Back from their holiday break, Chris, Melanie, and Zack discuss Michael Horowitz and Joshua Schwartz’s recent War on the Rocks’ article, which considers whether and how the United States and its allies should incorporate new technologies into their military forces. Is it time for cheap, uncrewed systems to replace larger, manned platforms? What is the optimal mix of high-end, exquisite systems, and low-end, attritable assets? And how should the Pentagon, NATO, and our other allies invest resources to be best situated for potential conflicts? President Joe Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s planned purchase of U.S. Steel receives not one but two grievances. Chris complains about misinformed reactions to the tragic incidents on New Year’s Eve. Hearty attas to President-elect Donald Trump for suggesting that U.S. allies could build U.S. warships, to the National Security Archive at George Washington University, and to Finland for seizing the Russian ship suspected of cutting undersea cables (and for the Finns’ general seriousness on matters of national defense).
Episode Reading
- Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, “The Future Character of War,” Keynote Address at RUSI, December 10, 2024.
- Jack Watling, “Automation Does Not Lead to Leaner Land Forces,” War on the Rocks, February 7, 2024.
- Stacie L. Pettyjohn, “Drones are Transforming the Battlefield in Ukraine but in an Evolutionary Fashion,” War on the Rocks, March 5, 2024.
- James Brooks, “Finland People Learn to Shoot Guns because of Russia Threat,” AP, December 19, 2024.
- Michael Horowitz and Joshua Schwartz, “Stealth and Scale: Quality, Quantity, and Modern Military Power,” War on the Rocks, December 18, 2024.
- Michael C. Horowitz, “Battles of Precise Mass: Technology Is Remaking War—and America Must Adapt,” Foreign Affairs, November/December 2024.
- Thomas G. Mahnken, “Weapons: The Growth & Spread of the Precision-Strike Regime,” Daedalus 2011; 140 (3): 45–57.
- X. Hammes, “Technologies Converge and Power Diffuses: The Evolution of Small, Smart, and Cheap Weapons,” Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 786, January 27, 2016
- Col. Maximillian K. Bremer and Kelly A. Grieco, “Assumption Testing: Airpower is inherently offensive,” Stimson Center, January 25, 2023
- Lt Col Leslie F. Hauck III, USAF Dr. John P. Geis II, Colonel, USAF, Retired, “Air Mines Countering the Drone Threat to Aircraft,” Air & Space Power Journal, Spring 2017
- The National Security Archive
- “The Long Telegram of the 1990s: ‘Whose Russia Is It Anyway? Toward a Policy of Benign Respect’” National Security Archive, December 18, 2024
- Fred Kaplan, ”A Newly Declassified Memo Sheds Light on America’s Post-Cold War Mistakes,” Slate, December 23, 2024
Image: U.S. Army
