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Drones

The Brave New World of Drone Swarms

The Brave New World of Drone Swarms

DEEP DIVE – A drone weapon heads behind enemy lines, on a mission to kill troops and destroy equipment. To its left and right are a dozen other armed [...] More

The Latest

Forget Guerrillas and IEDs - The Next Asymmetric War Will Be Engineered

OPINION — For most of modern history, asymmetric conflict conjured a familiar image: guerrillas in the hills, insurgents planting roadside bombs, or [...] More

Europe Must Prepare for the Long War

OPINION — Russian drones are forcing airports to close and fighter jets are breaching NATO airspace – clear signals of Moscow’s widening hybrid [...] More

Special Report: Nat Sec EDGE 2025

Special Report: Nat Sec EDGE 2025

The Cipher Brief's Special Report on Nat Sec EDGE 2025The Nat Sec EDGE 2025 conference took place June 5–6, 2025 in Austin, Texas.ForewordThe 2025 [...] More

Rising Lion Shows the U.S. Needs More Allies Like Israel

OPINION — Israel’s Operation Rising Lion will go down as among the most impressive military campaigns in history. Military academies, military [...] More

Drones are Funding Russia's War Against Ukraine

OPINION — The war in Ukraine has evolved into a complex geopolitical conflict, shaped not only by military strategy but by global economic [...] More

Can NATO Still Scare Putin?

Can NATO Still Scare Putin?

EXPERT INTERVIEW – Polish President Karol Nawrocki signed a classified decree over the weekend allowing armed forces of NATO member states to be [...] More

Russia Pays the Price as Ukraine Targets Its Oil Refineries

OPINION — Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Vladimir Putin expected a swift victory from his “special military operation.” Instead, it [...] More

Charting a Path for an Unmanned U.S. Navy Fleet

OPINION — “The Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV) is an affordable and flexible vessel capable of filling multiple roles within the [U.S. Navy] [...] More

Ukraine’s Defense may Hinge on Offensive Operations

Ukraine’s Defense may Hinge on Offensive Operations

CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING – Russia has been bombarding Ukrainian cities with massive aerial assaults, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump pledged [...] More

U.S. Support for Ukraine Would be Cheap at Twice the Price

OPINION – On a recent visit to Kyiv, we stood near midnight in an operations center surrounded by young Ukrainian drone pilots remotely flying [...] More

China’s ‘Leap Forward’ in Drone Weapons

China’s ‘Leap Forward’ in Drone Weapons

DEEP DIVE – China’s military is in the midst of an innovation and manufacturing boom in drone weaponry — a “leap forward,” as one expert put it, that [...] More

The Genius – and the Implications – of Ukraine’s ‘Spider Web’ Drone Assault

The Genius – and the Implications – of Ukraine’s ‘Spider Web’ Drone Assault

DEEP DIVE – Ukraine’s drone attacks against five Russian military bases on Sunday didn’t just take out a third of Moscow’s fleet of strategic bomber [...] More