Critics of modernizing the U.S. nuclear triad have called to delay or even terminate the GBSD. Their arguments do not make strategic, technical or economic sense.

What does one of the most influential defense lawmakers on the Hill, Rob Wittman, think about the Trump Administration plan to cut the number of aircraft carriers from 11 to 10?

Fifth gen or fourth gen? F-35A or F-15X. Stealth, sensors and fusion or lots of missiles? Lockheed or Boeing? See what the Mitchell Institute says.

It’s one of the fundamental questions about China and its future place in the world: does the great civilization still view the world through the traditional lens of the Middle Kingdom, or does the world face a new China, unbound by many of the structures under which it has operated for most of the last… Keep reading →

Born as what most thought was a joke in March 2018, President Trump’s Space Force had by June become a White House directive to the Pentagon. Since then the Trump Administration has been considering possible variants in the Force’s subordination, authorities, size, and budget, while Acting SecDef Shanahan has already created a working group to… Keep reading →

The best way for America to develop a consensus on what our defense and global security commitments should be is for Congress to have a lengthy series of posture hearings that delve deeply into these issues.    They could be jointly held by the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees from the two chambers, patterned… Keep reading →

President Trump is breaking with the past. He’s arguing that Washington must cut its losses, withdraw its forces, climb out of the Middle Eastern and Afghan money pits, and acknowledge that Seoul (with U.S. backing) won the war on the Korean Peninsula. Washington hates him for doing these things, but most Americans and future generations of Americans will love him for it.

One of our primary goals here at Breaking Defense is to try and avoid the madness of the daily news cycle and tell our readers what is really happening, as best as any human can tell at any time. The following explanation by two experienced defense budget experts of what really happened to $28 billion discussed in a… Keep reading →

In the coming clash between President Trump’s $750 billion defense budget and House Democrats’ desire to cut Pentagon spending, especially on nuclear weapons, there will be tremendous fiscal pressure to shortchange the almost $30 billion annual cost to modernize America’s strategic deterrent. The ideological cover for such penny-wise, pound-foolish cuts is the so-called Global Zero… Keep reading →

Whatever you think of Jim Mattis, his resignation and the outflow of officials that will follow create a major foreign policy problem for the United States. There is not one ally who is applauding Mattis’s departure — but depart he will, all the same. So what must President Trump and his next defense secretary do,… Keep reading →