John Noonan

There's an old joke that goes "for sale–French rifle, never fired and only dropped once." It comes from an ugly old stereotype about the French military, one of white flags, hands thrust aloft, tails tucked in retreat. There's nothing wrong with good natured ribbing between military forces (just…

Of all the grim prospects of a Trump presidency, the thought of a reality TV star at the helm of America's nuclear arsenal should top the list. And not just any reality TV star. To wit, I could plausibly see Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild, or Bob Vila from This Old House…

Long-range ballistic missile capability has traditionally been a tough nut to crack, reserved for superpowers and the permanent members of the UN Security Council. Not only is the telemetry and rocket technology prohibitively difficult to master, but the process of building a nuclear weapon small…

"Georgia faces a stark choice between two mutually exclusive futures." That's how the Center for American Progress (CAP) kicked off a 70-plus page report on the divided former Soviet Union. Suffice to say, that sophomoric assessment is just the opening salvo in a report overflowing with…

It is, in a way, unsurprising that the president gave Bogota a brief nod during his State of the Union address. After all, In 2010 State of the Union address, the president claimed, “we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea and Panama and Colombia.” And,…

In a speech last November Buck McKeon, newly minted Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), said that a "defense budget in decline portends an America in decline." 

Marc Ambinder reports that Vice Admiral William McRaven will be promoted after a distinguished tenure as boss of Joint Special Operations Command. 

Senator Marco Rubio just returned from Afghanistan, where he was forward thinking enough to tote along a flip cam. This is a pretty savvy use of new media, and an admirably innovative way for the 21st century politician to message. 

The House Armed Services Committee responds to the Obama administration's demand for further Defense cuts today: 

For decades, one of the Pentagon's fundamental strategic doctrines has been sustaining a military that could successfully prosecute two wars simultaneously. But after the last Quadrennial Defense Review, a Pentagon force shaping study, Defense department planners largely backed off the combat…

Few defense acquisition tales have been as sordid as that of the U.S. Air Force’s new refueling tanker, the KC-X. The tanker acquisition program first popped up on the national radar screen in 2001, when Senator John McCain called into question a no-bid contract that would have leased modified…

In their aggressive push to ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the Obama administration has been wholly unimpressive in the messaging department. Calling the small, bilateral treaty the most pressing "national security issue" of our time, for example, is cause for head scratching.…

No matter how much of a supposed "national security priority" ratifying the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is, the Obama administration hasn't been very impressive in the messaging department. They claim START needs to be ratified immediately, but have fallen short in explaining why.

Eli Lake reports in today's Washington Times: 

In the discussion of the relationship between ratification of the new START treaty and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget for maintaining our nuclear weapons stockpile, an oft heard war cry in favor of ratification is that the Obama administration’s budget is one that former…

On June 6th, 1944, 1st Lt Dick Winters parachuted behind German lines, assembled a small strike team, and neutralized four enemy artillery pieces that were wreaking havoc on nearby Utah Beach. The Brecourt Manor Assault, as it was later dubbed, represented one of the most brilliant examples of…

Both U.S. military and civilian leaders seem a bit nonplussed about the North Korean attack on a South Korean fishing village. With the American Armed Forces tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan, the White House is reluctant to up the ante in the highly militarized Korean peninsula.  So the American…

Eli Lake reports in this morning's Washington Times:

Much hash has been made about President Obama's refocus on foreign policy in the aftermath of an election that wounded his party's political ranks. That initiative may have suffered an equally damaging blow this morning, as Senator Jon Kyl -- the GOP lead on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty…

An influential, bipartisan group of lawmakers and policy experts are set to discuss the major foreign policy challenges for the 112th Congress next week. The Foreign Policy Initiative's annual forum, Restoring America's Leadership of a Democratic World, has already been generating a fair share of…

Saying that it's a whole new ball game on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) would be an understatement -- it's more like a whole new sport. Several of HASC's key Democratic lawmakers lost their seats last night, including Chairman Ike Skelton from Missouri and moderate Gene Taylor from…

"If you see an F-14 Tomcat," says a friend who teaches a U.S. Navy flight intercept course, "it's enemy. Shoot it down." 

Yesterday's news about an entire squadron of nuclear missiles dropping offline may have blown up the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, projected to hit the floor during the lame duck session of Congress.

The Atlantic (and now Wired) is reporting that an entire squadron of nuclear missiles unexpectedly dropped into a "launch facility down" status on Saturday morning, taking a sizable portion of America's nuclear deterrent offline:

MEMRI just published an interesting study that's worth a look:

By way of Reuters, a troubling interview with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:

Some heartening news out of the defense procurement world today:

Though this is a little late in the game for fact checking, the Defense Department just fired out an important clarification in the WikiLeaks case: 

One of the key problems facing the U.S. military is the pressing need for force modernization. Most of its defense hardware -- tanks, jets, fighting ships -- are leftovers from the Reagan era defense build-up. And some are even older: like the KC-135 Stratotanker, the B-52 bomber, the M102…

In war, victory belongs to the most persevering. Unfortunately, the endurance and political will to persist through a tough military slog like Afghanistan are precious commodities -- particularly given tough economic times and given complicated military and political objectives. No one would accuse…

At a Pentagon presser, Secretary Gates just announced that Marine General James Mattis will be the new head of CENTCOM. Hats off to Secretary Gates and President Obama, Mattis is the right man for a tough job. Read General Mattis's bio here.

