The US’s military edge over Russia and China has come down to one plane

Since World War II, the US has dominated the skies in any region in which it wishes to project power — but recent competition from countries like Russia and China threaten to erode that edge, and only a small group of elite pilots maintain the US’s edge in air superiority. Russia has deployed powerful missile-defense […]

Putin’s national address takes jabs at the US, but calls for cooperation

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, delivered his annual state of the nation address on Thursday, in which he called for international cooperation, but emphasized that the nation would “not tolerate that our interests are either neglected or infringed.” Tensions have been high between the Russian Federation and Western powers in recent months, due in large part […]

CIA chief warns Trump: Scrapping Iran deal ‘height of folly’

The director of the CIA has warned US President-elect Donald Trump that ending the Iran nuclear deal would be “disastrous” and “the height of folly.” In a BBC interview, John Brennan also advised the new president to be wary of Russia’s promises, blaming Moscow for much of the suffering in Syria. In his campaign, Mr […]

Ukraine prepares missile test near Crimea, angering Russia

Ukraine was due to start two days of missile tests on Thursday – a move that has angered Russia, prompting it to put its air defense forces on high alert on the annexed Crimea peninsula. The disagreement marks a fresh escalation in tensions between the one-time allies, whose relations collapsed in 2014 after Russia seized […]

Satellite Hunters: Can the US catch up to Russia and China’s space weapons?

The United States is arguably the nation with the most to lose in space.  Our way of life has become dependent on satellites for everything from our televisions to navigation in our cars, and our nation’s potential enemies are not only aware of it, they’re planning for it. In March, a Russian military satellite called […]

A declassified CIA paper shows how close the US and the Soviets really came to war in 1983

The CIA declassified scores of articles from Studies in Intelligence, The Agency’s internal journal on “historical, operational, doctrinal, and theoretical aspects of intelligence.” One undated article settles one of the most controversial incidents of the Cold War’s often-panicked final decade: the 1983 “war scare” in which rhetoric of nearly unprecedented belligerence from Moscow may have been backed with […]

Germany, 15 other countries press for arms control deal with Russia

Fifteen European countries have joined Germany in its push for a new arms control agreement with Moscow, saying more dialogue is needed to prevent an arms race in Europe after Russia’s actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, a German newspaper said. “Europe’s security is in danger,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told Die Welt newspaper […]

Syria’s war: A showroom for Russian arms sales

It seemed like a Cold War episode. A T-90, one of Russia’s most advanced battle tanks, was hit by a US-made “tank killer” – a tube-launched, wire-guided BGM-71 TOW missile. The tank withstood a lightning-like explosion without igniting, and one of the crew members hastily got out of the turret.  The episode may have pitted […]

REPORT: Trump’s son met with pro-Russia diplomats in Paris to discuss Syria

Donald Trump Jr. in October attended a roundtable conference on ending the Syrian civil war that was hosted by a French think tank favoring closer cooperation with Russia and Syrian President Bashar Assad, The Wall Street Journal’s Jay Solomon reported on Wednesday. The conference, held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Paris, centered on urging the […]

Defense spending and alliances: Is Trump wrong about NATO?

Along the campaign trail, Donald Trump said a number of things that concerned prominent Democrats and foreign leaders. Some of these things can be chalked up to campaign rhetoric, but few of these remarks made the heads of foreign governments wiggle uncomfortably in their chairs more than his stance on NATO. In what would become […]

Ukraine detains two Russian soldiers near Crimea border

Ukrainian security services have detained two Russian soldiers near the border with Crimea, with Ukraine saying the men were deserters from the Ukrainian army detained on Ukrainian-controlled territory and Russia saying they were seized in Crimea. Moscow and Kiev have been locked in conflict since Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, […]