Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
The Russian military is never found wanting for grand predictions about the capabilities of their new equipment designs. But reality often fails to match...
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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 Virginia-class attack submarine was designed after the Cold War as a cheaper, more versatile replacement for the Los Angeles boats, and it has...
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower came out of Norfolk Naval Shipyard in April 2026 ahead of schedule, after turbine inspections, underwater shafting work and structural...
When the Navy retired the conventionally powered carriers Kitty Hawk and John F. Kennedy, it transferred them to a shipbreaker for one cent each,...
Workers at the Black Sea Shipyard in Nikolayev laid down the Soviet Union's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier on November 25, 1988. Ulyanovsk was to...
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 Russian military is never found wanting for grand predictions about the capabilities of their new equipment designs. But reality often fails to match...
Earlier this week on 19FortyFive, we published a story on the XM25 25x40mm grenade launcher aka the “Punisher,” an ill-fated joint venture between Heckler...
World War II was the largest and most deadly conflict in human history. It involved the majority of the world’s nations, including all of the...
China may have the world’s most impressive fleets of heavily armed amphibious armored fighting vehicles—and it’s no secret why: Taiwan. Beijing has made it...
Was Afghanistan Winnable? As we approach the one-year anniversary of the collapse of the Afghan government and army to a relatively weak Taliban army, there...