While CNN was busy firing senior editor for Middle East affairs Octavia Nasr for tweeting niceties about Hezbollah's recently deceased spiritual leader, another effusive tribute to terrorist Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah seeped out into cyberspace -- this one coming from, shockingly enough, the…

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is fresh off a goodwill tour to the Republic of Georgia, part of a larger effort to reassure a nervous eastern Europe that the administration's "reset" policy toward Russia won't come at the expense of Russia's democratic neighbors. 

With the deficit soaring, it might not be the easiest time to make the case for increased defense spending. But the long-term prognosis for the U.S. military isn't good -- we are embroiled in two tough wars, face threats along a spectrum of conflict that is at its widest in history (from cyber to…

The THAAD (terminal high altitude area defense) interceptor has been maligned for years as a failed, overly expensive missile defense system. That's mostly due to the missile's volatile initial testing phases during the mid-1990s, when the program was wrought with failure after failure -- not…

CIA director Leon Panetta gave a surprisingly candid interview on ABC's "This Week" yesterday, talking about Afghanistan and Iran. In the conversation with Jake Tapper, Panetta confessed that sanctions against the Iranian regime probably will not work. (Watch the entire exchange here.)

Michael O'Hanlon, of the left-leaning Brookings Institution, has been one of the strongest advocates for adopting effective, functional strategies in both Iraq and Afghanistan. To his credit, O'Hanlon was ahead of the pack on the Iraq surge, correctly predicting that additional forces -- all…

There's an old axiom from the intelligence community, "admit nothing, deny, counter-accuse," that can be as useful in politics as it is in the shadowy espionage world. Faced with a high-level summit bound to scrutinize President Obama's much-touted "reset" policy with the Soviet Union, that…

One of the tertiary benefits to Iraq's surge -- aside from the military victory -- was the birth of a group of military thinkers informally called the COINdistinas. Though sticking counter-insurgency on the front burner of Armed Forces combat doctrine remains a hot debate inside the Pentagon,…

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former case officer with the CIA's clandestine service, lays out a compelling case for supporting Iran's Green Movement:

Not a bad start for Britain's new prime minister, David Cameron: 

In last week's print edition of TWS, I wrote: 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, on why Russia can invade Georgia at will and doesn’t need an advanced amphibious assault ship like the French Mistral to do so:

McClatchy is reporting that the Iranian government has now launched a series of airstrikes and artillery barrages along the Northern Iraq border, in autonomous Kurdistan. Those attacks are coupled with a small scale troop incursion in the Kurdish-Iranian mountains.

Wired has an excellent profile of the Wikileaks mole, one that's worth a read in its entirety. Here's a brief background:

Some heartening news from Helmand, courtesy of our British friends: 

The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation has released study that's worth of a (scrupulous) look. Here's its central tenet:

Remember, it's all about the impoverished Palestinian people: 

Noah Shachtman has a rather dour take on the utility of Israel's new media engagements in the wake of the flotilla fiasco:

Below is President Reagan's 1984 speech at the Tomb of the Unknowns, one of his finest (a week later, he'd top it at Point Du Hoc, honoring the 40th anniversary of Operation Overlord in a beautiful, soaring address). The tomb, which contains the remains of soldiers -- or known only to God, as the…

A source inside ISAF emails to say that Afghanistan's large peace jirga, scheduled for next week by President Karzai, has been delayed until further notice. A jirga, Pashtun for "council," is a traditional means of brokering peace amongst warring tribes. Next week's assembly would aim to bring…

Now that Dennis Blair has officially resigned from his post, Obama officials are scrambling to find a new director of national intelligence (DNI). But why bother? 

This could have serious ramifications:

There was big, though somewhat underreported, news out of Zimbabwe today. Roy Bennett, an opposition leader jailed for bogus terrorism charges, was just acquitted by a high court in Harare. I've written about Bennett before--and his persecution by a malevolent Mugabe government--pointing out that…

I've had my nose buried in an interesting, if not a bit alarmist, piece on a potential naval spat with China. The paper, titled "How the United States Lost the Naval War of 2015" (how's that for an eye-catcher?), raises the red flag on the PLA Navy's intent to raise the black flag. That scenario,…

Liberal bloggers are making a fuss over this story, which means that -- despite Secretary Gates's temporary redirect on an issue that has nothing to do with winning the war -- DADT is being debated all over again:

This popped up last week, so consider it an "in case you missed it" blurb. Over at Time, Dimitri Simes has a take on the U.S.-Russia treaty negotiations that I consider extremely instructive:

To say that President Barack Obama's response to the Iranian opposition movement has been tepid might be a bit of an understatement. But suppose he does assume a Reagan style posture, and uses his lofty pulpit as leader of the free world to fan the flames of opposition. Would the protesters,…

Since assuming his post during the Bush administration, Robert Gates has operated with a simple philosophy: win the war. But execution of that guiding objective has proven complicated. During World War II, America's armed forces were transformed from a sleepy, mostly domestic border guard into a…

Yesterday, the Obama administration released the DoD's official nuclear stockpile figures. For decades, the size and shape of America's atomic arsenal have been deliberately kept secret, and for good reason. There's always been a calculated sense of ambiguity around our nuclear forces and our…

“Greetings in the name of freedom,” proclaimed the newly minted prime minster, Robert Mugabe, during Zimbabwe’s independence celebration in 1980. His words marked one of the most brilliant transitions of power in recent history, as the last conflict of the post-colonial retreat faded into history.…

As if President Obama's foreign policy hasn't come under enough fire for its warm embrace of the world's misfits and shabby treatment of allies, Jackson Diehl reports:  

Trying to prevent terrorists from obtaining nukes should be national security priority number one. But the Obama administration's plan to combat that threat is puzzling. They've argued ad nauseam that arms reduction treaties like START are the key to keeping loose nukes out of the hands of…

With healthcare reform behind him, President Obama has turned his attention to what is perhaps his number one foreign policy priority: nuclear disarmament. On April 6, the Obama administration released a new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) report, outlining U.S. nuclear weapons strategy. The NPR is…

If the Nuclear Posture Review -- a congressionally mandated document which evaluates the state and purpose of America's nuclear forces -- was a battle between Secretary Gates and President Obama, Gates won.

