Anthropic's Nuclear Bomb A few hours before Anthropic announced the launch of its newest model, Claude Mythos Preview, on April 7, I had just completed a six-month analysis of

Anthropic’s new model, Mythos, could redefine cyber power by putting real capability in the wrong hands faster than ever.
warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/...

Rethinking Security Cooperation in the Age of Commercial Tech Commercial technologies are enabling the U.S. military and militaries around the world to operate with greater efficiency, speed, precision, and

The Pentagon keeps pushing exquisite U.S. systems to allies. That may not be what they need most.
warontherocks.com/rethinking-s...

Rethinking Security Cooperation in the Age of Commercial Tech Commercial technologies are enabling the U.S. military and militaries around the world to operate with greater efficiency, speed, precision, and

The Pentagon keeps pushing exquisite U.S. systems to allies. That may not be what they need most.
warontherocks.com/rethinking-s...

A look inside the new Booz Allen-a16z partnership and the ongoing challenge of connecting venture-backed innovation to government missions.

Listen here: pod.link/1818133762/e...

The Bromine Chokepoint: How Strife in the Middle East Could Halt Production of the World’s Memory Chips The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, now in an unstable ceasefire, has exposed a structural failure in the global semiconductor memory supply chain, and it is

There is a single point of failure in the global memory supply chain that can’t be quickly rerouted or substituted. It’s also sitting within missile range.
warontherocks.com/the-bromine-...

Can a New Bridge Finally Save the Pentagon’s Best Ideas? In May 1953, in the desert west of Idaho Falls, a crew powered up the world's first naval nuclear propulsion system. What made it possible was daringly

Proof-of-concept success has historically left innovative capabilities without a clear funding pathway. Has the Pentagon found a way to pay for what comes next?
warontherocks.com/can-a-new-br...

How This Precision Weapon Reengineered Modern War This exclusive Cogs of War interview is with Jeffrey E. Stern, an award-winning journalist and author of the newly released The Warhead: The Quest to

For most of modern history, using force meant mobilizing armies and convincing the public. This defense technology changed that.
warontherocks.com/2026/04/how-...

The Hidden System Turning Chinese Tech Companies into Military Suppliers In October 2022, Unitree Robotics joined Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, and three other firms in signing an open letter pledging not to weaponize

Most analysis of China’s military-civil fusion looks for firms that pivot to defense. The story of this Chinese robotics firm’s path from civilian to military use suggests a different dynamic entirely.
warontherocks.com/2026/04/the-...

A 250-Year Arsenal of Innovation: A Call for Articles on American Defense Technologies On July 4, 2026, the United States turns 250. At Cogs of War, we plan to mark the occasion the way we know best: by examining how Americans have built,

Have a story about an American innovation born from war that changed civilian life, the military, or society? We want to hear it.
warontherocks.com/2026/04/a-25...

China’s AI Is Spreading Fast. Here’s How to Stop the Security Risks In late 2024, Chinese models accounted for one percent of global AI workloads. By the end of 2025, that figure had surged to 30 percent. Alibaba’s Qwen

Chinese AI models have flooded the global market this year. Americans are building on them and handing over code, strategy, and sensitive data along the way.
warontherocks.com/2026/04/chin...

The U.S. Military Risks Letting Contractors Define How It Sees the Battlefield In the 1964 black comedy Dr. Strangelove, an emergency war plan called “Plan R” allows an unhinged U.S. Air Force commander, Jack Ripper, to launch a

The U.S. military is racing to field faster command systems. But if it doesn’t control the definitions inside them, it may be accelerating decisions it doesn’t actually understand.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/the-...

Every Soldier a Software Builder: Governing the Army’s New Digital Workforce Over the past decade, the Department of Defense has tested internal software development through efforts like the Air Force’s Kessel Run, the Army

For years, the hardest part of building software for the Army was getting it approved. Now that barrier is lower, and a different problem is taking its place.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/ever...

The Pentagon Wants Dual-Use Innovation. Patent Law Might Punish It. In 1918, the U.S. Supreme Court held that government contractors could be sued for patent infringement even if their products were manufactured

Congress spent a century protecting contractors from patent suits. That protection may not extend to the neoprimes driving dual-use innovation.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/the-...

Your Defense Code Is Already AI-Generated. Now What? Somewhere in a defense ministry, someone is drafting a policy on whether to permit AI-assisted software development in defense procurement. The sentiment

An extraordinary cybersecurity risk has spread across the national security community. It did not arrive through a breach, but through the tools everyone is already using.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/your...

The Next Transformation of U.S. Shipbuilding This exclusive Cogs of War interview is with Eric Chewning, the executive vice president of maritime systems and corporate strategy at HII. As HII is

As demand for new ships grows, America’s largest military shipbuilder is rethinking how they get built.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/the-...

