Top 5     US Navy selects Boeing to build next-generation F/A-XX fighter (Military Times) Boeing has been selected to build the Navy’s sixth-generation carrier-based strike fighter, dubbed F/A-XX, icing out what was considered to be its biggest competitor in late-stage negotiations, Northrop Grumman.       8 injured after 2 aviators eject during landing mishap aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (Military Times) A mishap involving two pilots and six sailors occurred aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower on Monday, the Navy announced.       Nearly 500,000 veterans to get 3-month break from paying life insurance premiums (Military Times) More than 457,000 veterans participating in the Veterans’ Group Life Insurance program will get a three-month break on their monthly premiums, just in time for the holidays.       US forces exiting Iraq after 2 decades, leaving opening for Iran (Reuters) U.S. forces are set to depart from their last bases in Iraq by Wednesday, a move celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies, who now have deep influence in the country where 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of war.       Why the Pentagon just dropped $450M on tungsten mining (Military Times) The Defense Department announced this month a $450 million investment in The Elmet Group to strengthen the U.S. supply chain for tungsten, a critical mineral used for manufacturing military weapons ranging from bullets to missiles.   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     Pentagon awards Raytheon up to $20.7 billion to nearly double AMRAAM production (Military Times) The Defense Department has awarded Raytheon a multiyear contract worth up to $20.7 billion to build Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs. The Pentagon said the deal will nearly double AMRAAM production.       Hegseth halts tenure appointments for civilian faculty at military academies (Military Times) The nation’s military service academies will no longer appoint civilian faculty to tenured positions under a new directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who says the schools must remain focused on preparing future officers for war.       Pentagon chief set to announce additional cuts in senior officer positions (Reuters) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to announce a 20% cut in the number of positions for generals and admirals when he speaks with hundreds of junior service members at Quantico, Virginia, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Tuesday.       Pentagon directs cyber, intelligence agencies to counter foreign election threats (Military Times) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Pentagon’s cyber and intelligence agencies to prioritize the 2026 midterm elections, directing them to “mobilize every authorized asset, capability, and partnership under your command” to defend election infrastructure from foreign influence.   Your Military     Airmen, guardians to update religious affiliation to align with Pentagon policy (Military Times) Airmen and guardians are required to update their Religious Affiliation Codes as the Department of the Air Force revises its personnel data systems to better align with the Pentagon’s “standardized” list of faith designations.   Army     Army Reserve reaches recruiting goal for the first time in a decade (Stars and Stripes) The Army reached its enlistment goal for its Reserve component for the first time in a decade.       Army publishes guidebook to help NCOs manage the barracks (Task & Purpose) A new guidebook outlines the duties for soldiers in the barracks and offers management tips to noncommissioned officers on how to address emergencies in living spaces.   Navy     USS Klakring sent to the bottom of the Atlantic in joint US-UK SINKEX (Defense News) A decommissioned U.S. guided-missile frigate was sent below the seas on Sept. 25 during a joint U.S.-U.K. naval exercise, the U.S. Navy recently announced.   Marine Corps     Marine digs children from debris after deadly landslide strikes Japanese neighborhood (Stars and Stripes) A Marine helped dig two children from debris and spent hours clearing wreckage from his Japanese neighbors’ homes after a landslide triggered by Typhoon Dujuan tore through his neighborhood on Sept. 21, killing one woman.   AIr Force     Troops at Cannon AFB lost 5,000 duty days traveling for medical care: GAO (Military Times) Troops at Cannon Air Force Base lost at least 5,000 duty days in 2025 because they had to travel long distances for medical care, with some service members traveling as far as 350 miles each way, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.   Veterans     VA is tightening rules for prescribing certain psychiatric drugs and painkillers (Stars and Stripes) The Department of Veterans Affairs will strengthen rules in 2027 for clinicians prescribing certain mental health drugs and painkillers to help ensure that patients are fully informed of the benefits and risks, the agency announced.   Defense Industry     US Navy taps 3 firms to build MUSVs for around $40M per vessel (Military Times) The U.S. Navy announced that it is procuring 30 medium unmanned surface vessels after seven companies competed for contracts as part of its new autonomous maritime robotics initiative.       French artillery regiment reorganizes guns to survive drone threats (Defense News) The French Army’s 68th African Artillery Regiment is reorganizing its gun batteries into smaller units and creating a dedicated section to prepare firing positions and set up decoys, a move aimed at increasing survivability on a modern battlefield where drones and counter-battery fire pose a constant threat.       