Over at the Washington Post, Jackson Diehl dives into an unnecessarily tense meeting between Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and President Obama.

One of the most dangerous aspects of today's nuclear debate is the deeply skewed ratio of fact versus opinion. Disarmament advocates, many with a poor understanding of nuclear game theory, operational concepts, even basic weapon capabilities, too often posture themselves as experts in a debate…

In 2005, Syria's Ba'athist dictatorship was accused of supporting the assainination of Rafik Hariri, who was then the prime minister of Lebanon. Hariri's death sparked an internal anti-Syrian uprising in Lebanon--the Cedar revolution--which was both supported vocally by the Bush administration and…

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, once the largest exporter of arms in the world, there's been a growing international choir of peace-minded activists determined to halt the import/export of weapons. Now that America has taken center stage as the new chief arms dealer, that chorus has…

Over at The Cable, Josh Rogin reports that the Obama administration's strategic engagement with China seems to have less to do with broad foreign policy objectives than the more narrow issue of arms sales to Taiwan.

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, recently detailed a new approach to warfare that's worth a look. In two speeches at Kansas State University and Fort Leavenworth, Mullen talked up a massive doctrinal shift in America's approach to warfighting.

Over at Military.com, Christian Lowe reports that there's some serious introspection from Army thinkers over the quality of long range combat gear. The battle, so to speak, is raging over a paper scribed by one of the Army's "Jedi Knights" -- a nickname for graduates of the prestigious  School for…

Terrific tale of courage and calm under pressure, courtesy of our friends from across the pond. Anything less than Lt. Fortune's superb handling of the situation would have cost the lives of 20 of Her Majesty's soldiers.

To date, President Obama's nominations to key defense postings have been mostly pragmatic, starting at the top with the retention of Secretary Gates. However, in the instance of Philip Coyle -- nominated to fill the associate director of national security and international affairs spot in the…

This Newsweek article was touched on yesterday, but -- considering the source -- it's worth revisiting. A choice quote:

Over at Heritage, Ariel Cohen and Helle Dale dive into anti-Americanism in Russia. Apparently it's reaching Cold War levels, with no shortage of government encouragement.

Now that fighting in Marja has boiled down to minor skirmishes, here are a few points worth noting:

Bill Sweetman, the veritable godfather of aviation reporting, has an interesting story up on efforts to push the Joint Strike Fighter out the door on time.

The Times of London, in a story that borders on the passive-aggressive, is reporting that President Obama has refused to endorse British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. The short skinny of this is that there's another Buenos Aires-London row over the rightful ownership of the islands (you…

According to Josh Rogin over at Foreign Policy, there's a "growing realization on Capitol Hill that Senate ratification of the START follow-on treaty with Russia will probably not happen this year."

Reuters has an interesting story up on Robert Mugabe's birthday celebration, hosted by the new soft imperialists, communist China. Last year, the Zimbabwean dictator's 85th birthday was globally mocked as an embarrassing Marie Antoinette moment (one of many, really), as Mugabe spent a huge sum on a…

Fareed Zakaria has an interesting -- though silly -- column up mocking Sarah Palin's suggestion that Obama get tough on Iran. It's interesting because Zakaria's grand solution to the deeply complex Iran problem is to simply lock them into a deterrence paradigm with the U.S. and Israel --more…

As Operation Moshtarak enters its second week, Americans should take a minute to appreciate just how lucky we are to have the British fighting alongside U.S. and Afghan forces. Their vast experience in imperial counterinsurgency notwithstanding, this marks the third war that the British have fought…

Yesterday Senators Lieberman, Kyl, and McCain delivered a sternly worded letter to General James Jones, urging the president's national security advisor to resist pressure from Moscow to tie conventional missile defense systems into the new START follow-on. The letter came after Ambassador John…

The BBC is reporting that Operation Moshtarek has finally launched in Afghanistan's Helmand province. The principle objective will be to seize Marjah, the fortress city owned by the Taliban. Marjah is a key node for Taliban operations and resourcing, so expect the good guys to sweep it, clear it,…

The AP is reporting that Rep. Charles Wilson (D-TX) has died from a heart attack. Wilson was a champion of the Cold War, credited as the driving force behind the covert war against the Soviets' occupation of Afghanistan (see Operation Cyclone, made famous by the book and motion picture Charlie…

Here's a headline that begs for a "reset" joke:

Iran's Supreme Leader raised some eyebrows yesterday, claiming that Tehran would deliver a "punch" that would leave Western powers "stunned."

Politico is reporting that Vice President Biden will be delivering a key address on the future of America's nuclear arsenal this Wednesday. Here's what to expect:

This week in Tehran, it's déjà vu all over again:

As if the French offering to sell Russia an amphibious assault ship wasn't bad news for Georgia, Eli Lake at The Washington Times reports that:

Quote of the day (so far, as Continetti says), from the champion of the Polish Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa:

Word on the wires is that U.S.-Russian negotiators have reached an agreement in principle on a drastic reduction to nuclear forces. The cuts, part of the new START agreement, are projected to sharply cut nuclear delivery systems like subs, bombers, and ICBMs, as well as nuclear inventories. It will…

According to a draft copy of the Quadrennial Defense Review, DoD wonks are planning to mold an already over-tasked military to meet rising challenges associated with global warming climate change.

