Milstack Saturday

29 November 2025

Édouard Detaille Napoleon and Troops (1902)

Milstack Saturday showcases the best articles on military subjects I read on Substack in the past week.

Donald Vandergriff

• offers advice to Secretary Hegseth on the subject of Venezuela

• critiques NATO training programs for Ukrainian veterans

• argues that the US Marine Corps has lost the ability to win battles like Second Fallujah

Monique Taylor provides a précis of Omar Bradley’s evaluation of airborne operations in the Second World War. (Strange to say, General Bradley declined to make any mention, whatsoever, of gliders.)

Anton Howes celebrates the granting of a Nobel price to an economic historian. (What’s that got to do with military matters? Well … among other things, the work of said historian, Joel Mokyr, provides important context for the study of the wars of Napoleon.)

Armed Historian characterizes the modern state as ‘vast power tethered to small minds’. (Methinks he’s right about the minds.)

JG, of Modern Warfare, describes the measures, both old (SAMS)and new (helicopter gunships), that Russia uses to defend its airspace against long-range drones.

Sean Harper reminds us that ‘no sensor works perfectly on its own’.