To combat more than 90,000 cyber-attacks on UK defence over the past two years, active recruiting of cyber warriors is a priority. Cyber warriors have changed recruitment rules, which includes focusing on neurodivergent people.

UK Special Forces selection process is regarded as one of the toughest in the world, with only 10 percent passing. British adventurer, Bear Grylls, failed the course on first attempt, but promotes learning from failures.

For many personnel, transitioning isn't as simple as getting a new job. Veterans are changing their culture, routine and community. Having self-belief, curiosity, a network, and underpinning soft skills are key for success.

Military movies tend to portray training and combat scenes but by-pass the routine, repetition and administrative work that defines daily service. The meaning of these mundane activities for personnel is built slowly through shared experience.

A tightly timed operation showed how intelligence fusion, weather windows, and rapid coordination now shape decisive action. Precision replaced mass, speed outweighed scale; and success depended on preparation, secrecy, and disciplined execution under uncertainty.

The United States Army is promoting a situational judgement test program to improve soldiers’ ability to think on their feet and come up with better solutions to problems they might face in the field.

People in uniform are characterised by their unique identity and mission. Upon retirement, they can feel they have lost their identity and become disconnected. The challenge is to find purpose and connections in different contexts.

China is blending commercial shipping with advanced launch systems and drones, creating cheap, flexible platforms that complicate monitoring, blur civilian roles and shift the balance toward scale, persistence and surprise in contested maritime environments.

A complex tanker seizure shows how persistence, legal authority, and allied coordination can compel compliance without violence—demonstrating how pressure, signalling, and partnerships can resolve high-risk situations before force becomes necessary.

Recent tanker boardings linked to Venezuela largely align with the law of the sea. They rely on rules around stateless vessels and flag state consent, and highlight how legal clarity shapes action at sea.