The Bunker

This week in The Bunker: Clashes over whether a $1 trillion defense budget is enough; a new transactional U.S. policy to arm Ukraine; Pentagon R&D budget offers clues to future warfighting; and more; TEN-shun! The Bunker is now starting its summer break and will return September 3. 

This week in The Bunker: The share of the defense budget going to contractors has soared since the 1990s; Pentagon wish lists return to Capitol Hill; the Army continues stonewalling when faced with unpleasant news; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: B-2 bombers buzz the White House; a purported defense-reform bill is anything but; the deadly cost of honing the U.S. military’s combat edge; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: Contrasting a pair of Defense Department announcements highlights this Pentagon’s emphasis on style over substance; weighing whether the Department of Defense should return to its original name as the Department of War; intruders invade an atomic U.S. base; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: President Trump flies solo in launching an attack on the long-festering Iranian nuclear program; the Pentagon and Silicon Valley try to inject some 21st century vim into military procurement; the world’s atomic arsenals, after decades of shrinking, will soon become bigger and more deadly; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: President Trump despoils the Army by turning it into a prop for a political rally as its generals remain mute; it’s increasingly looking like the ax is going to fall on the F-35 program; base motives when it comes to Army posts; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: Pentagon to cut its testing oversight force in half; Army plans to shortcut testing of its new tiltrotor; decrepit U.S. military barracks on Guam highlight challenges associated with missile defense; and more (FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: The Bunker is taking next week off). 

This week in The Bunker: the White House’s flawed scheme to develop a cheap shield to quickly protect the U.S. from all kinds of missiles, drones, cruise missiles, and supersonic peashooters (ain’t gonna happen); the Pentagon pledges to blame the Biden administration, yet again, for the chaotic Afghan withdrawal; and more.

This week in The Bunker: The Defense Department’s intelligence shop delivers a list of potential weapons potentially used by potential foes to justify President Trump’s Golden Dumb missile system; hyping the Russian military threat (again!) despite its abysmal performance in Ukraine; Pentagon pill-popping for pilots; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: A trifecta of woe, as the Army abandons its newest tank; the Air Force decides it can’t reuse its existing missile silos for its newest ICBM; the Navy keeps adding to its F-18 submarine fleet; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: President Trump’s trillion-dollar request for the U.S. military in 2026 is a sleight-of-accounting mirage; U.S. plans to spend nearly a trillion on nukes by 2034; details are MIA in plan to retool the Army; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: one defense contractor bets big bucks that the Pentagon will buy more bombers; a second is trying to turn a big contract loss into a win for U.S. taxpayers; AI and assassination; and more.