• Ukraine War: Drones Are Transforming the Conflict, Bringing Russia on to the Frontline

    Russia and Ukraine have deployed a wide range of military and commercial drones since the early days of the war. But their increasingly frequent – and effective – deployment indicates a potential new stage of escalation with important consequences for Ukraine and its western backers.

  • How Doctrine and Delineation Can Help Defeat Drones

    As Iranian-made drones continue to spread destruction across Ukraine, observers have been reminded once again of the dangers unmanned aerial systems pose. Nicholas Paul Pacheco writes that the United States, to its credit, has made significant progress in bolstering its capabilities to combat this threat, particularly through the investment of the Pentagon and the defense industrial base in counter-drone research and development. But “there remain two areas that have not been properly tackled: base defense and warfighter-policymaker synergy,” he writes.

  • The Global Race to Secure Critical Minerals Heats Up

    The World Trade Organization last week ruled that Indonesia had no right to ban the export of nickel or to require that raw nickel ore be refined in Indonesia. Handing a comprehensive victory to the complainant, the European Union, the WTO decision highlights the clash between national security and global trade rules over critical minerals.

  • How a Notorious Mercenary Company Scours Siberian Prisons for Soldiers to Fight in Ukraine

    Desperate to replace dead and wounded Russian troops in Ukraine, the Kremlin, in addition to mobilization, has also turned to less traditional methods to bolster troop numbers. That includes loosening age and other physical requirements for newly mobilized soldiers, as well as outright recruitment of new volunteers. And since at least July, that effort has included recruiting some of the estimated 470,000 inmates in the custody of the Federal Penitentiary Service. Leading that effort is the Vagner Group, the private company owned by a Kremlin-connected businessman.

  • Drones Employed in the Ukraine War

    Unmanned systems have revolutionized modern warfare – and pilotless aircraft have had a significant impact in the war in Ukraine.

  • Anticipating Chinese Reactions to U.S. Posture Enhancements

    What are the key factors that U.S. policymakers and military planners should consider when assessing how China is likely to react to planned or proposed U.S. posture enhancements in the Indo-Pacific region?

  • Three Charged with Giving Secrets to China, and Selling DOD Chinese-Origin Rare Earth Magnets

    DOJ charged three residents of Kentucky and Indiana with sending technical military data drawings to China, and then unlawfully supplying the U.S. Department of Defense with Chinese-origin rare earth magnets for aviation systems and military items.

  • It’s Time to Designate Wagner Group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization

    The international sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine have not targeted a key component in the Kremlin’s toolbox for international terror and coercion: the private military company (PMC) Wagner Group, which is owned by Vladimir Putin confidant Yevgeny Prigozhin. Wagner Group’s activities in Ukraine have been notorious since 2014, but they also have had a persistent presence in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR), and—most recently—Mali.

  • U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Network Supplying Russia with Weapons Tech

    The United States has imposed sanctions on a network of entities and individuals that it says are involved in supplying Russia with military technology to use in its war against Ukraine.

  • “We’ve Got to Change”: U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff

    The U.S. Air Force chief of staff is warning that the U.S. military must “change” if it wants to stay ahead of China and Russia.

  • Better Defense Planning Could Use Statistics to Try to See into the Future

    The war in Ukraine is not the first time—nor will it be the last—that the Department of Defense (DoD) has been forced to respond rapidly to unexpected threats or to reorient priorities when the assumptions guiding its force planning changed.

  • Western Tech in Iranian Drones Is Helping Russia in Ukraine

    Iran boasts that its advanced Mohajer-6 combat drone, now used effectively by the Russian forces in Ukraine, is an example of Iran’s “indigenous” ingenuity. But the core electronic components of the Mohajer-6 contain parts produced by companies from the United States and the European Union.

  • Rare-Earth Processing Must Be a Strategic Priority for Australia

    There are well over 3,000 items of U.S. military equipment requiring rare earth elements (REEs), including crewed and uncrewed aircraft, satellites, nuclear weapons, missiles, surface warships and submarines, advanced radars and combat systems, and army vehicles such as tanks. REEs are also essential to green technology. China’s near global monopoly over the processing of these minerals is becoming increasingly worrisome.

  • Russia: Western Commercial Satellites Could Become 'Legitimate' Targets

    Russian officials have warned that Western commercial satellites could become “legitimate” targets for Moscow if they were involved in the war in Ukraine. Russia is upset about Starlink, a network of more than 2,000 satellites orbiting the Earth and thousands of terminals on the ground. In late February, Elon Musk said his rocket company SpaceX would continue to fund its Starlink Internet service in Ukraine.

  • How China’s Military Plugs into the Global Space Sector

    China is using seemingly civilian and academic Chinese research institutions to advance its military goals in space. International organizations like the International GNSS Service need to be aware that even overtly civilian entities can be intertwined with the Chinese military. Collaboration with high-risk Chinese institutions must be done with extreme care to ensure data and products intended to support international science and commerce are not redirected towards unwanted military uses.