PARIS — France’s “unprecedented” deployment of warships to the Middle East is meant to position the country as a credible security partner for the region, a move that could set up the French to benefit from any realignment of alliances following an end to the American-Israeli war on Iran, analysts said.
France has deployed around half its fleet of major surface combatants to the Eastern…
Facing jittery global markets and drooping poll numbers since launching a war on Iran, President Donald Trump has cycled from calls for “unconditional surrender” to sounding amenable to an end state in which Iran trades one hard-line ayatollah for another.
Shifting…
MANILA, Philippines — Japan is working to accelerate the tri-nation GCAP fighter jet collaboration with the U.K. and Italy despite reported fiscal and contract delays, which experts say will unlikely push back target deployment in 2035.
The move comes as the ruling party…
CHRISTCHUCH, New Zealand — The Australian government announced on March 10 it would send an E-7A Wedgetail early-warning aircraft to the Middle East and help replenish United Arab Emirates stocks of AIM-120 air-to-air missiles.
Officials in Canberra said the Wedgetail from the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) No. 2 Squadron would provide a “long-range reconnaissance capability which will…
Iran to face ‘most intense day of strikes,’ Hegseth says
March 11, 2026
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that Tuesday “will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran: The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever.”
Shortly before the statement shared at…
Australian submariners have a brush with Iran war
March 11, 2026
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — On March 4, when a U.S. Navy submarine torpedoed an enemy combatant for the first time since World War II, three Australian submariners were aboard.
This was a contentious point for Canberra, as it is not a party to military actions against…
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — China is increasing its 2026 defense budget by 7%, bringing the nation’s military expenditure for the coming year to 1.91 trillion yuan, or about $277 billion.
This year’s increase compares to 7.2% rises for the past three years, with Beijing claiming its defense spending “remains comparatively modest across key relative indicators, including its share of gross…
A U.S. intelligence assessment completed shortly before the United States and Israel launched a war in Iran had determined that American military intervention was not likely to lead to regime change in the Islamic Republic, according to two people familiar with the…
BRUSSELS — NATO nations are sending troops to Norway for a cold-weather exercise this week, as alliance officials kick off a yearslong analysis into causes for conflict in the Arctic.
As part of the planning effort, a U.S. and Norwegian-led research task force will compile…
PARIS — European NATO countries reduced their reliance on the United States for weapons imports in the past year, funneling a greater share of their foreign defense acquisitions to South Korea, France and Israel, analysis by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showed.
The U.S. accounted for 58% of major arms imports by NATO’s European member states in the 2021-2025 period…
