Content

UkraineAlert

Dec 10, 2025

Russian drones and blackouts test the resilience of Ukraine’s second city

By Maria Avdeeva

With Putin’s army now advancing to the east and the Russian bombardment of civilian targets intensifying, Kharkiv residents are now facing what may become the most difficult winter of the entire war, writes Maria Avdeeva.

Defense Technologies
Drones

Dispatches

Dec 10, 2025

Why exporting advanced chips to China endangers US AI leadership

By Tess deBlanc-Knowles

Allowing Chinese companies to purchase high-end AI chips risks degrading the United States’s current edge in aggregate computing power.

Artificial Intelligence
China

UkraineAlert

Dec 8, 2025

Ukraine’s wartime experience provides blueprint for infrastructure protection

By Oleksandr Bakalinskyi, Maggie McDonough

Since 2014, Ukraine’s critical infrastructure has faced sustained and increasingly sophisticated attacks but continues to function, adapt, and evolve, offering the world one of the most comprehensive case studies for resilience under unrelenting cyber-kinetic pressure, write Oleksandr Bakalinskyi and Maggie McDonough.

Conflict
Cybersecurity

UkraineAlert

Dec 4, 2025

Russia has learned from Ukraine and is now winning the drone war

By David Kirichenko

Ukraine's more agile army and vibrant tech sector initially gave the country an edge in the drone war against Russia, but Moscow has now regained the initiative thanks to an emphasis on mass and training, writes David Kirichenko.

Conflict
Defense Industry

In the News

Dec 3, 2025

Hicks and Thornberry published in Defense News

By Atlantic Council

On December 2, Defense News published an op-ed by ReForge Commission Co-Chairs Kathleen Hicks and Mac Thornberry outlining why the United States must urgently rebuild an industrial base capable of outproducing and outlasting its adversaries. The piece highlights the strategic risks posed by today’s manufacturing shortfalls and the reforms needed to ensure the nation can […]

Defense Industry
Defense Policy

In the News

Nov 18, 2025

Punaro quoted in Air & Space Forces magazine on acquisition reform

By Atlantic Council

On November 18, Forward Defense nonresident senior fellow MajGen Arnold Punaro, USMC (ret.) was quoted in an Air & Space Forces Magazine article entitled "What Experts Will Watch as the Pentagon Implements Acquisition Reform."

Defense Industry
Defense Policy

Report

Nov 17, 2025

Building the digital front line: Understanding big tech decision-making in Ukraine

By Emma Schroeder

In this report, author Emma Schroeder examines which factors most shaped tech companies’ decisions as to whether and how to lend their support to Ukraine throughout the war.

Cybersecurity
Defense Industry

In the News

Nov 14, 2025

Cole discusses the future of the Navy in National Defense magazine

On November 10,  Forward Defense nonresident senior fellow August Cole was featured in a compendium article in the National Defense magazine titled “The Navy and Marine Corps at 250: A Look to the Future as the Sea Services Celebrate Their Quarter Millennial Anniversary.” Cole’s contribution, “A Navy Driven by Both Software and Steel,” discusses how […]

Defense Technologies
United States and Canada

In the News

Nov 12, 2025

Hammes publishes issue brief on containerized weapons with Stimson Center

On November 6, Forward Defense nonresident senior fellow Thomas X. Hammes published an issue brief with the Stimson Center titled “We Can’t Buy Our Way Out: It’s Time to Think Differently.” Hammes urges the Pentagon to focus on a new generation of containerized weapons that can be mass produced in order to field capabilities to […]

Defense Industry
Defense Policy

Inflection Points

Nov 11, 2025

It’s time to reckon with the geopolitics of artificial intelligence

By Frederick Kempe

The world has entered the most consequential tech race since the dawn of the nuclear age, but this time the weapons are algorithms instead of atoms.

Artificial Intelligence
China

Experts

Events