Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Key Points and Summary – The USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier Strike Group recently conducted live-fire drills in the South China Sea, including the...
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Iran's first danger after sanctions relief isn't the first Russian jet or Chinese radar it buys, argues scholar Andrew Latham. It's the workshop that...
Germany still must address a readiness issue: large portions of the army are not considered fully combat-ready, with some readiness estimates for land forces...
Iran keeps returning to the Strait of Hormuz because it works. As Andrew Latham argues, Tehran doesn't need to close the waterway, or even...
Vice President JD Vance has hailed his Switzerland negotiations over Iran's nuclear program as diplomatic progress. Middle East Forum scholar Dr. Michael Rubin argues...
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...
Iran: A War at the Wrong Time and Place: As the war in Iran continues and analysts debate how long it will last and...
Strategic expert Andrew A. Michta explores how Russia is capitalizing on the Iran War to consolidate gains in Europe. With U.S. resources drained and...
America's sixth-generation F-47 may be the most advanced fighter ever built, and could cost up to $300 million each. But in a war over...
Landing a jet on an aircraft carrier at night, on a pitching deck in bad weather, is something many Navy pilots say frightens them...
During what was supposed to be his final flight aboard the legendary SR-71 Blackbird, former Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO) Richard “Butch” Sheffield experienced the...
The Space Shuttle is remembered as an engineering marvel, but this analysis argues it was also one of NASA's costliest strategic mistakes. Sold as...
My best friend in the U.S. Army was a Special Forces officer with service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once, we had a conversation about...
A few days ago I learned my 2024 Jeep Gladiator is one of more than a million Wranglers and Gladiators that federal regulators say...
SpaceX exists to put humans on Mars, so its shift toward the Moon looks like an admission that the Mars dream has stalled. It...
America won the Moon race in 1969, then mothballed the rockets that got it there, leaving only disassembled Saturn Vs in museums. Now it...
Ukraine hasn't moved the front — but its drones have broken the war's one-way character, reaching the Russian heartland Putin promised was safe. The...
The terms of the Memorandum of Understanding ending the U.S.-Iran war are now public. This analysis argues the deal is worth supporting as an...
Ukrainian “long-range sanctions” continue to hammer targets in Russia, with continued targeting of the Russian capital of Moscow with massive drone attacks. Tuesday’s drone...
NATO is not collapsing, but it is changing: some of its most important members want the alliance's protection while keeping a freer hand outside...
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...
On May 21, 2025, a brand-new North Korean destroyer rolled over and partially capsized at its own launch ceremony — with Kim Jong Un...
Fake Russian IDs, Orders Never to Be Captured, and 50% Casualties: Inside North Korea’s Secret War in Ukraine The Russian Army has sustained nearly...
Summary and Key Points: Dr. Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., a political science professor and proliferation expert, evaluates the strategic partnership between Iran and North...
Key Points and Summary – The USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carrier Strike Group recently conducted live-fire drills in the South China Sea, including the...
Key Points and Summary – In a pre-dawn raid launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, U.S. Marines and Navy sailors seized...
Key Points and Summary – The A-10 Thunderbolt II, famously known as the “Warthog,” has been granted a reprieve from full retirement until 2029...
Synopsis: The A-12 Avenger II was the U.S. Navy’s ambitious attempt in the 1980s to field a carrier-based stealth bomber to replace the A-6...
Key Points and Summary: Satellite footage leaked in 2025 might confirm that China’s H-20 stealth bomber is advancing, with the aircraft’s flying-wing design and estimated...