In a State of the Union address that was already too light on national security and foreign policy, one of the most pressing security challenges of the day --Iran-- received barely a mention.

One of the big payoffs from the much touted (yet deeply underwhelming) "reset" of relations with Moscow was sustainment of the northern distribution network, a logistical lifeline to Afghanistan which cuts a hot path through several former Soviet republics. This was to be step one in a larger…

After one year in office, the Obama administration's foreign policy has been defined by an odd role reversal. The rogues gallery of the world, from Burma to North Korea to Iran to Russia to China, have been largely embraced by the White House and State Department --while relations with key…

There's been much gnashing of the teeth over the new defense budget, which is reported to top out at a towering $708 billion. The lamentations are premature. The budget won't be finalized for an additional month, while the Quadrennial Defense Review —a force structuring roadmap— isn't expected to…

I mentioned in an earlier post that there's an abundance -- perhaps over abundance -- of opinions about U.S. nuclear forces, but a shortage of expertise. In an exquisitely timed op-ed, James Carroll makes my point for me:

Last week, the Glover Park Group -- one of Washington's largest PR/communications firms -- launched a strange attack on the Wall Street Journal over its recent op-ed on nuclear warhead modernization. The Journal's editorial, which laid down some fairly basic points on the importance of properly…

Hugo Chavez announced this weekend that the Venezuelan currency, the bolivar,  will be devalued for the third time since 2004. The oil-rich banana republic increasingly resembles Mexico prior to its 1994 economy crash. So, socialist policies enacted by a bombastic Latin American strongman are…

The Hill is reporting that Robert Gates will retain his post as Secretary of Defense, as least for the next year. This decision will mercifully spare us from the rumored alternatives, among them Chuck Hagel and John Kerry. Here's a few of Gates's directives that should absolutely be sustained.

 Solid score from Josh Rogin over at Foreign Policy, who reports that the much anticipated Nuclear Posture Review -- a DoD force structuring plan for America's nuclear weapons -- will be delayed an additional month. The Pentagon announcement comes on the same day that the Los Angeles…

Debra Burlingame makes some solid points regarding TSA checkpoint screening. During a flurry of recent holiday travel, I also took note of TSA's reaction to the underwear bomber, jotting down some observations while waiting in the infinite airport security lines. The bureaucratic suck that is TSA…

Today's LA Times has an admirably even piece on the shadowy barfight between Pentagon officials and White House staffers over the future of our nation's nuclear arsenal. President Obama's ambitious plan to begin phasing out nuclear weapons has run up against powerful resistance from officials in…

Here's a handy little chart from the Old Grey Lady, breaking down three years worth of benchmark data from the Global War on Terrorism Overseas Contingency Operat-- er... Global War on Terrorism. Though there's still some knifework to be done, Iraq is looking like Eden compared to the trying…

Zimbabwean farmer Mike Campbell has been terrorized, threatened, beaten, and, this past fall, victimized by a vicious arson attack that left him homeless. His crime? Refusing a government order to abandon his mango farm, which the Campbell family purchased legally and has worked for decades.…

Iran's nuclear program is spread throughout a variety of experimental laboratories, hardened enrichment facilities, heavy water manufacturing plants, and two plutonium reactors currently under development (Bushehr could come online within a few months). That far exceeds what's needed to turn on the…

I'm a little late coming in on the latest Iranian missile salvo, but there a few salient points still worth mentioning. First, the Sajjil-2 is a solid fuel rocket. That's the type of power source that we use in our own Minuteman III rockets, as solid fuel is stable in flight and requires no…

Senator Nelson should call Rahm Emanuel's bluff. Offutt Air Force Base is one of the nation's most critical command and control nodes, second to only to the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon. The base's hardened facilities, designed to withstand a nuclear blast, are so optimized to…

light display.jpg Just in time for the President's big speech, as it turns out. MOSCOW - The failure of a new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile during testing was the cause of spectacular spiraling blue lights in the skies over northern Norway, analysts said Thursday. Russia's defense…

Boxer: Hackers should face criminal probe over 'Climategate': Leaked e-mails allegedly undermining climate change science should be treated as a criminal matter, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Wednesday afternoon. Boxer, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee,…

Fred Barnes writes on the START follow-on treaty with the Russians: When the Nobel Committee announced [Obama's Peace Prize], it pointedly "attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons." But Obama may go to Oslo empty-handed--and a bit…

The New York Times has an interesting article up on the role of US and Canadian air defense in the post-9/11 world. Between 2001 and 2007, NORAD provided for regular combat air patrols over major US cities. Due to the spiraling costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, military planners swapped out…

worst kind of ally.jpg Sayeth the British Spectator: 'The Afghan issue has made clear the astonishing disregard with which Mr Obama treats Britain . As he decides how many more troops to send to Afghanistan - a decision which will fundamentally affect the scope of the mission - Britain is reduced…

Here's a nifty write-up of counterinsurgency sensei David Kilcullen's speech at Johns Hopkins, delivered last night. Kilcullen's been in the news recently, warning of a "Suez-like disaster" should the White House lowball USFOR-A boss Gen McChrystal's request for 40k additional combat troops. DoD…

Nothing to fear. Though the President will likely shortchange General McChrystal's troop request, his charm, charisma, and supernatural diplomacy powers will soon make war obsolete anyway. Standing on a riser wearing a blue suit and red tie, with a cluster of troops and a large American flag behind…

No surprise here, Tehran doesn't believe sanctions will materialize and have buried the lion's share of their HEU stockpiles -- and accompanying centrifuge cascades -- in a massive underground complex near the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center. Isfahan, Tehran's version of Cheyenne Mountain, is…

