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North Korea fired two ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sept. 20, 2026, according to a report by Stars and Stripes.

In a related development, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) announced on Sept. 18, 2026, that it will enforce Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) VIP Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) over New York, New York, from September 21-22, 2026.

Meanwhile, in the West Philippine Sea, Philippine Navy Rear Adm. Vincent J. Sibala, Commander of Naval Command West, has highlighted the growing security challenges in the region. In an article by DVIDS, Sibala said that repeated encounters between Philippine and Chinese forces, coercive activities at sea, and concerns surrounding Chinese rocket launches have underscored the changing regional security environment. He described these events as “firing across our bow—repeatedly” and warned against allowing such behavior to become normal.

Sibala, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, emphasized the need for the Philippine military to look outward, stating, “I realized the existential threat was outside, not inside.” He also stressed the importance of preparing for future warfare, noting that “the nature of war stays the same, but its character evolves with technology.”

In a separate deployment, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Maj. Matthew Kindig supported disaster relief efforts in the Mariana Islands following Typhoon Sinlaku and Typhoon Bavi. Kindig worked in the Recovery Field Office on Saipan, providing business advice to the commander and tracking contracts. After Typhoon Bavi, he organized logistics to get personnel onto Rota, where the airport was down and only charter flights were available. The island has approximately 2,000 residents and limited accommodations.

These events underscore the diverse security and humanitarian challenges facing U.S. forces and allies in the Indo-Pacific region.

Sources: DVIDS News · DVIDS News

Canada’s Defence Minister Bill Blair publicly endorsed the U.S.-Denmark security arrangement on Greenland on Sept. 19, 2026, calling the deal “encouraging” and signalling a shift in Canada’s Arctic defence posture.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Blair said the arrangement, which allows the United States to expand its military presence on the island, is a positive development for Arctic security. He noted that Canada supports the agreement as it aligns with shared interests in the region.

“We see this as an encouraging step for security in the Arctic,” Blair said, according to Global News. “It reflects the kind of cooperation we need among allies.”

Blair’s endorsement marks a notable shift in Canada’s public stance, as Ottawa has historically been cautious about foreign military activity in the Arctic. The minister linked the arrangement to Canada’s own defence priorities, including the modernization of NORAD, the joint Canada-U.S. command responsible for aerospace warning and control.

“This is about ensuring we have the right capabilities to monitor and defend the approaches to North America,” Blair said. “Canada is committed to working with our partners to keep the Arctic stable.”

Sources: Global News Canada

Canada’s chief of the defence staff, Gen. Jennie Carignan, lost a secret-ballot vote Saturday to Germany’s Gen. Carsten Breuer for the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, the alliance’s top military advisory body.

Top military commanders from NATO’s 32 member nations chose Breuer during a closed session of the committee, according to a social media announcement by the current chair, Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone. Dragone congratulated Breuer on his election and said he will take office in July 2027.

Had she won, Carignan would have been the first woman to lead the Military Committee in the alliance’s 77-year history. A Canadian has not held the post in almost two decades; retired general Ray Henault served as chair between 2005 and 2008.

In a statement posted to social media, Carignan congratulated Breuer and said it “was an honour to stand as a candidate and to engage with my fellow Allied Chiefs of Defence throughout this process.”

“There is important work ahead for our Alliance, and I know General Breuer will bring strong leadership to his new role,” she said.

Defence Minister David McGuinty said the federal government does not know the breakdown of the votes. “The important thing is that Gen. Carignan will continue to serve with her colleagues — all 31 other chiefs of defence in the alliance,” he told reporters outside a Liberal caucus retreat in Ottawa on Saturday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government had backed Carignan’s candidacy. The vote came as Canada and European countries explore closer political, economic and defence co-operation, including a proposal by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member.”

Breuer is a 61-year-old army officer who joined the Bundeswehr in an air defence unit in 1984. He served with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Kabul in 2014 and led a crisis committee that managed Germany’s COVID-19 pandemic response in 2021 and 2022.

Sources: CBC Politics · CBC Politics

The U.S. Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin an $871.2 million contract modification to fund support equipment for new F-35 operational sites worldwide, the company and service announced this week. The award, made under an existing contract with Naval Air Systems Command, increases the ceiling on available funds for site activation and sustainment work.

The modification tops up a $2.29 billion base contract awarded in June 2026 that covers site activation, temporary contractor support, fleet management, and reliability improvements. The new funds are specifically for hardware such as spare parts, ground equipment, maintenance tools, and IT systems that connect to the F-35’s global logistics network.

