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.
Military Hardware: Tanks, Bombers, Submarines and More
Key Points – Japan’s Taigei-class diesel-electric attack submarines, designed to counter Chinese or North Korean undersea threats, are remarkably advanced despite conventional propulsion. -A...
Key Points – The Soviet Mikoyan MiG-31 “Foxhound,” developed as a sophisticated successor to the MiG-25, became a formidable long-range interceptor designed to counter...
Key Points –The F-35 Lightning II’s combat radius of approximately 670 nautical miles, while not critically short, is increasingly viewed as a limitation, especially...
Key Points – China’s Shenyang J-35A stealth fighter, a significantly revamped evolution of the earlier underpowered FC-31 export concept (first seen 2014), has been...
Key Points – The US Navy’s CVV (Medium Aircraft Carrier) concept, proposed in the 1970s under Admiral Zumwalt, aimed for a smaller, conventionally powered,...
Key Points – The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), a joint UK-Italy-Japan venture, is developing a sixth-generation fighter, likely merging Britain’s Tempest and Japan’s...