Top 5     Iran and US hit tankers in biggest wave of attacks on shipping since war began (Reuters) Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.       Roosevelt deployment to utilize lessons learned from Lincoln, Navy’s top brass say (Military Times) The two top officers of the U.S. Navy released a video Tuesday assuring sailors aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt that their impending deployment would incorporate valuable lessons learned from the USS Abraham Lincoln’s historic deployment to the Middle East.       Pentagon codifies fitness standards across branches (Military Times) The Pentagon has codified sweeping changes to military fitness requirements, some of which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered last fall. The new regulations, published Aug. 31, spell out testing timelines, standards for troops in combat arms specialties, guidelines for pregnancy and postpartum fitness and establish tracking mechanisms for testing results across the services.       VA to mark 9/11 anniversary with volunteer opportunities at national cemeteries (Military Times) The Department of Veterans Affairs will mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by hosting volunteer events on Saturday, Sept. 12, at more than 144 locations, including national cemeteries, VA-funded facilities and private cemeteries, beautifying the grounds to honor the fallen.       Support grows for dark horse Army secretary contender Marc Andersen (Military Times) Retired Army special operations master sergeant Pasha Palanker first met Marc Andersen during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the man who now manages Army finances was handing out diapers at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, as part of volunteer work to support military families.   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     US allies lack resources to keep pace on AI, top Pentagon official says (The Guardian) Cameron Stanley talks up ‘revolutionary’ AI capabilities and says Washington working with Nato and Five Eyes partners   Congress & Politics     Rubio says US will work with allies on drug-trafficking as three killed in latest boat strike (The Guardian) Rubio visits Ecuador and welcomes cooperation after campaign of unilateral strikes on alleged ‘narco-terrorists’   Your Military     Gen. Caine urges industry to lean more into ‘shared risk’ when delivering tech for U.S. military (DefenseScoop) America’s highest-ranking military official urged industry stakeholders in Washington on Wednesday to join the Defense Department in embracing a more shared sense of risk when delivering in-demand technologies.   Navy     Navy not doing enough to study long-term brain damage in aviators, lawmakers say (Military Times) House lawmakers released key findings Tuesday from an investigation into the Navy’s response to aviators dealing with flight-related brain injuries.       US Navy’s next-generation fighter decision to be unveiled soon, sources say (Reuters) The Pentagon has decided which company will make the U.S. Navy’s next-generation stealth fighter and could announce the winner in the coming weeks or sooner, two people briefed on the matter said.   AIr Force     Air Force launches B-52, B-1 readiness campaign (Military Times) The U.S. Air Force launched an initiative to increase the number of mission-capable B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer aircraft by accelerating parts delivery, engineering support and depot maintenance.   Defense Industry     Israeli-based defense company rebrands American subsidiary to Twenty-Six Defense (Defense News) The U.S. arm of Israeli-based Elbit Systems has rebranded to Twenty-Six Defense, a new name that emphasizes the subsidiary’s American-made brand.       Saab tapped to continue work on Sweden’s next flagship fighter jet (Defense News) Saab has received a new contract worth approximately SEK 2.9 billion (roughly $303 million) from Sweden’s Defense Materiel Administration, FMV, to continue conceptual work on the country’s future fighter system, the company announced in a statement Wednesday.       US Air Force seeks ‘rapidly deployable’ drone swarms for base security (Defense News) The U.S. Air Force is looking to turn its cargo planes into launch platforms for drone swarms.       South Korea supercharges defense budget to record levels (Defense News) South Korea will spend more on its military in the year ahead than it ever has before. The country’s defense budget is set to rise 8.2%, after government leaders announced the increased expenditure on Sept. 3.       Ukrainian industry scrambles to field interceptors against Russian jet drones (Defense News) As Russia’s military is increasingly relying on jet-powered drones in its war against Ukraine, Ukrainian defense companies are intensifying their efforts to counter the threat while striving to make the interceptors cheaper than the targets they strike.       Defense startup’s AI aims to make every munition count (Military Times) When Andy Markoff deployed to Mosul with the U.S. Marine Raiders in 2016, one of the challenges they faced as they pushed ISIS fighters back along a hundred-mile front was that they never had enough munitions, he said.   