Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Steve Balestrieri, a former U.S. Army Special Forces NCO and National Security Columnist, evaluates the strategic "high-low mix" of the People's Liberation Army Air...
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A US intelligence assessment reported by the Wall Street Journal on 6 August describes a range of ways Putin might test NATO between this...
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 —...
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 US Navy planned at least 20 Constellation-class frigates to restore a blue-water escort it had not had since 2015. In November 2025 it...
Britain has stored retired nuclear submarines since 1983. Its first dismantling is due in 2026, but costs and delivery risks keep rising.
The U.S. Navy fired three Phoenix missiles in combat and scored no credited kill. Iranian crews used the same F-14/AIM-54 combination to defend oil...
Ukraine's Defense AI Center says over 200 domestic companies are developing AI-enabled drones and more than 70 AI and computer vision systems are in...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Steve Balestrieri, a former U.S. Army Special Forces NCO and National Security Columnist, evaluates the strategic "high-low mix" of the People's Liberation Army Air...
Kris Osborn, President of Warrior Maven and former Pentagon acquisition expert, evaluates the daunting "geometric and logistical" challenges of a potential U.S. ground invasion...
Author and prominent writer Christian D. Orr evaluates the "perspiration-driven" genius of Thomas Alva Edison. As of March 10, 2026, Edison’s legacy—underpinned by over...
Christian D. Orr, a senior defense editor and former Air Force Security Forces officer, evaluates the "frustrating lethargy" of the Union’s early high command...
Kris Osborn, President of Warrior Maven and former Pentagon acquisition expert, evaluates the strategic "eyes" of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF): the...
