Author: Defenceline Webdesk

“It felt almost like you were playing God with their life at that moment,” recalled Joe Laude, executive director of the Operation Allies Refuge Foundation (OAR),  reflecting on the final days of the U.S. evacuation from Kabul. A Marine machine-gunner with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines who served at Abbey Gate during the evacuation in August 2021, Laude witnessed firsthand the impossible choices facing Americans as approximately 123,000 people were evacuated and thousands of Afghans sought a way out.   Every decision – to let someone through the gate, to turn someone away – carried life-altering consequences. When the last U.S.…

In the early hours of September 24, Pakistan carried out air and drone strikes on ten locations inside Afghanistan. Subsequently, Afghan media identified Kandahar – where the Taliban’s supreme leader (Amir-al-Mu’minin) Hibatullah Akhundzada is based – as well as Khost and Paktia as the provinces targeted. A few hours later, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on social media that the strikes were “deliberate, precise, calibrated and proportionate” and were “strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan.” “Attempted attacks” was a reference to earlier Pakistani claims that it had shot down ten rudimentary…

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York this week. Out of that meeting came a new bilateral security agreement, unlocking a further US$42 million in Australian assistance to Ukraine – split between Australian Defense Force (ADF) equipment, Ukraine’s Energy Support Fund, and humanitarian assistance. This brings Australia’s total contribution to almost US$1.4 billion.  Ukraine is obviously far away from Australia’s immediate security concerns in the Indo-Pacific, but Canberra’s support for the country is driven principally by its interest in preventing territorial conquest from becoming an…

WASHIGTON — While US officials have warned of munitions shortfalls from the Iran conflict, the Navy’s top cyber official identified another key observation from recent military operations: the “cyber magazine” can be vulnerable to exhaustion as well. “Your cyber magazine of these exquisite fires is empty pretty damn quick,” Vice Adm. Heidi Berg, commander of Fleet Cyber Command/10th Fleet, said in response to a question regarding lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and US operations in Venezuela, the Middle East and elsewhere.   “How are you going to regenerate and continue to develop accesses and effects to be able to…

When Chinese President Xi Jinping held a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump on September 24, Trump made sure Xi knew how he felt. The U.S. leader expressed no fewer than three times in the first minute of their joint remarks that it was his “honor” – or even “great honor” – to host Xi.  The “honor,” apparently was all Trump’s. Xi made no similar expression of feeling “honored” to be hosted by the U.S. president, simply saying he was “glad” to be in Washington.  That set the tone for a meeting that was long on symbolism but short on…

WASHINGTON — The Navy’s initiative to revamp its four public shipyards could come with a price tag nearly ten times higher than initially estimated and take decades longer to complete, according to a new government watchdog report.  The Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program (SIOP) launched in 2018 and aims to upgrade the drydocks and standard equipment at the service’s current four shipyards in Virginia, Maine, Washington and Hawaii that oversee repairs for the Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and submarine fleet.  Initially, the service predicted the effort would take roughly 20 years and cost approximately $21 billion, although Navy officials overseeing SIOP…

On September 24, more than 3,000 Tibetans gathered in Washington to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House, in what organizers described as the largest-ever Tibetan rally in North America. The rally was organized by Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) and supported by other Tibetan activist organizations. The protesters came with demands that they said should be part of the China-U.S. relationship: that Trump raise human rights with Xi, that China release political and religious prisoners, and that Tibetans be allowed to preserve their language and culture. The group also demanded the repeal of China’s new Ethnic Unity…

WASHINGTON — Today’s ruling by a three-judge appeals panel against Anthropic in the AI titan’s lawsuit against the Department of Defense is far from the end of the saga, legal experts told Breaking Defense, with Anthropic’s options including further appeals. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today upheld the Pentagon’s controversial designation of the company’s products as a “supply chain risk” to national security. That decision allows the Pentagon to ban all use of Anthropic AI, not only by its own personnel, but also by private sector employees actively working on defense contracts. However, today’s ruling…

In a recent article for The Diplomat, Mor Sobol offered an even-handed assessment of the debate set off by Simon Shuster’s piece in The Atlantic, which asked whether Taiwan might simply “give up” under growing pressure from China. Sobol argued that both Shuster’s pessimistic answer and his critics’ confident rebuttals rest on thinner evidence than either side recognizes.  Sobol pointed out that telling a pollster “I would defend Taiwan” is very different from making that decision when missiles are falling, and that Taiwan is not a unitary actor. The question worth asking is how the trends in public opinion, military…

Live Webinar:Date: October 21, 2026Time: 2p ET / 11am PT TITLE: Building logistics networks that survive contested environmentsParticipants can earn 1 CPE credit AGENDA: We’ll discuss the following: Why contested logistics has become a more urgent operational challenge How software-defined systems can improve visibility, responsiveness, and survivability Why resilient connectivity is critical to contested environments How smart warehousing, remote updates, and condition-based maintenance can support readiness The role of edge-based AI in helping commanders prioritize logistics decisions How private tactical 5G and future network architectures may support logistics under pressure Where industry sees the most important opportunities across defense logistics Tech…