Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and the east continues to unfold, with slow progress along several axes of advance.
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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...
China's aerospace industry did something that looked impossible 20 years ago: it built one of the world's largest stealth-fighter fleets. But the J-20's greatest...
The Iran war was as close to a pure air campaign as America has fought, and James Holmes — who holds the J.C. Wylie...
Trump calling Taiwan a "bargaining chip" is the headline, but Denny Roy argues the deeper story is structural: a Chinese military that makes intervention...
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...
Boeing is losing billions on fixed-price defense programs, but the warning was there decades ago. The Navy’s A-12 Avenger II collapsed after Washington tried...
The jet in the air-show photos is not Russia's cancelled stealth fighter. It is the stand-in for a fighter that was never built at...
Khrushchev had killed the capital ship for good, or so Soviet doctrine said. Then a submarine hunter began absorbing missions, one requirement at a...
China's H-20 stealth bomber has been talked about for roughly a decade. And yet, the stealth warplane has never flown in public.
Iran is moving to charge ships for passing through the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway that carries a fifth of the world's oil...
A film celebrating ten years of China's Y-20 transport slipped in something no other country has shown on official camera: a sixth-generation fighter refueling...
A decade after it surfaced, China's H-20 has no flying prototype and no production line. The reasons are industrial, not financial: an intercontinental flying...
A new 1.5-gigawatt project in Utah will use five 300-megawatt Holtec small modular reactors rather than two massive conventional ones, part of a broader...
For weeks, an August 18 deadline loomed: the day a U.S.–Iran understanding expired, and, by President Trump's own warning, the day fighting over the...
The diplomatic center of gravity in the Middle East has decisively shifted to Riyadh. On June 23, 2026, talks between Iranian Majlis Speaker Mohammed...
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...
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...
The Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and the east continues to unfold, with slow progress along several axes of advance.
Iran is ready to ramp up its military presence in Latin America to the detriment of U.S. partners and allies. Washington’s response will go...
Since Wes Moore replaced Larry Hogan as Governor of Maryland, the state has, perhaps not unsurprisingly, started reverting to its bad old ways when...
In early August, Putin signed into law a scheme to equip the Russian national guard, or Rosgvardia, with heavy weapons including main battle tanks, infantry...
Reality has set in on both sides of the Pacific with respect to Communist China. The Philippine Star is reporting that joint U.S.-Philippine coast...
