Top 5     Pentagon creates advisory council on human performance, health (Military Times) After creating a new directorate on warfighter optimization within the Department of Defense, the Pentagon announced it will form a federal advisory committee to weigh in on issues affecting troop performance and health.       US Marine indicted over suspected murder, robbery of woman in Okinawa (Military Times) Japanese prosecutors indicted the U.S. Marine suspected of murdering and robbing a local woman Oct. 4.       Congressmen launch bipartisan military range, test facility caucus (Military Times) A bipartisan group of U.S. representatives launched a caucus focusing on educating Congress and the public on military ranges and test facilities in an effort to further encourage the federal government to invest in its associated infrastructure, land and workforce.       US military’s drug boat strikes have now killed at least 240 people (Task & Purpose) The U.S. military killed five people Tuesday aboard what Southern Command described as a “go-fast vessel” associated with “narco-terrorists” in the eastern Pacific Ocean, bringing the death toll from its campaign against suspected drug traffickers to at least 240 since September 2025.       Palestinians protest against military demolitions in West Bank as Israelis vote (Reuters) Israeli troops fired a stun grenade on Tuesday to disperse Palestinians who gathered to protest against an Israeli military operation that has displaced thousands of residents from a neighbourhood in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.   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.   Pentagon     Iran war cost rises to $47.1 billion, Pentagon told lawmakers (The New York Times) The estimate through Oct. 16 shows that bombs, missiles and other munitions accounted for more than 60 percent of expenses.   Congress & Politics     US defends military campaign against cartels as leaders gather in Caribbean (The New York Times) A regional coalition convened as part of a U.S. military effort to disrupt and combat drug traffickers that officials have compared to the campaign against the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.   Navy     Navy identifies NAS Pensacola sailors killed in car crash (Military Times) The U.S. Navy announced the names of the service members who died in a fiery car crash early Saturday morning in Pensacola, Florida.       Navy sees 10-year high for Class A aviation, afloat mishaps (USNI News) The Navy saw the most Class A aviation and afloat mishaps in at least in a decade, according to Fiscal Year 2026 data recently released by the Navy Safety Command.   Marine Corps     Marine Corps fast-tracks AI-powered ultrasounds, blood coolers to battlefield (Military Times) For the Marine Corps, one lesson to come out of Operation Epic Fury is a clear mandate to move faster on technology that might make battlefield injuries less lethal. And the service is doing just that, ramping up acquisition processes for two new devices, a portable smart ultrasound and a blood refrigerator, that promise to keep troops alive for longer at triage points.       Nearly 50 recon and intel Marines headed to undersea cable guard duty in Europe (Task & Purpose) A team of close to 50 reconnaissance and intelligence-focused Marines are being sent to join a NATO mission that oversees the network of undersea internet cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea.       Marine rotational force concludes deployment to the outback (USNI News) Marine Rotational Force-Darwin 26.3 completed its six month rotational deployment to Australia and the Indo-Pacific, the service announced on Friday.       Marine rotational force concludes deployment to the outback (USNI News) Marine Rotational Force-Darwin 26.3 completed its six month rotational deployment to Australia and the Indo-Pacific, the service announced on Friday.   AIr Force     Air Force restores mandatory flu shots for more personnel (Stars and Stripes) The annual influenza vaccine is back on the list of mandatory immunizations for broad categories of airmen.   Veterans     ‘Seats are not being filled’: Veterans say VA is not supporting stakeholder advisory committees (Stars and Stripes) Army veteran Ronald Brown has been waiting for two years for the Department of Veterans Affairs to renew his appointment to a stakeholders committee that advises the VA secretary on finding a cure for Gulf War Illness.   Defense Industry     US Air Force awards Lockheed Martin $694M hypersonic missile production contract (Military Times) The U.S. Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a nearly $700 million contract for the production and fielding of a hypersonic missile.       India capitalizes on Europe’s growing demand for ammunition (Defense News) India’s defense exports to Europe have surged, driven largely by demand for ammunition and artillery shells as European countries ramp up military spending amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.       US Army queries industry’s ability to build 21,000 Infantry Squad Vehicles (Military Times) The U.S. Army is asking whether the defense industrial base can deliver and support nearly 21,000 Infantry Squad Vehicles.       US taps Poland to host European PAC-3 missile maintenance facility (Defense News) The United States government has selected Poland to host a new European maintenance facility for Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptors, produced by Lockheed Martin , according to U.S. and Polish officials.       Britain will not join Canada-led defense bank initiative (Reuters) Britain will not join the Canada-led Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, in a setback to efforts to create the world’s first global defense bank, according to a person familiar with the matter.       