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Lorraine Schwarz used a website instead of a real estate agent to sell her Colorado condo. Ridley Lorraine Schwarz used a non-traditional platform for condo sales and saved money on agent commissions. Schwarz has bought and sold several homes and felt she could do most of the work herself. By not using a traditional agent, she saved about $16,000 in commission fees. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lorraine Schwarz, 70, a retiree who sold her two-bedroom condo in Westminster, Colorado, in October 2025 using Ridley, an AI-powered online platform, rather than a traditional agent. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I've bought and sold real estate throughout my life. My first real estate purchase was a co-op in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I sold that, then bought and sold two houses in Westchester, New York. Then I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, renovated that house, sold it, moved to Colorado to build a house, and then moved into a condo. Through all that, I hated paying real estate commissions. I think I have a fairly good sense of how to price real estate, having bought and sold real estate, and understanding the way comps are used. So I wasn't intimidated by the process at all, to be honest. I've owned my condo in Westminster, Colorado, for about seven or eight years. Schwarz has bought and sold several properties over the course of her lifetime. Ridley I bought it after I got a divorce, and it wasn't going to be a permanent home. I found a brand new development where I could build a house that was perfectly set up for me as I age, because it's all on one level. There was an article that came out about Ridley and the founder, Mike Chambers, and his experience in Boulder. Ridley is an AI-powered platform that helps homeowners sell their homes without paying traditional real estate commissions. As soon as I read it, I went, "Oh my God, this is brilliant. This is exactly what I've been saying all along." So I became a fan of Ridley even before I had decided to sell my condo. When it was time to sell my condo, I needed a platform that could list it on the MLS, the database that real estate agents use to market properties. I knew that if I were on the MLS, it would appear on platforms like Zillow and Redfin, which I believed would do most of the work of attracting buyers. The technology in real estate hasn't caught up yet I come from the finance industry, where the cost of transactions has come down so dramatically. It seems to me that real estate is probably the biggest transaction that we still go through in our lives, where technology and competition have not brought down commissions as much as I think they should have. Schwarz believes real estate transactions have yet to catch up to the technology of the times. Ridley The internet has changed how you look for a house. It's made shopping and looking for a house much, much easier. You don't need to rely on a real estate agent to drive you around all day long just to be able to look at something. You can look at a million houses online, narrow it down, and go, "Oh yeah, OK, I want to go and see this house." There are lots of people, like me, who have been around the block and done this enough to know that we can handle this. I didn't need the extra help selling my home, but other people still might I knew that I needed to get my place in front of as many eyeballs as possible. As far as pricing was concerned, I was already extremely comfortable with what my place was worth. I had the advantage of being the president of our HOA, and I lived in a complex with 64 units. I knew every unit that had sold and what it sold for. I knew what was on the market currently, so I knew how to price my condo. Ridley's pricing was pretty much spot on. It was exactly what I thought. At the time, I was already under contract to buy this new house that was being built. So I was not trying to get cute with pricing because I didn't want to wait two to three months for a sale. I knew how to price my unit so it would get people in the door; I was dead on, and Ridley's pricing basically confirmed it. I went live with that listing on a Wednesday morning, the first buyers came through that day, and I had a full-price offer of $425,000 that night. She was confident in selling her home but needed a little help getting seen. Ridley Ridley really walks you through all the questions you need to answer to generate a listing. Some of the terminology gets a little technical, and a Ridley agent was able to answer a couple of questions I had in terms of just how the real estate industry wants certain things checked off before you get on the MLS. For the most part, though, I did 99% of it myself. I also used ChatGPT to help write the listing. If I had done the traditional buyer-and-seller agent model and paid a 5% commission, my commission costs would've been $21,250. With Ridley, in total, I paid about $5,000 with the cost of the AI-powered service along with staging, photos, and all that. [Editor's note: Schwarz paid $2,999 for Ridley's pro plan, which now costs $3,999.] If you want to add on having an agent hold your hand a little bit, you can pay for that service, which I did. It was good that I didn't have to communicate directly with