilient "second source" of supply for landing craft, using what's known as "other transaction authority" to fund the work outside the standard contract competition process. The program has a total planned buy of 32 vessels; the first LCU-1710 was delivered to the Navy last month by Austal USA, which has four more currently under construction at its Mobile, Alabama shipyard.

The United States has weapons deployed in space and will use them to defend American forces, Air Force Secretary Troy Me...
09/16/2026

The United States has weapons deployed in space and will use them to defend American forces, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Monday, marking the first public acknowledgment of such capabilities in orbit. Speaking at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, Meink stated, "The United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action." He declined to provide further details when pressed by reporters on the nature of the weapons.

A Space Force spokesperson later clarified that the capabilities are not limited to defense alone. "These capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes at the direction of combatant commands," the spokesperson told reporters, describing space control as encompassing both kinetic and non-kinetic means to counter adversary capabilities. According to analysts cited by CNN, the exact nature of the weapons remains unclear, with possibilities ranging from satellites capable of jamming enemy communications to systems designed to disable ground-based equipment, or even anti-satellite weapons capable of physically destroying an adversary's satellite in orbit.

The disclosure comes after years of U.S. officials warning that China and Russia have been developing and testing offensive space capabilities, including Chinese work on a nuclear-capable partial-orbit hypersonic missile and Russian satellite maneuvers Washington says could demonstrate attack-and-defense tactics for future conflict. While the 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in orbit, it does not prohibit conventional weapons in space, leaving room for interpretation. The U.S. committed in 2022 to no longer test "direct-ascent" anti-satellite weapons launched from the ground, though it remains unclear whether that commitment extends to the newly disclosed on-orbit systems.

📸David Grim / U.S. Space Force

Washington is funding a project that will expand the maintenance and repair capability of a shipyard in the Philippines ...
09/15/2026

Washington is funding a project that will expand the maintenance and repair capability of a shipyard in the Philippines frequently used by U.S. Navy warships. The Subic Drydock Corporation, an American-owned firm operating out of the former U.S. naval station, revealed a partnership with the U.S. Trade and Development Agency last week in Manila during the Luzon Economic Corridor Investment Forum. According to a statement from the shipyard, the project involves a $1.4 million feasibility study for the expansion of the firm's existing facilities at Subic Bay, which will involve extending the yard's approach pier by an additional 169 meters, creating a usable berthing area of more than 270 meters for maintenance, repair, and overhaul operations. "This extension will allow us to accommodate larger vessels and undertake repairs that are currently not possible due to draft and berth limitations," said SDC Owner Terry Watkins. "This important project will strengthen our ability to serve select U.S. and Philippine maritime customers while enhancing Subic's capacity as a regional ship repair hub."

With its Master Ship Repair Agreement status, SDC has serviced U.S. Navy Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transports and Littoral Combat Ships, along with various classes from the Military Sealift Command that have docked at the yard and the adjacent Rivera Wharf. The berthing near SDC was used last summer by an Ohio-class guided-missile submarine in a rare visit to Subic Bay. The shipyard is also used by the Philippine Navy to service its collection of American-made warships docked nearby at their base in Subic Bay — a facility significant enough that Chinese nationals arrested last year on suspicion of espionage were found to have documented ships receiving maintenance at SDC. "Importantly for Military Sealift Command and the U.S. Navy, this investment expands an established U.S.-owned shipyard that has been executing complex repair projects for U.S. and Philippine government vessels since 2008, supported by an experienced and skilled local workforce," the release states.

Subic's enhanced maintenance, repair, and overhaul capabilities coincide with broader efforts to strengthen logistical chains across the Philippine archipelago, including plans by the Defense Logistics Agency to contract a defense logistics support point in Mindanao capable of supporting Military Sealift Command oilers and Navy destroyers. The initiative represents the latest move by Washington to strengthen its forward presence in the Philippines amid increasing regional tensions with China. Since the end of the Cold War and the withdrawal of American bases from the Southeast Asian archipelago, U.S. and Philippine forces had largely shifted their focus to counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts — but coercive threats in the South China Sea and concerns over a potential spillover of a Taiwan conflict into the Luzon Strait have driven renewed attention back to Subic Bay.

