NCC Harsh

The U.S. Navy’s oldest aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and its strike group are now officially operating in the Caribbean Sea, according to U.S. Southern Command. The Wednesday announcement came on the same day that the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against the country’s former president Raúl Castro, 94, for his part in a 1996 shoot-down of a plane that killed three Americans. “The airc...[Read More]

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons and other futuristic defense technology. Subscribe here. Operation Epic Fury may have strengthened the case for directed energy weapons, but the U.S. Navy’s dream of putting “a laser on every ship” may take significantly longer than expected to realize. In a posture statement delivered to the Hou...[Read More]

Fifty-three years after the “The World at War” debuted its comprehensive 26-episode arch chronicling the events of the Second World War, the History Channel and the National World War II Museum have teamed up with Tom Hanks to deliver what they hope to be updated docuseries uncovering “new dimensions of the conflict,” according to the History Channel. “I think the sweep and scope of the documentar...[Read More]

AI-powered “decision support tools” are helping the U.S. Navy hang on to more of its highest-priority sailors — with the help of commanders authorized to persuade and offer flexibility incentives. In the little more than a year since the service launched the “Full Power Navy” pilot program in February 2025, leaders have “converted” 3,300 sailors who had begun the process of separating, convincing ...[Read More]

Marines who participate in missions along the U.S.-Mexico border are now eligible for a newly created award established by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Corps can award the Mexican Border Defense Medal to Marines “deployed in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” the service announced on Thursday. The medal applies to service members who spent at least 30 days — consecutively or cu...[Read More]

Navy Warfare Development Center hosted the fifth annual MAKO Storm exercise May 14–17, bringing

President Donald Trump told Coast Guard Academy graduates Wednesday that they inherited the legacy of “some of the most daring and intrepid Americans ever to live” and will “go onto greatness themselves” in service to the country. Speaking in New London, Connecticut, to more than 230 commissioning officers, Trump praised the cadets — some of whom already have saved lives or been involved in major ...[Read More]

U.S. Marines intercepted and redirected an Iranian-flagged commercial oil tanker they suspected of evading the U.S. Navy blockade on Wednesday. Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit boarded the M/T Celestial Sea as it traveled in the Gulf of Oman, potentially toward an Iranian port. They searched the ship and forced it to alter its course in adherence with the blockade, according to U.S....[Read More]

On May 19, 2026, the U.S. Senate confirmed the military promotion of Rear Adm. Douglas L. Williams

In life, Jimmy Stewart never talked about his war. But in death, he granted his family — and now the world — a greater window into the Academy Award-winning actor turned combat pilot. “My father didn’t speak about his war experience very much,” his daughter, Kelly Stewart-Harcourt, told Military Times. “After he died, my sister found a journal, a handwritten journal that he had kept during the war...[Read More]

The Defense Department’s inspector general has initiated an evaluation of whether U.S. Southern Command followed Pentagon protocols when attacking suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. The operation, dubbed Southern Spear, has destroyed 58 vessels between Sept. 2 and May 12, according to data compiled by Military Times — as part of what the Trump administration...[Read More]

U.S. Navy divers assigned to Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 (MDSU-1) concluded Salvage Exercise (SALVEX) Korea 2026 alongside Australian maritime forces and Republic of Korea (ROK) forces at Jinhae Naval Base, April 6–10, 2026. The exercise marked the 42nd iteration of the long-standing multilateral training event, reinforcing decades of cooperation between the U.S. Navy and ROK Navy since its i...[Read More]