Top 5     US Navy destroyer intercepts Iranian-flagged vessel trying to skirt blockade (Military Times) The U.S. Navy prevented an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel from leaving Iran on Tuesday after it attempted to evade the maritime blockade that began Monday, U.S. Central Command announced.       Suicide rates among military families continue to climb (Military Times) Nearly 150 military family members died by suicide in 2023, a drop of 22% in the past six years.       White House offers no hint of Iran war cost as it seeks military funding surge (Reuters) White House budget director Russell Vought said on Wednesday he could not estimate the cost of the Iran war, as he defended President Donald Trump’s request for a massive $1.5 trillion annual military budget against bipartisan criticism from U.S. lawmakers who cited the Pentagon’s historic lack of financial accountability.       USS Gerald R. Ford breaks record for longest post-Vietnam deployment (Military Times) The world’s largest aircraft carrier officially earned the distinction of having the longest modern deployment Wednesday, when it marked 296 days at sea.       New Army assault aircraft named ‘Cheyenne II’ (Military Times) The Army on Wednesday named its next-generation assault aircraft “Cheyenne II,” putting a formal name on the focal point of an aviation program that has been readily expedited.   US Strikes in Caribbean and Eastern Pacific     A list of US military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels (Military Times) Since early September 2025, the U.S. military has conducted strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in support of what the Pentagon has called continued counternarcotics efforts.   Operation Timeline     The human impact of policy changes at the DOD and VA (The War Horse) An ongoing timeline of the Trump administration’s actions focusing on the military and veterans.   Congress & Politics     Iran war powers resolution blocked for fourth time in Senate (Roll Call) Senate Republicans again fended off a Democratic attempt to force President Donald Trump to end the war in Iran, but there are signs GOP anxiety could bubble up as the conflict nears the 60-day mark.       Senate Republicans back Trump military sales to Israel (Defense News) The U.S. Senate on Wednesday blocked two resolutions that would have stopped the sale of some $450 million in bombs and bulldozers to Israel, as President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans rallied behind his support for the Jewish state.   Your Military     Navy, Marines welcomed into Texas as Houston hosts the state’s first Fleet Week (Stars and Stripes) As soon as Marine Corps Sgt. Ashleigh Lozano heard the Navy was planning a Fleet Week for her hometown, she knew she had to find a way to be there.   Army     CH-47 Chinook air-launching swarms of drones touted as future feature (The War Zone) With orders for the twin-rotor helicopter still rolling in, Boeing has provided details on its future plans for the venerable H-47 Chinook, including adding launched effects and creating a path toward a crewed version of the aircraft. The latter would offer an unprecedented vertical-lift capability, and one that could be of great interest to the U.S. Army and other operators.       Army officer pleads guilty to 17 charges in firearms parts smuggling case (Military Times) A U.S. Army lieutenant colonel pleaded guilty Monday to importing AK-style firearms parts from foreign countries, including Russia, without a license.   AIr Force     US Air Force debuts operational AI wargame system (Defense News) The U.S. Air Force for the first time utilized the service’s new artificial intelligence wargame system in an event late last month.       Air Force Secretary doubles down on space-based radar bet amid key aircraft losses in Iran (Defense One) Air Force officials are pursuing a space-based system to detect airborne threats and pushing off additional funding for battlespace awareness aircraft in the 2027 budget, even as the service’s fleet of radar planes is in Iran’s sights.   Space Force     Space Force lays out vision for what it thinks it needs in 2040 (Air & Space Forces Magazine) The Space Force on April 15 released two highly anticipated future-casting documents that describe what the service expects the space environment will look like in the year 2040 and lay out the force structure it thinks it will need to operate in that environment.       Space Force accepts upgrade to deep-space telescope on Hawaii (Air & Space Forces Magazine) The Space Force has accepted an upgrade to its Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance telescope for operations, bringing increased visibility into orbit to its Maui Space Surveillance Complex in Hawaii.   Veterans     A VA-sponsored committee wants to hear from vets with neurological conditions (Stars and Stripes) The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine is seeking personal stories from veterans who developed certain neurodegenerative conditions after deploying to the Gulf War and post-9/11 conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.       How an overhaul of federal layoffs could affect veterans (Task & Purpose) The Trump administration is proposing a major overhaul of how the federal government decides which workers to lay off when eliminating jobs. For veterans, the new rule would prioritize performance reviews over both veteran status and years of service when agencies determine which workers to cut.       Army veteran who prosecuted Nazis awarded Congressional Gold Medal (Stars and Stripes) Congress on Tuesday posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest honors bestowed on civilians, to U.S. Army veteran Benjamin Ferencz for his work in investigating and prosecuting Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials.   