America needs more counter-drone technology, and quickly. Industry leaders join the pod to discuss how to create integrated defenses and what it will take to field them at scale and deliver results.

Listen here: pod.link/1818133762/e...

Military Operational Thinking in an Age of Artificial Intelligence In recent years, as AI has begun to enter military planning and operational design, a persistent unease has surfaced among practitioners. Even with

Before concluding that operational art is in decline, planners should ask whether the problem has outgrown the lens they are using.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/mili...

The Danger of Vibe Patriotism in Defense Tech At conferences, in pitch decks, and increasingly in public writing, “service” is increasingly being used to describe the work of startup founders,

What happens when people who build the tools of war can claim its moral weight without bearing its risks?
warontherocks.com/2026/03/the-...

Magazine Breadth — Not Just Depth — Is Key to Munitions Industrial Base Resilience Is America running out of missiles? The attacks on Iranian forces and leadership have had a devastating impact on the regime, but the repeated salvos of

After meetings with industry and continued calls to surge missile production, Washington’s plan is to build more. That will not be enough.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/maga...

Lessons from Ukraine for Defending Gulf Airspace from Shaheds In early March 2026, U.S. Central Command confirmed the first U.S. fatalities of the Iran conflict. A drone strike at Port Shuaiba in Kuwait killed six

Years of mass drone attacks have stress-tested Ukraine’s air defenses, resulting in a system that has held up under relentless pressure. The United States and its allies should be paying attention.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/less...

AI-Ready Biodata Is America’s Next Strategic Infrastructure There is little doubt in Washington that AI is a powerful technology that will help determine which country rules the 21st century. Policymakers from the

America has world-class scientific data. What it lacks is the infrastructure to turn it into strategic power.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/ai-r...

Why a $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget Request Might Slow the Pentagon’s Reform Efforts On Jan. 7, 2026, President Donald Trump announced: I have determined that, for the Good of our Country, especially in these very troubled and dangerous

History shows Congress rarely funds defense requests in full. What happens when the shortfall runs into the hundreds of billions?
warontherocks.com/2026/03/why-...

Why Satellites Fail — and How to Protect Them This exclusive Cogs of War interview is with Jean-François Morizur, the CEO and founder of Cailabs, a French company focused on ground-to-satellite laser

Threats to commercial space systems are expanding in scale and variety. Some of the most serious never leave Earth.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/why-...

Washington Built the AI Infrastructure AUKUS Needs — Then Locked Allies Out The Manhattan Project brought allied scientists to Los Alamos because winning required pooling allied scientific capacity. Today, as Australia

The Genesis Mission unifies America’s exascale infrastructure for AI development. It did not unify the allies who are supposed to build those systems together.
warontherocks.com/2026/03/wash...

All Too Quiet on the Western Neuroenhancement Front “A merry little surge of electricity piped by automatic alarm from the mood organ beside his bed awakened Rick Deckard.” The characters in Philip K.

Consumer neurotechnology is advancing quickly. The military has long tested its potential. What is holding it back?
warontherocks.com/2026/02/all-...

AI Is Being Misunderstood as a Breakthrough in Planning. It’s Not. In the age of AI, the scarcest resource in headquarters is no longer time. It is, rather, the willingness to say no. Artificial intelligence is moving

AI now produces balanced lines of effort, evenly weighted objectives, and fully populated task lists on demand. What it cannot produce is judgment.
warontherocks.com/2026/02/ai-i...

Agentic AI is beginning to move from Pentagon pilots into operational environments. That means confronting degraded networks, legacy workflows, and acquisition timelines that lag the technology.

Listen here: pod.link/1818133762/e...

When GPS Goes Dark: Building a Force That Navigates from Orbit to Seabed GPS denial is no longer a theoretical future threat. It is the environment in which modern forces increasingly operate. China has invested heavily in

Precision warfare depends on position, navigation, and timing. All now operate inside a highly contested electromagnetic spectrum that is cheap to disrupt and hard to defend.
warontherocks.com/2026/02/when...

The Greatest Threat to Acquisition Transformation Is Fear The Department of Defense’s acquisition and sustainment culture is pathologically risk-averse. The greatest threat to acquisition transformation is not

For thirty years, fielding timelines have only stretched longer while the Defense Department has pursued acquisition reform. Why does reform fail to translate into speed?
warontherocks.com/2026/02/the-...

Will These Four Defense Innovation Reforms Improve Industry’s Lot? When everyone is accountable, who is actually responsible? I can’t help but think of this question as I consider the flurry of new top-down activity on

The Pentagon wants speed, AI dominance, and industrial discipline. Without clear benchmarks and ownership, reform could mean more uncertainty for the firms it depends on.
warontherocks.com/2026/02/will...