The British Army is now the smallest it has been in 200 years, as more defence personnel continue to leave than join, while in Germany the military recruitment crisis is so acute the defence minister speaks of bringing back conscription.
Militaria
What Americans Need to Know about the Next War
Global disorder is growing rapidly even as domestic political support for the post-war order that America’s power underwrote is diminishing. The prospect of a direct war between two or more of the world’s great powers, something that has been avoided for 78 years and counting, seems more likely now than at any time since the end of the Cold War. The United States has a great deal of experience in fighting other great powers through proxy wars, whether during our own interventions (Korea, Vietnam) or our opposition to adversaries’ interventions (Afghanistan in the ’80s, Ukraine today). Our policy continues to be to deter direct major-power conflict. Resorts to violence — as seen most recently in the savage attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas, which occurred just before this issue went to press — are increasing in frequency across Africa and Eurasia, and ultimately such deterrence could fail. Americans would benefit from thinking about what a direct clash with China or Russia would look like and what it would demand of us as a nation.
The slow and delicate aircraft taking on spy missions
Most military spying is conducted from satellites hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface.
But there’s a new entrant in the old game of keeping an eye on your strategic opponents, and this new spy is surprisingly sluggish.
Phasa-35 moves so slowly it can appear to be going backwards.
This weird, elongated British aircraft is powered by small electric engines attached to elongated wings encasing solar panels. These capture power during the day and keep the two engines turning at night.
US Military faces recruitment crisis thanks to ‘unpatriotic’ Gen Z, obesity, therapy ban
Much of the military will fall short of recruitment goals by as much as 25% this year — caused by a combination of obesity and falling patriotism in Gen Z and by restrictions on recruits having had therapy.
The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard are all expected to fall short of their recruitment goals this year, they told The Post.
“My generation is a real challenge,” 25-year-old Marine 2nd Lt. Matthew Weiss told the Post. “Something has to change.”
Military Recruitment Is Plummeting: Blame the Pentagon
Veterans no longer want their kids to enlist. Here’s why.
Lately, military-age males have stayed away from the military in droves. General officers and senior civilians in the Pentagon blame a poor public education system and decades of video games for creating a generation of young men not mentally and physically qualified to serve — and there is certainly some truth to that.
But if senior Pentagon officials want to get to the bottom of the Biden-era recruiting dip, they should look in the mirror and at the picture of the sitting president on the wall of virtually every office in the five-sided wind tunnel in Arlington, Virginia.
The A-10 Warthog Making One Final Flight — to the Boneyard
Beloved as much by the grunts on the ground as the pilots who flew it, the A-10 ground attack jet is being retired after five decades of very loud and effective service. Air Force enthusiasts everywhere are going to miss that ugly S.O.B.
The Military Recruiting Crisis: Even Veterans Don’t Want Their Children to Join
Pentagon scrambles to retain the main pipeline for new service members as disillusioned families steer young people away
Sky Nisperos’s grandfather came to the U.S. from Mexico, and became an American citizen by serving in the U.S. Navy. Her father, Ernest Nisperos, is an active-duty officer in the Air Force with two decades of service. For years, Sky planned to follow a similar path.
“I wanted to be a fighter pilot,” the 22-year-old said. “It was stuck in my head.”
Now, one of the most influential people in her life—her father—is telling her that a military career may not be the right thing.
US military pictures of ‘Massive Ordnance Penetrator’ bomb quickly deleted
Pictures of a powerful US Air Force bomb designed to destroy underground bunkers that could be hiding uranium enrichment have been seen for the first time.
The military released rare images of the GBU-57, also known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, on 2 May, before quickly deleting them in light of security concerns.
It comes amid growing tensions with Iran’s nuclear programme. The country is constructing a facility that may be beyond the reach of the specialised weapon, according to The Associated Press.
