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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a national security correspondent at The Washington Times, a senior member of its Threat Status team, and the host and producer of the award-winning Threat Status Podcast. Ben covers national security, foreign policy, military affairs, the defense industry and the rapidly evolving landscape of military technology.
A Pennsylvania native, he joined The Washington Times in 2011 after serving as a political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa. Over the course of his career, Ben has covered the White House, Congress, and four presidential campaigns.
His reporting has earned recognition from some of journalism's most respected organizations, including the Virginia Press Association and the Society of Professional Journalists' Washington, D.C. Chapter, among other honors.
Ben has interviewed heads of state, chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, senior military commanders, cabinet secretaries, senior government officials, and the CEOs of many of the nation's largest and most influential defense companies.
Ben is a frequent guest on broadcast media, with appearances on C-SPAN, the Sirius XM POTUS channel, and other outlets.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

In this image taken Tuesday, June 16, 2020, and released by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, one of two Russian Tu-95 bombers is escorted off the coast of Alaska by a U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter. NORAD planes escorted the two Russian Tu-142s during their four-hour flight. Military officials say the Russian jets never left international airspace but did come within 50 miles of Alaskas northern coast at one point. (North American Aerospace Defense Command via AP)

U.S. F-22 fighter jets intercept Russian Tu-142 planes near Alaska

U.S. fighter jets on Saturday again intercepted Russian planes that entered the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone and stayed there for eight hours, Pentagon officials said, with the Russian reconnaissance aircraft coming within 65 miles of Alaska.

June 28, 2020
Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaks by video teleconference from U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday, May 7, 2020, with military medical specialists at civilian hospitals in New York and Connecticut. (AP Photo/Robert Burns)

Mark Esper rolls out plan to increase diversity in military

The Defense Department on Thursday rolled out a new initiative to end discrimination and promote equality in the military, pledging to take tangible steps to ensure all men and women in the armed forces are given a fair shot to succeed and climb the ranks

June 18, 2020
Gargash

UAE minister Anwar Gargash: Region’s dangers demand ‘activist’ stance

The hard realities of the modern Middle East requires a more "activist" foreign policy approach to contain hostile forces, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said Wednesday as he laid out why his small nation has played an outsized role in conflicts in Libya and Yemen and why the UAE intends to be a regional force.

June 17, 2020
A pair of F-15C Eagles from the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base, in Japan, take off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, Alaska, Tuesday, June 23, 2015, while participating in Northern Edge, a joint training exercise. (Bill Roth/Alaska Dispatch News via AP) ** FILE **

U.S. Air Force plane crashes into North Sea

Searchers have discovered the body of a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who went down early Monday in the North Sea. The pilot was discovered after the wreckage of the F-15C Eagle was located.

June 15, 2020
This Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006 file photo shows members of Alpha Company of the 244th Quartermasters battalion march to the physical fitness track at the Ft. Lee Army base in Ft. Lee, Va. As much as President Donald Trump enjoys talking about winning and winners, the Confederate generals he vows will not have their names removed from U.S. military bases were not only on the losing side of rebellion against the United States, some weren't even considered good generals. Or even good men. The 10 generals include some who made costly battlefield blunders; others mistreated captured Union soldiers, some were slaveholders, and one was linked to the Ku Klux Klan after the war. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Military racism review sets up clash with Donald Trump

The U.S. military may have avoided full-scale deployments to American cities, but the recent death of George Floyd has sparked a much deeper debate about race, discrimination and inequality within the ranks and has forced the Pentagon to face head-on its own checkered past.

June 14, 2020
Cindy McCain, wife of late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., with Secretary of Defense James Mattis, left, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, depart after laying a ceremonial wreath honoring all whose lives were lost during the Vietnam War at at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018. (Mary F. Calvert/Pool photo via AP)

James Mattis, John Kelly attacks on Trump drag military into partisan politics

In an extraordinary break with tradition, a slew of recently servicing senior brass -- capped by retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, Mr. Trump's ill-starred first secretary of defense -- have gone public with their criticisms of the commander in chief and their concerns he is dragging the military into partisan waters.

June 4, 2020
Then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis urged North Korea to "stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons," warning that continued efforts by Pyongyang would force a U.S. response "that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

James Mattis shreds Donald Trump: ‘Three years without mature leadership’

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis -- a member of a group President Trump once described as "my generals" -- eviscerated the commander in chief Wednesday, saying the U.S. has suffered through "three years without mature leadership" and is dealing with a president who actively tries to divide the American people.

June 3, 2020