Why a NATO general defied the Supreme Allied Commander in Kosovo
On June 12, 1999, British Army Capt. James Blunt (yes, the singer) received an order from NATO headquarters to capture the Pristina Airport in Kosovo. There was just one problem:…
Why did the US military switch from 7.62 to 5.56 rounds?
In the modern era, the M-16 style rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm has become ubiquitous in imagery of the U.S. military, but that wasn’t always the case. America’s adoption of the 5.56mm round and the service rifle that fires it both came about as re…
The US plan to train nuclear suicide bomber paratroopers
It’s an idea as old as nuclear weapons themselves: If you could slip a nuke into a city and detonate it, the enemy would never know it was coming. No missiles detected, no early warning radar, just one day: BOOM. In Cold War lore, these man-portabl…
You have to see the tombstones in this Soviet military cemetery
Somewhere in an Estonian Forest, causal hikers will come across a sea of red star-adorned metallic strips jutting out of the ground. Like some giant shark jaw, the 9,000-foot area is next to a wooded area, covered with what are actually aircraft tai…
These are the United States’ top 5 allies from around the world, based on capability
Forget what you read in the news, America is still the leader of freedom in the world. There’s no shortage of allies that have our back, either. Whether the President…
Ukraine is ready to join NATO or fight off a Russian invasion
Whatever the future holds, Ukraine is as ready as it’s ever going to be. If the Russians invade the central European country, Ukraine is much better equipped and trained to…
That time Russia tried to join NATO
NATO, as we know it today, is a de facto bulwark against Russian (née Soviet) expansionism into Western Europe and potentially elsewhere. It must have come as a complete surprise when France, Great Britain, and the United States all receiv…
The longest-serving U.S. commander in Afghanistan stays strapped
On Friday March 5, 2021, General Austin “Scott” Miller marked 915 days as the head of the U.S.-led NATO coalition in Afghanistan. He is the longest-serving commander of the war…
How NATO standardized the FN 5.7x28mm cartridge
The FN 5.7x28mm cartridge is a bit of an oddity. Developed from the ground up by FN Herstal of Belgium, the round was designed for use in handguns and personal…
In a war with Russia, both sides could focus on this 60-mile stretch
There are a number of potential vulnerabilities in NATO territory if the Cold War ever goes live, but three countries are especially scared of an attack to close the Suwalki Gap, a spot where NATO territory is only 60 miles wide with Belarus on one …