Work will be performed primarily at Lockheed’s facility in El Segundo, California, with a smaller share in Fort Worth, Texas. The modification is expected to run through February 2031. The Navy structured the award as a ceiling increase, meaning funds become available as specific orders are placed, rather than as a lump sum. The work was not competitively bid; the Navy cited Lockheed’s role as the F-35 manufacturer and its exclusive knowledge of how to establish new operating sites.

The award applies to support for F-35s operated by the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, and allied nations. Lockheed said in January 2026 that the worldwide F-35 fleet had grown to roughly 1,300 aircraft across a dozen nations, and that by March the number had climbed past 1,325 built.

The Navy has not specified which bases or countries the new funding is earmarked for, according to public paperwork.

Lockheed Martin is also under separate contracts for other defense programs. The Navy added $76.6 million on Sept. 19 to a Lockheed contract for continued design work on the next-generation Trident II D5LE2 nuclear missile, with work running through Sept. 30, 2030. The Army separately awarded Sikorsky, a Lockheed company, a $234.5 million contract modification on Sept. 18 to build 16 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, with completion expected by June 30, 2028.

Sources: Defence Blog · DVIDS News

President Donald Trump said Sept. 19 that the United States and Denmark have reached a military security arrangement for Greenland, a deal that directly affects U.S. force posture in the Arctic and NATO relations, according to a statement reported by Stars and Stripes.

The announcement came during a presidential statement, though no dollar amount, troop numbers, or specific assets were disclosed in the sources. The arrangement was described as a military security deal, but the sources do not specify its terms, duration, or what new capabilities it entails.

Neither the White House, the Danish government, nor NATO had issued a formal confirmation of the deal’s details as of the report’s publication. The sources do not indicate whether the arrangement involves new basing rights, additional U.S. personnel, or infrastructure investments.

No timeline for implementation or further announcements was given in the sources. The next concrete step, per the sources, would be any official release of the agreement’s terms by the U.S. or Danish governments.

Sources: Defence Blog · The Aviationist

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) arrived in Guam on Sept. 19, 2026, for a logistics stop, according to a U.S. Navy release. The carrier is returning to its homeport of San Diego, Calif., after a deployment that has now reached 302 days, following more than eight months in the Middle East.

The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is conducting routine operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations as it makes its way home, according to USNI News. The carrier, along with destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG-121) and cruiser USS Robert Smalls (CG-62), transited the Surigao Strait and entered the Philippine Sea on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, per a social media post on the carrier’s official account. Japan-based Robert Smalls, which was temporarily attached to the strike group, returned to its homeport of Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka on Friday, Sept. 18.

The DVIDS release quotes the Navy as saying units assigned to 7th Fleet conduct continuous patrols to deter aggression, strengthen alliances and partnerships, and advance peace through strength.

USNI News reported that the Abraham Lincoln had been in the Middle East for more than eight months before beginning its transit home.

The strike group’s return comes as other naval activity continues in the Indo-Pacific. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer JS Fuyuzuki (DD-118) and Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Sydney (DDG42) conducted bilateral exercise Nichi-Gou Trident 26-2 in the Philippine Sea from Sept. 12-14, 2026. The U.S. and Brunei held Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Brunei 2026 from Monday to Friday, with the U.S. participating with Coast Guard cutter USCGC Emlen Tunnell (WPC-1145), littoral combat ship USS Canberra (LCS-30), and a P-8A Poseidon aircraft.

According to the Navy, the Abraham Lincoln is conducting routine operations in the 7th Fleet area of operations as it continues its transit home.

Sources: USNI News · DVIDS News

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Leidos an $85 million ceiling contract for digital design tools to help engineer future aircraft, the second such award in as many days under the same research program. The Air Force Research Laboratory made the award on Sept. 19, 2026, one day after Anduril Industries received a nearly identical contract.

Both awards fall under VOLARE, formally the Digital System-Level Mission-Driven Integrated Design Methods for Aerospace Systems. The contracts are indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity agreements, meaning the $85 million is a ceiling, not guaranteed funding, and the Air Force will issue task orders as needed. Eight companies competed for the awards.

Leidos, based in Reston, Virginia, will perform work in Dayton, Ohio, with the contract running through Sept. 18, 2036. Anduril’s contract, awarded Sept. 18, runs through Sept. 17, 2036. The near-identical contract numbers — Anduril’s FA2391-26-D-B013 and Leidos’s FA2391-26-D-B015 — along with matching ceilings and the shared eight-offer count indicate the Air Force structured VOLARE as a multi-award IDIQ, selecting more than one contractor to compete for task orders rather than picking a single winner.

