Smart Bombs: Military, Defense and National Security
Synopsis: This piece traces the rise and fall of the Soviet Kirov-class battlecruisers, enormous nuclear-powered “Sea Eagles” built to intimidate NATO carrier groups and...
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls Ukraine a “dangerous stalemate,” and the Kremlin agrees. Russia netted 104 square kilometers from January to late May,...
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has set June 2027 as the deadline for bringing the Popular Mobilization Forces under state authority. Five factions have reportedly...
Iran is reinforcing its borders and nuclear sites, piling dirt mounds around Natanz and Pickaxe Mountain, and urging civilians to take free weapons training...
Nine months after Riyadh gutted Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council, the Houthis took the port of Mokha on the Bab el-Mandeb, then struck King Khalid...
Sabotage at Leipzig, Swindon, and Skarżysko-Kamienna. A curfew across the river from Narva. New garrisons at Petrozavodsk, Lupche-Savino, and Pechenga pointing at Finland's 830-mile...
The Witkoff-Kushner shuttle between Moscow and Kyiv ended, predictably, without a breakthrough — and Andrew Michta argues the failure reveals something deeper than bad...
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...
Not enough aircraft carriers: The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford came home to Norfolk on May 16 after 326 days, the longest U.S....
“There can never be too many projectiles in a battle. Whether they are thrown by cannon, rockets, or recoilless devices is immaterial.” George S....
Russia’s Project 636.3 Varshavyanka, the Improved Kilo, was meant as a stopgap until the Lada class arrived. Instead NATO sonar operators nicknamed it the...
In the early 1930s the Navy’s first aircraft carriers to fly, the 785-foot helium airships USS Akron and USS Macon, carried up to five...
Four ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz Thursday against a 10-day average of 16. Iran said it hit tanker Trend on Friday. Brent is...
Jobs dropped out of Reed College and stayed on as what he called a "drop-in," sitting in on classes that interested him. One was...
"Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has,...
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...
The rial has hit 2.5 million to the dollar, inflation is projected near 69 percent, and Iranian oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz...
Twenty-five years on, 9/11's lessons are still contested, except the simplest: the US mistook quiet for peace. A RAND strategist argues it is doing...
The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Foreign Policy, and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies have all warned of an escalating Russian gray...
Surely there is reluctance among a part of the Russian population – especially those living in major cities – to see their sons dragged...
President Trump says he gets along with Kim Jong Un and wants a new summit before the end of 2026, along with smaller US-South...
Trump is reportedly considering another meeting with Kim Jong Un. The last round produced Singapore, Hanoi, and the DMZ, and by 2020 the status...
American doctrine promises that any North Korean nuclear attack will end the Kim regime. The Iran war has just tested that assumption. The United...
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...
Synopsis: This piece traces the rise and fall of the Soviet Kirov-class battlecruisers, enormous nuclear-powered “Sea Eagles” built to intimidate NATO carrier groups and...
Synopsis: This piece examines Russia’s planned Laika- or “Husky”-class submarine, a fifth-generation design meant to restore Moscow’s undersea edge despite wartime strain. -Projected to...
Key Points and Summary – The loss of the USS Scorpion (SSN-589) submarine remains one of the U.S. Navy’s most haunting unsolved mysteries, claiming...
Synopsis: This piece explores how the outcome of the Ukraine war will shape Vladimir Putin’s political future and Russia’s trajectory. -A frozen conflict or armistice...
Key Points and Summary – Finland’s purchase of 66 F-35As helps build a truly continental F-35 wall across Europe, with NATO partners on track...