the buyers — the agent acted as the intermediary — so it worked out having somebody in the middle. But in retrospect, I probably could have done without that, too. Now, that's not to say that first-time homebuyers won't want to use a real estate agent because a lot of people just aren't comfortable or familiar enough with the process, and don't feel capable themselves of doing it. My daughter and son-in-law just bought a house, and they worked with a real estate agent. They're new to this. They didn't know how to do any of this, and they certainly weren't going to ask Mom. While Ridley was the right choice for her, she thinks people will still use real estate agents. Ridley In the investing world, you have lots of different options. In the real estate world, up until now, you have not really had any options. It's always been that you have to use a real estate agent. It makes sense given the technology that is out there. It makes sense given how many people have already bought and sold real estate over the course of their lifetime. You feel like, "I kind of know how to do this." Read the original article on Business Insider

The author (not pictured) tells her sons about her failures. Maskot/Getty Images/Maskot I used to tell my kids my success stories to try to motivate them. I realized it wasn't helping — they were comparing themselves to me. When I started telling them about my failures, they saw that one bad outcome isn't the end. For a long time, I thought I was doing what parents are supposed to do. Whenever one of my sons was struggling with school or feeling discouraged about not mastering a new skill, I'd reach into my personal archive of accomplishments for a helpful story. I'd tell them about getting inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. I'd mention becoming editor of the school newspaper. I'd share examples of goals I'd worked hard for and eventually achieved. In my mind, these stories were encouraging, evidence that effort pays off and that challenges can be overcome. My kids, however, seemed to hear something entirely different. "I'm not as smart as you." "That's not something I'm good at." I finally understood that my success stories weren't landing the way I intended. What I saw as reassurance sounded like a comparison. They were hearing the polished happy-ever-after rather than the years of work, uncertainty, and even luck behind my accomplishments. They were comparing their messy middle to my finished product — and it was my fault for not giving them the full story. I started telling them about times I'd failed, and everything changed Then one night, I told them about the time I got a 10 on a physics test. Not 10 points off — 10 out of one hundred. My physics teacher joked that at least he knew I hadn't cheated off my friend sitting next to me, who had gotten 100. "Nancy did 10 times better than you," he said, when he handed me my test. It's a quote that sticks in my head decades later — and one that I shared with my teenagers. They thought it was hysterical. That story was followed by another favorite: the driver's education instructor who screamed that I was the worst driver he'd ever taught. Sure, I'd just taken out three orange cones and created my own path around the blacktop, but it was still mortifying at the time. Today, it's family folklore. The more embarrassing the story, the more my teens seem to enjoy it. They will sit through an account of one of my teenage humiliations with a level of engagement I never get when discussing my achievements. They even ask follow-up questions. "What did you do?" "How did you get out of it?" They want details about how their seemingly put-together mom handled the worst embarrassments of my life. And somewhere in there, I've realized they're getting something from these embarrassing anecdotes that my success stories never provided: perspective. They need to see that every failure isn't the end Teenagers today are growing up in a world where mistakes often feel permanent. Every awkward moment can be photographed, recorded, shared, and replayed. Academic pressure starts earlier, and the college admissions process feels more competitive. Social media provides an endless stream of people appearing to do everything better than you. I remember feeling that way, too. The difference is that now, with decades of perspective, I know how many of the things that once felt catastrophic turned out to be completely survivable. That failed physics test didn't determine the course of my life. The driver's ed disaster didn't prevent me from getting my license. The embarrassments that kept me awake at night as a teenager have become funny stories I now tell over dinner. And when I share those moments with my sons, I'm offering evidence that failure is a normal part of being human. Looking back has also had an unexpected effect on me. As I tell these stories, I'm often struck by how much fear I carried when I was their age, even without all of the added pressures of social media. I was convinced that every mistake carried enormous weight because I had nothing to compare it to. The idea of something going on my "permanent record" was so ingrained in me by well-meaning adults that I felt like I had to be perfect at everything for it to count. And if I'm being honest, some of that fear followed me into parenthood. My sons don't