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L. Todd Wood

L. Todd Wood

L. Todd Wood, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, flew special operations helicopters supporting SEAL Team 6, Delta Force and others. After leaving the military, he pursued his other passion, finance, spending 18 years on Wall Street trading emerging market debt, and later, writing. The first of his many thrillers is "Currency." Todd is a contributor to Fox Business, Newsmax TV, Moscow Times, the New York Post, the National Review, Zero Hedge and others. For more information about L. Todd Wood, visit LToddWood.com.

Articles by L. Todd Wood

AIR FORCE, NAVY, MARINES - F-35 LIGHTNING II A family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole fighters undergoing final development and testing by the United States. The fifth generation combat aircraft is designed to perform ground attack, aerial reconnaissance, and air defense missions. The F-35 has three main models: the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, the F-35B short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant, and the F-35C carrier-based Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) variant. On 31 July 2015, the first squadron was declared ready for deployment after intensive testing by the United States. The F-35 is descended from the X-35, which was the winning design of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. It is being designed and built by an aerospace industry team led byLockheed Martin. Other major F-35 industry partners include Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney and BAE Systems. The F-35 took its first flight on 15 December 2006. The United States plans to buy 2,457 aircraft. The F-35 variants are intended to provide the bulk of the manned tactical airpower of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps over the coming decades. Deliveries of the F-35 for the U.S. military are scheduled to be completed in 2037.  (U.S. Navy photo courtesy Lockheed Martin/Released)

L. TODD WOOD: USAF to get more F-35s, maybe more F-22s

Congress and American defense officials are realizing that over the last few decades they committed the classic sin of militaries over the centuries. America trained and equipped to fight the last war, a special operations, low intensity conflict, incorrectly defining future threats to the United States.

March 9, 2016
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi speaks during a press conference held for the National People's Congress at the press center in Beijing, China, Tuesday, March 8, 2016 .Wang took a hard line Tuesday on the country's claims to virtually all the South China Sea, saying Beijing won't permit other nations to infringe on what it considers its sovereign rights in the strategically vital area. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

L. TODD WOOD: China could build global military bases

China has joined the United States and France in setting up a military logistics facility in Djibouti, on the horn of Africa. The stated justification by the Chinese government is to provide logistics for anti-piracy efforts in the area.

March 8, 2016
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Associated Press/File)

Vladimir Putin’s financial wisdom keeps Russia looking strong

Russian President Vladimir Putin lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union, a fact often noted by pundits when attempting to offer a glimpse into his view of the world. However, Mr. Putin also lived through the Russian default and financial collapse of 1998, and both events have seared certain lessons into his psyche.

March 3, 2016
A child's illustration shows an angel among flowers outside a subway station in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, March 1, 2016. Russian police on Monday arrested a woman who was seen waving the severed head of a small child outside a Moscow subway station. She is suspected of killing the child when it was in her care. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

L. TODD WOOD: Did Islamic State just strike Moscow? Muslim nanny beheads 4-year-old girl

A Muslim nanny from Uzbekistan beheaded her client, a 4-year-old Russian girl, while her mother and the remainder of the family was out. The nanny then took the child's head to a Moscow metro station and paraded the gruesome body part around, holding it high, before Moscow police took her into custody. News reports the woman was shouting, "I am a terrorist!" and "Allah Akbar," as she calmly walked around the metro station for up to an hour.

March 1, 2016
A Belgian police officer guards the building of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. Brussels is keeping its terror alert at the highest level. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

L. TODD WOOD: Belgian police find evidence that ISIS is looking to build dirty bomb

Belgian police, while searching the home of an Islamic State or ISIS suspect after the Paris bombings last year, found surveillance films taken of a senior researcher at a Belgian nuclear center, which produces a significant portion of the world's radioisotopes, and his family. Police suspect ISIS terrorists wanted to capture the man or his family members and hold them for ransom in exchange for nuclear materials.

February 29, 2016
U.S. Strategic Command commander Adm. Cecil Haney, left, speaks at a change of command ceremony in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 as Rear Adm. Frederick Roegge, center, and Rear Adm. Phillip Sawyer, right, listen. Roegge took over from Sawyer as the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's submarine force during the ceremony. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)

U.S. running out of time to modernize nuclear forces

The commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Cecil Haney, said Friday that America can no longer delay modernizing its strategic forces. With the U.S. Air Force extending the B-52's lifespan into the 90 year range, until 2040, this seems like an understatement.

February 27, 2016