Warren Gray

The arrival of the NH90 Caïman TTH TFRA Standard 2 — a semi-matte-black, Special-Forces-tailored evolution of the multinational NH90 family, fitted with EuroFLIR, TopOwl helmet displays, heavy .50-caliber mounts and extended-range tanks — marks a decisive step for France (and Europe) toward fielding a stealthier, more capable rotary-wing enabler for clandestine troop insertions beginning in June 2026.

Standing in B&T’s sunlit Thun factory, watching skilled technicians hand-assemble and test-fire precision weapons while founder Karl Brügger animatedly explained every design choice over lunch, I left convinced that Swiss obsession with engineering had produced some of the finest, most dependable small arms in the world.

On a moonlit run into North Vietnam on November 21, 1970, Bull Simons and 56 Green Berets hit Son Tay with surgical violence, found the cells empty, and left the nearby Secondary School littered with bodies that looked a lot more like Chinese advisors than local NVA, a truth the official record preferred to bury.

At Saab’s Linköping plant on October 22, 2025, Zelensky and Kristersson unveiled a landmark deal to equip Ukraine with at least 100 Gripen fighters starting in 2026, a rugged highway-strip-capable fleet with long reach and low costs that signals Europe is serious about beating back Russian aggression.

On October 13, 2025, Belgium’s first Block 4 F-35A Lightning IIs rolled into Florennes to stand up 1st Squadron Stingers, a clear pivot toward a 45 aircraft fifth generation fleet with APG-85 and TR-3 that adds fresh teeth to NATO’s growing wall of stealth over Europe.

From the five pound MHTK that swats mortars midair to the F-35 ready Mako sprinting at Mach 5, Lockheed has handed the Pentagon two precise, affordable missiles built for the fights ahead, and the real question is why we are not buying them.

Flying low and hard over the Somme on April 21, 1918, the Red Baron chased a green Camel into Australian guns until Sergeant Cedric Popkin’s cool 200 round burst sent a single .303 round through his heart and the legend hit the beet field eight seconds later.

By carving through refineries, rail, and bomber bases deep inside Russia, Ukraine’s DeepStrike drone campaign is strangling the Kremlin’s war machine at its fuel line and showing how precision hybrid warfare can wreck an empire’s logistics without inviting nuclear catastrophe.

In seventeen days of September 1918, Frank Luke burned a path across the Meuse, torching hydrogen dragons under flak and fighters, dropping three more in flames on his last mission, and dying with a .45 in his hand.

Facing Kaliningrad, Belarus, and a live war next door, Poland is pushing its F-16s to the Viper standard with APG-83 radar, Viper Shield, and standoff punch to hold the line while F-35s spin up.

Standing on Little Round Top’s granite spine for the fifth time, I can still trace where Chamberlain’s exhausted 20th Maine pivoted on cold steel and, against repeated assaults, shattered the Alabama charge and saved the Union flank.

Three fully armed Russian MiG-31s knifed six miles into Estonian airspace toward Tallinn, only to be met by Finnish Hornets and Italian F-35s that herded them out—a brazen, ill-timed probe likely to trigger NATO Article 4 talks and stiffen Western resolve at the worst moment for Putin.