I tweeted this a few days ago, but deliberately kept it vague. Capt. Shannon Meehan, an old college associate and former patient at Fort Hood's medical facility, said that Hasan had a reputation for telling his patients to report themselves to the legal office for war crimes, an unbelievably sick…

From Aussie Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, an alumnus of the vaunted Petraeus 'brain-trust' that beat the Iraqi insurgency, comes a biting commentary on dithering. David Kilcullen, one of the world's leading authorities on counter-insurgency and an adviser to the British government as well as the U.S.…

This coming from the Commander, United States Strategic Command, who knows a thing or two about nuclear deterrence. A U.S. missile defense system that is too robust could actually backfire and become destabilizing, prompting countries like China to expand their nuclear arsenals, a U.S. general said…

From the AP: WASHINGTON-President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration…

You have to admire the Obama administration's message discipline, no matter how silly the talking point. He's got General Casey making diversity the Army's prime directive after the Ft. Hood shootings, his National Security Advisor emphasizing that troop levels in Afghanistan aren't important…

He's going through the motions at least. It's doubtful that Chavez initiates a conflict with his better-armed neighbor while he's still waiting for those big Russian arms shipments. Chalk this up next to the dictator's long list of prior attention whoring: hosting of Russian supersonic bombers, his…

IAEA seeks explanation from Iran on nuclear weapon implosion device: The Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has requested a response from Iran in regard to evidence that the country has experimented with the creation of advanced implosion…

Let's take a look at Obama's near-term grand aspirations for his "Overseas Contingency Operations." He wants to remove 90k troops from Iraq while at the same time increasing Army and Marine end strength by 22k troops. Presumably the president also plans to increase troop strength in Afghanistan,…

The borders have been pushed east, countries have switched sides, but the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization's raison d'etre isn't that much different than its Cold War predecessor. That is, to provide a strong military counterweight to NATO and ultimately return the European…

After advocating massive influxes of taxpayer money into blackholes like stimulus, bailouts for failed corporations, and universal health care, the New York Times editorial board is suddenly on a big fiscal responsibility kick: Presidents, and those aspiring to be presidents, routinely promise to…

The timing here is beautiful. The exercises reportedly transpired during the 70th anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland... also the same day that President Obama killed plans for Polish based missile defense. The [Russian] armed forces are said to have carried out "war games" in which…

Goldfarb notes that the Chinese are eyeing space supremacy in the same manner that the US and Soviet Union eyed air supremacy post-WWII. China's determination to militarize space has been evident since they shot down an aging satellite in 2007, or at least evident to everyone except President…

Is there a growing revolt of senior military leadership over Afghanistan? Experts say no but Rolling Stone says yes. In early October, as President Obama huddled with top administration officials in the White House situation room to rethink America's failing strategy in Afghanistan, the Pentagon…

The New York Times reports that President Obama plans to amalgamate General McChrystal's COIN strategy with General Biden's (snark) counter-terrorism strategy, focusing on protecting cities instead of villages and towns. President Obama's advisers are focusing on a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at…

They're spinning this as an "in the off chance sanctions don't work..." contingency plan, but it sounds like an administration succumbing to its own impotence: The Obama administration is quietly laying the groundwork for long-range strategy that could be used to contain a nuclear-equipped Iran and…

This was bound to happen, as most American wars have experienced their share of mid to high level defections. This time around, State loses a talented FSO who was serving in one of the toughest regions in Afghanistan. A former Marine who fought in Iraq, joined the State Department after leaving the…

The START treaty has provisions that ban the development of new ICBMs that carry multiple reentry systems (read: nukes). For years now, Russia has bent that provision by modifying their Topol-M ICBM into the newer RS-24 system, a road-mobile ICBM with a whopping ten bombs per missile. Once START…

Cheney's speech last night on Afghanistan was sublime, laying out the simple realities of a war that we must win. My favorite from the Cheney archives, however, is his 2008 missile defense speech to the Heritage foundation, where he calmly and deliberately laid out the strong case for a robust…

If what the White House and Obama supporters have been saying for two years is true, the weighty decision on Afghanistan's troop strength is one that Obama shouldn't have to make. From airy speeches in Berlin, to campaign rallies boasting that The One would renew "tattered" alliances abroad, to…

Common sense dictates that if you have a nuclear deterrent, you need to verify that it works. If your enemies suspect that it doesn't (or won't) work, deterrence fails and nuclear war evolves from a distant threat to a frightening possibility. The United States hasn't tested a nuclear device since…

Both Goldfarb and I have offered a collective head scratch over the Obama administration's decision to cut the valuable F-22 Raptor while pouring trillions into economic black holes. Lockheed's F-22 program was a nexus for tens of thousands of defense manufacturing jobs, the preservation of which…

Staggering, yet obvious admission from the Grey Lady -- the use of force is the only effective form of diplomacy in the Middle East. The payoff from the use of force in the struggle between Israel and the Palestinians is evident. It was only after the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s…

A knotty question. I'd point to their continued support of the Iranian regime's nuclear program, their use of energy reserves to blackmail democratic Eastern Europe, their aggressive export of high-tech weapons to thuggish regimes, disconcerting upgrades to their nuclear forces, chest-thumping…

Here's a sharp take on Obama's strange decision to hold off the troop decision until after Afghanistan's runoff election. A Marine Lt Col serving in Afghanistan writes: We have here a conundrum: sorting out the clear and fair winner of an election, according to the law, is of course the proper…

