School of War Ep 228: Brad Bowman and Ryan Brobst on “Axis” Military Cooperation
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Sep 7, 2025 Brad Bowman and Ryan Brobst, experts in national security and military affairs from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, delve into the growing military cooperation among China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. They discuss the implications of these alliances for U.S. interests and explore the complexities of military procurement, especially the delays in delivering crucial weapon systems like the Harpoon missile to Taiwan. The conversation also highlights lessons from Ukraine's military innovations and the urgent need for a strategy shift in defense production.
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Ukraine Facing Multi-Source Support For Russia
- Ukraine is effectively facing support from all three other axis members in different forms, including munitions, missiles, and personnel.
- Those transfers have measurably increased Russian capacity and resilience on the battlefield.
Economic Size Doesn't Guarantee Battlefield Success
- U.S. plus allied economic and military power is large, but battlefield results are not guaranteed by GDP advantage.
- Combat performance depends on training, alliances' participation, and how adversaries learn from each other.
Base Decisions On Empirical Delivery Analysis
- Assess overlapping weapons empirically before reallocating support; FDD found no >1 year delays attributable to Ukraine for 25 systems.
- But 72% of those systems still rated yellow or red, demanding corrective action.