1 in 3 Female Recruits Injured in Army Basic Training
America can have a military that wins wars or plays identity politics. We can either have the best warfighting force possible or a military that, as woke generals and politicians insist, “looks like America.”
Such a military will have drag queens in the Navy, use racial quotas in the Air Force, and pretend that there are no biological differences between men and women.
At a Steam-Age Arsenal, U.S. Army Forges Cannons for a Digital Era, War in Ukraine
WATERVLIET, N.Y.—On a military base more than two centuries old, the Army is hammering out its cannon of the future.
The Watervliet Arsenal opened during the War of 1812 and one building dates to 1828. Yet inside an aging production hall, new digital machine tools that resemble science-fiction space pods are churning out components for Abrams tanks, a weapon pledged for fighting in Ukraine. In another hall, an automated forge pounds red-hot metal cylinders into 20-foot gun barrels for America’s next howitzers, which will lob shells more than 40 miles.
Canada Weighs Need for New Submarines as US, Britain Push Forward on Nuclear Fleets
The clock is ticking for the Canadian military to decide whether to replace its submarines, as Canada’s closest allies push ahead with plans to build new fleets.
The Royal Canadian Navy launched a push to replace the country’s four Victoria-class submarines nearly two years ago by creating a special team to figure out what Canada needs in a new fleet.
The move came in response to growing concerns about the age of Canada’s existing submarines and the amount of time needed to design and build such vessels.
Belgian buyer of Europe’s spare tanks hopes they see action in Ukraine
On the outskirts of Tournai, a sleepy medieval town in the gentle, Brueghelian landscape of the French-speaking part of Belgium, there is an unassuming grey hangar, barely hidden behind a fence. Inside are rows upon rows of German-made Leopard 1 tanks and other heavy fighting vehicles – some of the same types of weapons that top Ukraine’s military wishlist.
The hangar belongs to the Belgium defence company OIP and contains one of the biggest privately owned reserves of weapons in Europe. “Many of these tanks have been sitting here for years. Hopefully, now it is the time they finally see some action in Ukraine,” said Freddy Versluys, the head of OIP, as he toured the hangar.
“Here we have the 50 Leopard 1s,” he said, pointing. “We also have 38 German Gepard tanks, 112 Austrian SK-105 light tanks, and 100 Italian VCC2 and 70 M113 armour carriers.”
Woke and broke U.S. Army now accepting recruits with ADHD, other “behavioral challenges”
Being all uber-woke you can be has just about brought the Army to its knees. In this day and age, they’ve fallen so far down the rabbit hole anymore that they can’t get anyone who’s their normal target recruit to sign up to save their lives. Or anyone else’s, for that matter. Their recruiting numbers are dismal.
Recruited for Navy SEALs, Many Sailors Wind Up Scraping Paint
The high failure rate of the elite force’s selection course shunts hundreds of candidates into low-skilled jobs.
NAVAL BASE KITSAP, Wash. — A sailor fresh out the elite Navy SEAL selection course slung his gear over his broad shoulder and clomped down a steel ladder into the guts of a Navy ship to execute a difficult, dayslong mission specifically assigned to him: scrubbing the stinking scum out of the ship’s cavernous bilge tank.
Hardly the stuff of action movies, but it’s how many would-be SEALs end up.
Canadian Military Attrition at Highest Rate in 15 Years: Leaked Documents
The Canadian military’s attrition rate has reached its highest level in 15 years amounting to a “workforce crisis,” warned defence chief, Gen. Wayne Eyre, in a leaked briefing note prepared for the Armed Forces Council.
“Although attrition was forecast to be higher than average for two years post-pandemic, we are realizing likely 1000 higher than forecast, the highest in 15 years,” Eyre said in the note, which was obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.
The Department of National Defence told The Epoch Times in an email that the 2021-2022 combined attrition rate for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) regular forces and primary reserve forces was 9.3 percent.
There must be thousands of gender fluid individuals just itchin to serve their country.