Special Operations Forces (SOF) play an important role in U.S. military operations, and in recent years they have been given greater responsibility in the planning and conduct of global counter-terrorism operations. The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has approximately 70,000 active duty, National Guard and Reserve personnel from the four services and Department of Defense (DOD) civilians assigned to its headquarters, its four service component commands and eight sub-unit commands.

The Department of Defence (DOD) plans to spend approximately $1.66 trillion to expand its current portfolio of weapon systems.1 These weapons are essential to maintaining our country's military superiority and deterrence. It is important that they work when needed, but cyber attacks can prevent them from doing so.

"Lessons learned from the United States experience in Afghanistan" is the fourth lessons learned report issued by the Special Inspector General for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan. The report examines the U.S. stabilization effort in Afghanistan and details how the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Departments of State and Defense attempted to support and legitimize the Afghan government in the disputed districts from 2002 to 2017.

Just as Clausewitz wrote, the nature of war hasn't changed much.

Since the last launch by the Space Shuttle program in July 2011, the Space Platforms and Hypersonic Technologies markets have been in transition as stakeholders vie to accomplish a wide array of missions. The Federal government helped shape these markets by leveraging contracts for specific missions and capabilities as well as issuing grants to augment and advance technological capabilities. Private enterprise and academic consortia used these to help power their research and deliver new products. Each contributed to the robust and evolving Space Platforms and Hypersonic Technologies markets today.

In the night between Apr. 13 and 14 aircraft from the U.S., UK and France launched a first wave of air strikes against ground targets in Syria. What follows is a recap based on OSINT (Open Sources Intelligence) since most of the aircraft involved in the raids could be tracked online via information in the public domain.

U.S. leaders and their European allies are unprepared for the ways in which Putin is poised to wage war in Ukraine and the Baltic. The Russian military is well-positioned to launch a short-notice conventional war in Ukraine and a hybrid war in the Baltic States, the opposite of what Western leaders seem to expect in each theater.

During 2016 and 2017 North Korea conducted an unprecedented series of missile launches and nuclear tests to advance its ambition to become one of the world's nuclear powers. This testing escalated tensions in the region and increased the risk of renewed conflict.

At the time of our first publication in 2009, Iran's two navies were only a few years into a major reorganization, and each service was navigating through a period of considerable change. Now, nearly a decade following the reorganization, we have a better understanding of Iran's ultimate intentions for the reorganization and clearer insight into how its navies are progressing during this time of transition. This new insight and understanding have made it even more necessary to consider and address each of Iran's navies as distinct organizations with independent strategies, doctrines and missions. It is, in fact, a tale of two navies.

President Trump's 2019 budget request includes $12.9 billion for missile defense programs, including $9.9 billion for the Missile Defense Agency and about $3 billion in modernization in the military services, building upon the acceleration initiated in the $323 million FY 2017 Above Threshold Reprogramming and the FY 2018 Budget Amendment of $2.0 billion.