Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Summary and Key Points: As May 9, 2025—the historic Russian Victory Day—approaches, the Ukraine-Russia conflict faces a critical juncture. -Ukraine’s recent Kursk offensive failed...
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German Foreign Minister Wadephul's fourth Kyiv visit — two days before Ukraine's Independence Day — capped an accelerating shift: Berlin is becoming Ukraine's principal...
The Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative emerged from US Army Europe and Africa and NATO's Allied Land Command as a concept for restoring deterrence by...
For all the talk of spending targets, the Ankara NATO summit's real work happened elsewhere. Europe is being handed responsibility for NATO's conventional defense...
Western analysts fixate on North Korea's missiles. The real danger is speed — a mass artillery-and-missile salvo in the war's first hours, backed by...
HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll went into port for refits in 2022 and never came out. Britain could not crew them and its aircraft...
The Royal Navy built two aircraft carriers so that one would always be available. It has repeatedly ended up with one, and sometimes with...
The British Army ordered 386 Challenger-2 main battle tanks and sent them to Kosovo, Iraq and eventually Ukraine. Iraqi T-55s lost every engagement with...
HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales displace roughly 65,000 tons each and are the largest warships the Royal Navy has ever put...
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has unveiled Operation Economic Outcast: secondary sanctions across five sectors and more than sixty targets, with no relief attached. Iran's...
Rezaei's threat goes beyond the strait: no oil leaving the Gulf by any route if neighbors cooperate. In practice that would mean strikes on...
Of the 1.5 billion barrels in emergency stocks, the IEA cannot order the commercial half released, leaving governments under a billion. The American reserve...
The Houthis have no warships. It doesn't need any. A blockade holds if shipowners and insurers decide the passage is not worth the risk,...
Speaking in Baghdad on August 20, Iran's parliament speaker warned that military power counts for nothing if the people are hungry. Four days later...
American forces struck Iranian positions preparing to fire mine-carrying missiles into the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran answered with a handful of missiles that reportedly...
Analysts dismissed American control of the Strait of Hormuz as a near-impossible task. The US government now says it has been helping tankers move...
Drones reached Moscow on three of the last five nights. A ballistic missile would not extend Ukraine's reach so much as compress Russia's warning...
Trump ordered Ulchi Freedom Shield cut from eleven days to five before Kim Jong-un had agreed to anything in return. Kim Yo-jong dismissed the...
As President Trump downsizes the Ulchi Freedom Shield war games after South Korea declined to help with Iran, one uncomfortable fact goes almost completely...
Russia has used North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine since late 2023. The early shots missed by kilometers. Later ones did not. That combat...
Iran's Shahab-1 came from the Scud-B and reached 300km. The Khorramshahr, derived from North Korea's Musudan, reaches 2,000km — a 6.7-fold increase in reach.
Summary and Key Points: As May 9, 2025—the historic Russian Victory Day—approaches, the Ukraine-Russia conflict faces a critical juncture. -Ukraine’s recent Kursk offensive failed...
Summary and Key Points: The Trump administration’s Defense Oversight and Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative raises concerns about Pentagon budget cuts, but likely won’t undermine...
Summary and Key Points: The Nimitz-class carriers have been essential to U.S. naval dominance for nearly 50 years, but their retirement has sparked debate...
The Israeli Air Force has enjoyed good fortune with its F-35I Adir stealth fighter jets. Whether it is using them against Hamas and Hezbollah...
In contrast to aircraft and subsonic missiles, the Navy’s hypersonic Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missile reaches a 2,200 nautical mile distant target in 30...
