Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Key Points: The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, initially envisioned as a game-changer for modern naval warfare, has become a cautionary tale of mismanagement...
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Even during genuine unipolar periods, pursuing excessively ambitious goals placed severe strain on America’s military, economic, and political systems. Attempting to do so now...
HMC Ships Moncton and Nanaimo, Canada's last two Kingston-class coastal vessels, are scheduled to be paid off in 2028. The Continental Defence Corvette intended...
An executive order issued on 13 August 2026 directs the Navy to replace the electromagnetic launch system on the fourth Ford-class carrier with steam...
Canada's Army modernization strategy, Inflection Point 2025, states that the Army's sole remaining armoured regiment has a single squadron of tanks that are both...
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...
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...
Iran does not need to put a U.S. aircraft carrier on the bottom. A few hits on a packed flight deck can stop launches...
EMALS out, steam back in? Such a decision will add time, raise costs, and cause greater strategic damage to a US Navy already scrambling...
The Soviet Union found out about Sweden's development of a nuclear bomber, and Sweden was warned by the Soviets that there was no such...
Initial Navy estimates put the SSN(X) at roughly $5.8 billion per submarine. The Congressional Budget Office is less optimistic, with a 2025 estimate ranging...
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,...
Washington redirected 55 commercial vessels away from Iranian ports as of Sunday, up from 35 a week earlier, while the Kpler intelligence firm counted...
Supply boats bring food and water. Wages arrive late or not at all. A union leader likens it to imprisonment, and one Indian sailor...
In April 1997, President Roman Herzog told Germany it needed a Ruck — a jolt — to break out of national lethargy and undertake...
Dr. Michael Rubin argues that Israel's targeted killing campaign against Palestinian militants a quarter of a century ago ultimately produced two decades of relative...
Since Khamenei took over in March, Iran's Supreme National Security Council has had three secretaries. Ali Larijani was killed in an airstrike a few...
Iran's strategy is to drag the war out. James Jay Carafano argues that protraction is the only card the IRGC holds, and that Trump...
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.
North Korea has roughly 60 nuclear weapons and Kim Jong-un keeps demanding an exponential increase. Bruce Bennett works the problem backward, from Kim's objectives...
Xi's first Pyongyang visit in seven years, a ratified Russia pact, and a declaration that the arsenal is permanent: Andrew Latham on why the...
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...
Key Points: The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, initially envisioned as a game-changer for modern naval warfare, has become a cautionary tale of mismanagement...
Key Points: The incoming Trump administration is expected to halt the use of ATACMS missiles in Ukraine, opting instead for a peace-focused approach. This...
Key Points: Lockheed Martin’s Mako hypersonic missile offers a groundbreaking blend of speed, stealth, and adaptability. Designed to fit inside the internal weapons bays...
Key Points: The Glock 19X was Glock’s entry into the U.S. Army’s Modular Handgun System competition but lost to SIG Sauer’s P320 variants (M17/M18)...
On paper, Scott Bessent appears to be a fine choice for Treasury Secretary in the incoming Trump administration. Indeed, who could be better qualified...