US Army looks to high-flying balloons to help see, strike along front lines with China (Military Times) To burst China’s anti-access/area-denial bubble, the U.S. Army is looking at using high-flying balloons with payloads that can monitor the battlefield, relay communications and strike adversaries.   Ukraine     Ukraine’s StarGate drone now evacuating wounded soldiers (The War Zone) Ukraine’s 475th Separate Assault Regiment, known as CODE 9.2, says it has used the StarGate uncrewed aerial platform to evacuate two seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefield in the span of a week. Reportedly, this is the first time the specialized drone has been used for an operation of this kind. It is not, however, the first instance of Ukraine using an aerial rescue drone on the battlefield, with the more extemporized heavy hexacopter also having been used recently, as you can read about here.   International     US warns Gulf of possible short, intense renewal of Iran war after midterms (The Wall Street Journal) There are new signs that the American and Israeli militaries are preparing a potential wave of strikes to muscle Tehran to the negotiating table DUBAI—The U.S. has told several Gulf Arab countries to be prepared for a short, intense military campaign after the U.S. midterm elections, people briefed …       US intel confirms this is China’s secret spaceplane (The War Zone) The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has confirmed that an image that has been circulating online for years does indeed show an experimental Chinese reusable spaceplane in orbit. A newly released higher-resolution copy of the image underscores that the design is nearly a dead ringer for the X-37B miniature space shuttles now operated by the U.S. Space Force.   Military Culture & History     A shipwreck, two Nazi spies and the Boy Scout who noticed (Military Times) As he rounds a bend, his headlights catch two figures trudging through the snow. They’re moving slowly, heads down against the wind, dressed in long, city-style overcoats and slacks, clothes that look foreign here in the Maine woods. He slows the car, and the men turn their faces away from the light. It’s bitter cold, but they wear no hats, no boots. Hodgkins finds it suspicious. “You just don’t see folks walking without boots out here when it’s snowy . . . no one around here wears a topcoat in the winter.”   Video     Someone hid the Batmobile on the show floor at a defense conference (Defense News) Allient Defense took a novel approach to gaining attention for their booth at AUSA 2026 — hiding a surprise inside.       A real crown princess got promoted in the Royal Netherlands Navy (Defense News) Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange and heiress to the Dutch throne, moved up in rank recently in a program for training reservists in the military in the Netherlands.       Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, relic of Nazi Germany, consumed in fire (Defense News) A man was arrested following a blaze at the mountaintop retreat used by Adolf Hitler and other top Nazis during WWII.       Throwback to the military’s skydiving rescue dog, Callie (Defense News) In this 2019 footage, Callie, a specially trained dog and member of Kentucky Air Guard’s 123rd Search and Rescue K-9 program, takes a giant leap with her handler.   Commentary & Analysis     Their fathers served in Vietnam. Why won’t VA cover their birth defects? (The War Horse) Scott Davidson has always liked a challenge. This year, the 46-year-old ultramarathoner ran 100 continuous miles through his home state of Nevada, racing over roads and trails through the wind and darkness.       America’s military presence reshapes Hormuz (The Wall Street Journal) Progress is undeniable, and there is a clear explanation. As your editorial highlights in “ The Democratic Hormuz Alternative” (Oct. 16), some are ready to declare defeat and hand the Strait of Hormuz to the Islamic Republic of Iran. But the tide is beginning to turn in the battle for the Strait of …       The anti-Taliban resistance has survived. Can it win? (War on the Rocks) As the Taliban enters its sixth year in power, it remains more powerful than it was before the Sept. 11 attacks. The Taliban’s flag flies in all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. While only Russia has formally recognized the group as the country’s government, China and the United Arab Emirates have officially accredited or accepted Taliban ambassadors and exchanged diplomatic staff, with Pakistan, Qatar, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkey establishing de facto working relationships with the Sunni Deobandi group. Even its archrival, the Islamic State in Afghanistan, has seen its attack activity decline after years of counter-terrorism operations.However, beneath the       Financial aid for Ukraine is getting harder to find (Defense One) European leaders meet next month to discuss ways to help Ukraine fill a projected €70 billion budget deficit. But their capacity for direct aid is constrained by efforts to rearm their own militaries amid a challenging economic environment, while Belgium continues to oppose the conversion of frozen Russian assets into a loan.       The machine staff (War on the Rocks) At Nellis Air Force Base last year, an AI system was tasked with building courses of action, a complex operational problem that military planners have spent generations learning to perform. The AI system took less than a minute to complete its task with solutions rated at 97 percent viable and tactically valid (essentially, whether the proposed plan could work given operational constraints such as fuel and force composition). By contrast, their human counterparts took roughly 19 minutes and only reached 48 percent viability.That comparison needs two qualifiers. First, the tool that hit 97 percent came from a single vendor that