Over at Small Wars Journal, I sat down with Peter Godwin -- author, war correspondent, and veteran of the Rhodesian Bush War-- for a discussion on counterinsurgency tactics and strategy. Godwin's experiences with the British South Africa Police -- a Rhodesian police/paramilitary outfit -- were…

September 24, 2009: The White House claimed a key victory Wednesday in its effort to create momentum toward sanctions against Iran for its pursuit of nuclear weapons, saying that comments by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after a meeting with President Obama represented a shift toward favoring…

The AFP is reporting that despite pulling the ground based mid-course interceptor from Europe, the Russians remain unhappy with Noble Laureate Obama's missile defense plans. Ivan is, of course, playing the classic Russian game here -- push until you meet resistance. In a terrible lapse of judgment,…

Here's a strange bit of logic from the White House spokesman (who never really understood missile defense in the first place): Gibbs said the Polish, Czech and Romanian governments support Obama's decision, which he said would deploy "a missile defense system that protects a greater geographic area…

Goldfarb notes that Vice President Biden is trying to split the Afghan baby, proposing a big bump in kinetic operations (read: airstrikes) instead of complying with General McChrystal's request for more troops. Have we learned nothing in the past eight years? Neither Generals Petraeus and…

Two days ago, London's Sunday Times confirmed what many close to the Iran debate already knew -- that Russian scientists are actively assisting the Iranians in their nuclear program. If you omit the disastrous 2007 NIE from the strategic calculus here, most credible intel estimates had identified…

Is there an antonym for "leadership?" According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week. The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One…

Perhaps he meant "Israeli nukes number one threat to Arab plans to decimate Israel." This coming off Israel's 40 year track record of nuclear restraint, even after the near collapse of IDF lines during the Yom Kippur War. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed…

A reader emails: The government is playing down Iran's missile tests as scantly more than "provocative," while some political pundits are calling them gravely serious. What's the real story? Just how far along are they in [missile] development? Short skinny: It's serious. Iran's test provides some…

Here's an interesting Briefing Room back-and-forth on Iran's successful Sajjil-2 missile test (emphasis mine). Q: Robert, what's the White House's reaction to Iran's test-firing of missiles and how will that affect the atmosphere for the October 1st talks? MR. GIBBS: Well, a couple things. I mean,…

This is certainly a unique interpetation of "wartime presidency." What does it say about your Commander-in-Chief when he's spoken with David Letterman more than his key guy in Afghanistan? The military general credited for capturing Saddam Hussein and killing the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq says he…

Here's what we'll get in return for unilaterally killing European Missile Defense: Russia will "consider other options" for dealing with the Tehran. During this morning's Q & A at the University of Pittsburgh, Medvedev said: I do not believe sanctions are the best way to achieve results. Sanctions…

Via the Corner, Major Garrett tweets from a briefing by a senior administration official: + deets: Iran facility NOT operational, had abt 3K centrifuges & cld produce 1 or 2 warheads if run to produce highly enriched uranium. Significant. It takes several thousand centrifuges running for…

Is there a totalitarian regime on the planet that the President hasn't yet coddled, emboldened, or outright supported? How about... China? Goldfarb notes that the Obama Administration is looking to develop a partnership, if not an "alliance" with the Chinese Communist government. Step back and soak…

Quoth the Great Orator: No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. Fair enough -- the UN was designed to be the great level playing field for all nations and it's failed spectacularly. Impotent, corrupt, and a diplomatic forum for anti-Semitism, the United…

Imagine if this had happened in the age of camera phones and Facebook. Boris Yeltsin got so drunk during a 1995 visit to Washington that Secret Service agents found him a few hundred feet from the White House clad only in his underwear and trying to hail a cab - because, he explained, he wanted a…

Disturbing report, from The Guardian Obama has rejected the Pentagon's first draft of the "nuclear posture review" as being too timid, and has called for a range of more far-reaching options consistent with his goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons altogether, according to European…

Obama Missile Decision May Smooth U.S.-Russia Arms Talks, says the Washington Post. Preemptively removing contentious issues from a debate will make any diplomatic summit easier, but that's not really the point of negotiations, is it? Doesn't it make more sense for diplomacy to be focused on goals…

A friend texted me early yesterday, wondering "what's the big deal?" with our tail-tucked missile defense retreat from Eastern Europe. This is coming from a guy who just finished a masters in security policy. And no doubt the Great Orator will be trying to convince a distracted citizenry that Czech…

Military.com's superb defense blog, DoD Buzz, blogs from the Air Force Association conference in Washington, DC: The U.S. military's historic dominance of the skies, unchallenged since around spring 1943, is increasingly at risk because of the proliferation of advanced technologies and a buildup of…

Danger Room reports that Venezuela has just taken out a $2.2 billion line of credit for Russian military hardware. Appearing yesterday on Aló Presidente, his weekly talk show, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that Russia had extended a credit line worth $2.2 billion toward new arms…

Ivan's making a list and checking it twice: August 30, 2009: Russia is naming the fourth of its Borei class SSBN (ballistic missile carrying nuclear submarines) Syvatitel Nikolay (Saint Nicholas). That's the same Saint Nicholas who serves as the model for Santa Claus in the West. In Russia, Saint…

George Will echoes the concerns of many on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. There's no doubt that killing a dedicated insurgency is frustrating, indeed dislodging an indigenous enemy force from the local population could be the trickiest maneuver in warfare. But winning there, in the…

The reputable Small Wars Journal is, interestingly enough, one of the leading sources on the current plight in Zimbabwe. That expertise, originating in their aggressive study of the Rhodesian Bush War, has matured into pragmatic policy on statecraft and diplomacy -- evident in the following excerpt…

