Trump certainly fell in and out of love fast with the last outspoken warrior-intellectual he hired, short-lived National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.

While the Strategic Long-Range Cannon will hit targets at ranges comparable to bleeding-edge hypersonics missiles, Army officials emphasized the cannon is built on proven principles, just bigger.

Looking to spend billions more on its top modernization programs, the Army is changing things up by spending those dollars in places that might come as a bit of a surprise.

This is a list of the most important stories and opinion pieces we ran at Breaking Defense in 2017. It’s a bit like our coverage: freewheeling, often unexpected and, hopefully, poking at the spots where policymakers in the US, NATO, Australia, Japan, South Korea and our other treaty allies and partners need to look. We… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: There’s no “feuding” or “chaos” in the Trump White House, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster insisted yesterday. Anyone who pushed their personal agenda at the expense of the president’s is now either gone or neutralized by Chief of Staff John Kelly, McMaster added. Both men are military officers, as is Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. McMaster… Keep reading →

President Donald Trump named retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis as Defense Secretary, the highest-ranking civilian position in the Pentagon. Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly was named first to head the Homeland Security Department and then replaced Reince Priebus as White House Chief of Staff. Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster replaced Air Force Gen. Mike Flynn… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Fact. China controls 90 percent of the world’s trade with North Korea. When President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar a Lago club there was, “frank recognition that China does have a great deal of control — a great deal of control over that situation, mainly through the coercive power… Keep reading →

U.S-enabled corruption lost the Afghan War. The Afghan government is a failed state, incapable of effectively governing or defending its citizens. Corruption funds the enemy, with hundreds of millions of dollars skimmed from U.S. logistics and aid money. Former Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said in 2016: “The ultimate point of failure for our efforts … wasn’t an insurgency.… Keep reading →

H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s newly appointed National Security Advisor, must ensure the new administration reverses a decades-old pattern of neglecting Iran’s nuclear-capable cruise missile capabilities and their importance to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The White House had no trouble marshaling evidence for its decision to put Iran “on notice” last month but then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn failed… Keep reading →

Mike Flynn: You’re fired! H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis, John Kelly: You’re hired!