Book Review: ARISEN Operators 1, Fall of the Third Temple
Yaël Sion does not survive the apocalypse by hoping harder; she survives it the way a cutting tool survives steel, by biting down and refusing to let go.
Europe
Morning Brief: AI Power Grid Shift and Norway Military Aid: F-16 Weapons for Ukraine and Arctic Security on Jan Mayen
Federal regulators are moving to let massive AI data centers connect closer to power plants, a fast-track grid shift that could bring reliability. Norway is also stocking the shelves with consequences, funding F-16 munitions and air-defense weapons for Ukraine while tightening security rules on Jan Mayen as the Arctic heats up.
A Family Heirloom: Dad’s Heckler and Koch Model 940
This HK 940 is not a rifle I own so much as a piece of my dad I can shoulder again, steel and walnut carrying the smell of Hoppe’s and the weight of a family story that outlasts any price tag.
Morning Brief: Grey Bull’s Venezuela Exfil, Peru’s K2 Tank Buy, and Ukraine’s Security Service Alpha Caspian Strike
Grey Bull Rescue founder Bryan Stern exfiltrated Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado in a donor-backed operation that treated high risk like routine. Meanwhile, Peru is buying K2 tanks and K808 armored vehicles from South Korea, and Ukraine’s SBU Alpha is linked in open-source reporting to a long-range drone strike claim against Russia’s Filanovsky Caspian oil infrastructure.
Why Switzerland Was Right to Reject a Draft for Women
Switzerland was right to reject drafting women because any society that has seen real war knows you don’t coerce women into the zero line unless you’re out of men, and pretending biology, psychology, and the brutal math of ground combat don’t exist is how you trade restraint for barbarism.
Morning Brief: Drone Queens, Arsenal Rebuild, and Poland’s $1 Strykers: Allied Forces Adapt for the Next Fight
Ukraine is plugging more women into the drone fight on the front line, while back home Pete Hegseth is pushing U.S. industry to crank out weapons faster for the next war, and Poland is set to grab about 250 U.S. Strykers for a buck each to beef up NATO’s eastern flank.
Frozen in the Ardennes: How the Bulge Turned Quiet Foxholes into a Meat Grinder
In December 1944, Hitler’s last gamble slammed into a “quiet” Ardennes sector, forcing green grunts and hard paratroopers to share frozen holes, man-handle 57s into ambush lanes, outlast Skorzeny’s chaos, and bleed the German offensive dry in the snow.
British and Australian Special Air Service Close Out 2025 Under Pressure, Reform, and an Expanding Mission Set
The British SAS and Australian SASR ended 2025 balancing heavy operational demand with ongoing scrutiny tied to past misconduct investigations. Both units are pushing ahead with modernization, tighter accountability, and updated training to stay effective in a security environment shaped by hybrid warfare and rising regional tensions.
SOF Pic of the Day: German Special Operations Canines
From the trenches of World War I to today’s quiet KSK raids, Germany’s four-legged operators are still out front, taking the first risk so their human teammates do not have to.
The Best-Armed Pilots: French Special Forces Aviation
From the shadow of the Pyrénées at Pau to the hottest trouble spots across the globe, the blue-bereted aircrews of the 4e RHFS—laden with Glock-17s, MP7s clipped to their vests, compact APC556 carbines at hand and retractable 20mm door cannons ready to bloom—never board a helicopter without the firepower, training and cold resolve to turn any arrival into an instant advantage.
NH90 Caïman Helicopters for French Special Forces
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.
Swiss Precision: Meeting Karl Brügger of B&T Guns
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.
