Thirty nations. One target. 💥🌊
Allies and partners participating in #RIMPAC2026 recently completed two successful sinking exercises, combining ships, aircraft, weapons and personnel from across the globe to test live-fire proficiency and the ability to operate together at sea.
Thirty nations, 30 ships, five submarines, 15 national land forces, more than 190 aircraft and more than 30,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC, the world’s largest international maritime exercise.
On March 14, 1945, the RAF’s 617 Squadron dropped the first Grand Slam bomb, the 22,000-pound “Ten Ton Tessie,” on Germany’s Bielefeld railway viaduct.
Designed by Barnes Wallis as an earthquake bomb, the weapon measured over 25 feet long and carried more than 9,000 pounds of Torpex explosive. Squadron Leader Charles Calder released it from a specially modified Lancaster at roughly 12,000 feet; the bomb struck the ground near a pier, penetrated deep, and detonated with an 11-second delay, creating a massive underground cavity that collapsed hundreds of feet of the twin viaducts.
Previous raids had dropped thousands of tons of conventional bombs with little lasting effect. One Grand Slam finished the job. 🫡
Douglas A-1E Skyraider attack aircraft in Republic of Vietnam Air Force service attacking Viet Cong positions with napalm, bombs and cannon fire in 1965
Helping achieve clear U.S. air superiority during Vietnam, including one wing’s 32 MiG kills in 1972, the USAF fielded the slotted-wing F-4E, whose improved turn performance better matched MiG maneuverability. It carried an internal high-rate cannon, an upgraded lead-computing gunsight, a rapid-select weapons panel, the TISEO long-range TV identification system, and an electronic friend-or-foe identifier, while employing heat-seeking and all-aspect Sparrow missiles.
Three years after the FJ-2 failed its first carrier trials on the USS Coral Sea, Marine pilots of VMF-122 brought the jets back and gave it another try. As always, upscaled and restored to 4k.
On 15 February 1955 the Candystripers completed carrier qualifications in the FJ-2 Fury aboard USS Coral Sea. The squadron had been the first Marines to receive the type in January 1954 and became the first Navy or Marine unit to carrier-qualify in it. Roughly 1,100 pounds heavier than the Air Force F-86 it was based on, the FJ-2 still demanded careful low-speed handling. Because the aircraft was deemed structurally and aerodynamically "less than satisfactory" for standard fleet use, it was relegated to land-based Marine Corps operations for the vast majority of its service life.
Soviet-made T-26 Model 1933 tanks captured from Spanish Republican forces in Nationalist service alongside German Panzer I tanks on the move circa April 1938
The T-26 tanks are marked with red and yellow stripes and a black cross on the white turret roof for identification
Pontoon section launched and M13 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage self-propelled anti-aircraft guns coming ashore from an LST in Sicily on July 10th 1943
Hat tip @shermanfannr1