Author: Braxton Taylor

Most people who train with firearms or in hand-to-hand combat understand the urgency of physical altercations. When violence erupts, you need to act fast and with the kind of calm precision that only training delivers. The goal is to survive—to end the threat and protect yourself or others. But, here’s the real question: What if you could solve that same tactical problem without ever needing to go to guns? What if you didn’t need to strike, grapple or shoot? What if there was a path that allowed you to prevent the entire altercation from happening in the first place? This…

Witching, dowsing, divining. is it physics, subconscious movement, or straight-up hocus pocus? In this episode of the Bear Grease podcast, Clay Newcomb speaks to firsthand observers, a legit water witcher, a university physics professor, and even MeatEater’s own Steven Rinella to try to explain one thing: “What makes the sticks move?” Maybe it’s legit but just something that can’t fit into the scientific method box. Read the full article here

Welcome to MeatEater At MeatEater, we believe a deeper connection to the natural world enriches all our lives. Through honest storytelling, expert advice, top-tier gear, and a commitment to conservation, we help hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts live closer to nature. Read the full article here

Army planners are moving toward a sweeping overhaul of the service’s professional military education pipeline for noncommissioned officers, part of an aggressive push to slash costs.The overhaul is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks and primarily aimed at slashing the cost of sending soldiers to school — particularly travel expenses like rental cars, meals and lodging, internal documents and correspondence between service planners reviewed by Military.com show.The changes could significantly reduce the length of midlevel NCO courses. The Advanced Leader Course, or ALC, and Senior Leader Course, or SLC, would be compressed from eight to 16 weeks down…

A retired Army officer and conservative commentator who could not be approved for a Pentagon job during the first Trump administration because of past Islamaphobic and conspiratorial statements has been confirmed by the Senate to be the Pentagon’s personnel chief in the second Trump administration.In a 52-46 party-line vote Tuesday afternoon, the Senate confirmed Anthony Tata to become the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, the top official overseeing the health and well-being of the more than 3 million uniformed and civilian personnel working for the Defense Department.Tata is a retired Army brigadier general whose post-military career includes…

The Coast Guard would be required to improve its oversight and response to sexual assault and harassment allegations under legislation currently under congressional consideration.The House and Senate versions of the Coast Guard Authorization Act, which OKs funding through 2029 and sets service policy, contain dozens of provisions that codify the Coast Guard’s rules and procedures on sexual misconduct, victim support and senior leader accountability regarding its handling of sexual assault and harassment.The provisions stem from at least 60 cases of sexual assault and harassment at the Coast Guard Academy from 1998 through 2006 and the cover-up of subsequent investigations, known…

The Marine Corps swapped out its task force assigned to the southern border mission with a combat logistics unit after nearly six months of repairing the barrier wall, the military said in a news release Monday evening.Following President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, thousands of troops from across the country were rapidly spun up to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of his aggressive immigration enforcement agenda, which has since seen the military increasingly entwined with federal agents charged with detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants.Task Force Sapper, made up of 500 mostly engineering and logistical Marines out of Camp Pendleton, California,…

Airmen who defuse and dispose of bombs in combat will now have a gender-neutral fitness test starting next month, marking the second career field in the service to have a job-specific physical standard.Explosive ordnance disposal, or EOD, airmen and qualified officers will no longer take part in the standard Air Force fitness test and will be required to do a 1,000-meter row, 20-pound medicine ball toss and a trap bar lift instead of the service’s standard 1.5-mile run, pushups and situps.”Explosive ordnance disposal has been added as the next combat arms career field to require special sex- and age-neutral fitness…

A new partnership between a defense AI startup and a ship builder aims to accelerate the construction and maintenance of new American ships at a time when the Chinese Navy’s shipbuilding capacity is far outpacing the United States’. The partnership between Gecko Robotics—a company that uses AI and drones to accelerate maintenance—and BPMI was announced Tuesday in Pittsburgh, where President Donald Trump was meeting with AI companies and researchers.  BPMI is the prime contractor for the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program, tasked with  “engineering, procurement, and technical oversight of naval nuclear components,” according to the Navy. That includes the development of the Columbia…

Lockheed Martin has delivered all of the F-35 fighter jets that were stored in long-term parking at its facilities in Texas after software problems held up deliveries of the jet for a year. The Pentagon stopped accepting deliveries of the jet in July 2023 due to delays with an upgrade package, called Tech Refresh-3, but the company did not stop building them, resulting in 72 jets stacking up at Lockheed facilities during the year-long pause. Until now, the Pentagon has declined to say how many jets were affected. The final backlogged jet was delivered May 1, according to the JPO. Bloomberg was…