📸John Narewski / U.S. Navy

More than six months after roughly 1,300 dependents were evacuated from Naval Support Activity Bahrain, some Navy famili...
09/15/2026

More than six months after roughly 1,300 dependents were evacuated from Naval Support Activity Bahrain, some Navy families remain separated from their household goods, vehicles, and pets left behind, according to Military Times. The Navy says family members and non-essential personnel currently outside Bahrain have not been authorized to return to collect personal property due to ongoing security concerns. A Navy spokesperson said service members still in Bahrain can ship their household goods and vehicles in person, while those located outside the country may designate a representative to handle the process on their behalf.

For families caught in the middle, the process has been slow and unclear. One Bahrain-based sailor, granted anonymity over concerns of reprisal, said an August 31 town hall hosted by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle — during which Caudle said troops would not be returning to Bahrain "anytime soon" — did little to ease uncertainty about how household goods would be processed. Another sailor said their uniforms were destroyed during the events that led to the evacuation and still have not been replaced, with an insurance company requesting additional confirmation despite an existing Navy memorandum documenting the loss.

For some, the displacement has carried a more personal cost. One Navy spouse said their family could not gather everything before leaving and had to leave their Great Dane with locals they barely knew, telling Military Times they don't know whether they will ever get the dog back. The Navy said it continues to provide affected service members, families, and civilian personnel with timely information, individual case management, and relocation support. Families still unauthorized to return must establish and report a designated place by November 30 to secure relocation, housing, and separation entitlements.

📸SSG Mahsima Alkamooneh / U.S. Army

In the summer of 1944, a top-secret U.S. Army unit known as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops — later nicknamed the "...
09/14/2026

In the summer of 1944, a top-secret U.S. Army unit known as the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops — later nicknamed the "Ghost Army" — landed in France carrying an unusual arsenal: inflatable tanks, sound-effects records, and a plan to deceive the German military about the size and location of American forces. The 1,100-man unit, largely made up of artists, designers, and engineers recruited for their creative talent, staged elaborate illusions across the European battlefield, from phony convoys to entire fake headquarters.

The unit's most visually striking trick was its inflatable M4 Sherman tank, built by the 603rd Camouflage Engineer Battalion. Weighing just 93 pounds compared to a real Sherman's more than 30 tons, the rubber decoy could be inflated using air compressors, bicycle pumps, or, in a pinch, the soldiers' own lungs — yet from several hundred yards away, or from the air, it was nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. According to accounts from Ghost Army veterans, the deception occasionally produced unexpectedly funny moments: Corporal Arthur Shilstone recalled standing guard when two French civilians on bicycles wandered past the perimeter and spotted four soldiers picking up and turning around what looked like a 40-ton tank. Searching for something to say, Shilstone simply told them, "The Americans are very strong."

The Ghost Army's deceptions went far beyond visual tricks, layering in fake radio traffic and recorded sounds of tanks and troop movements to reinforce the illusion from every angle. Their most ambitious operation came in March 1945, when the unit inflated more than 600 dummy vehicles to convince German forces that American troops would cross the Rhine River miles from their actual crossing point — allowing real units to advance with minimal resistance. Because their work remained classified for decades, Ghost Army veterans went largely unrecognized until Congress awarded the unit the Congressional Gold Medal in 2022, finally honoring what historians credit as one of the most effective deception campaigns in American military history.

📸Courtesy / U.S. Army

A long-endurance surveillance drone built by Maryland-based Platform Aerospace was spotted taking off from Prince Hassan...
09/14/2026

A long-endurance surveillance drone built by Maryland-based Platform Aerospace was spotted taking off from Prince Hassan Air Base in Jordan on September 13, according to flight-tracking data shared by open-source intelligence account MenchOsint, marking the first known sighting of the aircraft operating from Jordan. The drone, registered N622VU, is officially marketed by Platform Aerospace as the MQ-22 Swift, also known as Vanilla, an ultra-long-endurance platform built for surveillance rather than speed.

Prince Hassan Air Base, also known as H-5, belongs to the Royal Jordanian Air Force but has been used by U.S. and allied forces for years under a 2021 U.S.-Jordan defense cooperation agreement. The base drew attention in July 2026 when Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said it struck Prince Hassan and a second Jordanian installation with missiles and drones in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, claiming to have destroyed hangars housing MQ-9 Reaper drones — a claim that has not been independently verified.