The feel-good story of the day: The IDF published on Tuesday a video depicting an altercation that took place this week in the southern Lebanese village of Marwakhin between local residents and Hezbollah operatives. Taken by a unit of the IDF's Field Intelligence Corps, the video shows a group of…

SM27.jpg

Interesting bit on the decline of U.S. production capacity, via Loren Thompson at the Lexington Institute's new blog. With the Obama Administration moving to put more emphasis on manufacturing policy, the Lexington Institute is releasing a report this week detailing just how severe the nation's…

Interesting bit on the decline of US production capacity, via Loren Thompson at the Lexington Institute's new blog. With the Obama Administration moving to put more emphasis on manufacturing policy, the Lexington Institute is releasing a report this week detailing just how severe the nation's…

"Planes come first," says the Russian military.

pixie dust.jpg

One of the most contentious issues among military planners is how, exactly, we should be fighting the counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. CENTCOM boss General Petraeus figured Iraq out quickly, but cracking the Hindu Kush's human terrain remains -- as it has for centuries -- the bane of empires and…

A knotty question -- he's due to visit the blast site come November and loves to say "I'm sorry." On the other hand, the twin Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings served as a legitimate conclusion to a war that Japan initiated -- with a recent poll showing that 61% of Americans support Truman's decision to…

NY Daily News:

Voice of America reports:

This past month, Heritage fired a loud warning shot at lawmakers responsible for the F-22's sustainment, cautioning against legislation that would exacerbate the problem of our swiftly shrinking fighter fleet. Though the entire paper -- The Growing Air Power Fighter Gap -- is worth reading, their…

Thanks to the cancelation of the F-22 program, a two-year delay on F-35 development, and an upcoming QDR likely to shortchange F/A-18 sustainment, the Pentagon is projecting gaping holes in our active-duty Navy and Air Force fighter forces for the next 6-9 years. With fewer active duty airframes…

A salient point from Michael Yon, embedded with the UK's 2 Rifles. I was up on a watch post with a soldier from Ghana while we waited for soldiers who have been fighting to return to base. The war is serious here; earlier in the day, another soldier from 2 Rifles had been killed upriver at Kajaki.…

Sixth Seventh times' a charm. So much for Russia's sparkling new nuclear arsenal -- the Bulava was purportedly Putin's baby. For the uninitiated, this is not an optimal missile trajectory. ivanslbm.jpg They point those things at us, so I'll hoist a beer to this epic snafu. Credit to the Ruskies…

They also have an odd take on summer camp

A friend passes along an interesting report on China's "Project 048," the PLA Navy's strategic plan to construct six nuclear and conventionally powered aircraft carriers. The first two conventionally powered carriers will reportedly be laid down this year, with more quickly to follow. Once…

There's been some pretty egregious stuff floating around about the detention facility at Gitmo, but a recent blog post at the American Prospect takes the cake. According to the Prospect, the Guantanamo stockade apparently has the same effect on inmates as the Overlook Hotel from The Shining. The…

With the JSF two full years behind schedule and the F-22 program dead, the USAF's fleet projections for the next 7-8 years are pretty ugly. Fortunately, the Obama administration will be retaining the Navy's robust fighter force to meet our air defense demands. Or... not: At a discussion this week…

Former CIA boss: Wiretapping was lawful, effective and necessary. If the beer-soaked assertions of some colleagues in the intelligence community are true, it also saved an awful lot of innocent lives.

From the indispensable Small Wars Journal, a biting reality check to Secretary Clinton's Mid-East trumpet blast: ...anyone who remembers the Cold War should recall that U.S. security guarantees for Western Europe, Japan, and South Korea were not easy, cheap, or simple. A U.S. guarantee for the…

An interesting report from the Washington Post claims that the White House launched an "aggressive, coordinated effort" to slash the fifth generation fighter from the defense budget: When a showdown vote loomed on July 15, Senate Democratic leaders who backed Obama's effort to scuttle the program…

supertucano.jpg Christian Lowe reports: A top Pentagon official told a small group of defense reporters this morning (July 23) that the upcoming QDR will likely propose the formation of an aviation cadre devoted solely to irregular warfare. The Pentagon's guru for special operations and low…

As Goldfarb pointed out, the key to ballistic missile defense is redundancy. European deployment of the system affords Western allies a critical level of protection, as well as the first line of a robust, layered defense of the US mainland. The threat, however, isn't limited to Iran. Proliferation…

Interesting concept art of Russian's new Sukhoi PAK-FA fighter jet, informally dubbed the "Raptor Killer" by Russian aficionados. Scheduled for its maiden flight later this year, the PAK-FA purportedly boasts many of the F-22's bells and whistles: stealth, supercruise, advanced phased array radar,…

From an administration that made its bones arguing that our defense resources are stretched dangerously thin: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Iran Wednesday that the United States would extend a "defense umbrella" over its allies in the Persian Gulf if the Islamic Republic obtains a…

More job cuts expected in U.S. defense sector : Big defense contractors could be poised to shed jobs as the Pentagon cuts traditional weapons spending, while smaller, niche companies may ramp up their hiring as the United States expands resources to protect ground troops and computer networks.…

One of the main justifications for killing the F-22 program was that the hyper-advanced fighter was irrelevant in a world of small wars and contingency actions. Secretary Gates is fond of pointing out that the jet has never flown a combat sortie over Iraq or Afghanistan -- an argument that's…

Back in 2007, US intelligence officials -- fearing an overestimation of WMD capabilities similar to Iraq circa 2002 -- severely lowballed their analysis of Iran's nuclear weapons program. Their product, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, put the Bush administration on the defensive and…

