Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

cipherbrief

Welcome! Log in to stay connected and make the most of your experience.

Input clean

Military

The U.S. Military Has Much to Learn From Ukraine

“What does Ukraine really need? How do we make sure they're delivering what they actually need? And you know, right now those are air defense [...] More

The Latest

Can America’s All-Volunteer Force Survive the Next War?

“It made sense for the United States to transition from this mixed force of conscripts and professionals to an All-Volunteer Force. It has enabled us [...] More

How Ukraine Is Changing the Way the U.S. Army Fights

“To me, the biggest way that we're doing this is introducing technology into the [U.S. Army] formations that is not fully baked. And so all of us who [...] More

Winning the Peace: The Democratic Dilemma of Limited War

In our previous article, we argued that overwhelming military superiority no longer guarantees strategic success.Today, military and political [...] More

Winning Battles, Losing Strategy: Why Military Superiority No Longer Guarantees Victory

America’s battlefield dominance remains unmatched, but Iraq, Afghanistan and now Iran shows that tactical success increasingly fails when military [...] More

U.S. Military Launches Operation Epic Fury Attacking Iran

Endless Warfare – Part II: Countering Endless Warfare and its Networks

Author’s Note: This article is not about ‘endless wars’ as a critique of U.S. military interventions — that debate belongs elsewhere. It examines a [...] More

Gen. Dunford: Military Leaders Must Advise, Not Advocate

“We [the Joint Chiefs of Staff] often times in the national security decision-making process or White House meetings -- outside of the Pentagon [...] More

Congress Questions Pentagon Spending—and the Future of Trump’s Battleship

“I’m deeply concerned that the Presidential proposal for $350 billion mandatory funding [to be carried in a reconciliation bill and not an [...] More

The Forty-Year Cyber Policy Failure Congress Refuses to Address

Late last month, the former deputy assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division testified before the House Homeland Security Committee that the [...] More

Can the Pentagon Buy Faster Before the Next War Arrives?

“The reasons why DoD (the Defense Department) accepts flawed business cases are both structural and cultural in nature. Poor acquisition decisions [...] More

Defense Department Showcases Multi-Domain Autonomous Display In Pentagon's Courtyard

Can the Pentagon’s New Innovation System Deliver?

Welcome to The Iron Triangle, the Cipher Brief column serving Procurement Officers tasked with buying the future, Investors funding the next [...] More

Congress Faces a Growing Blind Spot in the Pentagon’s Expanding Budget

OPINION -- “That brings me to a concern I want to put on the record. In addition to the billions requested for the F-35 [fighter-bomber] enterprise, [...] More

​Armed supporters of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stand guard

The Dangerous Trade of State Secrets

At just after 2 a.m. on January 3, explosions echoed across Caracas. Low-flying aircraft struck military installations. Venezuelan President Nicolás [...] More