Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
The shootdown of three USAF F-15E Strike Eagles by friendly Kuwaiti Air Defense on March 2, 2026, stands as the most significant "blue-on-blue" incident...
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Iran's strategy is to drag the war out. James Jay Carafano argues that protraction is the only card the IRGC holds, and that Trump...
More than 42 US military aircraft have been damaged or destroyed during the war with Iran, including aircraft caught on the ground at air...
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,...
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 Shah bought the F-14 to stop Soviet MiG-25 overflights, giving Iran the AWG-9 and Phoenix system no other foreign air force possessed. Iran...
Iran may not expect these terms to be accepted. Stalling costs Tehran plenty, but it costs Washington gas prices and a midterm calendar —...
Before the 1979 revolution, Iran received 225 American F-4 Phantoms. It used them heavily against Iraq, then kept survivors operational through depot repairs, cannibalization...
Moscow claims it downed 456 drones across sixteen regions and calls the attack terrorism — while never quite admitting the refinery was hit. Its...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The shootdown of three USAF F-15E Strike Eagles by friendly Kuwaiti Air Defense on March 2, 2026, stands as the most significant "blue-on-blue" incident...
The deployment of the B-1B Lancer in the opening phase of Operation Epic Fury signifies a critical milestone in the 2026 air war: the...
The integration of high-altitude stealth and long-range precision fire has become the centerpiece of U.S. air doctrine in 2026. Just days before Operation Epic...
Summary and Key Points: Stephen Silver, an award-winning national security journalist, evaluates the DoD Inspector General’s report on the Military Working Dog (MWD) Program....
The B-2 Spirit’s return to the Iranian theater in March 2026 highlights a critical reality of modern warfare: while 6th-generation platforms like the B-21...
