Early Warning Blog
The Military Needs More Non-Lethal Capabilities One of the most important lessons of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is the danger posed by the excessive use of force not just for U.S. troops on the ground but to the overall strategy for defeating the insurgency. Collateral damage – the military euphemism for the killing of innocents – is one of the best ways of empowering
Succession Question: Who Follows Gates? With Pentagon insiders taking bets on when defense secretary Robert Gates will depart public service (see my posting of August 7), some observers have started to handicap the field of potential successors. It isn't a very big group. Some of the best candidates, like Bill Perry and Paul Kaminski, are too old to be interested. Some of
Army Struggles To Preserve Core Of FCS Program Although the Army has officially terminated its massive Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, the real situation is a bit more complicated. It still wants to build the System of Systems Common Operating Environment network that was to be the glue holding FCS together. It still wants to "spin out" new technologies like
Defense Insiders Debate Timing Of Gates Departure All the talk a few months back about President Obama and defense secretary Robert Gates doing a mind-meld that would result in Gates staying on for four years is gone. The prevailing view now is that Gates will leave relatively soon. A reporter who travels with Gates says he is signaling he will leave "after the next budget cycle,"
U.S. Military Needs Plan For Short-Range Rocket Threat The Times of London reported this week that the Hezbollah terrorist group has stockpiled 40,000 short-range rockets within range of Israel. Many of these are capable of hitting that country’s major urban centers. This report says that Hezbollah may even have rockets able to carry a 1,000 lb. warhead more than 125 miles.
Raytheon Could Win Big From Shipbuilding Plan The most frustrating experience Raytheon executives have had to deal with in recent years is the Navy's decision to kill its next-generation DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer after only three vessels. Raytheon won the competition to build the ship's electronic combat system, and by most accounts has done a good job. But the
Russian Sub Patrol Raises Serious Questions News outlets and web sites around the world yesterday reported the startling news that after a nearly twenty year hiatus a Russian attack submarine was conducting a combat patrol off the East Coast of the United States. During the last decades of the Cold War, Soviet submarines routinely prowled our shores trying to detect U.S.
QDR Notes Impact Of People Costs But Has No Solutions Quadrennial Defense Review insiders say all the participants understand that current trends in military pay and benefits are unsustainable, but no one has a solution. The basic problem is that the nation is trying to conduct big, protracted military operations with an all-volunteer force, and that problem is aggravated by seemingly
Longevity Of Missile Warning Satellites Unclear It is now nearly a year since the 23rd and last Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite failed in orbit. DSP-23 was the most advanced in a series of satellites designed to detect ballistic missile launches anywhere in the world using infrared sensors. A more capable replacement constellation called the Space Based Infrared System
Speed Up Deployment Of Aegis Missile Defense On July 30, the Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Navy conducted a successful test of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (Aegis BMDS). A Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IA intercepted a target simulating a short range ballistic missile. This is the 19th successful test since 2002 for an overall success rate of over