need me to be a flawless example of success. They don't need a carefully edited version of my life where every challenge led neatly to an accomplishment. They certainly don't need another person suggesting that achievement is the measure of their worth. What they seem to appreciate is hearing that I've messed up, felt embarrassed, failed — big time — and survived. Maybe that's because teenagers are already carrying enough pressure to get everything right. Or maybe it's because failure stories have something success stories often lack: room for them to recognize themselves. After all, most of us have bombed a test, made a bad decision, embarrassed ourselves, or fallen short of a goal. Those experiences are universal. And the real happy ending is that life kept going. That bad grade, embarrassing moment, or failed attempt doesn't become the entire story. It's just a chapter. And sometimes, years later, it's the funniest one. Read the original article on Business Insider

Wall Street Journal: Ajinomoto says it can meet demand through 2030 for ABF, a key material for advanced chipmaking substrates, and plans to expand capacity instead of hiking prices  —  The company is expanding its capacity for Ajinomoto Build-up Film, with production expected to begin in 2032

The author pivoted her career by taking an unpaid internship in her 30s. Courtesy of Jackie Garcia-Morales I quit my job and tried to find a new position, but I ended up accepting an unpaid internship. At 31, I was the oldest intern in the office, but I admired my younger coworkers. Tapping into the intern mindset, I set up 80+ networking calls and landed my dream job. In April 2025, I sat contentedly at my full-time job as a publishing associate — until I got a foreboding feeling I couldn't shake. One minute, I was joyfully dealing with Netflix celebrities. Next, my instincts were screaming that something was wrong. I couldn't explain it, but the feeling haunted me until I did something reckless. I quit my job. I put in my resignation, and in the morning, that feeling of doubt was gone. I was shell-shocked. "Did I really just do that?" Amid the disbelief, a headline announced shortly after that my former company was closing. It should have felt validating. But the reality was catastrophic. Yes, my instincts were right! Nevertheless, I was unemployed in a highly competitive industry. And so, I joined the ranks of job seekers in search of work. The broken job market I was hopeful until I learned people were applying to hundreds of roles without hearing back. The job market was frozen, and ghost jobs were on the rise. It became clear that the traditional hiring framework was broken. With the traditional path unavailable, I had one remaining option: pull a Robert Frost and take the road less traveled. But I had no idea how. I reluctantly toggled to the "internships" button on a job board. Sure enough, an unpaid internship was open in the sector — book publishing — I hoped to build my career. Without overthinking it, I applied. To my surprise, I got an answer. An assignment and two interviews later, the director of a literary agency asked me searchingly, "Do you really want to be here?" I did. Not because I thought becoming an intern was glamorous, but because I longed to be back in a space where a community was invested in collective success. So, at 31 years old, I became an intern. I had to rely on freelance gigs and seasonal jobs to make ends meet. 30 is the new 20 Being an intern was humbling. There were moments when the age gap hit me hard, sitting at the table with people 11 years my junior. But I was in awe of them. They were emotionally open. They asked questions without embarrassment. They spoke honestly about stress, uncertainty, and hopes. Listening to them at the agency, I discovered how guarded I had become as an adult navigating corporate environments. Witnessing their mindset changed me. I wanted that energy. But I was unsure if I had room for it. As much as I wanted to be freely curious — inquire, seek mentorship — I didn't have time. At the internship's end, I couldn't simply return to class like my intern cohorts. I needed a real job, and the truth persisted: I had gone backwards, hadn't I? Tapping into the beginner's mind I was intimidated by auto-rejections and the AI bots. What if HR choked at my "intern" stamp? After all, I wasn't chasing entry-level roles; I was seeking roles commensurate with my experience. It turns out, I used what my younger fellow interns taught me and became more open. I decided to stop expecting judgement, transform curiosity into fearlessness, and job-seek beyond conventional avenues. And I did that by having conversations. I used my intern status to lead outreach. I contacted 145 people working in roles I aspired to. Over approximately two months, I completed 80+ networking calls. People were genuinely interested in my background, my unusual career path, and my confident networking. The tables turned. Instead of them interviewing me, I was interviewing them. By the last stretch of my internship in 2026, I received multiple job offers. The wildest part? I never applied to any of them. People wanted to hire me because of my unique experience and demonstrated drive. I accepted a role as a literary agent with a nurturing, high-performing team. I have a happy new beginning. Jackie Garcia-Morales is an author, publicist, and literary agent based in New Jersey. Connect on Linkedin. Read the original article on Business Insider