No funds are obligated on either base agreement. The first task order under the Leidos award is worth $75,000 in fiscal 2026 research funds; Anduril’s first task order is worth $50,000.

VOLARE covers two goals: building software that can model an aircraft’s overall vehicle systems, and developing methods for designing thermal management systems — the cooling architecture that keeps engines, electronics and sensors from overheating. Modern military aircraft pack growing amounts of high-power radar, computing and directed-energy equipment into the same airframe, making heat management a design challenge in its own right.

Leidos is a large federal technology and engineering contractor with a long history supporting defense, intelligence and civilian government agencies, though the company has not previously been publicly tied to this specific style of digital-engineering work for aircraft design in the way Anduril has through its recent missile-development prize win.

Sources: Defence Blog · Defence Blog

The U.S. State Department approved a possible $2.68 billion sale of air defense equipment to Ukraine on Sept. 18, a package that includes weapons whose exact identity the notification does not make clear.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s notification to Congress describes the deal as an “Air Defense Development Upgrade.” Ukraine would pay for it through a mix of European contributions and U.S. Foreign Military Financing that Congress appropriated under the prior administration, with that American funding counted as a one-to-one capital contribution to the Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. The sale still needs to clear the standard congressional review period before any contract can be finalized, and the eventual contractors would be chosen through a competitive U.S. government procurement process.

The equipment list includes items called S-300 Clone missiles and GAM-67 missiles, along with Range-Extended Air Defense Laser Guided Rocket missile systems, a launcher platform called the Improvised Transporter Erector Launcher 1.5, mobile launcher modification kits, and RPS 202 counter-drone radars, plus spare parts, software, training publications and logistics support.

Two of those names don’t match any publicly known current weapon system. GAM-67 is the U.S. Air Force’s old designation for the Crossbow, a turbojet-powered anti-radar missile program that Northrop’s Ventura Division built in the 1950s. Only 14 were ever produced, and the Air Force canceled the program in 1957 because the missile was too slow to be useful against modern air defenses. That history makes it clear the notification isn’t describing a Cold War-era leftover; the designation appears to have been reused, whether as a placeholder or a formal label for something new, rather than referring to the original Crossbow. “S-300 Clone” is similarly undefined in any public Pentagon or industry documentation, and no other name for it has surfaced.

The most plausible explanation available comes from outside the official notification. Robert Hamilton, a retired U.S. Army colonel who now leads the Delphi Global Research Center, told PBS NewsHour that the United States and Ukraine have been working jointly either to modernize Ukraine’s aging stock of S-300 interceptor missiles or to develop a newer version of the missile with improved capability. Hamilton said he expects that upgraded system to become operational close to the end of 2026. Neither the State Department nor Ukraine’s government has confirmed that this effort is the same program referenced as “S-300 Clone” in the notification, but the timing and subject matter line up closely enough that the two appear connected.

The S-300 is a Soviet-designed, long-range surface-to-air missile system that Ukraine inherited in large numbers and has relied on throughout the war, alongside Western systems like the Patriot. Ukraine has faced a persistent shortage of S-300 interceptors because Russia is now the only producer of the original missile, making any American-backed alternative, cloned, modernized or newly built, a potentially significant addition to Ukraine’s ability to keep those launchers firing.

The State Department’s notification includes the standard language used in nearly all such filings: the sale would not require additional U.S. government or contractor personnel in Ukraine, would not affect U.S. military readiness, and would not alter the basic military balance in the region. No offset agreement has been proposed so far; any such arrangement would be negotiated separately between Ukraine and whichever companies win the eventual contracts.

What remains unclear is what the S-300 Clone and GAM-67 items actually are, technically or physically. Congress has not yet completed its review, and neither Washington nor Kyiv has released further detail on the specifications, quantities, or delivery timeline for either item.

Sources: Defence Blog · Defense News

The U.S. military is redirecting MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to Latin America as it expands operations against drug cartels in the region, CNN reported on Sept. 18, citing multiple sources. The drones, currently assigned to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), will transfer to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) ahead of anticipated operations, the report said.

The move comes as the U.S. escalates military action in Latin America under the Shield of the Americas agreement, also known as the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition. Under the coalition, U.S. forces and local partners are targeting narcotics traffickers, specifically cartels designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The U.S. has been carrying out airstrikes on suspected drug boats for more than a year, with operations intensifying this summer as regional governments joined the coalition.

