Top 5     2 Boeing employees among 8 killed in B-52 crash (Military Times) Two of the people on board the B-52 Stratofortress that crashed Monday at an Air Force base in California were employees of the defense and aerospace corporation Boeing, the company confirmed.       Navy officer, 67, becomes oldest on record to earn Fleet Marine Force pin (Military Times) Navy Lt. Cmdr. David Westerberg knows how to grin and bear it.       B-52 crash happened during test sortie supporting radar upgrade (Air & Space Forces Magazine) The B-52H Stratofortress that crashed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on June 15 was helping test a new advanced radar that is key to a sweeping modernization of the six-decade old bomber.       European allies say they’ll be ready to help in Iran. Trump has to show he has a solid deal. (Politico) G7 countries on Tuesday expressed willingness to help President Donald Trump with next steps in Iran, including a complicated effort to remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz — that is, if the deal to end the war is as solid as Americans project.       GOP’s VA overhaul bill narrows some employees’ rights, spurs privatization, union says (GovExec) Congressional Republicans last week introduced legislation they say will improve the care that veterans receive from the federal government, though Democrats and federal employee unions warn the measure will actually degrade veterans’ benefits and employees’ rights.   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     Lawmakers aim to ease state-to-state moves for military homeschoolers (Military Times) Military families who homeschool their children would have an easier time moving from state to state under proposed legislation introduced by lawmakers this week.       Trump says Syria would do better at taming Hezbollah than Israel (Bloomberg) U.S. President Donald Trump vented his frustration with Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon, going as far to suggest that Syria would do a better job fighting Hezbollah there.       Senators vow to fight ‘tooth and nail’ for troops’ right to repair equipment (Stars and Stripes) A Democrat and Republican are vowing to fight “tooth and nail” to ensure troops are given the right to repair their own equipment after the authority was removed from last year’s defense policy bill.       Congress wants answers on Pentagon’s use of military lawyers in civilian jobs (GovExec) The Trump administration’s use of military lawyers for civilian roles would be probed by Congress’ watchdog agency under language added to the 2027 defense policy bill.   Navy     US Navy must improve process for developing autonomous systems, watchdog says (Military Times) The U.S. Navy needs to reorganize and reimagine the way it invests in autonomous systems if it plans to modernize its approach to warfare effectively, according to a government watchdog.   Marine Corps     ‘MUMS’ the word: Corps stands up first ever Marine unmanned maintenance squadron (Military Times) The Marine Corps on Tuesday stood up the service’s first ever unmanned maintenance squadron in a ceremony aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina.   AIr Force     KC-46A boom mishap caused by operator and F-22 pilot errors, investigation finds (Military Times) A U.S. Air Force investigation found that incorrect manual control inputs by a KC-46A’s boom operator, as well as a F-22A Raptor pilot not accounting for the other aircraft’s “stiff boom characteristics,” led to last year’s mishap in which the KC-46A’s refueling boom was severely damaged.       US Air Force tanker availability figures may be inflated, study finds (Military Times) Fewer U.S. Air Force tankers are available for aerial refueling missions than official figures suggest, according to a new report.   Cyber, Space & Unmanned     AI is taking background checks from 'months to hours,' clearance agency says (Defense One) The nation’s largest counterintelligence unit aims to use artificial intelligence tools to speed security clearance reviews for people and companies seeking to do sensitive work on behalf of the government.       OpenAI’s ChatGPT to debut on GenAI.mil in ‘early July’ (Nextgov) Speaking during the Defense One Tech Summit in Virginia on Tuesday, Mohammed Husain — the Strategic Delivery Lead for Cyber at OpenAI — said the company is poised in early July to unveil its flagship chatbot model ChatGPT to defense civilian and military personnel through GenAI.mil , the Pentagon’s enterprise-wide generative AI platform.       Data from ‘half a million hours of Ukraine conflict drone footage’ now available to train AI (DefenseScoop) Virginia-based, data-labeling and AI startup Enabled Intelligence is expanding its repository of curated datasets that government and commercial partners use for model training and deployments to include a new collection of drone footage recorded in Ukraine amid the ongoing war.   Defense Industry     Ukraine’s demand for tiny drone laser-targeting systems spurs new product launches (Defense News) Several European companies are promoting their laser solutions for unmanned aerial vehicles at this year’s Eurosatory exhibition in Paris, seeking to a fill critical technology gap for Ukraine’s defense.       Renault teams up with Thales to boost France’s drone production (Reuters) France’s Renault Group will produce military drones with defense technology firm Thales, the companies said on Tuesday, marking a further push by the automaker into defense manufacturing.       Rheinmetall pitches shipping container that can spit out swarms of attack drones (Defense News) German defense giant Rheinmetall unveiled a new concept for inundating battlefields with scores of loitering munitions : having them streak by the dozens out of 20-foot shipping containers.       As Europe rearms, ‘wingman’ aircraft take center stage (Reuters) Center stage at last week’s Berlin airshow was the “wingman” drone, Europe’s latest-generation defense weapon designed to accompany fighter jets.       