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The author recently organized all her jewelry to preserve family memories. Here, she's wearing a pineapple necklace her mom got her in Hawaii. Courtesy of Jillian Pretzel When my grandma died, my cousins and I got to take some of her jewelry home. We didn't know the stories behind the pieces, and it inspired me to preserve memories for my kids. I bought plastic bags with white spaces on them and took the time to label my own jewelry. Last year, when my Grandma Annette died, my cousins and I got to pick out some of her jewelry to take home. I was glad to keep a few mementos of my grandmother, but I wished I knew the stories behind the necklaces and bracelets I'd grabbed. Which was her favorite? Were any of them a gift from Grandpa? Which had she held onto the longest? It made me realize that, one day, when my grown-up kids and grandkids sort through my jewelry, they'd probably have the same questions. They wouldn't know the story behind the bracelet my mom got me when I finished graduate school or the watch I got from my childhood neighbor, a kind old man I considered family. And I hated the idea of these memories being lost. So I came up with a system to preserve my memories, piece by piece. I got the idea from my late grandmother I have a lot of jewelry. Some "real," many plastic — most of them sentimental. There's the jewelry I wear regularly, all the stuff I acquired growing up, fun pieces from my mom's '80s collection, and more. At first, I thought about making a spreadsheet with photos of each piece and a message printed on the line beside it. But this seemed cold and technical. Next, I considered a handwritten paper to document the stories, but I worried it'd get lost. Then, a couple of months ago, I was going through an old jewelry box and found a little baggie. Inside was a bracelet with a heart charm, a set of earrings, and a handwritten note from Grandma Annette. On the paper, she explained that she wore the bracelet and earrings when she worked as a nurse, and wanted me to have them. The author's grandmother gave her a bracelet and a set of earrings in a plastic bag with a handwritten note. Courtesy of Jillian Pretzel I remember her mailing these to me when I was a kid, and I always stored the bracelet in the bag with the note. I knew, even then, that the memory was as important (or maybe more important) as the jewelry itself. Maybe I could do something similar with the rest of my jewelry. So, I ordered 3-by-4-inch clear plastic bags, selecting ones with small white rectangles on the outside so I could write directly on the bag rather than folding papers inside. Little by little, I put all my jewelry in bags and included any information or memories on the outside, addressing them to my kids. Some notes were simple, like: "Your dad gave me this bracelet for Christmas one year in college." Others were longer, like: "My mom got me this pineapple necklace from the hotel gift shop when she took me to Hawaii in second grade. I thought it was so pretty and wore it to school all the time. My clearest memory from that trip is hiking an old volcano together." It took weeks to go through it all, bagging a few rings during the kids' nap times or as I waited for water to boil. Sometimes I'd find a piece I really loved, and wear it around the house. My 5-year-old "helped" too, drawing little pictures on spare baggies and trying on the more sparkly bracelets and rings. The author took time to write down memories attached to jewelry on plastic bags so they wouldn't be lost over time. Courtesy of Jillian Pretzel Not every piece is an heirloom Of course, not every piece of jewelry had a memory to go with it. Some I didn't even recognize. My mom helped identify some jewelry she'd given me when I was a kid and some brooches that came from her mom or grandma. But some pieces were a mystery even to her. So I labeled honestly. One set of clip-on earrings got the note: "I don't know where I got these, but I remember playing dress up with them when I was a kid." Meanwhile, some stuff didn't get a bag at all. There was a lot of jewelry I got in high school or college that I knew I wouldn't wear again. My daughters saved a few items from the discard pile, but I tossed a good number of mood rings and plastic bracelets. I was excited to preserve my memories, but I didn't need to keep every single memento. The author's method of preserving memories took time, but she says it was well worth it. Courtesy of Jillian Pretzel Storage is challenging, but it's worth it When I'd finished marking all the bags, I realized there was one clear downside to my method: jewelry boxes aren't designed to store little baggies. Only about a dozen bags fit in my favorite jewelry box, and even then, opening a box to a bunch of translucent plastic doesn't exactly inspire glamour. So I ended up picking several pieces I saw myself wearing on a daily basis, or for a fancy dinner, and put them in the little dish I keep by the bathroom sink. As for the rest of my collection, I thought about putting it all in a small dresser drawer or maybe a shoe box, but ended up choosing an Easter basket. Maybe it's unconventional, but the basket holds all my jewelry, it's light, it's pretty, and it fits nicely in my closet. It works great, at least until I find something more permanent. When, years ago, I first tried on the little heart bracelet Grandma Annette sent me, I thought it was pretty, and I was touched she thought of me. But now, when I think about its history, I love it even more. It feels like a family treasure, a little piece of history I'm proud to wear. I hope one day my kids will see my jewelry, read the stories, and find a few pieces that make them feel the same way. Read the original article on Business Insider

