Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
MEMORANDUM TO: Elon and Vivek, FROM: Mackenzie Eaglen, AEI DATE: ASAP SUBJECT: Defense DOGE-ing Scouring the federal budget for efficiencies and smart rightsizing must...
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Speaking in Baghdad on August 20, Iran's parliament speaker warned that military power counts for nothing if the people are hungry. Four days later...
F/A-XX Update: The CNO, the Defense Secretary and the Acting Navy Secretary all said August. September has arrived with no announcement, and the decision...
American forces struck Iranian positions preparing to fire mine-carrying missiles into the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran answered with a handful of missiles that reportedly...
US intelligence indicates Moscow now reads the Iran war as having depleted the United States, and sees that as an opening in Europe. CSIS...
German Foreign Minister Wadephul's fourth Kyiv visit — two days before Ukraine's Independence Day — capped an accelerating shift: Berlin is becoming Ukraine's principal...
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...
Supporters of the Ford-class counter that the carrier’s power generation and sortie capacity make it uniquely capable of sustaining high-intensity air operations, and that...
Spanish Mausers badly outshot American Krag-Jorgensens in 1898, and US Army Ordnance came home determined to build something better. What they built looked a...
Almost nothing about the Smith & Wesson Model 29 makes sense for personal defense, and almost everyone knows what it is. That gap between...
Roughly 20 million Glocks have been built across every model and caliber since 1982. The next most-produced pistol on earth, the Russian Makarov, sits...
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has unveiled Operation Economic Outcast: secondary sanctions across five sectors and more than sixty targets, with no relief attached. Iran's...
Rezaei's threat goes beyond the strait: no oil leaving the Gulf by any route if neighbors cooperate. In practice that would mean strikes on...
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,...
Analysts dismissed American control of the Strait of Hormuz as a near-impossible task. The US government now says it has been helping tankers move...
Drones reached Moscow on three of the last five nights. A ballistic missile would not extend Ukraine's reach so much as compress Russia's warning...
Georgia Gilholy reports on Trump's map post declaring Hormuz 'New U.S. Territory,' a vessel struck off Oman hours earlier per UK Maritime Trade Operations,...
When it comes to severe economic pressure, Washington has massive options between everything and nothing. Something in the middle that hurts Iran a lot...
Trump ordered Ulchi Freedom Shield cut from eleven days to five before Kim Jong-un had agreed to anything in return. Kim Yo-jong dismissed the...
As President Trump downsizes the Ulchi Freedom Shield war games after South Korea declined to help with Iran, one uncomfortable fact goes almost completely...
Russia has used North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine since late 2023. The early shots missed by kilometers. Later ones did not. That combat...
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.
MEMORANDUM TO: Elon and Vivek, FROM: Mackenzie Eaglen, AEI DATE: ASAP SUBJECT: Defense DOGE-ing Scouring the federal budget for efficiencies and smart rightsizing must...
5 Key Points You Need to Know: China’s J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighter is proliferating across airbases, with nearly 200 in service. While not...
Key Points: The Russian Air Force, while criticized early in the Ukraine War for failing to secure air superiority, has demonstrated resilience and adaptability....
Key Points: The U.S. defense budget, though still the largest globally, now represents a smaller share of global military spending as rivals and allies...
Key Points: Elon Musk’s claims that drones will soon replace crewed fighter jets like the F-35 have sparked debate in the airpower community. While...
