Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
The A-10 Thunderbolt II, a platform once destined for the scrap heap, has found a second life in the 2026 battlespace. As Operation Epic...
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The second Trump administration is reviewing America's military footprint in Europe, and the worst-case outcome is a full withdrawal. Andrew Michta argues that would...
The US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding is being judged on whether it cools tensions in the Persian Gulf. Strategic-studies scholar Andrew Michta argues that's the...
Iran: A War at the Wrong Time and Place: As the war in Iran continues and analysts debate how long it will last and...
Strategic expert Andrew A. Michta explores how Russia is capitalizing on the Iran War to consolidate gains in Europe. With U.S. resources drained and...
For three decades, the Sturgeon-class submarines were the U.S. Navy's quiet Cold War hunters, trailing Soviet missile boats and tapping their undersea cables in...
The F-22 Raptor is famous for stealth, speed, and air dominance, but keeping its low-observable coatings ready takes constant work. Official reports show that...
In the 1970s, Congress mocked the Navy's new Spruance-class destroyers as "empty hulls", warships the size of a light cruiser that went to sea...
USS Long Beach entered service as the world’s first nuclear-powered surface warship and sailed around the world without refueling. Decades later, the stripped, defueled...
A new 1.5-gigawatt project in Utah will use five 300-megawatt Holtec small modular reactors rather than two massive conventional ones, part of a broader...
A Belgian joint venture, BeHydro, has earned the world's first Type Approval Certificate from Lloyd's Register for a marine engine that runs on 100...
My best friend in the U.S. Army was a Special Forces officer with service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once, we had a conversation about...
A few days ago I learned my 2024 Jeep Gladiator is one of more than a million Wranglers and Gladiators that federal regulators say...
The diplomatic center of gravity in the Middle East has decisively shifted to Riyadh. On June 23, 2026, talks between Iranian Majlis Speaker Mohammed...
Germany still must address a readiness issue: large portions of the army are not considered fully combat-ready, with some readiness estimates for land forces...
Vice President JD Vance has hailed his Switzerland negotiations over Iran's nuclear program as diplomatic progress. Middle East Forum scholar Dr. Michael Rubin argues...
Ukraine hasn't moved the front — but its drones have broken the war's one-way character, reaching the Russian heartland Putin promised was safe. The...
The KN-23, North Korea's version the Russian Iskander missile, showed up to fight in the Ukraine war. And it isn't the same platform as...
On May 21, 2025, a brand-new North Korean destroyer rolled over and partially capsized at its own launch ceremony — with Kim Jong Un...
Fake Russian IDs, Orders Never to Be Captured, and 50% Casualties: Inside North Korea’s Secret War in Ukraine The Russian Army has sustained nearly...
Summary and Key Points: Dr. Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., a political science professor and proliferation expert, evaluates the strategic partnership between Iran and North...
The A-10 Thunderbolt II, a platform once destined for the scrap heap, has found a second life in the 2026 battlespace. As Operation Epic...
The Nuclear Exception: Why France’s Charles de Gaulle is a Global Strategic Heavyweight You already know that the United States dominates the seas with...
The retirement of the Ohio-class SSGNs represents the single largest loss of conventional "magazine depth" in the history of the U.S. Navy. In 2026,...
Steve Balestrieri, former U.S. Army Special Forces NCO and national security columnist, reveals how Ukraine's capture of an intact SAP-518SM "Regata" electronic warfare jamming...
The CF-18 Hornet is the definition of a "workhorse" that has been ridden into the ground. In 2026, the structural fatigue of these airframes...