Sarah Ann Eller and her daughter live in her parents' garage apartment. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) Sarah Eller and her daughter moved into a garage apartment on her parents' property in April. She and her daughter are living in the one-bedroom space to save money. Eller said she's on track to pay off her student debt within a year thanks to the garage apartment. There are plenty of firsts when you move into a new home. The first meal you cook there. The first time you use your new shower. The first photos you hang on the walls. For Sarah Eller, there was one especially sweet first when she moved into her new home: the first time she tucked her 6-year-old daughter into her very own bed. "We've been sleeping together ever since she was a newborn, and she finally has her own bed," Eller told Business Insider. "She loves it so much." Eller and her daughter have their own beds after years of sharing because they moved into the garage apartment on Eller's parents' property. The small space is helping Eller pay off her student loan debt and increase her net worth. Sarah Eller has been living with her parents since she became a single mom. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) Eller, 27, is a registered nurse and a content creator. She moved from California to Arizona with her parents and her now-6-year-old daughter in 2020. "My dad retired, and California's prices are honestly just insane to live in, so he wanted to move out of that state," Eller said. Her parents intentionally bought a property with a detached garage, which they saw as a potential home for Eller and her two siblings, as she told Business Insider. It sits about 50 feet from her parents' mobile home. Eller decided to move in with her parents for additional support as a single mom, which she said has been a huge help. "My parents helped me out so much with childcare," she said. "It just helps us to feel safe as well, knowing they're there. And they're getting older, so I don't really see myself moving that far away from them." Eller lived in the garage apartment when they first arrived, but it wasn't in great shape. She found it didn't quite work for her as a new mom, so she moved into her parents' mobile home instead. Both of her siblings spent time living in the garage in the years since. In early 2026, Eller decided to give the garage apartment another shot. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) In 2025, while living with her parents, Eller decided to start saving money for a home of her own. She made progress, but it was difficult, as she also has student loan payments to make. "I was trying to save $50,000 in two years," she said. "I was doing that for at least three to four months. I could have kept doing it, but it just would have been very difficult. After saving around $1,000 each paycheck, we were left with no money, basically." "I couldn't see myself and my daughter having to endure that for two years," she added. "I feel like that's not sustainable." After a few months, Eller decided she would continue living with her parents for at least the next five years. She was going to keep saving money, but she wouldn't have to save at the same rate. Since she knew she would be there more permanently and her sister had recently moved out of the garage, Eller decided to renovate it as a home for herself and her daughter. "I was like, 'OK, I'm actually gonna do this, but this time I'm ready to do it in the right way and make it our own,'" she said. She and her parents started renovating the space at the end of February 2026, and it was ready by the end of April. One side of the structure is a true garage, while the other is set up as an apartment. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) Though the garage has an apartment, part of the building is used for storage. "I would say 75% of the infrastructure is a garage," Eller said. The apartment occupies about 600 square feet of the building. When you walk through a door from outside, you enter a living area. Eller didn't love the state of the windowless space before the renovation, with its concrete floors and worn walls. It also has a full-sized kitchen. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) The kitchen has plenty of cabinetry, a stove, an oven, and a full-sized refrigerator, which sits in a corner with an open pantry. There isn't a dishwasher, but there is space for a small dining table. Eller liked the kitchen space and the cabinetry, but she had the same problems with the flooring and walls in the kitchen as she did in the living room. The bedroom is big enough for two beds. