Defense
Why the Landing Craft Air Cushion is Crucial to the U.S. Marines’ Amphibious Operations (From The National Interest) For the foreseeable future, in order to get significant forces from ship-to-shore the Marine Corps will rely on the Navy’s fleet of specialized vessels, the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC). First deployed in 1984, the LCAC revolutionized amphibious op ...
A-29 Super Tucano – A Force Multiplier in COIN (From RealClearDefense) The U.S. Air Force recognized the need to rebuild an Afghan Air Force (AAF) and provide it with a Light Air Support (LAS) aircraft suited to both that country’s operational environment and its limited financial, technical and human resources. The answe ...
A Dozen Reasons Why Small Aircraft Carriers Don’t Make Much Sense (from Forbes) As the Navy begins transitioning from its Nimitz-class aircraft carriers to the more capable Ford class, some critics are reviving an old debate about the supposed virtues of smaller carriers. Like Nimitz, the Ford class displaces about 100,000 tons o ...
Air Force’s New ICBM Plans Could Damage Defense Industrial Base (From RealClearDefense) The United States is not currently producing and deploying any new strategic nuclear delivery systems. There are programs in development for a new bomber, the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) to replace the Minuteman ICBM and a new ballistic mis ...
Back On A War Footing: Five Capabilities The Army Must Have In A Decade (From Army Magazine) The U.S. Army is rethinking its warfighting priorities in light of new threats posed by Russia and other potential near-peer enemies. There isn't much that the service can do in the near term to alter the balance of forces in key theaters other than t ...
ISIS’ Terrorist Revolution: Sophisticated Drone Operations Pose Grave Threat to American Forces (From The National Interest) One reason it has proven so difficult to defeat terrorist organizations such as ISIS, al Qaeda and the Taliban is that they are free of the burden imposed by a stultifying acquisition bureaucracy. Terrorist organizations don’t have military academies, ...
What A Single North Korean Nuclear Warhead Could Do To Los Angeles (From Forbes) As North Korea rapidly completes assembling all the pieces of a long-range nuclear arsenal capable of striking America, Los Angeles stands out as an obvious target. Pyongyang wants to hold high-value U.S. assets at risk to deter efforts at removing th ...
BAE Systems, Inc. Plays Unique, Critical Role In Sustaining U.S. Nuclear Deterrent (From Forbes) The U.S. subsidiary of Europe's biggest defense contractor has carved out a unique niche in sustaining the long-range ballistic missiles of the U.S. Air Force and Navy -- the parts of the nuclear "triad" where over 90% of the warheads in the strategic ...
Trump’s Saudi Arms Deal – A Historical Boost for U.S. Industry (From RealClearDefense) President Trump’s commitment to support Saudi Arabia through arms sales is not only an investment in U.S.-Saudi relations but also in the American defense industrial base. Providing Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to the Kingdom sustains manufacturing job ...
The U.S. Army’s All-But Forgotten Vehicle Fleet (From RealClearDefense) The U.S. Army possesses many vehicles. There are fleets of main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, engineering support vehicles, mobile artillery, mine-protected vehicles, prime movers and trucks, light tactical vehic ...