Tag: Alex Hollings

“No days off,” I grumbled, my breath forming a tiny cloud against the cold winter air. The hangar we’d been using as a gym offered little reprieve from the desert’s early morning chill, but I knew it would just be a few hours before the bitter dark gave way to searing light, and my workspace […]

As long as there have been science fiction movies, directed energy weapons have been a part of popular culture. Call them laser guns, phasers, or blasters, when people imagine the future, they tend to prefer one where guns fire bright lights, rather than good, old-fashioned lead. In recent years, lasers have made the jump from […]

Anti-submarine warfare is an issue of increasing concern among NATO allies, as the Russian Navy has not only demonstrated a more aggressive stature throughout the Baltic Sea and Atlantic Ocean in recent months, but has made some particularly concerning claims about the training they’ve been conducting. Now, seven surface combatant vessels and three sub-hunting aircraft […]

The digital age has, in many ways, been a revolution in narrative management and the transmission of propaganda, but the fundamental elements of managing perceptions both domestically and internationally have existed as long as there have been nations to exercise the effort. While some dismiss the effect of information and disinformation operations on the global […]

On Saturday, Russia announced their intentions to formally enter the world of fifth generation fighters with the first official order of their advanced Sukhoi Su-57, a platform intended to serve as a challenge for America’s fleets of fifth generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighters and F-22 Raptors. “The first contract for 12 aircraft has been agreed […]

In 2008, the Pentagon sent the first operational stealth combat jet, the F-117A Nighthawk, out to pasture — or at least, sort of. The F-117 flew as an entirely classified program for years before ever being acknowledged by the U.S. Air Force as an operational program in the 1980s, allowing a generation of young Americans […]

Late last week, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the U.S. Air Force announced two successful “end to end” non-nuclear system qualification flight tests aboard B-2 Spirits for the newest nuclear bomb to enter into the American arsenal, the B61-12 gravity bomb. These tests are intended to determine how effectively the bombs can be […]

Here at SOFREP, we do a lot of talking about gear, training, and general preparedness. Pulling from our military, professional, and hobbyist backgrounds with firearms, we do our best to relate our experiences to you in an approachable way, and often, those experiences suggest that training, not equipment, is what will save your life in […]

War is an incredibly complex thing. It’s so complex that, in the many years since we waged our battles with sharpened steel, many have lost sight of the simplicity of the fight itself. War is complicated because of the countless influences, internal variables within warring parties, and long-lasting ramifications of violence — but waging war […]

For decades, the United States has launched large, complex and expensive satellites into orbit to better support the war fighting endeavor. These space-based assets were designed to serve their purpose and live long operational lifespans — but for the most part, were never developed with the idea of space being a contested theater as it […]

The fielding of hypersonic anti-ship missiles by America’s competitors have created a pressing need for the U.S. military to adjust its peer warfare strategy. America’s fleet of Nimitz and Ford class super carriers serve as the nation’s primary method of force projection the world over, but when held at bay a thousand miles from enemy […]

If you’re a bomber of fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, having to eject from your aircraft sounds like a worst case scenario, but as those who have done it behind enemy lines will attest, making it to the ground is just the start of your troubles. Currently, most pilots carry no weapons beyond […]