Defense
Pentagon Budget Headed Below 3% Of GDP As Warfighting Edge Wanes (From Forbes)
At first blush, the Obama Administration’s 2016 budget request looks like good news for America’s military. The purchasing power of the Pentagon’s regular budget would rise 6% from this year’s level, and much of the increase would go to under-funded w ...
The Ghost Of The U.S. Military Future
How can we convince the Scrooges on Capitol Hill to end the madness that is sequestration, open their purses and provide some budget relief to the U.S. military? In testimony, op-eds, studies and articles in learned journals, everyone with an ounce of ...
What Downturn? Top Pentagon Contractors Turn In Strong Results Despite Soft Demand
With military spending having peaked in 2010 and current expenditures capped under the Budget Control Act, you’d think defense company earnings would be suffering by now. So far, though, the downturn seems to be taking a surprisingly small toll on pro ...
How Many Generals Does It Take To Indict The President’s Counterterrorism Strategy?
The answer is three when they happen to be among the best individuals ever to wear stars on their shoulders. In a trifecta of withering critiques, former Army Deputy Chief of Staff, General Jack Keane, former commander of U.S. Central Command, Marine C ...
The One Task Ashton Carter Can Accomplish As Secretary Of Defense
You have to admire the commitment to public service of individuals such as the incoming Secretary of Defense, Dr. Ashton Carter. To accept the task of managing the Department of Defense in the final two years of the Obama Administration is an example o ...
Terrorism 3.0 And The Need For 100 Percent Cargo Scanning
The threat from global terrorism is mutating and some might even argue advancing far faster than has the world’s response to it. The past year has witnessed the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State and its seizure of a large swathe of territory in ...
Chairman Thornberry Sets The Right Tone For HASC
In his out-of-the-blocks public statement as the newly minted chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), Representative Mac Thornberry (R-TX) charted a compelling path to the future for his committee. Most of the Washington buzz about how t ...
What If ISIS Wins? (From Forbes)
Conflict in the Middle East is so confusing that it’s easy to miss the big picture. What’s really happening is that one by one the Arab states in the region are failing, and the borders drawn by Europeans a century ago are beginning to dissolve. The ...
How A Traumatic Tanker Competition Will Shape The Air Force’s Selection Of Its Next Bomber (From Forbes)
Sometime later this year, the U.S. Air Force will announce which of two industry teams headed by Boeing and Northrop Grumman has been selected to build its next bomber. If you want to understand how it will go about making that decision, don’t look at ...
Crisis In Yemen Underscores Value Of ARG/MEU
If Yemen is an example of a successful U.S. counter-terrorism operation, as President Obama once claimed, what would failure look like? Not only is this country the quintessential failed state, it is the home base of one of the worst terrorist organiza ...