Solving the CONOPS Gap: How COTS Uncrewed Systems Enable the Navy’s Hybrid Fleet

01/08/2026 By George Galdorisi The U. S. Navy stands at the precipice of a new era of technology advancement. In an address at a military-industry conference, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Gilday, revealed the Navy’s goal to grow to 500 ships, to include 350 crewed ships and 150 uncrewed maritime vessels. This plan has been dubbed the “hybrid… Read more »

An Estonian Perspective on the European Defense Renaissance

01/07/2026 By Pierre Tran Paris - France and Sweden have offered the Rafale and Gripen to Ukraine, raising  questions of practicality and financing, but an eventual delivery of the fighter jets could not be ruled out, the Estonian ambassador to France, Viljar Lubi, said Dec. 16. “These are big deals, difficult to deliver,” he told the Association des Journalistes de la Défense,… Read more »

Dr. Paul Bracken: Shaping Thought on Strategy, Technology, and Security

01/06/2026 Dr. Paul Bracken stands at the crossroads of political science, management, and technology as a renowned professor at Yale University. Holding dual appointments in the Yale School of Management and the Department of Political Science, he has spent decades influencing both intellectual and practical approaches to complex, high-stakes issues facing societies worldwide. Dr. Bracken’s academic pathway began with a BS… Read more »

The Return of VMM-264: Rebuilding Marine Corps Tiltrotor Capacity in an Era of Strategic Competition

01/05/2026 By Robbin Laird The reactivation of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 264 (VMM-264) represents far more than a simple administrative redesignation or force structure adjustment. It signals the Marine Corps' recognition that its transformation under Force Design 2030 requires expanded, not contracted, capabilities in certain critical areas, particularly in the aviation domain that enables distributed maritime operations across the vast Indo-Pacific… Read more »

Examining the True Force-Mass Potential of Large Uncrewed Underwater Vessels

12/31/2025 By Dr Tom Loveard and Dr Marcus Hellyer. This article has been motivated by C2 Robotics’s internal company analysis of ongoing test and evaluation activities employing the Speartooth large uncrewed underwater vessel (LUUV). Our assessment is that the Department of Defence and the broader Australian strategic policy community have underappreciated the potential impact of large numbers of LUUV systems on… Read more »

The 2025 Book Publishing Year for Second Line of Defense: 16 New Titles

12/28/2025 The 2025 publishing year brought together a remarkably coherent body of work that spans contemporary defense transformation, global political change, and historical reflection, while continuing to deepen long‑standing partnerships with leading strategic thinkers and historians. Taken as a whole, the 2025 list underlines a central theme: democratic states are struggling to adapt to a world in which multi‑domain warfare, authoritarian… Read more »