Sébastien Roblin

Pentagon plan prioritizes homeland over China threat This marks a major departure from the first Trump administration, which emphasized deterring Beijing.

AIP subs remain comparatively slow and short-ranged compared to SSNs, but they're better at those than prior diesel-electrics and they come at like 1/4 price. Still you don't base these in U.S., you mass them where they need to be in Japan, not on other side of the ocean. Now look at the NDS leaks!

The Path to a Bigger Submarine Fleet Includes Diesels A mix of nuclear and diesel-electric boats could preserve U.S. undersea dominance.

Saw old piece of mine on AIP/diesel-electric submarines cited here arguing their cost-efficiency for littoral sea denial missions. An interesting debate, but current events point to their risks! For U.S. they're a forward-basing, alliance commitment asset-and current admin is 100% opposed to that!

Key Air Force Unit Buys The Army’s New Heavy Quadcopter Drone An order of C100 drones by the Air Force's 93rd Air Ground Operations Wing could be all about enabling portable drones to guide attacks by big warplanes—using lasers!

Why is the Air Force's 93rd Air Ground Operations Wing buying the C100 heavy quadcopter drones being procured for Army infantry companies? Official statements are vague, but it may have to do with lasers, F-35s and a founder of the drone racing league.

Very odd for this article not to mention FCAS which obviously looms over this subject.

Napoleon III? Just don't mention the (Franco Prussian) war!

Interesting Atlantic piece on current frontline reality in Ukraine: low single-digit teams of soldiers hiding in forests and houses to avoid drone attacks. The author assess that Ukraine may have achieved a newly sustainable equilibrium vs. Russian attacks. www.msn.com/en-us/news/w...

The Great U.S. Navy Battleship Comeback Will Never Happen Battleships look epic—but missiles, VLS cells, and DDG(X) destroyers win modern wars. Here’s why big-gun behemoths won’t be coming back anytime soon.

America's World War II battleships saw last combat use in 1991. Trump recently suggested they make a comeback. Aesthetics aside, read on for why that makes little sense in 21st century + thoughts on what future large future warships may look like instead. nationalsecurityjournal.org/the-great-u-...

Well, the Soviet-backed Afghan National Army was a conventional warfare force with jets, artillery and tanks etc. It held onto the cities at least a year I think, a lot longer than the U.S.'s did!

I have wondered whether the Afghan Army suffered from concentrating its talent/combat power so heavily in SF that its territory-holding regulars couldn't hold territory. But to be fair achieving the 'right' mix may not have been possible. Any thoughts, @jjschroden.bsky.social?

Jacobsen's "Nuclear War: A Scenario"--which quotes one of my articles!--has made a splash with the public, but not with nuclear arms experts. This lengthy thread lists problems with the chain of events described in the book, including use of 1960s lens to current tech/doctrine.

I know these guys are all dumber than a sack of hammers, but it is fascinating to see the military decide “logistics are gay” in real time

Vanessa Guillén and the Importance of Speaking Up Hey there Angry Planet listeners, Matthew here.

A PR person for ABC asked me to stop asking about Pete Hegseth's speech during this episode about the death of Vanessa Guillén.

They emailed me today and asked I not include the interruption in the final show.

I will not. So tune in to listen to a lecture from a PR person about Guillén's legacy.

Coming Soon: The Great FCAS 6th-Generation Fighter Divorce? If France and Germany split on FCAS, Europe risks higher costs, thinner exports, and delays—while GCAP gains leverage. Here’s who wins, who loses, and why it matters.

France and Germany are struggling to work together on their FCAS 6th-generation fighter. Read on for why, how each has different problems going it alone, whether Germany's ideas of partnering with UK or Sweden are viable, and why I think a divorce is an 'everyone loses' outcome.

Yes, my source said ISV was tested and pushed by SOCOM & Airborne onto regular Army units without input from broader user community. I also find amazing the contradictory pro-ISV arguments that 1) it's not MEANT for combat dude, chill out 2) ISV will dodge enemy strikes like a freakin' stealth Ninja

The Army’s New Trucks Have No Armor or Doors. That’s Like Sending Soldiers to Their Deaths, Officer Warns. The new Infantry Squad Vehicles cannot survive enemy fire—or even carry three days’ worth of supplies, an insider tells us in an exclusive interview.

The Pentagon is reequipping infantry brigades with M1301 Infantry Squad Vehicles-Chevy pickup trucks-more expensive than Humvees yet leaving troops far more exposed. Attached to combat squads but not intended for combat, an officer shares why he fears they're bad at both. DoD testers seem to agree.

