Verified military news tracked by GlobalMilitary.net: aircraft losses and deliveries, warship commissionings, procurement decisions, program milestones and data analysis drawn from our inventory database. Also available as an RSS feed.
The Army picked M1 Support Services and the Robinson R66 for its Flight School Next contract on August 13, ending the UH-72 Lakota's role in initial pilot training — then awarded Airbus $115.4 million for up to 12 more Lakotas the following day.
An Italian Eurofighter on NATO Baltic Air Policing duty destroyed an unidentified drone over eastern Latvia before dawn on 14 August, the second time the alliance's quick-reaction force has shot one down over the country this year.
The US Navy's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier is transiting the Strait of Malacca toward the Arabian Sea to relieve USS Abraham Lincoln, at sea for more than 240 consecutive days supporting operations against Iran.
A National Security Presidential Memorandum signed on August 13, 2026 gives the Pentagon 60 days to plan replacing the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Weapons Elevators with steam and hydraulic systems on CVN-81, the fourth Ford-class carrier.
The US Air Force flew its last A-10C sortie from Davis-Monthan on 29 July 2026. GlobalMilitary.net inventories show the fleet has fallen from 287 aircraft in 2020 to 162, and the service's own schedule takes it to zero by 30 September 2030.
The future CVN-79 left Newport News on 12 August for the at-sea evaluation that precedes handover, with delivery now projected for March 2027. GlobalMilitary.net fleet records show the US carrier force holding at 11 hulls, as USS Nimitz's retirement has slipped into the same year.
The launch of the frigate ORP Wicher on 12 August ends a long drought in Polish surface shipbuilding. GlobalMilitary.net inventories show a navy of 45 active hulls in which mine warfare vessels outnumber every other category combined, backed by two 1980s-era frigates and one Soviet-built submarine.
The 12 August strike on Novorossiysk damaged Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen for the third time this year. GlobalMilitary.net's event log now holds 19 records for the Russian Navy in 2026, and not one of them is a commissioning.
OCCAR exercised an option on 7 August 2026 for 69 additional Boxer RCT30 infantry fighting vehicles, raising Germany's order to 185 and the Netherlands' to 106 and bringing recent Boxer commitments to about 6.5 billion euros.
A Pentagon acquisition report dated April 21, 2026 puts the Navy's TACAMO recapitalization at 31 E-130J Phoenix II aircraft at $360.9 million each, nearly doubling the 16-aircraft fleet that carries the airborne nuclear link to America's ballistic missile submarines.
GlobalMilitary.net fleet records attribute 30 Islamic Republic of Iran Navy hulls to the war that began on February 28, 2026. Every frigate and every corvette on the fleet list is marked sunk, leaving the regular navy without a single blue-water surface combatant.
The Ministry of Defence issued a request for information on 7 August covering both the Red Arrows' Hawk T1 and the RAF's 28 Hawk T2 trainers. GlobalMilitary.net inventories record 436 Hawks still in service with 14 air forces.
Chinese military aircraft entering Taiwan's air defense identification zone fell 52 percent in the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period of 2025, according to Taiwan's daily defense ministry reports — while PLA Navy vessel sightings dropped just 7 percent.
India's Defence Ministry told Parliament on 7 August 2026 that it has begun concerted efforts to join the French-led Future Combat Air System, two months after Germany walked away from the Franco-German fighter.
Signed in Mecca on 7 August 2026 by Erdogan, Mohammed bin Salman and Shehbaz Sharif, the pact treats an armed attack on any one of the three states as an attack on all. Together they field 3,350 military aircraft and 1.27 million active troops.
The carrier's Unmanned Air Warfare Center became fully operational in March 2026, making CVN-71 the first ship able to control the Boeing MQ-25A at sea. The tanker drone itself is not due to reach initial operational capability until February 2029, five years later than first planned.
PT PAL cut the first steel for a Scorpène Evolved at Surabaya on August 7, opening an eight-year build for the first of two boats ordered from Naval Group in a $2.16 billion deal. Indonesia currently fields four submarines, the oldest commissioned in 1981.
The Convair XB-36 made its first flight at Fort Worth on August 8, 1946. Eight decades on, the ten-engined Peacemaker still holds the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built: 70 meters, 14 more than the B-52 that replaced it and 30 more than the incoming B-21 Raider.
The US Air Force awarded Boeing a $75 million contract on August 5, 2026 on behalf of the Navy, clearing the jet-powered JDAM for production. The GBU-75 pairs a turbojet and pop-out wings with a standard 500-pound bomb to reach targets 300 nautical miles away.
The Defence Minister announced the purchase at Exercise Pitch Black in Darwin on August 6, 2026. Australia will be the first country outside the United States to field the AIM-260 JATM, the classified long-range air-to-air missile built to succeed the AMRAAM.
The Congressional Budget Office costed the U.S. Navy's proposed Trump-class battleship at roughly 35,000 tons. GlobalMilitary.net inventory data shows the largest cruiser or destroyer in service anywhere displaces 15,907 tons, and only 14 hulls worldwide exceed 11,000.