California National Guard (CalGuard) counternarcotic teams helped seize more than 1.2 million fentanyl pills in October, the highest monthly total to date in 2025, state data shows. The pills have an estimated street value of $6.45 million. The seizures are part of the state’s expanded drug enforcement efforts, backed by a $30 million state investment to bolster CalGuard’s role in drug interdiction and support programs targeting high-intensity drug trafficking areas. This year, CalGuard members, along with partner agencies, have seized more than 2,345 kilograms of fentanyl — more than 3 million pills — worth nearly $43 million. Since they started drug…
The Watch
The Royal Bermuda Regiment (RBR) has announced that Maj. Thomas Wood has been appointed the regiment’s new second-in-command. “Major Wood’s extensive experience, both in operational service and in leadership development, makes him exceptionally well qualified for this key appointment,” Andrew Murdoch, Bermuda’s governor and commander-in-chief of the RBR, said in a news release on November 10, 2025. Wood joined the RBR in 2021 as its executive officer after serving in the British Army for more than 20 years. A graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Wood has focused his career on soldier development and leadership training. A highlight was…
A Canadian patrol frigate completed a round-the-world mission to support allies and contribute to the safety and security of international waters in November 2025. The HMCS Ville de Québec returned to its home port in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after participating in collaborative missions spanning the world’s oceans, including supporting efforts of free navigation of the seas in the Pacific region. The Ville de Québec, a Halifax-class ship, departed in April to participate in NATO’s Operation Reassurance before joining the United Kingdom-led Carrier Strike Group 25 through the Mediterranean Sea. During the transit of the Suez Canal, Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb…
The USS St. Louis returned to its home port of Mayport, Florida, on November 10 following a surge deployment in support of the United States Coast Guard’s maritime interdiction mission. The U.S. Navy Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, which carried a Navy helicopter and embedded U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment (LEDET), patrolled U.S. waters near the southern border with Mexico, under the direction of the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). “The crew of St. Louis is grateful for the opportunity to support and defend the homeland,” stated Cmdr. Lee Shewmake, the USS St. Louis’s commanding officer. “We are always ready to…
The Mexican government ordered 1,000 troops to the state of Michoacan in November 2025 in the latest effort to combat transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). The deployment — which brings the total number of troops in the south-central state to more than 10,000 — came after the murder of a mayor who opposed the criminal groups. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said, in addition to the military deployment, the government would invest $3 billion in the state to address poverty, unemployment, and other social and economic factors that undermine public safety and national security. “To all Michoacan (residents), we say: You are…
The United States Coast Guard monitored a Russian spy ship operating about 15 nautical miles south of the Hawaiian island of Oahu in late October. An HC-130 Hercules airplane from Air Station Barbers Point and a Coast Guard cutter were dispatched to keep an eye on the intelligence vessel Kareliya by “conducting a safe and professional overflight and transiting near the vessel,” officials said in a news release November 13. The Coast Guard said it was still tracking the vessel’s movement near U.S. waters “to provide maritime security for U.S. vessels operating in the area and to support U.S. homeland…
The United States Air Force launched a Minuteman III missile across the Pacific Ocean in November 2025 as part of a nuclear force readiness initiative that coincides with an overhaul of the country’s nuclear arsenal. The Minuteman is part of the nuclear triad along with submarine-based nuclear missiles and nuclear bombs carried by B-52 and B-2 bombers currently undergoing a $1.4 billion overhaul. The intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base on November 5 after being plucked from the nation’s stockpile at random, part of the regular testing process, according to Stars and Stripes, a U.S.…
The United States Coast Guard’s newest icebreaker, the cutter Storis, arrived in Seattle on October 3, 2025, after completing its 112-day inaugural patrol. Under the direction of the Coast Guard Arctic District, the Storis supported Operation Frontier Sentinel in countering foreign influences in or near Alaskan and U.S. Arctic waters. The Storis left Pascagoula, Mississippi, on June 1, transited the Panama Canal and headed north in the Pacific Ocean en route to its first Arctic patrol, north of the Bering Strait. The mission took on added importance as five Chinese research vessels operated in the Arctic in mid-2025. Analysts say the dual-use vessels gather data not…
Soldiers from across Canada and allied nations tested their skills detecting and defeating explosive threats at the 2025 iteration of Exercise Ardent Defender in October. Their goal: stay ahead of technology that is quickly changing how explosives are deployed on the battlefield. “The threat evolves rapidly; technology advances even faster,” said Maj. Vincent Dupont of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), this year’s exercise director. The exercise, hosted by the CAF’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Organization, welcomed nearly 300 participants from countries around the world, including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. “It is very…
The U.S. Army is looking for its own version of a collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) loyal wingman drone that could be delivered to the service in the next couple of years, military officials said at the annual Association of the United States Army (AUSA) conference in mid-October 2025. “Manned-unmanned teaming is the future,” one military leader said at the conference. The Army’s aviation arm has been collaborating with industry, as well as counterparts from Army commands in the Indo-Pacific and Europe, to devise requirements for a loyal wingman drone program for the past year, Brig. Gen. Cain Baker, director of…