In The News

Anthony Freedman says, “Our current and projected systems [for MCM] are not really suitable for [a contested] environment, even though expeditionary MCM is probably the best capability in that environment.”

Michael Kofman says, “The U.S. is making up the difference from its stockpiles, but that’s doubtfully a sustainable solution. It means the U.S. is taking on risk elsewhere.”

Nilanthi Samaranayake says, “The heightened state of strategic competition between major powers calls into question to what extent the cooperation we have seen previously may be possible in the Indian Ocean in the future.”

Jeffrey Edmonds says, “It is very evident that the Russians do not care about collateral damage when they are conducting these strikes against reportedly critical infrastructure. And there is certainly an aspect of this that the Russians want civilian casualties in an attempt to undermine the Ukraine ability to resist.”

Samuel Bendett says, “This reconnaissance fire/reconnaissance strike contour is the main defining element to date of the war in Ukraine, both by the Ukrainians, who are very successful in integrating drones with their artillery strikes, as well as the Russians.”

Michael Kofman says “This is why Bakhmut is a battle that I think was advantageous to Ukraine, but now there are questions about how much the cost of fighting for Bakhmut could impede Ukraine’s overall strategy for this winter or spring.”

Samuel Bendett says, “Moscow considers the Arctic key to its national security and economic development – this was enshrined in its government statements, policies and especially in its Maritime Doctrines since the early 1990s.

Samuel Bendett says, "The size and the scale of drone use in Ukraine supersedes all the previous conflicts."

Samuel Bendett says, “I think Ukraine needs a lot of these systems distributed very widely across the entire depth of the front. It would need hundreds of these systems around large cities, around large military facilities, around military bases, in main infrastructure facilities and the like.”

Samuel Bendett says, “I think Ukraine needs a lot of these systems distributed very widely across the entire depth of the front. It would need hundreds of these systems around large cities, around large military facilities, around military bases, in main infrastructure facilities and the like.”

Michael Kofman says, “It felt going into the winter that the Russian military was the most vulnerable and the job of the Ukrainian military was to press the Russian military, to prevent force reconstitution, to maintain the initiative heading into the winter and the spring and then conduct an offensive at the time of their choosing.”

Samuel Bendett says, ''The Ukrainian drone effort is more streamlined and works directly with the military. The Russians are only getting there now.''

Jeffrey Edmonds says, that the firepower provided by the Bradley is substantially more than that provided by individual or crew-served weapons. "It depends on how you use them, but especially against lighter armored vehicles, a Bradley is deadly,"

Jonathan Schroden says, “The Haqqanis killed some Americans, yes. But they killed vastly more Afghans—the same people, with the same humanity, that he’s lecturing Harry about.”

Jonathan Schroden says, “The Pakistani military is not designed nor optimized for fighting the likes of TTP in the tribal areas of the country. I suspect, as they have done in the past, that its leaders will do everything they can to avoid another large military conflagration of that kind.”

Michael Kofman says "Bakhmut by itself as a singular axis does not offer very much.”