Author: Michael

Photo by ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, has told a U.S. Senate hearing that Russia is unlikely to take significantly more territory in Ukraine this year, painting a bleak picture for Moscow as its forces appear potentially poised to take the eastern city of Bakhmut. In Haines’ assessment, the Russian military will unlikely be able to sustain its current level of fighting, regardless of what happens in Bakhmut, which has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict so far.

Many countries and non-state actors had a motivation to attack the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.
The post Spy games: Who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines? appeared first on Sandboxx.

Multi-purpose Canine Shimanski (left) with his dog handler, retired Marine Staff Sgt. Brandon Marquez. (U.S. Marine Corps photo.).

Multi-purpose Canine Shimanski, a 12-year-old Belgian Malinois who is going slightly gray in his muzzle, has more than earned the title of combat veteran.
Between 2013 and 2018, Shimanski deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, and Somalia with U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, during which he searched for explosives while under fire, said retired Marine Staff Sgt. Brandon Marquez, Shimanski’s former handler.

Jack Holder joined the U.S. Navy at 18 years old in 1940. A Texas native born into a family of farmers, he would become a naval aviator and fly more than 100 missions during World War II. Before he ended up flying missions in both theaters of the war, he would have to survive the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Holder was on Ford’s Island when the first wave of Japanese planes hit the Navy’s ships and infrastructure on Oahu that morning. He had to throw himself into a ditch to avoid enemy strafing fire.

It’s safe to say that the Ukraine War isn’t going the way Vladimir Putin and the Russian military expected it would. From the moment his war plan began to unravel, Putin has made some unhinged statements, ones that gave much of the rest of the world, whether they are Russia’s friend or foe, cause for concern.
It’s a well-known fact that Russia’s president put his nuclear forces on high alert, after his three-day plan to capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv failed and Russian forces became bogged down in a bloody stalemate.

It doesn’t take a military genius to know that an enemy acquiring your war plans could be an unmitigated disaster. Journalist Geraldo Rivera got kicked out of the Iraq War in 2003 for giving away troop movements on live television. Gen. George McClellan won the Battle of Antietam in part because he had the Confederate battle plan. There’s just a lot that could go wrong if the enemy has a clue as to what’s about to happen.

While the world’s major powers are locked in an arms race to develop the best and most advanced hypersonic weapons, missiles capable of flying faster than Mach 5 and are thus able to defeat missile defense systems and radars, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been flying at these speeds for more than a decade.
The history of hypersonics go back much, much further than the 21st century. Nazi Germany’s V-2 rockets were able to reach speeds of Mach 4.3 after takeoff, but when they struck targets, they were often exceeding Mach 5.

The threshold for enriching uranium to a purity that can be used in a nuclear weapon is 90%. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency suspect Iran has enriched uranium to 84% purity, the closest the Islamic Republic has ever been to being able to create a nuclear bomb. The IAEA has no idea how Iran was able to produce that kind of enrichment.  
Iran had previously reported to the energy agency that it had enriched uranium to a maximum of 60%, and had long held that its enrichment program was designed for peaceful purposes only.

Are you a veteran looking to advance your career in public policy? Look no further than the Hoover Veteran Fellowship Program! The prestigious Hoover Institution established this annual, non-resident fellowship in the fall of 2021. It offers the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Hoover VFP seeks 10 mid-career professionals who served within the past 20 years and are committed to advancing ideas for free societies.
As a fellow, you’ll be able to interact with Hoover scholars and gain the knowledge and tools you need to be a policy leader in your community.

“National security in 2023 is not the same as it was in 1993 [or] for that matter in 2003.”
That assessment by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., was shared by the heads of all the major American intelligence agencies and, Warner said, a large bipartisan group of senators.
The rise in technology and its application has shifted what national security means relative to years prior, what Warner described as “simpler times.