Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
In video footage shared on social media last week, a Russian self-propelled mortar is destroyed by a Ukrainian strike.
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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 Navy finally settled it: the new battleship will be nuclear-powered — and that single decision put the $17 billion Trump-class in direct competition...
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...
Northrop built exactly two YF-23 prototypes for the competition that produced the F-22, and both still exist. I've stood next to each, a month...
In February 1970, a supersonic Air Force interceptor fell out of control over Montana and its pilot ejected to save his life. The jet...
Canada's review of its F-35 purchase was supposed to be about which fighter to fly. It has become something bigger: whether to expand the...
Northrop Grumman's first B-2 design was cleaner than the bomber the world eventually saw. The deep sawtooth along its trailing edge wasn't the engineers'...
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...
In video footage shared on social media last week, a Russian self-propelled mortar is destroyed by a Ukrainian strike.
A reformer at heart, a practitioner of free market principles, and defender of peace, and a truly rational person on social issues would make...
The Russian military is still launching missiles and suicide drones against Ukrainian critical infrastructure and urban centers but without much success.
A video published by the Russian Ministry of Defense on April 6 shows how Russian soldiers are using Lancet loitering munitions to strike Ukrainian targets.
The video, recorded from a rotary blade unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), first identifies the Russian military vehicle parked between a hedgerow and several piles...