It is not clear how many Reapers will leave AFRICOM’s area of responsibility or what the shift means for operations in Africa. AFRICOM regularly conducts airstrikes against militants in Somalia; the most recent occurred on Sept. 17, when it said it targeted a weapons storage space used by al-Shabaab. Several MQ-9 drones were flown over Nigeria earlier this year in support of operations around the Lake Chad Basin, and this summer the U.S. began withdrawing combat forces from Nigeria after operations against Islamic State militants wrapped up.

AFRICOM directed questions about the redeployment to the Pentagon, which declined to comment.

The drone shift follows other recent moves in the region. Last month, Ecuadorian officials confirmed U.S. Green Berets were carrying out joint operations in the country, and two U.S. warships and deployed Marines arrived. Since then, Marines with Littoral Combat Force-24 have interdicted, boarded, and sunk multiple ships allegedly operating as floating refueling stations. Top military and diplomatic leaders have visited Colombia and Peru in recent weeks, with Peru most recently announcing it would join the coalition.

On Tuesday, the State Department notified Congress that it is shifting $52 million in military assistance funds originally meant for Iraq, Slovakia, North Macedonia, and Tunisia to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama. According to the State Department, the funds will help “combat narcoterrorism in our backyard and help continue to secure the Panama Canal.”

Last year, the Air Force deployed MQ-9 Reapers to Puerto Rico as part of the buildup for Operation Southern Spear, which focused on strikes on small boats that SOUTHCOM said were transporting drugs. Many elements later took part in Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela in January. The new counter-drug mission, run by Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, has centered on the eastern Pacific; boat strikes since September 2025 have killed more than 200 people.

Sources: Defence Blog · DVIDS News

The U.S. Navy has added $76.6 million to a Lockheed Martin contract for continued design work on the next-generation Trident II D5 nuclear missile, the service announced. The modification, awarded Sept. 19, 2026, covers advanced design and development under the Trident II D5 Life Extension 2 program, known as D5LE2.

The work falls under an existing contract with Strategic Systems Programs, the Navy office that manages the submarine-launched nuclear deterrent. Lockheed Martin’s Titusville, Florida, division will lead the effort, though work is spread across more than a dozen locations, with Denver, Colorado, handling 51 percent, followed by smaller shares in Elkton, Maryland; Montville, New Jersey; Greeneville, Tennessee; and Cape Canaveral, Florida, among others. The Navy is obligating the full $76.6 million from fiscal 2026 weapons procurement funds, with work scheduled through Sept. 30, 2030. The award was not competitively bid, a legal option for specialized defense work, and only one company submitted a proposal after the opportunity was posted publicly.

Trident II D5 missiles form the sea-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad, the three-part system of submarines, land-based missiles, and bomber aircraft. The missile first entered service in 1990 and went through its first major refresh, called D5LE, in 2017. This second life extension effort is meant to keep the weapon effective for decades beyond that, with the Navy targeting continued service through roughly 2084, nearly a century after the missile’s original design.

The current Trident II D5 weighs about 130,000 pounds (59,000 kilograms), can fly roughly 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km), and reaches speeds reported to exceed Mach 20. It currently arms the Navy’s Ohio-class submarines and Britain’s Royal Navy Vanguard-class boats, both approaching retirement. The D5LE2 version is intended to carry over onto the submarines replacing them—the Navy’s incoming Columbia-class and the Royal Navy’s future Dreadnought-class—making this a joint U.S.-U.K. modernization effort.

The program has moved forward in stages. The Navy first awarded Lockheed a $383 million contract in January 2025 to begin D5LE2 design and development, followed by an $850 million contract modification announced in April 2026 to continue that work. Lockheed is separately building a roughly 225,000-square-foot (20,900-square-meter) production facility in Titusville expected to open in 2027, while the Navy is constructing its own 130,000-square-foot Engineering Test Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, one of 28 facility projects the Naval Ordnance Test Unit plans to complete between 2024 and 2032 to support the missile’s development and testing.

Even as the newer version moves through design work, the current fleet remains active. The Navy conducted four unarmed Trident II D5LE test flights from an Ohio-class submarine off the coast of Florida in September 2025, a demonstration officials said confirmed the continued readiness of the sea-based deterrent while the next generation is still years from completion.

Sources: Defence Blog · DVIDS News