Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Ukraine War Update: Russian forces are making progress in the Donbas. Although the battle for the town of Bakhmut has captured the headlines, there is...
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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...
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...
$175 billion, $185 billion, or $1.2 trillion — the price of Golden Dome depends on a question Washington hasn't answered: which war is the...
The fastest nuclear buildup on Earth is real — and the precise speed is less certain than the alarm implies. The full ledger of...
The gun the A-10 was built around turned on it mid-burst — canopy gone, radios dead, nose gear jammed. What Capt. Brett DeVries did...
No missile ever touched it. No fighter ever caught it. And still a third of the fleet was destroyed — by the only force...
Social Security’s funding gap is not a forecast — it is arithmetic. The size of the shortfall is known, the levers that can close...
The Memorandum of Understanding that paused the fighting has collapsed, Farley writes, because it never settled the status of the Strait of Hormuz or...
U.S. gas prices rose for the first time in eight weeks — 'Iran is the reason why,' per GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan — while...
Washington and Tehran can't agree whether the Strait of Hormuz is open — Trump declared it open under a new U.S. 'guardian' regime, while...
Growth at 0.4 percent and a blown deficit look like pressure toward peace. Latham's case: four years of war built a political economy with...
Tehran treats the Strait of Hormuz as non-negotiable, Holmes writes, and no air campaign eliminates every missile. That leaves four courses: walk away and...
Carafano argues Iran has lost its nuclear option, its missile mass, its proxy network, and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz all at...
Ukrainian drones set two major Russian refineries ablaze overnight — including Salavat in Bashkortostan, the last gas refinery untouched in 2026 — while Russia...
Last year North Korea's newest destroyer rolled over at its own launch, and the world assumed the program was finished for years. Instead Pyongyang...
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...
Ukraine War Update: Russian forces are making progress in the Donbas. Although the battle for the town of Bakhmut has captured the headlines, there is...
It is that arrogance that produced the Iraq War and Washington’s other military misadventures. Until U.S. leaders finally comprehend the inevitable, toxic effects of...
China’s population fell in 2022 and will continue to do so throughout the 21st century, according to the United Nations Population Division’s 2022 Revision...
In the years to come, the measure of the B-21 Raider will hinge on many factors, but probably none as much as its greatest asset...
Former President Donald Trump might be indicted as early as this Tuesday by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. The potential indictment would be on...
