Free Republic

Russia’s war on Ukraine is a war on speed and scale: cheap drones by the hundreds; cruise and ballistic missiles by the scores; electronic warfare (EW) whose logic can mutate on quarterly cycles. That is the fight NATO must be ready for—not an elegant, unhurried campaign of exquisite platforms, but a drone-and-missile war where software changes faster than doctrine, where ammunition depth decides what survives.

When I stood under the bomb bay of a retired B-52 bomber at the U.S. Air Force Museum this summer, I quickly understood why some consider this bomber the best to fly. Longevity means you earn a place in the record books and get to claim that crown. You don’t keep an airplane flying for six decades by accident. The B-52H Stratofortress didn’t just outlast its stablemates; it became the most complete version of the BUFF idea—long legs, big payload, and the electronics to make both matter in the 21st century.

Construction of new battleships ceased almost immediately post World War II—the last launched was HMS Vanguard, completed in 1946. Their heavy armor and guns diminished even further in relevance with the evolution of anti-ship missiles, which have a longer range and hit hard enough to negatively tilt the cost-benefit tradeoffs of heavy armor. Missile defense became a better use of tonnage than steel plates.

Consequently, Trump’s technical team has sought to create a loophole, according to 4 sources familiar with discussions on the matter. Turkey will remove a component from the S-400 and declare it ‘inoperable’. It would be the anti-aircraft system equivalent of rendering a rifle inoperable by removing the bolt or taking the firing pin out of other firearms.

Russian drones crossing into Poland and MiG-31s violating Estonian airspace revived the core question: how does a Russia vs. NATO war actually begin? Moscow will keep probing seams—airspace, air defenses, political will—aiming to force NATO into an Article 4/5 dilemma. Europe’s fragmented defense industry, ammunition shortages, and uneven appetite for risk create openings for a rapid, deniable “fait accompli” in the Baltics using EW, drones, and covert forces. That scenario wouldn’t resemble a set-piece tank battle; it would be a shock campaign designed to split allies before they can mobilize.

Germany is war-gaming a mass-casualty scenario—up to 1,000 wounded soldiers per day—amid Russian airspace violations and warnings of possible conflict by 2029. Surgeon General Ralf Hoffmann says Ukraine’s drone-saturated battlefield is reshaping injuries toward blasts and burns, complicating evacuation and forcing longer stabilization times.

Baltic incidents—drones, airspace brushes, GNSS spoofing—could cascade into a NATO–Russia war driven by fear, honor, and interest. Opening phases likely favor NATO in air and sea with superior ISR, EW, and standoff fires; Russia counters with missiles, dense air defenses, cyber, and navigation attacks. Two plausible endgames emerge: a non-nuclear grind to an armistice shaped by attrition and political risk, or limited nuclear use to coerce termination, shattering the taboo and accelerating crisis instability.

So, if war broke out today, who “wins”? A cautious judgment: China could win early episodes—sinking ships, mauling an airbase, or imposing a brief local exclusion near a contested feature—because interior lines and magazine depth pay dividends on day one. But carried beyond the first salvos, the balance bends toward an ugly allied denial. With coastal fires in Japan and the Philippines, coalition patrols normalized inside Manila’s EEZ, and Fujian not yet truly operational, Beijing’s odds of converting tactical gains into a durable political victory are low—unless allied kill chains break or magazines run dry.

Boeing’s X-32B, the Joint Strike Fighter contender that lost to Lockheed Martin’s X-35 (now the F-35), survives in just two museum airframes: one indoors at the USAF Museum and one outdoors at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, where weather is taking a toll.

The conflict itself would likely play out in several phases. The opening week would be defined by missile barrages aimed at Taiwan’s defenses and US forward bases, along with cyber and space attacks to blind command networks. Taiwan’s dispersal plans and mobile launchers would mitigate, but not eliminate, the damage. The next phase would be the battle for sea denial. Submarines, mines, and long-range anti-ship weapons would be hurled against convoys carrying PLA troops and supplies across the Strait. Geography favors the defenders, but China’s proximity and numerical advantage mean some ships would get through. The outcome of this battle...

