Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
A deployed US Navy aircraft carrier sailed into the South China Sea this week carrying F-35 stealth fighters in a first for the service....
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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...
President Trump called Taiwan's $14 billion U.S. weapons package a "bargaining chip" he was holding over China, leverage he could trade for concessions from...
Canada was supposed to buy 88 F-35 stealth fighters from the United States. Now the deal is in limbo: frustrated with President Trump's tariffs...
Turkey built the TF Kaan, a fifth-generation stealth fighter meant to prove the country could field a world-class jet of its own. There's a...
The US has reportedly approved the first-ever export of the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) to Australia as part of a $31.6 billion...
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...
Iran keeps returning to the Strait of Hormuz because it works. As Andrew Latham argues, Tehran doesn't need to close the waterway, or even...
SpaceX exists to put humans on Mars, so its shift toward the Moon looks like an admission that the Mars dream has stalled. It...
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 terms of the Memorandum of Understanding ending the U.S.-Iran war are now public. This analysis argues the deal is worth supporting as an...
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...
A deployed US Navy aircraft carrier sailed into the South China Sea this week carrying F-35 stealth fighters in a first for the service....
There may be countless Chinese fables and folk tales, but the most apt comparison of the showdown that could come between China and Taiwan...
On Wednesday, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command announced that it would stay on high alert to “safeguard China’s sovereignty and...
![Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken participates in the virtual U.S.-Iraq Strategic Dialogue, from the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on April 7, 2021. [State Department Photo by Freddie Everett/ Public Domain]](https://www.19fortyfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Somalia-600x337.jpg)
![Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken participates in the virtual U.S.-Iraq Strategic Dialogue, from the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on April 7, 2021. [State Department Photo by Freddie Everett/ Public Domain]](https://www.19fortyfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Somalia-100x100.jpg)
The political crisis in Mogadishu sparked by the kidnapping and murder of National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) cyber-expert Ikran Tahlil Farah continues. To...
For much of the country this fall’s deer hunting season is just a few weeks to even a couple months away, but now is...