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) The apartment has only one bedroom, but there's enough space for Eller and her daughter to have their own beds. Unlike the other rooms in the home, the garage has a large window that lets in natural light. There's also a small heater in the bedroom, while a swamp cooler keeps the space from getting too hot in the warmer months. Eller and her family didn't do a ton of renovations, but they did make the space feel newer. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) Eller said she prioritized renovating the floors and walls to make the space feel fresh. "The only drastic things that we've done so far are paint the walls and then install flooring," she said. "I would like to do more, but those two alone were a lot of money." Eller said it cost around $5,000 to update the floors, give the walls a fresh coat of paint, and update some appliances in the space. "With the floors and the walls painted, it looks like a completely different place," she said. Eller's personal belongings make it feel fresh, too, like her dish towels, a storage caddy, and a toaster in the kitchen. The apartment also has a washer-dryer, so Eller doesn't have to walk to the main house to do laundry. Once Eller moved into the apartment, the living room also doubled as her office. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) Eller said the living room has become her favorite space in the apartment since she and her daughter moved in. She also added a desk so it doubles as her office, where she edits content. Eller said she wants to spend time decorating to make the apartment really feel like home, but it's already cozy. In addition, although the garage apartment is their space, Eller said she and her parents have an open-door policy with each other's homes. "My parents' house, I just straight up unlock it and go in if I need something, and likewise with them," she said, which is particularly helpful for her daughter. "They know that they could walk into my apartment at any single time." Eller and her daughter are loving having their own beds. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) Eller said her daughter didn't initially understand that the garage would be her new home permanently, saying they would live in the apartment for "a week" after moving in. Now that they've been living in it for a few weeks, she loves it, especially having her own bed. The bedroom required furnishing to make it suitable for the duo. Eller invested in new bed frames and a mattress for her daughter, using Facebook Marketplace whenever possible so the purchases didn't cost too much. She also bought their couch when they moved into the space. The small home is functioning well for them, with Eller describing it as "amazing." The only drawback is that they're on the lookout for bugs and even snakes after a run-in with one a few years back, but the garage has been critter-free so far. The garage is making Eller feel financially and emotionally secure. Courtesy of Sarah Eller (@itssarah.ann) Though she has her own space, Eller said she and her parents still see each other daily in some capacity. Still, she likes that she feels more ownership over the apartment. "I do feel more responsibility," she said. "I was kind of spoiled. My dad did my dishes for me, so now I have to do my own dishes. It gives me something to do. It feels like I'm contributing to the household." Eller also gives her parents $300 each month in rent and utilities, and she said the arrangement is already helping her save money. "I'm on track to hopefully pay off all my student debt within a year," Eller said. "Then I can start saving and investing more and really start building up my finances." "I'm pretty much negative net worth right now," she added. "I know that living here is definitely going to help." Eller said she had some concerns about what people might think of her living with her parents as a single mom when she first moved in with them in 2020, a feeling that's faded as she's seen the benefits of multigenerational living. "It kind of was embarrassing, I guess you could say, from societal standards," she said. "I feel like living with your parents is kind of frowned upon." "But this time around, I feel like I'm embracing it more, and I feel more confident in myself," she continued. "Honestly, I'm just really happy and fortunate that my parents gave us that place and that we're able to renovate it. I'm just proud of it now." Read the original article on Business Insider

The West's recent conflicts have allowed home countries to stay safe and removed from attacks. That's not guaranteed in the future. GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images NATO can no longer assume wars abroad won't reach home, a top commander said. The UK was once a "very secure rear area" during overseas wars, he said. Drones and missiles now put European cities at greater risk, he told Business Insider. In a serious near-peer conflict, Western countries can't count on their homelands remaining safe while their militaries fight overseas, a top NATO commander told Business Insider. Air threats are more numerous and can reach much farther than when the West last fought a major war against a similarly capable adversary, Sir John Stringer, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told Business Insider. Beyond traditional aircraft threats, powerful missiles and cheap long-range drones can now threaten places that once would have been