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As the United States turns its focus away from Asia and dials in on the Middle East, China is reportedly ramping up its deployment of naval power on the high seas. The Chinese navy and coast guard have deployed 100 vessels in the East and South China Seas, according to information that two Taiwanese security officials told Reuters. China’s presence is highly heightened when compared with the usual strength in the theater of about 50-60 ships, according to a statement that one official provided to Reuters. However, these ships are nowhere to be seen on the map. They are all...

President Donald Trump said Saturday the U.S. military has begun clearing the Strait of Hormuz, declaring Iran’s naval and air capabilities have been wiped out. "Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti Aircraft apparatus is nonexistent, Radar is dead," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. He added Iran’s missile and drone infrastructure has been "largely obliterated," along with the weapons themselves, and said the country’s longtime leaders "are no longer with us." Trump also said Iran’s ability to threaten shipping has been neutralized. "The only thing they have going is the threat that a ship...

Several U.S. Navy ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, a U.S. official told Axios. Why it matters: The move was not coordinated with Iran. It is the first time U.S. warships crossed the strait since the beginning of the war. The operation was aimed at increasing confidence for commercial ships to cross, sources say. It came as peace talks between the two sides kicked off in Pakistan. "This was an operation that focused on freedom of navigation through International waters," the U.S. official said.

Traumatic brain injuries are quickly emerging as the signature wound of the U.S. war with Iran so far, echoing a pattern of post-9/11 wars... More than 200 U.S. troops have so far been wounded in the war, and at least 140 of those were TBI-related injuries... It’s a surge being driven by Iran’s reliance on one-way attack drones and the concussive blasts they deliver in strikes against American troops in countries across the Middle East, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Symptoms of TBI can be subtle at first but often linger for years, or even a lifetime, ranging...

More than 200 years after being sunk by Adm. Horatio Nelson and the British fleet, a Danish warship has been discovered on the seabed of Copenhagen Harbor by marine archaeologists. Working in thick sediment and almost zero visibility 15 meters (49 feet) beneath the waves, divers are in a race against time to unearth the 19th-century wreck of the Dannebroge before it becomes a construction site in a new housing district being built off the Danish coast. Denmark’s Viking Ship Museum, which is leading the monthslong underwater excavations, announced its findings on Thursday, 225 years to the day since the...

Ever since World War Two, America’s aircraft carrier fleets have served as imposing instruments of imperial power, roaming the oceans to cow recalcitrant nations into obedience. Favored by the Trump administration for this purpose, current experience indicates their day is done thanks to the proliferation of anti-ship missiles and the increasing ubiquity of drones. In America’s last Middle Eastern war but two, against the Yemeni Houthis in 2025, the carrier USS Harry S.Truman, complete with its attendant escorts, was driven into retreat, leaving antagonists in control of the Red Sea. On one occasion, the carrier’s desperate maneuver to avoid a...

Today, there are nearly 70,000 women serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. More than 10,000 are fighting directly on the frontlines. They are not there because of a quota. They are there because they wanted to serve, and serve they are… The drone revolution: where women excel The character of the fight has altered. No longer is strength the limiting factor. Now it’s precision, focus, and problem-solving. Women fly the latest FPV drones, command unmanned systems units, and conduct intelligence missions in Ukraine. The Khartiia Corps claims a 20 percent increase in female recruits for combat technology positions. Why? Because...

An Iranian tanker from the country's shadow fleet caught fire after being struck by its own naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz. Omani authorities reported that 20 crew members, including 15 Indians, were rescued as the vessel continued to sink. The tanker, part of a network used to bypass international sanctions, was reportedly targeted for "illegally passing" through the strategic waterway. After being hit, fires erupted on board, forcing a rapid evacuation by nearby rescue teams. Shadow fleet strike sparks chaos The vessel, managed by Red Sea Ship Management LLC, had been sanctioned by the US Treasury in December...

Shipping and military expert John Konrad spent all day in D.C. on Tuesday talking to his military sources and concluded that "the Navy appears to be in no rush to reopen the strait," even while Iran dictates whose oil tankers are allowed to pass. "What is this administration trying to leverage?" Konrad wondered, and that nobody he talked to was willing to discuss the fate of Hormuz "until European politicians and media stop calling Americans war criminals and monsters." While Konrad admitted he has "no idea" when Hormuz will reopen, "but if the price is a modicum of cooperation and...