Estonia blames Russia in arson attack on military robotics firm Milrem (Defense News) Russian special services were behind the fire at a building used by an Estonian military robotics company last month, the government in Tallinn said on Tuesday.       New Zealand, Australia sign pact to deepen naval cooperation (Defense News) The Royal New Zealand Navy and the Royal Australian Navy signed “Plan Tasman” in Canberra this month, formalizing a blueprint for integrating the two neighboring sea services.   International     Saudi Arabia urged to reconcile with UAE to drive back Houthi separatists in Yemen (The Guardian) Relations between two countries soured in January when a UAE-backed force was defeated by Saudis.       China opens rare joint military support centre in Laos (Reuters) China has opened a new military support and training centre in Laos, Beijing's ?Ministry of National Defence said on Tuesday, ?a rare overseas expansion.   Commentary & Analysis     What Boeing’s new rendering of its winning F/A-XX fighter tells us (The War Zone) We have officially received our second rendering of Boeing’s F/A-XX concept, which has now officially won the tender, beating out Northrop Grumman to build the Navy’s next-generation stealth fighter. Let’s take a look at what we can see in this new image and discuss what insights it may provide.       Fortress Guam: The environmental cost of preparing for war with China (The War Horse) As the Pentagon expands firing ranges, missile defenses, and other infrastructure across Guam, residents say the island is being asked to bear the environmental consequences of America’s strategy against China.       What will Hegseth’s “State of the Force” reprise reveal? (War on the Rocks) Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is expected to convene a high-profile meeting of military personnel for a “State of the Force” address this week. Will it show the U.S. armed forces as healthy? The answer may depend on how the audience responds, regardless of what Hegseth says. How the audience handles what could be one of the higher-visibility made-for-media events of the defense secretary’s tenure could tell us a lot about how the U.S. military has adjusted to President Donald Trump’s second term.Reporting on the event is spotty, which suggests the Pentagon’s leadership is still deciding whether to hold it,       The new forever war (Foreign Affairs Magazine) When will the war in Iran end? American officials claim that the answer is soon. “I think the war is going to end immediately after the [November] election,” declared U.S. President Donald Trump in September. “They can’t hold out any longer.” Iranian leaders agree that the war’s conclusion is near.       The discipline of refusal: Constitutional concerns about lawful orders in the US military (War on the Rocks) Military doctrine gives officers a clear rule for manifestly unlawful orders: Refuse them.       The military may be top-heavy. Don't make things worse with hasty cuts. (Defense One) News broke Tuesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is planning to order the elimination of one-fifth of the U.S. military’s general and flag billets. There is a legitimate case for examining whether the Armed Forces have have become too top-heavy. There is also a legitimate reason to be concerned about how reductions in the senior officer corps are carried out.       How Iran changed war (Foreign Affairs Magazine) When the United States began bombing Iran, it expected to quickly overwhelm the country’s government. In the war’s first 24 hours, American and Israeli forces hit roughly 1,000 targets. Over the following 37 days, they blew up 12,000 more, laying waste to much of Iran’s military infrastructure. The strikes killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran’s minister of defense, and the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.       AI is coming to the counter-drone fight (The Cipher Brief) “Twenty years ago, the state of North Dakota poured in multiple millions of dollars to figure out what it looks like to do beyond visual line-of-sight operations for Class One, Two, and Three Drones. That was just the very nascent stage. Just a decade ago, ten years ago, they figured out that they can do this. They could do this at Grand Forks Air Force Base. Right across from our [air base] runway, on the active duty side, is a place called Grand Sky. It is an innovation research park for all counter-drone operations. It is one of the largest in the United States. They rent the space on our base. It's legitimately federal property that they lease for the research park.”       The unhedgeable bet: What the future combat systems can teach us about acquisition (War on the Rocks) The Pentagon describes Golden Dome for America as a “system of systems,” an integrated air and missile defense architecture that combines space-based sensors, orbital interceptors, ground systems, and a command network designed to defeat any aerial attack. Eighteen months after its founding executive order, the program broke ground on its first operational site.       The THAAD delusion (The Atlantic) Mohamed bin Zayed was worried about Iran —so worried, in fact, that he decided to gamble with his nation’s future. “We are living in a dangerous neighborhood,” the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates told the top U.S. Air Force general in February 2007.