Since the outbreak of the war, Ukraine has assembled the most combat-tested air defense network in the world, drawing important lessons for future conflicts.

Russia’s support for its Iranian ally imperils years of economic and diplomatic engagement with Gulf states. Ukraine has taken advantage of this contradiction, offering Gulf states no-strings-attached operational expertise against a weapon that Kyiv knows too well. The resulting erosion of Russia’s footprint in the Middle East will resonate for years, if not decades to come.

EU governments are racing to develop drone warfare capabilities with the help of Ukraine. These efforts will help boost European strategic autonomy in the short term, but from a deterrence standpoint, drones are only half the answer.

Italy’s acquisition of the Bayraktar TB3 represents new momentum toward continental strategic autonomy while also highlighting failures in the EU’s internal push for drone development.

In the heartland of ancient Persia, the lines in the sand of West Asia’s geoeconomic map are being redrawn.

The war between Iran and the United States has placed Russia in a classic strategic trap — a zugzwang, the chess term for a position in which every available move makes a player’s situation worse.

Instead of competing in a race-to-the-bottom where adversaries enjoy an advantage in low-end mass manufacturing, the West could play to its strengths by forcing drone warfare to a higher frequency band. Here is a thought experiment on what that might look like.

The Poseidon is an underwater unmanned vehicle and one of Russia’s ‘unparalleled’ next-generation weapon systems. The state authorities would have us believe that it can defy the laws of physics. No wonder it has never been seen in the field.

Drone warfare continues to evolve in Sudan in ways that blur culpability and maximize civilian suffering, ultimately putting an end to the civil war further out-of-sight.

Conventional air defense has been disrupted in an age of drone warfare, where sophisticated and expensive systems risk being overwhelmed by mass strikes. But military and civilian authorities are now beginning to adapt on the defensive side, and a new equilibrium is forming.

The fight for control of the air littoral is a pivotal domain in the Ukraine war, one where success brings advantages in battlefield awareness, artillery suppression, maneuverability, and attrition. It represents an entirely new paradigm, and it is changing the face of modern warfare.

This week we cover a new prime minister’s entry into the fray of Thai politics, President Trump making moves to expand the global market for US drone sales, geopolitical risks associated with a recent earthquake in Afghanistan, and India’s ambitious new military modernization program.

The near-constant stream of innovations in drone warfare on the battlefields of Ukraine has permanently changed the nature of modern combat.

The paradigm shift of drone and AI warfare represents a new revolution in military affairs. But this time the United States may be left behind.

Tehran is sharing its expertise in drone warfare with Moscow, creating a mutually beneficial partnership that will reverberate through global geopolitics.

Low-cost, high-impact technologies are redefining sea control, power projection, and naval dominance in a contested maritime domain.

With the center of tactical gravity shifting toward drones and AI, the EU and its member states are now playing catch-up in a race to improve domestic R&D and production capacity.

Maritime drones and AI systems are emerging as early beneficiaries of Europe’s newfound defense spending largess.

North Korea’s involvement in the Ukraine war affords a rare glimpse of the tactics, ideology, and equipment of one of the most secretive militaries on the planet.

A rebel drone operator offers a glimpse of how contemporary guerilla warfare is evolving in real-time in the Myanmar civil war.