Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
There’s a big international weapons program that probably doesn’t pass the post-coronavirus pub test for supply chain security. As US President Donald Trump’s recently said, ‘It’s...
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On July 20, a China Coast Guard team in a small boat closed on Philippine sailors near Second Thomas Shoal and repeatedly struck one...
The United States has signed deals with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to boost Patriot and THAAD production, The Independent reported, after weeks of...
While everyone knows about the iconic F-22 Raptor and the ubiquitous F-35 Lightning II, China’s Chengdu J-20 (as well as their J-35) fifth-generation warplane...
USS Long Beach commissioned in 1961 as the first nuclear-powered surface warship, and she looked like nothing else afloat — a slab-sided superstructure built...
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 B-36 was desperately needed as the Soviet Union was developing its own nuclear bombs. All that work to get the B-36 ready to...
General Dynamics Electric Boat received the largest award in its 127-year history on July 29, 2026: a $76.6 billion package that includes $42.1 billion...
USS Wisconsin was built in Philadelphia in 1,177 days and launched on December 7, 1943, two years after Pearl Harbor. The Iowa-class battleship screened...
USS Tennessee was moored inboard of USS West Virginia on December 7, 1941, and survived because her neighbor absorbed the torpedoes. Two armor-piercing bombs...
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...
A cruise missile came down about 90 kilometers inside Poland and hurt no one. That incident will be logged and forgotten. The question underneath...
Getting to Somaliland used to be simple. Then Somaliland refused more than a quarter of a billion dollars to drop Taiwan, and the routes...
Zelensky met Raytheon executives in Kyiv, saying Ukraine is moving to co-produce Patriot missiles under plans he discussed with Trump — though waiting lists...
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...
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...
There’s a big international weapons program that probably doesn’t pass the post-coronavirus pub test for supply chain security. As US President Donald Trump’s recently said, ‘It’s...
Over at the LA Times, I offered my thoughts on the recent Trump decision to get tough on China. While events in recent days...
I’ve taken a close interest in civil‐military relations for decades. I was taught the importance of civilian control over the U.S. military as a young NROTC midshipman....
The hospital at which I work offered antibody serology tests to all medical staff last Wednesday. The test detects IgG, the immunoglobulin that appears in...
In a post last month, we raised concerns about the unforeseen and underappreciated costs of expanding export controls on U.S. technology. Either those concerns fell on...