Yes! The Army research on this post Battle of Mortain could confirm a fraction of claimed air-to-surface tank kills from German wrecks on the ground. Quite devastating to the cinematically attractive narrative of WW2 aerial anti-tank warfare.

The standard Su-25 employment mode by both sides has become use as a sort of flying MLRS by firing rockets in a high arc to maximize range. There's some hardware in the cockpit to support this. But this like, the opposite of *BRRT* tactics, not direct firing. And it's still dangerous!

China’s Huge New ‘Drone Mothership’ Could Release 100 Small Killer Robots. Why Isn’t America Building One? This airliner-sized drone is fearsome, but it has drawbacks, too.

China's large Jiutian 'mothership' drone supposedly could release a hundred small, killer drones from high altitude to search and destroy individual targets. A scary concept--but read on for why it must overcome multiple major practical problems in execution.

We still have to see if maxing capability over cost-efficiency is best for early fighter drones. Also unverified is whether autonomy & comms have advanced enough to use drone fighters optimally far from base. However, China's ability to explore multiple approaches at same time is a big advantage.

China Reveals Large New Stealth Fighter Drones Alongside Collaborative Combat Aircraft A military parade in Beijing on September 3, 2025 saw the unveiling of many new weapon systems quietly under development by China’s military-industrial comple

A military parade revealed China is simultaneously developing large exquisite stealth drone fighters AND lower cost Western-style Loyal Wingmen jets. Read on for a look at key features visible on these airframes, and thoughts on possible use cases for higher-end 'exquisite' drone fighters.

Know this is a dead topic, but I saw the trailer AFTER the film & it's quite misleading of tone. Through selective editing it gives feeling of badass action & heroic agency. whereas the film is about a bunch of guys who are bored and then get absolutely pummeled, more object than subject.

I'd think it poses a threat like the V-1 campaign in World War 2. Not impacting battlefield effectiveness but creating political effects as they brought the war back to the populous. Admittedly those effects were along the lines of 'Invade Germany faster!' so not very helpful to Nazis.

Tidibits for TLDR crowd: I think Navy's abrupt rush for CCAs related to Hegseth politics & effort to defund Navy F/A-XX manned 6th-gen fighter (below). Also few remember, but Navy's prior claimed CCA concept was for cheaper short-lived ISR/Strike CCAs, NOT air-to-air CCAs like the Air Force's! 2/2

X-47B drone on carrier deck

The Navy said it wasn't hurrying to develop drone fighters called Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs). But last week revealed 5x contracts for carrier-based CCA concepts! Read on for contractors, challenges of carrier drone ops, Navy's divergent CCA concept & politics behind Navy's about face.1/2

It deters significantly if military tells politicians "Yes, our tank armies would win the war, but then get creamed by tactical nukes and victory lost/phyrric, or worse trigger strategic nuclear war." A few countries leaning on nukes for conventional deterrence: Pakistan, Russia, North Korea.

The YF-23 Black Widow II Could 'Rescue' the Navy's F/A-XX Fighter Could the legendary YF-23 Black Widow make a comeback? New art for the Navy's F/A-XX fighter hints that the jet that lost to the F-22 may get a second chance.

If the Navy's F/A-XX fighter ever happens, (unreliable) concept art hints it might resemble Boeing's F-47...or Northrop-Grumman's legendary YF-23 Black Widow prototype. Read on for YF-23's qualities vs rival YF-22, its carrier-based NATF-23 variant & the Congress vs. DoD battle over F/A-XX.

So, there would be scenarios where you say OK, we'll rain nukes down on tank armies (and poor Germany btw). Enemy will respond in kind but hopefully won't escalate to strategic attacks. But while UK still had tactical nukes in 1980s, I think UK PM input would only be decisive on strategic sub nukes.

In in NATO v. Warsaw Pact context there was fear conventional military would be inadequate vs the latter's larger army, thus perhaps requiring NATO escalate to tactical nukes. These days it's Russia that's weaker and threatens tactical nuke escalation.

Having them do repeated & predictable runs through North Vietnam's dense air defenses to drop dumb bombs on targets saturated with flak guns was never going to go well. But screaming towards the Soviets at low altitude and trying to deliver nukes--I think the losses would have been heavy there too!

The 46% loss rate is utterly staggering... especially considering over three quarters of those were to enemy fire. They did manage to chalk up couple dozen+ air-to-air kills mostly using guns. And Mach 2+ speeds always cool.