KNDS proposes mixed French-German tank to replace France’s Leclerc (Defense News) KNDS is proposing a main battle tank with a turret and gun developed in France and mounted on the hull of Germany’s Leopard 2 as an intermediate solution to replace the French Army’s aging Leclerc tanks, which are expected to reach the end of their service life before the arrival of a next-generation tank.       MBDA advances land version of its naval missile as European strike weapon (Defense News) MBDA is advancing with a land-launched version of its Naval Cruise Missile to offer European nations a long-range strike option, with the pan-European missile maker presenting a truck-transportable launcher and plans for a missile upgrade at the Eurosatory defense show.       India touts new ballistic missile defense prowess after tests (Defense News) India says recent trials have demonstrated the country’s ability to intercept ballistic missiles, placing it among a select group of countries with advanced capabilities to that effect.   International     US says it defended dark ships in Hormuz against regular threats (Bloomberg) The U.S. military says it has defended commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz against regular threats since starting a program to assist vessels moving through the waterway, according to a document sent to the industry that lays out details of the help it’s been offering.       Russian navy ship accused of firing warning shots at UK yacht (The New York Times) Britain’s Defense Ministry said it was investigating a report that a Russian vessel fired warning shots near a U.K.-registered yacht in the English Channel on Tuesday.       Latest US strike on alleged drug boat kills 1, leaves 2 survivors, Pentagon says (CBS News) Critics have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes as well as their effectiveness since the U.S. military began them in September 2025.       Greenland has enough bases to defend itself, commander says (Bloomberg) Greenland has enough bases and permanent troops to support NATO operations and deter Russian threats as Denmark’s multi-billion-dollar push to strengthen defenses in the Arctic remains in its early stages, said the Nordic country’s top military commander on the territory.       NATO has 'changed a lot' in four years, transformation leader says (Defense One) NATO has “really changed a lot in the last three to four years,” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced the alliance to rethink how it learns, experiments, and operates, a top NATO transformation official said.       Sudan ditches Iran weapons, courting US support for ending war (Bloomberg) Sudan’s army has curbed purchases of Iranian weapons, according to people familiar with the matter, as the North African nation strives to win US support in future talks to end a three-year civil war.   Commentary & Analysis     Not just a ‘flawed design’: Charting a new course for the GWOT Memorial (Military Times) More than a decade ago, I founded the Global War on Terror Memorial Foundation alongside a group of extraordinary Americans who served our country during our nation’s longest war.       The betrayal of the Iranian people (The Atlantic) On the night of January 8, in the low-slung, industrial city of Karaj, just northwest of Tehran, a 17-year-old boy named Sam Afshari was killed by Iran’s security services. He and his friends were peacefully protesting when the streetlights suddenly went dark. Witnesses saw members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij militia on the beds of trucks charge up behind demonstrators, firing .50-caliber machine guns indiscriminately into the crowd. Sam was shot in the back, just below his kidneys, and brought to a hospital alive for surgery. He had a breathing tube in his mouth when, the family believes, IRGC agents visited the hospital and administered Sam a “finishing shot” to the back of the head.       The AI race won't be won by the best model—but by the fastest military (The Cipher Brief) The United States Intelligence Community does not ordinarily deal in hyperbole. When the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its annual threat assessment on March 18, artificial intelligence featured prominently among a complex array of challenges — elevated, alongside quantum computing, to what the IC now treats as a central driver of power and strategic risk.       How the Air Force Weapons School’s space course has grown over 30 years (Air & Space Forces Magazine) Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman graduated from the Air Force Weapons School in 2001 equipped with academic knowledge about how to integrate space capabilities into Air Force operations. But as he describes it, he received limited hands-on experience with the systems themselves.       Understanding the potential value and risks of arming indigenous groups in support of US national objectives (Small Wars Journal) Understanding the Potential Value and Risks of Arming Indigenous Groups in Support of US National Objectives | Mark Grdovic: Substack | May 14th, 2026       Can the Pentagon buy faster before the next war arrives? (The Cipher Brief) “The reasons why DoD accepts flawed business cases are both structural and cultural in nature. Poor acquisition decisions are compounded by a budget planning process that requires DoD to secure long-range funding commitments before a program’s business case is fully understood. The current process incentivizes ‘starting fast’ — awarding massive development contracts quickly, often in the name of preserving the industrial base, and obligating funds rapidly to ensure the budget is not ‘lost’ to another program. Success is all too often measured by activity (money spent), not by outcomes (capability delivered).”       The drone is not the weapon. The software commanding it is (Small Wars Journal) DoD Directive 3000.09 defines lethal autonomous weapon systems by what the munition does, anchoring the category to the effector rather than the decision layer above it.  Kateryna Bondar and Matt Mande, in their CSIS brief “Defining Autonomy: Why Software, Not Drones, Will Decide the Next War ,” argue that this definition misses where autonomy actually lives.