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Russia’s slew of ongoing missile initiatives have seen mixed success during the past few years. Some platforms, like the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile, have apparently performed well enough to soon enter service. Others, like their nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, have failed at every turn. But even the programs that have met some level of success are […]
Complicated topics like the decision to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty are challenging to address in the modern media. As the comments under many of my analysis pieces on Facebook repeatedly show, most Americans are interested in debating inferences they can derive from headlines, rather than the nuances of a complex […]
The Navy’s secretive sub-hunting ghost ship, technically known as the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vessel, Sea Hunter, recently found its way into the record books as the first unmanned vessel to successfully traverse the open ocean between San Diego, California and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At 132-feet long and boasting a displacement of 140 tons, the […]
In recent years, as Russia’s struggling economy has limited the nation’s military modernization efforts, the Kremlin has found a great deal of success by leaning into the old Soviet practice of controlling perceptions that are spread around the world through media outlets of varying sizes that are either directly or indirectly supported by the Russian […]
At the close of 2018, it seemed that 2019 might finally be the year Lockheed Martin’s flagship F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would start beating back the critics and proving the most expensive weapons platform in history was worth the cost and delays. With F-35s finally entering the fight with both the Israeli military and the […]
Just about every special operations command in the world uses live fire drills to give its operators realistic combat experience before actually getting into the fight, though as numerous videos around the web have shown, not every nation’s military adheres to the same safety standards. This video, which appears to show Russian special operations troops […]
The Trump administration announced plans last week to formally leave the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The Soviet-era agreement bars both Russia and the U.S. from building nuclear or conventional ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. The decision follows years of violations by the Russian armed forces (likely dating back to […]
The latest Pentagon assessment of the F-35 program has reached the media, and with the long-delayed fighter finally entering combat operations with the Marine Corps late last year, one would think the report would offer some good news for the most advanced fighter on the planet. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. In fact, those first F-35s to […]
Radar-absorbent coating is an important element of any stealth aircraft’s ability to avoid detection. Air platforms that were purpose-built with stealth in mind already offer a limited radar return, thanks to meticulously-developed designs and production practices that allow for extremely tight tolerances, ensuring the aircraft has few hard angles prone to producing a radar return. […]
Working as a defense journalist usually means making it your business to read, study, research, and then opine. As a reader, your job is to try your best to understand not only what’s going on, but the motives that led to it, the complicated diplomatic relationships that informed it, and the potential ramifications of not […]
When Russia first set to work on what would become the Sukhoi Su-57 (internally the T-50 at the time), it had a singular aim: utilizing 21st century stealth characteristics to produce a fighter capable of standing toe to toe with the best the United States had to offer, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and F-22 […]
The metrics by which we compare the military strengths of nations often serve as better representation of the countries’ fiscal priorities than their actual combat power. America, for instance, employs the largest, most capable military force on the planet, but because of its diverse obligations and responsibilities the world over, it would be difficult—if not […]