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December 2012
For most of its history, the U.S. Army was basically a constabulary force that mobilized for war. It is only since the end of World War Two that the nation required the U.S. military to be a standing force capable of going to war without extensive mobilization and industrial expansion. Constabulary
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Date:
12/21/2012
There used to be a small gravestone on Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts (my family's hometown) marking the final resting place of F.W. Jackson, who died on March 23, 1799 aged one year and seven days. The inscription read,
Heaven knows what man he might have been,
But we know he died
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Date:
12/21/2012
The Missile Defense Agency has signed a contract with Raytheon from January 2013 through May 2015 increasing funding for modification of the AN/TPY-2 radar, a critical part of the ballistic missile defense system, which is deployed on land and at sea. The contract is one facet of a broader effort
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Date:
12/21/2012
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, believed that all human beings have an urge to self-destruction that competes with their instinct to survive and prosper. The notion of an innate death-wish has fallen out of favor, but every once in a while you encounter people whose behavior is so
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Date:
12/20/2012
A few days ago, construction of the first DDG 1000, the USS Zumwalt, passed a milestone. Seemingly without effort, the skilled workers at Bath Iron Works shipyard raised a 1,000 ton deckhouse 95 feet in the air, slid the ship’s hull underneath and lowered this massive structure to its precise
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Date:
12/20/2012
For more than 60 years, the success of U.S. forces in conflicts large and small has been tied to the ability to deliver crushing blows on adversaries from the third dimension. Dominant airpower consistently provided the hammer which together with the anvil of powerful land and sea forces has formed
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Date:
12/19/2012
When the U.S. intelligence community forecasts future challenges facing the nation, it nearly always focuses on man-made problems. However, the quadrennial analysis of emerging threats and opportunities released earlier this month by the Director of National Intelligence contained something different:
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Date:
12/19/2012
President Obama approved the Phased Adaptive Approach (PAA) to European missile defense in 2009 in response to Iran’s persistent pursuit of a nuclear-weapons program. The PAA consists of four stages which unfold from 2011 through 2020 and has stirred concern in some nations.
Even though Iran
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Date:
12/18/2012
Will the unfolding of economic, technological and political trends in East Asia result in a 21st Century environment as chaotic and violent as that experienced by Europe and, as a consequence, the entire world in the last century? The current economic transformation of East Asia is similar in many
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Date:
12/17/2012
InsideDefense.com reported last week that Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall has directed a Defense Science Board study of future electronic-warfare challenges and opportunities. Electronic warfare (or EW) is the use of radio-frequency signals to achieve military effects. It can be as gross
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Date:
12/17/2012
The U.S. military faces two fundamental challenges. The first is the need to downsize in the face of increasing budgetary pressures. The second is the requirement to continue to conduct a broad array of missions around the world. While senior defense officials have begun to sound warnings that the
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Date:
12/14/2012
The Reuters news service reported this week that the price the government is paying for the most common version of the F-35 fighter in the latest low-rate production lot is 4% below the price in the previous production lot. The Air Force variant, representing two-thirds of the F-35s destined for
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Date:
12/14/2012
There was a time when Army acquisition meant buying 100,000 jeeps from Ford for $800 each. Things aren't that simple anymore. As warfighting technologies have become more sophisticated, so have the service's ideas for how to get the best deal. Today, new weapon programs typically unfold according
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Date:
12/13/2012
The last month has been an important one for the future of missile defenses. Over this period the world has been witness to the profound implications of the proliferation of ballistic missile and rocket technologies. The Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas conducted a massive bombardment of Israel
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Date:
12/13/2012
If the Department of Defense (DoD) were a private corporation it would be number one in the world in terms of its logistics system, supply chain and inventory, ahead of Walmart, Costco or McDonald’s. The Pentagon spends some $200 billion annually on logistics and maintenance alone and $400 billion
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Date:
12/12/2012
One of the most pervasive myths in modern economics is the belief that the free interplay of supply and demand will always produce optimum results. The reality is that government intervention in the functioning of so-called market forces often accelerates progress and prevents excesses. That isn't
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Date:
12/12/2012
America's fifth-biggest defense contractor isn't so easy for outsiders to understand. Although Northrop Grumman has many powerful technology franchises, some of the most important are secret, and others involve selling equipment to prime contractors rather than the government. However, it's pretty
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Date:
12/11/2012
Being a world military superpower carries with it a lot of benefits. Even during the Cold War, when the United States confronted the Soviet Union, there were a host of political and economic benefits associated with staring down the Russian Bear. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S.
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Date:
12/10/2012
If you think negotiations over the fiscal cliff are frustrating, then you should take a look at what the U.S. Trade Representative has been going through as he tries to convince Europe to get rid of illegal subsidies for commercial aircraft. For eight long years, the U.S. case has been slowly moving
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Date:
12/10/2012
Last month’s eight day extended firefight between the terrorist group Hamas and Israel was much more than just the most recent round of violence in a decades-long war between some Arabs and the Jewish state. It also marked a military revolution, one with profound implications for the future of conflict
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Date:
12/7/2012
Even as defense budgets and even overall federal discretionary spending decline, one area that is likely to remain fairly secure or even grow in the years to come is cyber security. The reason for this is simple: the threat to federal, state and local governments, the military, critical infrastructure,
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Date:
12/6/2012
With budget walls beginning to close in, America's military is looking for ways of meeting key warfighting requirements while spending less money. BAE Systems appears to have developed an effective way of achieving that goal in the area of precision attack by modifying unguided missiles carried
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Date:
12/5/2012
There is a common misconception in Washington that the House Republicans, battered after their election losses in November and fearing blame for allowing the nation to go off the fiscal cliff will cave before President Obama’s demands for tax rate and spending increases. At best, it is asserted,
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Date:
12/5/2012
The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) that the U.S. Army has been developing in concert with two allies demonstrated last week why backers believe it is superior to the service's existing Patriot system. In a proof-of-concept test at the White Sands Missile Range, a MEADS missile was deliberately
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Date:
12/4/2012
Senior defense officials like to claim that they see their relationship with private industry as a partnership. If this is true it is the most dysfunctional partnership since Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Outside the marriage counselor's office or The Jerry Springer Show it is rare
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Date:
12/4/2012
In the aftermath of Vietnam, the U.S. Army had to redefine its identity and build a new force structure. It found that identity at the Fulda Gap in a new doctrine for maneuver warfare designed to defeat a structured offensive against NATO by the massed conventional forces of the Warsaw Pact. The
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Date:
12/3/2012
In the four decades since Britain announced it would withdraw from its last military bases "East of Suez," America's joint force has become the main guarantor of security in the Persian Gulf. The growing U.S. role in the region was driven mainly be the need to assure access to the world's biggest
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Date:
12/3/2012