The US president said the UK has aircraft carriers "that didn’t work"LONDON, April 1. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump doesn’t think too highly of Great Britain’s naval fleet. "You don't even have a Navy. You’re too old, and have aircraft carriers that didn’t work," he told The Daily Telegraph, referring to the state of Britain’s fleet of warships. In mid-March, the American leader had already voiced his disappointment with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer over London's lack of support for the military operation in Iran. In particular, he blasted the British aircraft carriers. When asked whether Starmer should spend more...

A third US aircraft carrier strike group is deploying to the Middle East as war with Iran rages on. George Bush is headed back to the Middle East, ready for war. The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier will be sailing to the Middle East with a fleet of support ships in tow, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday. That news came after the Bush carrier group departed from its base in Norfolk, Virginia, in what Navy Times initially reported was a pre-scheduled deployment. It will join two other aircraft carrier groups already in the Middle East — the...

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Monday mourned IRGC Navy Chief Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, calling him a “brave commander” who “attained martyrdom after years of struggle,” according to state news agency IRNA. Khamenei also described Tangsiri as courageous and central to Iran’s role in the Persian Gulf, adding that he “died for his country” so its military “may continue on the path of Iran’s maritime authority and resistance, stronger and more firmly than in the past.” Tangsiri, 64, died of injuries sustained while on duty, the IRGC said, after working to strengthen Iran’s coastal defenses, though Israel says he was...

The U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), has been pulled from active operations in the Red Sea and sent to Naval Support Activity Souda Bay in Crete following a March 12 onboard fire and mounting system strain after months of sustained combat operations. The fire, which broke out in the ship’s main laundry area, injured sailors, damaged living spaces, and required hours of firefighting and recovery efforts. After nearly nine months at sea – one of the longest and most demanding deployments in recent Navy history – there is growing concern that the Ford could now...

The Royal Navy was facing growing criticism over its effectiveness as Defence Secretary John Healey struggled to say how many warships it has. The Cabinet minister came under fire after been grilled on how many frigates there are in the navy as he took to the airwaves to say British forces may now intercept Russian “shadow fleet” vessels in the Channel. “We have...we have...we have...we have...we have...we have 17 frigates and destroyers,” he told LBC Radio. “It’s down from 23 at the end of the last Labour government.”

An Israeli air strike has killed the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy, Israel’s defence minister says. The assassination of Alireza Tangsiri was carried out on Wednesday night and targeted other “senior officers of the naval command”, Israel Katz said on Thursday in a video statement. “The man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to shipping was blown up and eliminated,” he said. Since the start of the United States-Israel war on Iran on February 28, Israel has announced the assassination of several top Iranian officials, including...

Donald Trump today described Britain's aircraft carriers as 'toys compared to what we have' in his latest swipe at the UK's lack of support for his war against Iran. In yet another sign of the deep freeze consuming the transatlantic 'special relationship' the president lashed out at the Royal Navy's capabilities in a rant against US Nato allies. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, the US President said: 'The British said "we'll send our aircraft carriers" - which aren't the best aircraft carriers by the way, they are toys compared to what we have - "we'll send...

An elite Iranian navy chief who gave the green light to close the Strait of Hormuz has been killed in an airstrike on Thursday, according to a report. Alireza Tangsiri, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy commander, was eliminated in a strike on the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, located on the Strait, an Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post. Neither the Israeli Defense Forces nor the Iranian military has commented on the strike. Tangsiri’s reported death comes after the assassinations of IRGC spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini, and the regime’s de-facto leader Ali Larijani, and its anti-protest enforcer Gholamreza...

The United States’ largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, on Monday reached Crete, Greece for repairs after leaving the Middle East due to a fire onboard. Photos from AFP show the aircraft carrier arrived at Souda Bay naval base, where it had last stopped in February for food, fuel and ammunition. The ship was damaged due to a fire in the laundry room on March 12 amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. With the Ford now in Greece, the U.S. military only has one aircraft carrier in the war against Iran unless Washington sends another such vessel...

HMS Dragon has arrived in the eastern Mediterranean, three weeks after an Iranian-made drone hit the British base of RAF Akrotiri, the defence secretary has said. The Type 45 destroyer will begin “operational integration into Cyprus’s defence” from Monday night, John Healey told MPs. The British government has faced criticism for the slowness to deploy a warship to the region, after moves by Greece and France to send extra naval support to Cyprus after the attack. The Cypriot government has also expressed concern that the drone was able to hit the base, suggesting that the presence of the British base...

The once mighty Royal Navy is but a shadow of its former self, reduced to a tiny handful of often broken warships by generations of political mismanagement. This was cruelly exposed recently when Britain found it difficult to dispatch at short notice a single destroyer to Cyprus following an attack on the British base there.