Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Why the U.S. Navy’s Constellation-Class Frigates Seemed Destined to Fail In November 2025, the U.S. Navy abruptly cancelled most of its Constellation-class frigate program,...
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The war began on 28 February with little public explanation. The administration did not make a full case to Congress or to the country,...
A modern Arleigh Burke Flight III destroyer costs about $3 billion. At $23.4 billion, USS Defiant represents nearly eight of them. Pursuing the battleship...
The maximalists wanted regime change, the minimalists wanted nothing, and the doubters see only waffling. Carafano's answer: the victor gets to define victory —...
Reports indicate that American short-range ballistic missile inventories have been nearly exhausted and Tomahawk stockpiles badly depleted during the war with Iran. Patriot interceptors...
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 Navy will lose 1,316 Tomahawk-capable launch positions from seven cruisers and three Ohio SSGNs before new Virginia SSGNs arrive.
Two hours of destruction at Pearl Harbor bought Japan far less than the burning fleet suggested. Six of the eight battleships came back, five...
A CSIS assessment found that munitions beyond air interceptors are running low after the Iran war, including Tomahawk cruise missiles. Replacement is the harder...
The F-117 retired in 2008, yet selected jets will fly through 2034 as low-observable adversaries, sensor testbeds and missile surrogates.
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...
Trump calls the strait "sort of open." Iran calls the arrangement "a new and different model." Last June, vague wording in a similar deal...
A peace settlement would have to resolve occupied territory, Ukraine's relationship with the West and sanctions, and neither government is close enough to the...
Ukraine on Tuesday executed a series of drone strikes on an industrial zone near Moscow, and across the whole country, strikes on three warehouses...
On July 20, a China Coast Guard team in a small boat closed on Philippine sailors near Second Thomas Shoal and repeatedly struck one...
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...
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...
Why the U.S. Navy’s Constellation-Class Frigates Seemed Destined to Fail In November 2025, the U.S. Navy abruptly cancelled most of its Constellation-class frigate program,...
Russia Can’t Fix Its Aircraft Carrier, Let Alone Build A Blue-Water Navy After years of delays and rising costs, Russian officials suspended work on...
CF-18: The Fighter Canada Can’t Seem To Move On From Canada’s CF-18 fleet is being worked past the point of viability. A legacy of...
What It Takes to Become An Air Force Pilot From Someone Who Was Involved in the Process First Hand I recently wrote offering practical...
The New M1E3 Tank Is Like Nothing the U.S. Army Uses Today The M1E3 is the next iteration of the venerable M1 Abrams series....
