Mark Thompson

This week in The Bunker: Peals of laughter as Pentagon proposes its new fighter should cost the same as the old one; bombers away!; how come cheap warplanes never seem to take off?; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: technology is letting little powers strike big ones and forcing the Goliaths to respond; the math that plays a major role in rising weapons costs; F-35 fables; and more. 

This week in The Bunker: How the U.S. push to junk Afghanistan’s Russian helicopters in favor of complicated U.S. aircraft mirrored the 20-year fiasco that was the Afghan war, a White House green light for hypersonic weapons, and more.

This week in The Bunker: that Chinese balloon poses a bigger threat to U.S. taxpayer wallets than U.S. national security; the Pentagon creates a new outfit to better run itself; and more.

This week in The Bunker: a hat trick of bad news about new weapons, a persistent Pentagon bookkeeping nightmare, a toxic leader who oversaw U.S. military spending, and more.

This week in The Bunker: what’s needed to slay the feared “hollow force”; a source for the groupthink surrounding U.S. nuclear strategy; the still-not-ready-for-prime-time F-35 gets a new radar; and more.

This week in The Bunker: Who’s in charge of air traffic control at the Pentagon?; loathsome Russian blamethrowing; a general’s warning; welcome back … and a Happy (real, not fiscal) New Year!; and more.

This week in The Bunker: Nearly 40 years after the Army quit the Pentagon’s first-ever tiltrotor program, contending it cost too much and did too little, it has reversed course and launched the second. Holiday break starts now … back January 11!

This week in The Bunker: War of the words — how come only a Marine, among all individual members of the U.S. military, rates a capital letter; what should we call all of those in U.S. military uniforms; and more.

This week in The Bunker: The Pentagon serves thin gruel when it comes to defense innovation, perpetually preoccupied with spending over thinking; for the fifth year in a row, the military can’t tell us where all that money’s going; and more.