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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a National Security Correspondent for The Washington Times. His reporting is regularly featured in the daily Threat Status newsletter.
Previously, he covered energy and the environment, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, and also spent two years as a White House correspondent during the Obama administration.
Before coming to The Times in 2011, Ben worked as political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

A Ukrainian serviceman patrols a village near the frontline in the Donetsk oblast region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, June 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

West must aid Ukraine in ‘war of attrition’ with Russia, NATO chief says

The fight in Ukraine has become "a war of attrition" and Western aid for Kyiv against Russia is more vital than even, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday, offering a grim assessment of the bloody conflict as it nears the 100-day mark but also expressing deep solidarity with the embattled government in Kyiv.

June 2, 2022
In this undated photo released on Dec. 31. 2021, by Xinhua News Agency, a carrier-based J-15 fighter jet takes off from the Chinese Navy's Liaoning aircraft-carrier during open-sea combat training in waters from the Yellow Sea to the East Sea and West Pacific. China's Liaoning aircraft carrier group has embarked on a "realistic combat" training mission in the Western Pacific, the Chinese navy said Tuesday, May 3, 2022. (Hu Shanmin/Xinhua via AP)

U.S. eyes new generation military tools for a potential clash with China

The increasingly futuristic nature of war calls for a new generation of tools for the American military -- including heat-sensing cameras that can detect enemy machine gun nests miles away, cutting-edge inflatable boats that can be dropped from helicopters, and handheld underwater controllers capable of operating drones overhead.

May 26, 2022
Fort Bragg shown, Feb. 3, 2022, in Fort Bragg, N.C. An independent commission is recommending new names for nine Army posts that were commemorated Confederate officers. Among their recommendations: Fort Bragg would become Fort Liberty and Fort Gordon would become Fort Eisenhower. The recommendations are the latest step in a broader effort by the military to confront racial injustice. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)

Naming Commission identifies new names for Army posts named for Confederates

North Carolina's storied Fort Bragg Army base should be renamed "Fort Liberty," a congressional commission recommended Tuesday in a major step forward for the Pentagon's controversial two-year push to purge from the U.S. military any links to the Confederacy and its most high-profile generals.

May 24, 2022
Ukrainian sappers carry a Russian military drone backdropped by the Antonov An-225, world's biggest cargo aircraft destroyed by the Russian troops during recent fighting, at the Antonov airport in Hostomel, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

New age of war: Russia-Ukraine conflict reshapes battlefield

The century-old concept of moving huge armored convoys along open roads may be too dangerous on today's high-tech battlefields. Military supply lines are more vulnerable than ever before given the massive leaps in surveillance capabilities and precision weapons.

May 16, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during the Victory Day military parade marking the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II in Moscow, Russia, Monday, May 9, 2022. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

How Putin’s war in Ukraine has backfired spectacularly

ANALYSIS: Russia's invasion of Ukraine was designed to topple the government in Kyiv, fracture NATO and cement Moscow's status as a fearsome 21st-century military machine and an irreplaceable energy kingpin that could use its oil and gas reserves to bully Europe.

May 12, 2022
Servicemen of the militia from the Donetsk People's Republic walk past damaged apartment buildings near the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, the second-largest metallurgical enterprise in Ukraine, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Saturday, April 16, 2022. Mariupol, which is part of the industrial region in eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas, has been a key objective for Russia since the start of the Feb. 24 invasion. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

Ukrainian counteroffensive puts Russian supply lines at risk

Russia pounded the port cities of Mariupol and Odesa with missile strikes on Tuesday while Ukrainian forces launched a fierce counteroffensive to the north and reportedly pushed Russian troops back toward their border, as the two sides reach what U.S. intelligence officials say could be a prolonged "stalemate" that lasts for months or even years.

May 10, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during the Victory Day military parade marking the 77th anniversary of the end of World War II in Moscow, Russia, Monday, May 9, 2022. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Putin defends Ukraine war as Russia faces manpower shortages, global outrage

Russian President Vladimir Putin defended his war in Ukraine on Monday and likened the conflict to last century's fight against Nazi Germany, but the Kremlin faces serious questions about its ability to replenish its ranks as casualties mount and its wartime tactics face growing scrutiny at home and abroad.

May 9, 2022