considered safely in the rear. The West had at least 20 years of fighting counter-insurgency campaigns, Stringer said. For the UK, that meant "we deployed 2,000 or 3,000 miles off the UK, fought and then we'd come back to a very secure rear area called the United Kingdom." "Those days, sadly, are also gone." The warning is not simply that NATO homelands could be hit in a future war. Western militaries have long known that stronger adversaries could threaten cities, bases, ports, and infrastructure in a major conflict. NATO's problem now is that cheap long-range drones, missiles, sabotage, and mass air attacks mean the rear is no longer just theoretically vulnerable. Instead, it could be routinely contested, and the West may not have enough defenses to adequately protect everything, requiring tough choices. Now, Stringer said, it's a case of protecting "the continent of Europe." The West is used to dominating the skies in conflicts that it's in, but that may not be possible in future wars. DIRK WAEM/Belga/AFP via Getty Images The US and its allies have, since the end of the Cold War, largely fought wars in which they controlled the skies and their homelands remained far removed from the battlefield. But weapons, both cheap and expensive, can now strike much farther than when the West last faced that threat, Stringer warned. He said many longer-range weapons during the Cold War "had standoff ranges measured in the hundreds of kilometers or miles. We're now talking thousands of miles." And, he said, "that's not just expensive stuff launched off heavy bombers." It's now also cheap, uncrewed systems. Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion has demonstrated the risk to the West. The war has seen more drones used than in any previous conflict, and the long-range ones can be launched in the hundreds in a single night. Long-range missiles have also been launched at a scale the West has not had to face. The war is also showing how drone threats can emerge far from the front. Ukraine, for example, smuggled drones into Russia and launched them at airfields in an operation that it said hit 41 Russian warplanes. Operation Spiderweb caused an estimated $7 billion in damage. Current and former military officials have said the West must study that operation closely as a new type of tactic and threat. The new era of drone warfare has shown the West that areas that were once thought to be safe can be vulnerable. Scott Peterson/Getty Images Stringer's comments to Business Insider echo remarks he made at the UK's Royal United Services Institute in 2023. "If you are seeking to protect what you've got, those notions of 'home' and 'away' and safe rear areas, etc., are no longer there, if indeed they have been for many years now," Stringer said. Other Western officials have also warned that the old divide between battlefield and homeland is breaking down. US officials were sounding the alarm even before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Four years earlier, the National Defense Strategy said that "it is undeniable that the homeland is no longer a sanctuary." It said that "during conflict, attacks against our critical defense, government, and economic infrastructure must be anticipated." Russia's war in Ukraine has made those warnings harder to dismiss. Mark Rutte, NATO's secretary general, said last year that "The home front and the front line are now one and the same. War is no longer fought at a distance — our societies and militaries are in this together." "We will invest more in civil preparedness, so our societies are ready for the day we pray will never come. NATO works 24/7 to ensure that day never arrives." The UK government's National Security Strategy 2025 warned that "for the first time in many years, we have to actively prepare for the possibility of the UK homeland coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario." Some other NATO members, such as Sweden, have told their citizens to prepare for the possibility of attacks on home soil. Russia is the most immediate concern for NATO, but it is not the only long-range threat shaping Western planning. The US warns that China's growing arsenal of long-range weapons could directly threaten the US homeland, as well as US territories and bases closer to it. Stringer said threats are rising from many regions, and "NATO rightly talks about the threat posed to Europe around 360 degrees." NATO is investing heavily in air defenses. But there are production backlogs and other barriers to building enough interceptors, sensors, and launchers at the scale a major war would demand. Military officials, including in the US, say that the control of the air Western forces have long relied on in conflicts may simply not be possible in future wars. Stringer said that the new mass of cheap weaponry available to a range of threat actors means "the days of thinking that you can sit back and be reactive and engage every threat that comes at you using traditional means like fast jets and some surface-to-air missiles" are over. The problem is volume. If adversaries can fire more drones and missiles than defenders can affordably shoot down, Western countries may have to make hard choices about what gets protected — and what does not. Read the original article on Business Insider

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