Tobin Harshaw, Columnist

Vance and Hegseth’s Ship Is Almost on Fire

European and Asian partners are bulking up on defense because they can no longer trust the US.

March 30, 2025 at 12:00 PM UTC

Tobin Harshaw is a Bloomberg Opinion senior editor and columnist on national security and military affairs. Previously, he was deputy editor at the op-ed page of the New York Times and the newspaper’s letters editor.

Time to panic?
Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images North America

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One of the great things about having a four-star admiral, James Stavridis, among your stable of columnists is that you learn really cool things: That all Navy craft are called “ships” — except submarines, which are called “boats”! That the military commander of NATO is known by the acronym SACEUR! That the US has only one functioning heavy icebreaker, while Russia has around 40! Also, signal flags: