A warning to pilots was issued in the Svalbard archipelago in July 2025 after Norwegian officials determined there had been attempts to confuse flight traffic using deceptive spoofing techniques, a longtime Russian tactic. Demilitarized by treaty, Svalbard lies at the edge of the Arctic, a region rich in resources with increasingly more navigable shipping routes as sea ice melts. Although no actor has been identified in the latest incident, it is the first attempt to disrupt air travel to the world’s northernmost airport with regular passenger service. Spoofing deceives GPS receivers with false signals, causing aeronautic systems to calculate an…
The Watch
Mexican security forces destroyed two drug labs and seized nearly 5,000 kilograms of methamphetamine in Sinaloa in July 2025, the latest high-profile raid in the heart of the Sinaloa cartel’s power center. The operation, conducted by the Mexican Navy, National Guard and other security forces, also captured chemical precursors and equipment. In total, the forces disrupted a $70 million illicit manufacturing operation, and the case has been turned over to the federal Attorney General’s office, according to a news release from Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy. Along with the Navy, the Secretariat of Defense, which controls the Army and Air…
Royal Canadian Air Force Brig. Gen. Kyle C. Paul stepped into his new role as Deputy Combined Joint Force Space Component commander (DCJFSCC) of U.S. Space Forces – Space (S4S) on July 21 at its headquarters at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. It’s a top role at U.S. Space Command, and Paul will be supporting Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess, S4S commander and Combined Joint Force Space Component commander. Paul’s promotion is a milestone in U.S.-Canada defense collaboration and in the critical domain of space operations. “Brig. Gen. Paul’s position reflects the strength and depth of our allied integration,” Schiess said. “At S4S, we don’t…
The Bahamas has a lot of maritime territory to cover. To that end, its government announced in July 2025 that it is negotiating the purchase of a flagship offshore patrol vessel, the fifth new ship for the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) this year as the force rapidly modernizes and expands its fleet. The 62-meter vessel boosts national security efforts and aids in efforts to combat drug smuggling, human trafficking and illegal fishing, RBDF Commodore Floyd Moxey told a parliamentary committee. “What we have been doing is focusing on ensuring that our fleet is at basically optimum capability. That would…
The leaders of the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, NATO, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States met in Washington, D.C., in August 2025, presenting a united front in opposition to Russian aggression in Ukraine. The summit took place three days after U.S. President Donald J. Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at an Alaskan military base to discuss ways to end the war. The August 18 meeting involving the European leaders took place at the White House, where the participants agreed that Ukraine would continue to receive their support in its fight to repel the Russian invasion.…
The United States Senate, in a voice vote July 17, confirmed Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein to lead President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome for America missile defense program, one of the most complex and expensive defense projects in Pentagon history. As program manager, he will develop the Golden Dome’s portfolio of capabilities and execute its planned architecture. The Golden Dome project envisions a network of space-based missiles launched from satellites to intercept ballistic, cruise, hypersonic and next-generation missiles. The timeline set by Trump is three years. The U.S. has estimated the cost at $175 billion; the Congressional Budget Office says…
The United States Coast Guard cutter Resolute returned to its homeport of St. Petersburg, Florida, in July 2025 laden with narcotics seized in interdictions over a two-month deployment in the eastern Pacific. The ship’s success in disrupting drug shipments originating in Ecuador was made more impressive by the Coast Guard’s agility in replacing a quick-response vessel lost during an interdiction without compromising the effectiveness of the mission. The Resolute’s crew offloaded nearly 5,715 kilograms of cocaine, worth an estimated $93.2 million, on July 17, after a 59-day deployment to the Pacific that covered more than 1 million square miles. Three…
As part of Canada’s $38.6 billion plan to modernize North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in the next two decades, the Department of National Defence (DND) announced that the military had chosen the first transmit and receive sites in Ontario for the Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar (A-OTHR) project. A-OTHR aims to significantly expand situational awareness of objects approaching and entering Canadian airspace from the North. A-OTHR is expected to reach initial operational capability by the end of 2029, seven years after the modernization program began. It requires four sites to be fully operational: two transmit sites and two receive sites. The sites must be in southern…
The United States government is negotiating with its NATO ally Finland to buy an icebreaker and possibly two more from the Nordic country. The news follows previous U.S. policy steps, including the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE Pact) with Canada and Finland to form an icebreaker-building partnership and the U.S.’s recent purchase of a commercial icebreaker from a global energy company. U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced the most recent negotiations with Finland at the June 2025 NATO summit at The Hague in The Netherlands. The purchase is part of a larger, sustained effort to bolster the U.S. capability in the…
Senior defense officials from the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) traveled to Bermuda in July 2025 to meet with their counterparts as troops from both British Overseas Territories (BOT) trained together. The militaries have increased collaboration and joint exercises in recent months, deepening an already close relationship between the Royal Bermuda Regiment (RBR) and the TCI Regiment. Bermuda’s Minister of National Security Michael Weeks visited RBR headquarters at Warwick Camp where he discussed security and defense matters with TCI Permanent Secretary of National Security Tito Lightbourne and the TCI Regiment’s commanding officer, Lt. Col. Ennis Grant. Tarita Cartwright, Bermuda’s acting…