Unlike conventional aircraft, Vanilla typically launches from a rail rather than a runway and is designed purely for endurance. According to Platform Aerospace, the aircraft set a company-claimed record in 2021 with a flight lasting eight days and 50 minutes, and depending on configuration, it can carry a payload of up to 150 pounds for shorter multi-day missions or a lighter sensor package for flights approaching two weeks. The U.S. Navy has backed the program through its Office of Naval Research, including a $12.9 million contract modification awarded in April 2026 covering additional aircraft, spare parts, and logistics support.

📸PO2 Michael Schutt / U.S. Navy

An Air Force weapons systems officer, referred to only by his mission call sign "Bravo" for security reasons, publicly s...
09/14/2026

An Air Force weapons systems officer, referred to only by his mission call sign "Bravo" for security reasons, publicly shared his story for the first time in an interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday. According to Bravo, he felt like he had been "hit by a freight train" when a shoulder-fired missile struck his F-15E fighter jet on April 2, during a mission targeting industrial facilities tied to Iran's drone and missile programs near Isfahan. His pilot, referred to as "Alpha," ejected them both from the aircraft, a decision Bravo said saved both their lives.

As he descended, Bravo discovered his parachute had been damaged in the missile strike. According to his account, he looked up, saw no parachute above him, and began free-falling toward a rugged, mountainous area of the Iranian desert — a moment he described as "the most terrifying thing I've ever seen." Military professionals later estimated he struck the ground at 70 to 100 mph. Bravo survived on the ground for roughly 48 hours with a broken back, arm, and shoulder, climbing a 7,000-foot ridgeline to evade Iranian forces while awaiting rescue.

According to Adm. Brad Cooper, the recovery operation involved more than 90 U.S. service members on the ground, several hundred in the air, and thousands more in support roles — marking the first American ground presence inside Iran in 46 years. Bravo was ultimately rescued as the sun rose on Easter Sunday, and U.S. forces destroyed the wreckage of both downed aircraft, valued at roughly $100 million each, to prevent their technology from falling into Iranian hands.

📸A1C Nathaniel Jackson / U.S. Air Force

The Boeing B-52H Stratofortress is the final production variant of the B-52 family and remains one of the longest-servin...
09/13/2026

The Boeing B-52H Stratofortress is the final production variant of the B-52 family and remains one of the longest-serving aircraft in U.S. Air Force history. The B-52H entered service in the early 1960s, with the final aircraft delivered in October 1962, yet the platform has remained relevant through continuous structural, avionics, communications, and mission-system modernization. Designed as a long-range, heavy bomber, the B-52H can operate at high subsonic speeds and at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet, while its long endurance and aerial-refueling capability support missions over great distances. The U.S. Air Force continues to view the B-52 as an important component of its future bomber force, with current planning intended to sustain the aircraft through 2050 and beyond.

The primary purpose of the B-52H is to provide long-range global strike and strategic deterrence capability while retaining flexibility for a variety of conventional missions. Its large airframe, substantial payload capacity, long range, and precision-navigation capability allow it to support missions such as strategic attack, air interdiction, maritime operations, and other long-duration missions assigned by combatant commanders. The aircraft can also employ modern targeting and sensor systems to improve situational awareness and mission effectiveness, illustrating how the B-52 has evolved from its Cold War origins into a digitally enabled component of contemporary airpower. Its continued value lies not only in its endurance and payload capacity, but also in the ability to integrate new technologies and mission systems without replacing the basic aircraft design.

The B-52H is undergoing one of the most extensive modernization efforts in its history. The B-52 Radar Modernization Program is replacing the aircraft’s legacy radar with a modern system, with the first modified aircraft completing a major test milestone in December 2025. At the same time, the Commercial Engine Replacement Program (CERP) is replacing the eight legacy Pratt & Whitney TF33 engines with Rolls-Royce F130 engines, along with associated nacelles, struts, electrical-generation equipment, and cockpit displays; aircraft receiving this modernization will be redesignated B-52J. The Air Force expects the new propulsion system to improve reliability, maintainability, fuel efficiency, electrical-power availability, and overall endurance. Additional modernization encompasses communications, avionics, crew-station systems, and other mission capabilities, creating a substantially more modern aircraft while retaining the proven B-52 airframe.

📸A1C Preston Crawford / U.S. Air Force

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