Russia

Recently, the intelligence community released an unclassified national threat assessment. In testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), offered some rare insight on the top challenges to U.S. and international security. The DNI described the current and future threats as “a toxic mix of strategic competitors, […]

The internet has no shortage of mysteries for those inclined to chase them. Many fit neatly within genres with dedicated fan bases: true crime, Bigfoot, unexplained lights in the sky. But some are so inexplicable, so disturbing, that they worm their way into nearly every corner of the internet’s ever-rolling theory-machine. These mysteries seem to […]

Allow Russia to do as they please in Africa or partner with African leaders with a history of war crimes and a tendency toward genocidal behavior? That is the conundrum American military and diplomatic leaders face. Cameroon, specifically, is one of the better examples of the struggle between geopolitics and human rights concerns. Recently, General […]

We’ve all heard the story. Back in the 1960s, as the Americans and Soviets were competing for space (and global) supremacy, the United States supposedly spent millions to develop a pen that their astronauts could use in space. The Soviets, meanwhile, “just used a pencil.” It’s a classic tale used to criticize government spending and […]

For the first time since the Cold War, Russia has announced plans to begin flying regular fighter patrols over the North Pole with an eye toward intercepting American military aircraft. According to sources within the Russian Ministry of Defense, two squadrons of MiG-31BM intercept fighters will be tasked with conducting routine patrol operations over the […]

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 […]

For the first time since the Cold War, Russia has announced plans to begin flying regular fighter patrols over the North Pole with an eye toward intercepting American military aircraft. According to sources within the Russian Ministry of Defense, two squadrons of MiG-31BM intercept fighters will be tasked with conducting routine patrol operations over the […]

Only a few years ago, the Ukrainian military was hard-pressed to counter the Russians and their Donetsk separatist lackeys that were encroaching on eastern Ukraine. With Crimea lost by a combination of hybrid warfare, special operations, and Western diplomatic and political ineptitude, the future of Ukraine looked dire. Since 2014, however, the Ukrainian armed forces […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]