Reuben F. Johnson

Reuben Johnson

Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor's degree from DePauw University and a master's degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.

Putin in June 2016 Image Credit Russian Federation Photo

Military Hardware: Tanks, Bombers, Submarines and More

Passengers Are Trapped for Hours on Parked Planes in Moscow’s Summer Heat — No Water, No Air, and No Flights Going Anywhere

Ukraine hit Moscow with drones for a second straight day Monday, in what Russia's own figures make one of the war's largest drone assaults....

Reuben JohnsonJuly 13, 2026

Putin In Airplane Simulator Russian Government Photo

The Treaty

Putin Just Added 27 Drone Pilots to His Last Line of Bodyguards — the Kremlin Fears Assassination by Its Own Elite

Putin has expanded his innermost bodyguard ring to 812 — reportedly adding a detachment of 27 drone pilots — after a Kremlin alert assessed...

Reuben JohnsonJuly 10, 2026

Ukraine War

Russia Decided Its Biggest Refinery Didn’t Need Defending — Then Ukraine’s Drones Arrived and One Fireball Followed Another

Ukraine's strike on Omsk succeeded because Russia left its largest refinery almost completely undefended — a fatal assumption, with the drones' true endurance range...

Reuben JohnsonJuly 10, 2026

Ukraine War

Russians Are Quietly Asking Their Own Search Engine When Putin’s War Will End — and the Searches Just Hit an All-Time High

Putin dismissed Russia's fuel crisis as an enemy psy-op — but Yandex searches asking when the war will end just hit an all-time high....

Reuben JohnsonJuly 10, 2026

The Army test fires a Patriot missile in a recent test. The Patriot missile system is a ground-based, mobile missile defense interceptor deployed by the United States to detect, track and engage unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles, and short-range and tactical ballistic missiles. Patriot, along with other missile defense systems, are included in the Army Air and Missile Defense 2028, which provides the Army’s overarching vision for the AMD force, describes how the AMD force is postured to support the Army and joint forces, and articulates what must be accomplished to achieve the 2028 desired end state of preventing and defeating adversary air and missile attacks through a combination of deterrence, active and passive defense, and support to attack operations. (U.S. Army photo)

Military Hardware: Tanks, Bombers, Submarines and More

Trump Just Promised Ukraine a License to Build Patriot Missiles — Without Telling the Company That Makes Them First

Russia's July 5-6 barrage on Kyiv saw 419 drones and missiles launched — and not one of the 29 ballistic and anti-ship weapons was...

Reuben JohnsonJuly 10, 2026

Dollars and Sense

Ukraine Just Targeted More Ships in 48 Hours Than at Any Point in the War — All to Starve Crimea of Fuel

Ukraine's drone forces struck some 35 Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov over four days — the most intense targeting of shipping since...

Reuben JohnsonJuly 10, 2026

Putin At a Conference Creative Commons Photo

Ukraine War

Even Russia’s Rigged Polls Can’t Hide It Anymore: Putin’s Approval Just Sank to Its Lowest Point of the Entire War

Speaking to the London Daily Telegraph, Czech President Petr Pavel says that a clock of sorts is ticking, with Ukraine having two months to...

Reuben JohnsonJuly 10, 2026

Putin in December of 2020 Creative Commons Photo

Ukraine War

‘There Is No Major Russian Oil Refinery Left That Has Not Been Struck’: Zelenskyy Just Told NATO How Ukraine Turned the Tide

On the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Zelenskyy signed "Drone Deal" cooperation pacts with Estonia and the Netherlands, with Canada and Finland...

Reuben JohnsonJuly 8, 2026

A French air force Dassault Rafale refuels from a U.S. Air Force KC-10 Extender from the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron before conducting an aerial refuel during a Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve mission March 20, 2017. The KC-10 provides aerial refueling capabilities for U.S. and coalition aircraft as they support Iraqi Security Forces and partnered forces as they work to liberate territory under the control of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua A. Hoskins)

Dollars and Sense

Ukraine Just Ordered Fighter Jets From Sweden and France — and None From America: Why the U.S. Is Quietly Losing NATO’s Arms Market

As NATO leaders gathered in Ankara, the alliance unveiled tens of billions in new defense projects — over $40 billion for counter-drones, an "Amazon-style"...

Reuben JohnsonJuly 8, 2026

National Security Journal

Reuben Johnson

Military Hardware: Tanks, Bombers, Submarines and More

Passengers Are Trapped for Hours on Parked Planes in Moscow’s Summer Heat — No Water, No Air, and No Flights Going Anywhere

The Treaty

Putin Just Added 27 Drone Pilots to His Last Line of Bodyguards — the Kremlin Fears Assassination by Its Own Elite

Ukraine War

Russia Decided Its Biggest Refinery Didn’t Need Defending — Then Ukraine’s Drones Arrived and One Fireball Followed Another

Ukraine War

Russians Are Quietly Asking Their Own Search Engine When Putin’s War Will End — and the Searches Just Hit an All-Time High

Military Hardware: Tanks, Bombers, Submarines and More

Trump Just Promised Ukraine a License to Build Patriot Missiles — Without Telling the Company That Makes Them First

Dollars and Sense

Ukraine Just Targeted More Ships in 48 Hours Than at Any Point in the War — All to Starve Crimea of Fuel

Ukraine War

Even Russia’s Rigged Polls Can’t Hide It Anymore: Putin’s Approval Just Sank to Its Lowest Point of the Entire War

Ukraine War

‘There Is No Major Russian Oil Refinery Left That Has Not Been Struck’: Zelenskyy Just Told NATO How Ukraine Turned the Tide

Dollars and Sense

Ukraine Just Ordered Fighter Jets From Sweden and France — and None From America: Why the U.S. Is Quietly Losing NATO’s Arms Market

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