Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
The Last Aircraft Carriers? Last month, it was announced that the United States Navy’s newest (and largest) aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) would take...
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An air ceasefire would take Russian missiles out of Ukrainian skies, and after another summer of ballistic missiles and mass drone attacks, even a...
In a new analysis, national security expert James Jay Carafano argues President Trump has already achieved America's key objectives against Iran and is de-risking...
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...
Ukraine says it struck thirteen more vessels from Russia's sanctions-dodging shadow fleet across the Azov and Black Seas in forty-eight hours, part of a...
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...
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...
The four Ohio-class guided-missile submarines leaving service by the end of the decade carry 154 Tomahawks each, and they have been a favorite of...
USS George Washington entered Newport News for a four-year overhaul in 2017 but did not return to the Navy until May 2023. Hidden turbine...
USS John F. Kennedy, the second Gerald R. Ford-class supercarrier, is now scheduled for delivery in March 2027. The Navy's own budget documents give...
In October 2021 the Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Connecticut struck an uncharted underwater mountain in the South China Sea while running at 24 knots....
No vessel entered any of the three Ukrainian ports in the Odesa region on Wednesday, the first such day since the grain corridor opened...
Oil futures are signaling that traders expect prices to fall over the coming months, despite the war and the disruption around Hormuz. The bet...
Ukraine's long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have spread the fuel crisis into the countryside just as harvest begins, one analyst argues, with farmers...
Two tankers loaded with Saudi crude reversed course in the Red Sea — without being fired on — after the Houthis threatened any ship...
Zelensky met Raytheon executives in Kyiv, saying Ukraine is moving to co-produce Patriot missiles under plans he discussed with Trump — though waiting lists...
The Pentagon's official count of American troops killed in the Iran conflict dropped from eighteen to fourteen between Wednesday and Thursday, the New York...
Trump is underwater in all fifteen polls in the RealClearPolling average, and one election analyst traces the slide to Iran. A Washington Post survey...
American forces struck Iran for an eleventh straight night as the Houthis pressed their blockade threat against Saudi shipping. Only three commodity vessels crossed...
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...
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...
The Last Aircraft Carriers? Last month, it was announced that the United States Navy’s newest (and largest) aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) would take...
Almost six months ago, the Russian military invaded Ukraine. Since then, 173 days have passed, but the Russian forces are still trying to achieve...
An update shared by the United States Department of Defense revealed some positive news for Ukrainian forces, describing a series of gains made in...
On day 172 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military is struggling with a strategic conundrum in Ukraine: attack in the Donbas...
One year after the surrender, Americans remain deeply unsettled about the end of the war: Last September, TIPP did some of the earliest polling...
