Counting ships, missiles, bases, and shipyards is how most would measure power at sea.1 But a second measure gets far less ...

But the alternative risk is far greater: if China decides to throttle supply, the industrial base, defense production, and allied manufacturing face cascading effects. The cost of doing nothing, or ...

Instead of hoping for different results from the same approach to force design by balancing competing requirements and ship construction, it is time to return to first principles to ask what unique ...

RIMPAC is the world’s largest international exercise. In this, its 30 th iteration, RIMPAC boasted 25,000 personnel, 40 surface ships, 5 submarines, and 140 aircraft. Beyond the impressive headlines, ...

In June 2026, Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) uncovered an industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory hidden within a forested area of Oyo State, arresting a Mexican national ...

The United States Navy has set a course that will see it morph into an army on the sea. The differentiating factors between the sea services and its landbound compatriots are fast eroding, diminishing ...

In January 1974, in the tail end of the Vietnam War, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and Republic of Vietnam Navy briefly clashed over control of the Paracel Islands in what became known in ...

American maritime strategy in the South China Sea often starts by counting ships. Planners must keep enough hulls forward to contest Beijing’s constant pressure and its excessive maritime claims. The ...

In December 2025, a journalist asked President Donald Trump whether the United States would recognize Somaliland, as Israel had just done. He answered with a single word: “No.” Then, as he often does, ...

The U.S.-Iran war has provided an operational test of American maritime power. Despite assembling a formidable naval force, conducting extensive strike campaigns and achieving consistent tactical ...

There is an episode of Star Trek (S1:E2) that has always chilled me to the bone, called “Armageddon”. The premise is that wars are too costly, so they are gamed out using a computer simulation.