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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: The Trillion-Dollar Pentagon

This week in The Bunker: the Pentagon is on the verge of spending $1 trillion a year; honoring vets by incorporating their care into the defense budget; a dirty little secret that boosts defense spending; and more.

The Bunker: Old Whine in a New Canteen

This week in The Bunker: the Biden administration rolls out a trio of war-fighting documents that document stealth change from the status quo; what’s at stake as Congress splinters over aid to Ukraine; and more.

The Bunker: Bull in the China Shop

This week in The Bunker: a questionable claim about the strength of the U.S. military; how the sagging Chinese threat echoes the Soviet menace of a generation ago; and more.

The Bunker: Recycled Weapons

This week in The Bunker: when the new weapons don’t work, you can always push the Pentagon to improve the old ones that still do; let me know if you’ve heard this one before: the Russians are still coming; and more.

The Bunker: Snipping Trade Ties to Tame Tyrants

This week: Trying to tame (some) bullies by cutting trade ties with them; the Marines complain the Navy wants to mothball the ships it needs to patrol the seas; after years of debate, those Army posts named for Confederates will soon be history

The Bunker: The Navy’s New Subpar Sub

This week in The Bunker: how the Navy is buying an undersea drone without knowing if the contractor can build it; “wokeism” in the U.S. military, and how such fear-mongering has festered at home and abroad; and more.

The Bunker: Putin’s Hollow Nuclear Saber-Rattling

This week in The Bunker: Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons offers a lesson to the world’s atomic powers; U.S. troops get financial aid; latest Pentagon weapons-cost report missing weapons cost; and more.

The Bunker: Turning Point in Ukraine?

This week in The Bunker: as Kyiv gains the upper hand in Ukraine, the moment of maximum desperation looms for Vladimir Putin; what we didn’t learn from the official probe into a fatal F-16 crash; bargain base-name bleaching; and more.

The Bunker: Old Bombers Fly as Newer ICBMs Die

This week in The Bunker: B-52 bombers get their biggest overhaul ever, even as the Pentagon plans to scrap newer ICBMs; electromagnetic pulse weapons as a national-security threat; Little Debbie snacks go AWOL; and more.

The Bunker: A Continuing Pentagon Plague

This week in The Bunker: sexual assault in the ranks is getting worse; a special commission takes aim at Confederates plaguing the U.S. Military Academy; Biden’s poor choice for his “soul of America” speech; and more.

The Bunker: Shielding the Innocent

This week in The Bunker: the Pentagon, under pressure, produces a policy to protect civilians amid war; the conflict in Ukraine won’t end anytime soon; the great jet-engine lottery; and more.

The Bunker: Why V-22s are both up and down

This week in The Bunker: why did the Air Force ground their V-22s while Marine tilt-rotors are still flying?; a new two-China policy; the Pentagon finally rolls out a social media policy; and more.

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