Based on discussions with retired senior US military officials, the best chance for the F-35 Ferrari option is not as an option if the F-47 falters or is delayed. Where it may have the greatest utility, said one source very close to the program, is that technologies being developed for the Block 4 F-35 are close to the baseline for the very first models of the F-47. There is the possibility of a happy marriage there, I was told, that is the option with the greatest potential. Based on what National Security Journal is being told, if there is a...

The 9 September events demonstrate two interlocking realities. First, the prospect of a NATO–Russia war is no longer an abstraction. Moscow has shown a willingness to test NATO directly. Second, the most likely path to such a conflict is not through deliberate escalation but through miscalculation. The means to a wider war exist; the question is which one. Technical failure, human error, or political panic could cause escalation to spiral in a single instant.

The US Navy wanted the F-14 Tomcat for long-range fleet defense against Soviet bomber threats, requiring a large radar, powerful air-to-air missiles, and the ability to operate across a wide range of airspeeds to carry heavy ordnance and maintain maneuverability. The variable-sweep wing design, combined with advanced fire-control systems and the AIM-54 Phoenix missile, made the F-14 capable of engaging multiple targets at long distances while still being able to perform close-in combat and dogfighting.

This 6th-generation aircraft, now designated the F-47, will be the first stealthy aircraft designed by Boeing and is intended to move far beyond the F-35, into territory where, literally, “no man has gone before.” It will be bereft of any vertical control surfaces and will, according to one person close to the program who spoke to National Security Journal, “Be based on concepts of stealth that go beyond just the shaping of an aircraft fuselage and the techniques we know as the keys to low RCS today,” he said. “I cannot be specific about these newer technologies, which have not...

SSN(X) is the Navy’s planned successor to Virginia: a larger, stealthier, longer-legged attack submarine that teams with UUVs, carries more weapons, and is designed for higher availability. Costs will dwarf current boats, and industrial bottlenecks—from single-source suppliers to overloaded yards—are real. Budget trade-offs and shipyard realities have pushed the first procurement to around FY-2040, delaying entry to the fleet.

The U.S. Navy faces a dangerous shortage of attack submarines, leaving it stretched too thin to meet global demands. While the fleet is already below its 66-boat goal, the reality is worse: about one-third of subs are non-deployable at any time due to massive maintenance backlogs and crew shortages.

“Worst” can mean many things: a jet that killed too many of its own pilots, missed its moment technologically, or never matched the mission it was bought to fly. Context matters—some of these aircraft taught valuable lessons or worked better in one air force than another. But taken on the whole—design intent vs. delivered performance, safety, combat effectiveness, and sustainment—these five stand out for the wrong reasons.

To see the F-14 Tomcat for myself, I ventured out to the Air and Space Museum near Dulles International Airport in the Washington, DC, metro area. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Manassas, Virginia, has every airplane and spacecraft that you can imagine. I was fortunate to interview an F-14 pilot who actually flew the Tomcat that is on display at the Air and Space Museum in Virginia.

South Korea’s Hyundai-Rotem is developing the K3, a next-generation main battle tank concept packed with futuristic technology. Prioritizing firepower, the K3 concept features a larger 130mm main gun with AI-based fire controls and an autoloader for a three-person crew. The tank is almost an on-the-ground and smaller armored version of something that resembles a B-21 bomber more than a conventional MBT.

The U.S. Space Force’s secretive X-37B is a reusable, unmanned spaceplane whose true mission remains a mystery. Its eighth mission, launched August 21, 2025, has reignited speculation, with Russia and China claiming it is a space bomber. While not a “Death Star,” the X-37B is an invaluable and record-breaking testbed for advanced satellite technologies, enabling the U.S. to conduct experiments in space and bring the results back home for analysis.