Yesterday Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. forces based in Iraq. No Americans were reported harmed in the attacks. The salvo of missiles was in response to the U.S. assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, killed in Baghdad by a Reaper drone strike. The two countries stand at the…

As 2019 rounded to a close, the United States tested a new missile that was up until just a few months ago prohibited by international treaty. The missile blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base and splashed down in a patch of the Pacific Ocean, signifying the end of an important arms control treaty signed with the…

Deep in the Sahel, as Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya exploited instability in Chad to expand its territory, a daring operation took place to obtain one of the Soviet Union’s most advanced attack helicopters. It was a complex plan involving Chadian rebel groups as well as French and American soldiers and spies, but it worked.

In the on-again, off-again undeclared war between Russia and Ukraine, this has to be the most petty incident yet. Russia recently returned three Ukraine Navy ships captured in 2018, with just one catch. The toilets were missing. Ukraine, at least, appears to be taking it in stride.

Last week, Senator Chuck Schumer wrote the U.S. Army to ask it to think twice before using TikTok for recruiting purposes. Schumer cited TikTok’s Chinese origin and laws that required Chinese companies to assist with Chinese intelligence operations. Schumer’s letter dropped just as the U.S. Army was exploring new ways…

When the robot uprising ends and the beaten remnants of humanity are put on trial, Exhibit A will be the day the Marines invented CRABS. CRABS, or Crawling Remotely-Operated Amphibious Breacher, will be autonomous robots designed to operate in the dangerous surf zone, under hostile fire, dismantling formidable beach…

Carriers are really, really big. Everyone says it, but until you see the whole carrier, sitting high and dry in an empty dry dock for the first time, you really can’t comprehend the true size of the world’s largest warship.

Rejoice if you look towards the dystopia of the Star Wars universe, for laser weapons have finally, at long last, arrived. The laser, a weapon system perpetually “ten or fifteen years away” from operational use, is off the development treadmill and entering the field. In addition to the smug banter of science fiction…

The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B returned to Earth this week after more than two years in orbit. The unmanned space plane keeps breaking records, this time spending 780 days circling the planet before gliding to a stop at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft is a key part of the Pentagon’s plans for space…

In the final days of World War II, as U.S. troops advanced into Aschaffenberg, they encountered stiff German resistance in the form of something familiar: a Sherman tank, one of its beutepanzers, aka “loot tanks,” equipment seized in previous battles. In war, the loot can be as dangerous as anything.

The U.S. Marines are testing loading an amphibious assault ship with a baker’s dozen of F-35B Lightning fighter jets. The result is what the Navy and Marines call a “Lightning Carrier,” and it could be a glimpse into the future of naval aviation.

The Trump Administration, determined to “get out of the Middle East” and its “endless wars”, is deploying 3,000 troops, including fighter jets and missiles, to Saudi Arabia. This being October 2019, the irony doesn’t stop there: the weapons the Pentagon is sending to protect the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would have…

China’s 70th Anniversary parade, held earlier this month in Beijing, included the debut of one of the People’s Liberation Army’s worst-kept secrets: the Harbin Z-20 helicopter. The Z-20 medium helicopter, dubbed “Copyhawk” by Western observers, is a familiar sight because it’s a copy of the American UH-60 Blackhawk…

Over the past two weeks America’s power, prestige, and moral authority abroad have taken a body blow: President Donald Trump abruptly decided to withdraw U.S. forces from key a region in Syria. The decision to withdraw resulted in America’s Kurdish allies, one of Washington’s most loyal allies in the region, exposed…

Importing a car into the U.S. is hard enough. You have to worry about getting it here, getting it past U.S. safety and emissions regulations, and then you still have to worry about getting parts for something that maybe wasn’t ever sold here. But it’s entirely different—and in some ways surprisingly easier—to import a…

Tuesday was National Day in China, which marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Like all authoritarian regimes the ruling Chinese Communist Party loves a good giant celebration of state power to remind everyone who is in charge, and the parade featured plenty of new weapons and…

Though it’s been drowned out by other news lately, let us not forget about Iran. In recent months alone it shot down a $200 million U.S.-made drone, captured a British oil tanker, and was implicated in last month’s drone and cruise missile strikes against Saudi oil refineries. Conflict—at least in a limited…

The Brisbane Festival is an annual three-week arts extravaganza in Queensland’s capital, traditionally ending with some military flyovers before a lot of fireworks are set off in an event called Sunsuper Riverfire. This year, like in 2018, that included a C-17A Globemaster, looking pretty spry as it made it’s way…

A Russian Navy expedition to the frozen wastes of the Arctic last week ended in disaster when one of the expedition ships was lost to hostile forces, specifically the kind with flippers and whiskers. The ship, an inflatable landing boat, was sunk by a walrus after the Russian expedition was deemed a threat to nearby…

Japan, which at the start of World War II was the proprietor of the world’s mightiest aircraft carrier fleet, is getting back into the naval aviation game after decades. Under pressure to counter a growing Chinese navy and air force, the island country is planning to convert two “helicopter destroyers” into…