Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
After making progress for years in getting Congress to approve unpopular early weapons retirements, the Air Force is hitting a brick wall. Service leaders...
Hi, what are you looking for?
The AIM-424's maximum range far exceeds the detection range of the radars on the fighters carrying it. Shooting at full distance requires external sensors...
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has unveiled Operation Economic Outcast: secondary sanctions across five sectors and more than sixty targets, with no relief attached. Iran's...
After a week in which the story flipped from Tehran trouncing Trump to the Iranians being in serious trouble, it is time to look...
German Foreign Minister Wadephul's fourth Kyiv visit — two days before Ukraine's Independence Day — capped an accelerating shift: Berlin is becoming Ukraine's principal...
The Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative emerged from US Army Europe and Africa and NATO's Allied Land Command as a concept for restoring deterrence by...
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 J-35A fighter nobody would buy became China's F-35 — in service, catapult-certified at sea (a world first no American jet holds), and on...
No gun, six missiles deep, 200-kilometer reach, and a factory building 120 a year — the J-20 wasn't designed to win the duel; it...
The US Air Force F-22 Raptor is going to face increasingly sophisticated and capable rivals–that means it will face a fairer fight than it...
Scrapping a US Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is extremely expensive because it involves safely removing nuclear reactors, handling massive amounts of hazardous materials, and...
Rezaei's threat goes beyond the strait: no oil leaving the Gulf by any route if neighbors cooperate. In practice that would mean strikes on...
Of the 1.5 billion barrels in emergency stocks, the IEA cannot order the commercial half released, leaving governments under a billion. The American reserve...
The Houthis have no warships. It doesn't need any. A blockade holds if shipowners and insurers decide the passage is not worth the risk,...
Washington redirected 55 commercial vessels away from Iranian ports as of Sunday, up from 35 a week earlier, while the Kpler intelligence firm counted...
Analysts dismissed American control of the Strait of Hormuz as a near-impossible task. The US government now says it has been helping tankers move...
Drones reached Moscow on three of the last five nights. A ballistic missile would not extend Ukraine's reach so much as compress Russia's warning...
Georgia Gilholy reports on Trump's map post declaring Hormuz 'New U.S. Territory,' a vessel struck off Oman hours earlier per UK Maritime Trade Operations,...
When it comes to severe economic pressure, Washington has massive options between everything and nothing. Something in the middle that hurts Iran a lot...
Trump ordered Ulchi Freedom Shield cut from eleven days to five before Kim Jong-un had agreed to anything in return. Kim Yo-jong dismissed the...
As President Trump downsizes the Ulchi Freedom Shield war games after South Korea declined to help with Iran, one uncomfortable fact goes almost completely...
Russia has used North Korean ballistic missiles in Ukraine since late 2023. The early shots missed by kilometers. Later ones did not. That combat...
Iran's Shahab-1 came from the Scud-B and reached 300km. The Khorramshahr, derived from North Korea's Musudan, reaches 2,000km — a 6.7-fold increase in reach.
After making progress for years in getting Congress to approve unpopular early weapons retirements, the Air Force is hitting a brick wall. Service leaders...
Last month, the United States Army announced it has selected New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer to produce the Next Generation Squad Weapons, or NGSW, that...
Will price kill the NGAD program? Wars have always been expensive to fight. But the costs of many 21st century platforms run exponentially higher...
Last month, the Department of the Air Force awarded $108 million to Northrop Grumman for advanced procurement to support the B-21 Raider program. The...
Ukraine War Update: The British Ministry of Defense assesses that the Russian military has lost one-quarter of its total invasion force in Ukraine. The...
