Wednesday NatSec Roundup

And when push comes to shove, I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love.

• Trump nominates guy with expertise in managing violent, paranoid tyrants to the NSA post. Seriously though, the selection is… not horrible, given the options? O’Brien has a reputation for competence, along with the sort of moderately hawkish views that were standard to the Bush/McCain/Romney GOP. “Not extraordinarily evil or incompetent” is a kind of standard, right? He’ll undoubtedly have his career and reputation destroyed by working with Trump.
• We have yet to bomb Iran, which is making Lindsey Graham grumpy.
• The Air Force is apparently serious about reviving a “Century Series” model of fighter development, in which we would get a new fighter every five years or so. It’s an interesting concept, although I suspect it’s unworkable in the existing technological environment.
• Charli has a nice piece at Cato Unbound about justice, war crimes, and hegemony.
• Interesting new stuff at National Security Archive on the US reaction to the first Soviet nuclear test. Something I’ve grown to appreciate over the last few years is the political impact of advances in the science of detecting nuclear explosions, which basically undergirds the entire field of modern arms control.
• The bomber that no one has ever truly loved may be getting some new weapons.