Ukraine     Ukraine carried out its deepest drone strike on Russia ever (The War Zone) A Russian gas plant more than 1,700 miles from the Ukrainian border was attacked by a drone on Wednesday, Ukrainian and Russian officials said . This is reportedly the longest-distance Ukrainian strike of the war and comes as Kyiv continues to target Moscow’s energy infrastructure .   International     With close calls on US warships, Iran shows new appetite for escalation (The Wall Street Journal) Tehran’s forces are taking aim at the U.S. Navy in a way they haven’t done since the start of the war Iran is increasingly trying to escalate its conflict with the U.S. as it seeks to break a stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz that is strangling its economy. At least three times in the past week, …       Anduril doubles down on Poland with autonomous aircraft pitch for F-35, Apache (Defense News) U.S. defense-technology company Anduril Industries has teamed up with Poland’s state-run defense giant PGZ for local assembly and production of the surface-launched Barracuda-500M cruise missile. Pending ongoing negotiations with the Polish Ministry of National Defence, the producer is also pitching its Fury autonomous combat aircraft and the Thunder autonomous attack rotorcraft to Poland in an effort that could make the nation their first European user.   Military Culture & History     WWII’s famed ‘Mosquito Bowl’ comes to the big screen (Military Times) The dream team is collaborating once again.   Video     Army museum opens up 9/11 special exhibit, and the Marine Corps grows | Headlines (Defense News) The Corps seeks to swell its ranks in the next five years. Plus, the Army museum remembers those who responded to the 9/11 attacks.       Navy not returning to damaged Bahrain base ‘anytime soon,’ top officer say (Defense News) The Navy’s highest-ranking officer told sailors Monday it would be a while before the service would return to its main logistics hub in the Middle East.   Commentary & Analysis     They served through America’s post-9/11 wars. 25 years later, what did that service mean? (The War Horse) If not for what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, Valeria Casillas probably would not have joined the military. But in the surge of patriotism following deadly terrorist attacks on New York City and outside Washington, D.C., she saw service as a chance to give back to the country where her father — a truck driver and naturalized citizen from Mexico — had carved his own path.       The Gulf bought its air defense from Kyiv. We sold them the radar. (The Cipher Brief) Chief Warrant Officer 5 (Ret.) Joey Gagnard concluded nearly three decades of service in the U.S. military, retiring from the special operations community in early 2025. He serves as CEO of Atlas Special Projects and Director of Field Operations at Swarmer.       What September 11 took from me (The Atlantic) During a visit in May to the Maritime Museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I watched a film about a 1917 cargo-ship explosion that killed more than 1,700 townspeople and injured many more. The grainy black-and-white images of the flattened city catapulted me back to the devastation of Lower Manhattan after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Halifax suffered a blizzard following the cargo-ship catastrophe, and the sight of the city covered in a deep blanket of snow recalled the dust and debris from the once-glimmering towers that coated the Financial District. When I heard the recorded voices of the Haligonian survivors recounting their memories, I walked out of the small theater to cry.       The strange transformation of the front line in Ukraine (War on the Rocks) On Jan. 5, 2025, my volunteer platoon attached to the 23rd Special Purpose Battalion of the Presidential Brigade entered a 1-kilometer-long tree line called CHAI, on the outskirts of Kotlyne, a few kilometers west of Pokrovsk, Ukraine.       Pakistan’s new military order is a warning for Washington (The Cipher Brief) In Washington, Field Marshal Asim Munir increasingly looks like the man who can make Pakistan useful to the United States.       The inside story of what happened at Stars and Stripes (The Atlantic) A “chicken plate,” in military parlance, is a protective shield used in a variety of combat situations. During the Vietnam War, chicken plates were inserted into vests—they are resistant against small-arms fire, but they’re also bulky and hot. So some pilots sat on them instead, which had the added benefit of providing protection against bullets that came from below.       The Mecca pact’s credibility gap (War on the Rocks) Collective-defense pacts are meant to make war less likely. Poorly designed ones can do the opposite. If allies make sweeping promises without the military integration, decision-making mechanisms, and escalation controls needed to carry them out, they may invite adversaries to test the boundaries of these promises.       The tyranny of shipyard cost-plus contracting (War on the Rocks) As a naval shipyard commander, my mandate from Navy leadership is straightforward: return warships to the fleet as quickly as possible. Neither my shipyard nor many other public and private shipyards are consistently fulfilling that mission.