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The Bunker

A cheat sheet for what you need to know about the Department of Defense, how we’re waging our wars, and how the Pentagon spends our taxpayer dollars. The Bunker is both pro-troop and pro-taxpayer. 

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The Bunker logo, done in military stencil, in front of the Pentagon building

The Bunker: Are F-16s Russia’s red line?

This week in The Bunker: for more than a year, the U.S. and its allies have been sending beleaguered Ukraine ever more potent weapons to beat back the Russian invaders; is Putin approaching critical mass?; and more.

The Bunker: Playing Chicken With National Defense

This week in The Bunker: Republicans in Congress are waging a two-front war on the Pentagon, holding it hostage over debt-ceiling relief, and holding up promotions because of the Defense Department’s new abortion policy; and more.

The Bunker: Atomic Acquisitions

This week in The Bunker: as the Air Force begins building its new ICBM, all three legs of the nuclear triad are facing headwinds in an increasingly dangerous world that nukes are ill-suited to handle; and more.

The Bunker: Pentagon Bark vs. Pentagon Bite

This week in The Bunker: the Pentagon rolls out a “naughty list” of defense contractors with two key elements missing; the military’s security clearance process is busted; what’s up with those U.S. tanks bound for Ukraine; and more.

The Bunker: The Navy’s on Fire!

This week in The Bunker: the U.S. Navy has a costly problem with fires aboard warships while under repair; the Pentagon seeks congressional OK to begin developing weapons on its own; treating leaks as gospel; and more.

The Bunker: What the Leak Really Reveals

This week in The Bunker: The illegal posting of hundreds of top-secret Pentagon documents says just as much about a creaky U.S. intelligence network as it does about Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira; and more.

The Bunker: Ready to Die for Taiwan?

This week in The Bunker: Political blather about war with China over Taiwan is dangerous bluster well beyond the public’s current mood; baby steps in the right direction when it comes to war and weapons; Pentagon data MIA; and more.

The Bunker: Hardware House of Horrors

This week in The Bunker: even for the Pentagon’s typically botched-up acquisition system, it has been a rough week: an underpowered engine; the Navy runs aground; a hypersonic crash; and more.

The Bunker: Déjà amnesia

This week in The Bunker: linking the Iraq invasion, which began 20 years ago this week, with the Pentagon’s ignorance of how many weapons it needs to fight; and more. (Housekeeping note: The Bunker’s taking next week off.)

The Bunker: Unaffordable, Unattritable, Unacceptable

This week in The Bunker: The Pentagon proposes its 2024 budget; declares the death of cheap planes before they take off; announces sexual-assault record among future military leaders; and more.

The Bunker: Black Hawk Downer

This week in The Bunker: How the U.S. push to junk Afghanistan’s Russian helicopters in favor of complicated U.S. aircraft mirrored the 20-year fiasco that was the Afghan war, a White House green light for hypersonic weapons, and more.

The Bunker: A Hypersonic Sea Siren

This week in The Bunker: A deep dive into why the Navy, eager to find a mission for its fleet of $8 billion destroyers, is scrapping a costly gun for an even costlier hypersonic missile.

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