Cyber, Space & Unmanned     Expect more cybersecurity executive orders soon, national cyber director says (Nextgov) President Donald Trump is expected to sign more cybersecurity-focused executive orders in the near future, following the release of his administration’s national cyber strategy, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross said Wednesday.   Defense Industry     Rattled by Trump, US allies eye Japan’s biggest arms opening since WWII (Defense News) Japan’s imminent easing of arms export rules has sparked strong interest from Warsaw to Manila, Reuters reporting found, as President Donald Trump wavers on security commitments to allies and the wars in Iran and Ukraine strain U.S. weapons supplies.       Berlin gets a front-row seat to German weapons’ performance in Ukraine (Defense News) Germany is formalizing a system under which its defense industry will receive unprecedented access to combat performance data from its own weapons fighting in Ukraine, as part of a sweeping $4.72 billion defense package signed in Berlin on Tuesday.       AeroVironment launches new multifunctional drone variant (Defense News) AeroVironment is debuting a new drone with the capacity to carry out reconnaissance, electronic warfare and strike missions, building on a lethal loitering system that is already being fielded by the Army, according to a Wednesday announcement.       France puts mobile corps command to the test in major war scenario (Defense News) On the edge of a meadow in western France, Gen. Benoît Desmeulles moves between two closely-parked armored personnel carriers tucked against a cover of trees and shrubs to reach his makeshift office, a patch of grass covered by a tent and multi-spectral camouflage netting.       Estonia raids combat-vehicle funds to buy more drones, air defenses (Defense News) Estonia’s government has decided to put on hold its planned acquisition of new infantry fighting vehicles.   Israel-Gaza-Lebanon-Syria     Israeli military continues to strike Hezbollah amid Lebanon peace talks, Netanyahu says (Reuters) Israeli military continues to strike Hezbollah amid Lebanon peace talks, Netanyahu says.   Ukraine     Ukraine deploys new combat model, commander says Russian-held areas recaptured (Reuters) Ukraine deploys new combat model, commander says Russian-held areas recaptured.       Ukraine's military to get biggest-ever shipment of UK drones (BBC News) With attention on the Middle East, Defense Secretary John Healey said "Putin wants us to be distracted."   International     USS Nimitz holds joint training with Chilean military as US military shows off hardware at defense trade show (Stars and Stripes) USS Nimitz held joint maritime training exercises with the military of Chile this week as the carrier continued its move to a new homeport at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.   Military Culture & History     Teen soldier who told his mother "no tears" identified after 75 years (CBS News) U.S. Army Sgt. Celestino Chavez enlisted in the military when he was 17, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.   Video     Check out Russia's robotic, self-loading mortar system (Military Times) Autonomous indirect fire system, loads, shoots and moves by itself.   Commentary & Analysis     We were Marines who did everything together. Then my name appeared in his suicide note (The War Horse) I joined the Marine Corps because junior college didn’t take. A semester and a half of C-minus ambition told me I needed something louder, something sharper.       What Iran is learning from Russia’s war and why the US should be concerned (The Cipher Brief) The war in Ukraine is often framed by optimistic academics, and some policymakers as a cautionary tale—an example of how military aggression can backfire, weaken a state, and isolate it from the world. But that assumption may be dangerously incomplete. For regimes like Iran, the more relevant lesson may not be Russia’s failures, but its endurance.       The demise of strategic planning in Israel (War on the Rocks) What happens when a country at war stops seriously debating its own strategy and goals?In Israel today, that scenario is no longer theoretical. In the aftermath of Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, Israel’s strategic decision-making ecosystem has been progressively undermined by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political associates.Netanyahu has surrounded himself with pliable officials and supportive voices, including the defense minister and the leaders of the Mossad and the Internal Security Agency (Shin Bet). He has become increasingly dependent on extreme coalition partners who constrain the parameters of       Russians will surrender to robots. Russian robots won’t. (Defense One) NATO is studying how to use ground and air robots to replace human soldiers in assaults, something Ukraine has been doing for more than a year.  But that hasn’t stopped Russia’s continuous assault with its own, increasingly autonomous one-way attack drones.       Silent killers, not signals: Why states use poison in assassinations (War on the Rocks) The recent news that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death was caused by epibatidine — a South American frog toxin — has reignited interest in state use of poisons and toxins in assassinations. Although state use of such compounds has a long history, the erosion of the norms prohibiting assassinations and chemical and biological weapons increases the likelihood of future assassinations using poisons and toxins. As demonstrated in the recent targeting of the Iranian leadership in Operation Eric Fury and in the assassinations of prominent Iranian nuclear scientists, including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the assassination norm has collapsed.