Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Last week, the tried-and-true USS Nimitz aircraft carrier completed an important mission. The historic flat-top had been assigned to the Southern Command area of...
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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...
The U.S. Air Force is seeking a new Air Force Long Range Weapon, or AFLRW, with a planned reach of 1,000 nautical miles. Details...
In April the U.S. Army pivoted away from Lockheed Martin's Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, the "Dark Eagle," whose $35–40 million-per-missile cost made it nearly impossible...
Every other navy gave up on the nuclear-powered surface warship. Russia kept one. After a refit lasting more than two decades and costing billions,...
Whenever U.S.-Europe tensions flare, talk of an F-35 "kill switch" resurfaces, the idea that Washington could remotely disable allied jets. There is no such...
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...
Last week, the tried-and-true USS Nimitz aircraft carrier completed an important mission. The historic flat-top had been assigned to the Southern Command area of...
"Venus is a Russian planet." That is what the head of Russia's space agency declared in 2020, and the West largely laughed it off....
For the first time, China has released footage of its DF-17 hypersonic missile launching, filmed during a desert exercise simulating waves of strikes. Flying...
Everyone is fixated on Mars. But there is a closer world, and a stranger idea. The surface of Venus is hot enough to melt...
Commissioned in 2009, the USS George H.W. Bush was the last Nimitz-class carrier the United States ever built, and she isn't quite like the...
