Tanks vs. Drones

More from School of War

1. 

   25 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 11 min

   Inside America’s Fight for Drone Dominance

   The U.S. military needs more drones, and it needs to build them without Chinese parts. Today, Defense Innovation Unit Deputy Director Travis Metz joins School of War to discuss how America can build drones quickly, cheaply, and on U.S. soil; what America can learn from Ukraine’s drone war; and the Pentagon’s new billion-dollar effort to upgrade its aging military technology. 2:23 - Why America Is Behind on Drones 4:32 - The Drone Dominance Program 6:51 - Breaking Dependence on China 10:23 - The Different Types of Drones 13:34 - Ukraine’s Mid-Range Strike Revolution 16:00 - Cheap Drones at…

2. 

   21 Aug 2026 · 42 min

   When Terrorists Become the Heroes to Young Americans

   In prerevolutionary Russia, it was not uncommon for children to dream of becoming terrorists when they grew up. “It was a respected profession,” says Northwestern University professor Gary Saul Morson, who now sees troubling parallels between modern-day America and an era in Russia when terrorism became fashionable and radicals came to see violence as an expression of moral virtue. Today, Morson joins School of War to discuss what Fyodor Dostoyevsky understood about the terrorist mind, why good people can be persuaded to support terrible acts, and what America loses when it stops teaching…

3. 

   18 Aug 2026 · 46 min

   Senator McCormick Thinks That America’s Military Is Stuck in the Past

   Pennsylvania senator Dave McCormick, a West Point graduate, Desert Storm veteran, and former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, is concerned about America’s wealth gap, which he says is approaching “a version of capitalism I don’t think we want.” Today, McCormick joins School of War for a candid conversation about why the right needs a better answer to socialism, lessons in modern warfare from his recent closed-door meeting with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, and why he regrets his 2002 LA Times op-ed supporting the Iraq War: “I was completely wrong.” 02:01 — From Desert Storm to…

4. 

   11 Aug 2026 · 58 min

   Boris Johnson on Why Europe and America Still Need Each Other

   As war in Ukraine grinds towards its fifth year and tensions strain the transatlantic alliance, former British prime minister Boris Johnson says he remains convinced that the West has the power to prevail: “Putin has got to lose.” Today, Johnson joins School of War to discuss how the West can bring the Russian president to the negotiating table, why Europe’s dream of “strategic autonomy” is a “sham, a snare and a delusion,” and why he believes predictions of American decline and Chinese dominance have it backward. 02:20 — When Boris Johnson Knew Putin Would Invade Ukraine 05:46 — Why Europe…

5. 

   7 Aug 2026 · 31 min

   Ted Cruz’s Plan to Bring Down Iran’s Regime—and Tucker Carlson

   As the American right and left are increasingly pulled toward their ideological extremes, many politicians have chosen to appease the loudest voices in their coalitions even when those voices flirt with or openly embrace antisemitism. Senator Ted Cruz says he’s done playing nice. “If we do not defeat this poison,” he warns, “I believe it will consume the Republican Party just like it has consumed the Democratic Party.” Today, Cruz joins School of War to discuss his strategy for bringing down Iran’s regime, what Tucker Carlson’s splinter from the mainstream right means for conservative…

6. 

   4 Aug 2026 · 29 min

   Ukraine’s Top Drone Commander on What the Pentagon Keeps Missing

   Yuri Fedorenko has spent four years turning a volunteer rifle company into the 429th “Achilles” Brigade, one of the most lethal units in Ukraine’s Defense Forces. Today, he joins School of War to discuss how the battlefield has evolved since Russia’s full-scale invasion: improvising with commercial drones in 2022, scaling a unit that now hunts targets at an unprecedented scale, what life is like on the front lines, and what the U.S. military can learn from his unit’s drone revolution. This interview was originally conducted in Ukrainian and has been translated and dubbed into English. 02:23…

7. 

   9 Oct 2026 · 50 minNew

   Rebuilding America’s War Machine

   America is running low on munitions, its shipyards can’t keep pace, and the materials its weapons depend on too often run through China. Michael Cadenazzi is the Pentagon official charged with turning that around, putting billions of dollars behind the factories, materials, and supply chains that make America’s military power possible. He joins School of War to explain how the Pentagon plans to ramp up weapons production, attract private investment, and break decades of bad habits in how the Pentagon does business. Cadenazzi is confident America can still mobilize its industrial might for a…

8. 

   8 Oct 2026 · 36 minNew

   What Happened Inside Russia’s Plague Lab?

   A young researcher in Siberia has died under mysterious circumstances, raising questions about a potential lab leak. Russia won’t say how it happened. Marshall Billingslea, former Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control, says Moscow has scrubbed news reports, had officials walk back talk of an outbreak, and kept the World Health Organization in the dark. He joins School of War to fill in what the Kremlin won’t, taking us inside Russia’s expanding bioweapons program and the institute at the heart of the mystery, which defectors say ran a covert effort to weaponize the disease and make it…

9. 

   6 Oct 2026 · 45 min

   Michael Oren: October 7 and the Cost of Defending Israel

   Three years after October 7, the deadliest terror attack in Israeli history looms large over the Jewish state’s upcoming election. Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren says whomever takes the helm next is unlikely to “remove a single soldier from Lebanon, from Gaza, from Syria.” Today, Oren joins School of War to discuss Israel’s “80 percent” consensus on national security, why he thinks Hezbollah “cannot be destroyed militarily,” and the deepening political divide between religious Zionists and ultra-Orthodox Jews over the Jewish state’s future. 3:33 How October 7 Changed…

10. 

    2 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

    What the Dutch Empire Reveals About America Today

    How do you fight a superpower you can’t afford to stop trading with? The Dutch faced that problem at the start of the 17th century in their war against Spain, and their answer was the Dutch West India Company, a business built to wage war. Alexander Bick, a historian who served on the National Security Council under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, joins School of War to discuss his new book, Minutes of Empire. He explains how the company helped secure Dutch independence and why the Dutch kept trading with Spain while fighting it, taxing certain exports to “plow that money back into the…

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