China maps ocean floor as it prepares for submarine warfare with US
SYDNEY — China is conducting a vast undersea mapping and monitoring operation across the Pacific, Indian and Arctic oceans, building detailed knowledge of marine conditions that naval experts say would be crucial for waging submarine warfare against the United States and its allies. In one...
The ‘simple maneuver’ of opening Hormuz strait carries great risks, analysts say
PARIS — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday called NATO allies “cowards” for their unwillingness to help secure maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which he said would be a “simple military maneuver” with little risk. Analysts studying military matters and geopolitics disagree. While...
Trump approved Iran operation after Netanyahu argued for joint killing of Khamenei, sources say
Less than 48 hours before the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone to President Donald Trump about the reasons for launching the kind of complex, far-off war the American leader once had campaigned against. Both Trump and Netanyahu knew...
The US has counter-mine ships homeported in the Middle East. Are they effective?
U.S. Navy counter-mine ships that replaced minesweepers last year in Bahrain have yet to demonstrate their reliability and effectiveness in the face of potential naval mine warfare, according to the Defense Department’s testing office and military experts. The Pentagon was unable to determine the operational...
USS Gerald R. Ford docks in Greece for port call after fire
The world’s largest aircraft carrier arrived in Greece for maintenance after surviving an onboard fire nearly two weeks earlier, according to a Navy release. The USS Gerald R. Ford arrived at Naval Support Activity Souda Bay on Monday after operating in the Red Sea in...
The US Army is already ditching its most powerful laser weapon yet
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons and other futuristic defense technology. Subscribe here. The U.S. Army hasn’t even officially taken delivery of its most powerful high-energy laser weapon yet, but the service is already walking away...
US-made naval drone with active warhead washes up in northern Turkey, gets blown up
IZMIR, Turkey — An armed, operational unmanned surface vessel manufactured by U.S. defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation washed ashore on Turkey’s Black Sea coast on March 20, 2026, prompting a security response that culminated in the vessel’s destruction in a controlled offshore detonation. The vessel,...
