More ruthless prioritization, a laser focus on filling key capability shortfalls and better alignment of national, regional, and NATO plans will allow the alliance to solidify its place as the alliance of choice for decades to come.

Croatia, a NATO member, was ready to sign off on the largest defense deal in its history: $500 million for 12 Israeli F-16 fighters. But the State Department didn’t like the looks of the deal.

The Arctic will become increasingly crowded in the coming years, and the US Navy’s Second Fleet is making it a priority to get up there more often.

The Russians played around at the edges of this month’s Trident Juncture exercise in Norway, but that was to be expected. New moves in the Baltic Sea, however, have some concerned.

AUSA: In a promising sign for the US Army’s Big Six modernization plan, not one but three different companies have invested their own money in full-up working vehicles for the Army’s Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) project: BAE Systems, which makes the current M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, a heavily armed and armored troop carrier… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Aerospace behemoth Boeing will build the new T-X jet trainer, the Air Force announced this afternoon, beating out the Lockheed/KAI T-50 and the Leonardo DRS/CAE T-100 after years of maneuvering and uncertainty that saw multiple companies drop out of the competition. The first planes will enter service at Randolph Air Force base in 2023, with… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Within the next several weeks, both Russia and NATO will kick off some of the largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War. Hundreds of thousands of troops, tens of thousands of vehicles, hundreds of aircraft, and dozens of warships will charge into action in a series of mock engagements stretching from… Keep reading →

We learned of the tale of the Russians, the butter knife and space. It was January 2014. Rose went to Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart.

Most NATO nations don’t pay much. Most nations CAN’T pay much. Most spend on the wrong things. But most of them are moving in the right direction.

During the past couple of years, I’ve focused on the part of Europe which is very serious about defense, namely, Northern Europe. The Danes, the Norwegians, the Swedes and the Finns, all have refocused efforts on defense of their nations, but they’ve done so in a broader regional context.   As my colleague Harald Malmgren… Keep reading →