Missile Systems & Air Defense Contributor
David Kowalski writes about missile systems, air defense networks, and the technology behind precision strike warfare. His work examines how offensive and defensive missile capabilities shape the balance of power between nations.
The FIM-92 Stinger helped win the Cold War by turning Afghan mujahideen into a credible anti-aircraft threat. By 2023, the United States almost ran out of them, because Raytheon stopped making them for 13 years, and the first 10 months of Ukraine support burned through the remaining stockpile.
Before a single bomb is dropped, electronic warfare has already blinded the enemy. How jammers, anti-radiation missiles, and deception turn integrated air defense networks into expensive collections of blind radar dishes.
The Huntsville Hypersonic Summit brings together the world's top missile engineers on April 28-29. From America's CPS deployment on Zumwalt to Russia's combat-tested Kinzhal to China's operational DF-17, here's where every major power actually stands in the Mach 5+ arms race heading into the summit.
According to the IDF, 5,400 anti-tank attacks have been stopped, with zero crew killed in a Trophy-equipped tank. Rafael's Trophy Active Protection System detects an incoming rocket or missile, calculates an intercept point, and fires a shotgun-like countermeasure, all in less than one-tenth of a second. Here is how the system works, why the U.S. Army is installing it on every M1 Abrams, and the one kind of round it cannot stop.
The MIM-104 Patriot is the only air defense system in the world with confirmed ballistic missile intercepts across three separate conflicts. From the controversial Desert Storm engagements to Ukraine's Kinzhal kills, here's how Patriot's combat record actually stacks up.
Russia sells reach. America sells precision. The S-400 and Patriot defend against the same threats using completely opposite approaches, and neither has proven the other wrong.
A Tomahawk cruise missile flies 1,000 miles and hits a specific window on a specific floor of a specific building. Here is how it works, from launch to impact, with every guidance method explained.
The Precision Strike Missile doubles HIMARS capacity, doubles the range of ATACMS, and is already in production. Here is how PrSM transforms Army long-range fires from tactical to strategic.
The AGM-158C LRASM can find and hit a warship without GPS, without communications, and without a human telling it which ship to attack. Built on the proven JASSM-ER airframe, this stealthy anti-ship missile represents America's answer to China's growing naval power, and its autonomous targeting changes everything about maritime warfare.
The AIM-260 JATM is the most important American weapon you've never seen a photo of. Developed to counter China's PL-15 long-range missile, it promises to restore the range advantage American fighters have held for decades, and it's so sensitive that even close allies had to wait years for export approval.
The FGM-148 Javelin weighs 49 pounds, costs $178,000 per missile, and can kill a $4 million main battle tank from 2,500 meters away. Its fire-and-forget infrared seeker, top-attack flight profile, and tandem warhead have made it the most feared anti-tank weapon on modern battlefields, and Ukraine proved it. Here's why it takes 32 months to build one.
THAAD intercepts ballistic missile warheads at altitudes above 150 kilometers, outside the atmosphere, using kinetic energy alone. No explosive warhead. No fragmentation. A 900-kilogram interceptor traveling at Mach 8 meets an incoming warhead at combined closing speeds above 15,000 mph, and the collision itself is the kill mechanism. In 18 flight tests, THAAD has never failed to intercept a target that reached it. In December 2024, it made its combat debut over Israel, destroying a Houthi ballistic missile, the first exoatmospheric combat intercept in history.
The NLAW weighs 12.5 kg, costs $40,000, and has destroyed more Russian tanks than any other Western weapon in Ukraine. Its unique PLOS guidance system makes it immune to every tank countermeasure, and its 100:1 cost ratio against modern MBTs is rewriting the economics of armored warfare.
The U.S. is pouring billions into quadrupling production of PrSM, THAAD, Tomahawk, and Patriot missiles. But the math between consumption rates and manufacturing capacity reveals a gap that money alone cannot close.