News from Afghanistan has been -- admittedly -- less than stellar lately. Here's a little ray of hope from the estimable Michael Yon, embedded with the US Marine Corps: The U.S. Marines are flooding in, and you might think that every Marine helicopter in our arsenal is here. I'll not give numbers…

If the Obama administration is so insistent on "reseting" Cold War relations, why are they using an outmoded Cold War paradigm for nuclear arms reductions? The major allied nuclear powers -- Great Britain, France, the United States -- have all steadily reduced both nuclear stockpiles and delivery…

It would be the finishing touch on their decade-long dismantling of Her Majesty's Armed Forces: The U.K. should re-examine its commitment to the Lockheed Martin F-35, a left-leaning think tank suggests, as part of a broader review of defense procurements. The Institute for Public Policy Research…

Suppose, from a purely hypothetical standpoint, the crisis in Honduras was mimicked in the United States? A fictional American president, lacking the votes in Congress and the judicial nod from the Supreme Court, circumvents the constitutional process and holds an illegal national referendum to…

Great idea if you can get the other guys to play ball, but -- let's face it -- the other guys never play ball. Which is precisely why the idea has been unsuccessfully advocated during the tenures of the past five US presidents. In today's world, America's nuclear arsenal is as important as ever.…

Time magazine reports that Israel's January attack on an Iranian arms shipment through the Sudanese desert consisted of a strike package of "dozens of aircraft." The successful raid, which was a fusion of UAVs for recce work, F-15i fighters for air superiority, F-16's for ground attack, and tanker…

It's possible that the term "War on Terror" may be outmoded, but surely there were better options than this: The end of the Global War on Terror -- or at least the use of that phrase -- has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time…

Except, of course, wounded veterans: The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization says he is "deeply disappointed and concerned" after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have…

A salient point, from Robert Kaplan: Afghanistan is only the most obvious potential casualty of the recession. Also at stake are the expensive weapons programs and air and sea platforms that allow the United States to sustain its position as a global military hegemon. Regardless of what happens on…

The AP reports: Russia is working to develop anti-satellite weapons to match efforts by other nations, a deputy defense minister was quoted as saying Thursday. Gen. Valentin Popovkin said Russia continues to oppose a space arms race but will respond to moves made by other countries, according to…

Colin Clark reports: The Air Force's chief of staff was careful to withhold his professional military advice until Defense Secretary Robert Gates gets it, but Gen. Norton Schwartz told reporters [Tuesday] morning that he would not "dispute" comments by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs late last…

Starry-eyed optimism in light of Zimbabwe's new unity government aside, peace in the former Rhodesia remains as elusive as ever. The primary opposition to Robert Mugabe's murderous ZANU-PF, the Movement for Democratic Change, insisted on several key conditions prior to signing on to the much touted…

From a most unlikely source, the BBC, comes an excellent defense of Israel's Gaza incursion. Two points stand out here. One, war is hell. It's completely unpredictable and impossible to fully choreograph. Two, by way of the first point, civilian deaths and collateral damage are unavoidable,…

Courtesy of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, home of the 231 million percent inflation rate. Zimbabwe's central bank says it will soon introduce a 100 trillion dollar note as the once prosperous country battles to keep pace with hyperinflation that has caused many to abandon the country's currency. The…

Senior UN officials and Human Rights watchdog groups are calling for Israeli leaders to be brought up on war crimes charges, alleging that the IDF's use of M825 Felt-Wedge projectiles violates international protocols restricting conventional weapons use in densely populated areas. The problem in…

Fox News reports - President-elect Barack Obama will allow gays to serve openly in the military by overturning the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy that marred President Clinton's first days in office, according to incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The startling…

It's no secret that members of the US Armed Forces screen The Battle of Algiers before deploying to the CENTCOM area of operations. The 1966 black and white film, which depicts the brutal Algerian war of independence, was even shown at the Pentagon in the early aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom…

In 2003, my friend Matt Burden of the military blog Blackfive published a remarkable, deeply moving account of Marine LtCol M.R. Strobl's escort of a fallen Marine's remains from Iraq. The blog posting eventually found a spot in Matt's definitive book on military blogging, The Blog of War, and has…

As Israel continues its retaliatory strikes against the Hamas stronghold in Gaza, so the left increases its collective j'accuse, specifically bemoaning the use of 'disproportionate force.' The manner in which a nation conducts war, and achieves victory, can be as important as the war itself.…

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP): The United States can no longer support a proposed Zimbabwean power-sharing deal that would leave Robert Mugabe, "a man who's lost it," as president, the top American envoy for Africa said Sunday. Jendayi E. Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs,…

The New York Times, never really in their element when it comes to national security, decided to lend their defense expertise to the masses this past weekend. I must admit, their editorial -- How to Pay for a 21st Century Military-- was immensely edifying, in that we learn the Old Gray Lady feels…

Yesterday British PM Gordon Brown announced that British forces would be largely withdrawn from southern Iraq by the end of July. Once numbering 46,000 troops, British forces have been reduced to around 4,100--the bulk of which were deployed to the Basra area in southern Iraq. As British forces in…

Not happy with the shape of the US Air Force? Propose your own! The Dew Line reports: Pierre Sprey -- father of the A-10, co-father of the F-16 and ardent F-22/F-35 critic -- has teamed up with ex-Vietnam fighter jock Col Robert Dilger to propose a fascinating vision for an "effectiveness-based"…

Military.com has the full account of an absolutely incredible engagement between a platoon of 2/7 Marines and over 250 Taliban. Spoiler alert: the Marines whup Tali-tail.

spray and pray.jpg

This coming from a country that single-handedly sparked a space weapons race and has thousands of missiles pointed at our Taiwanese ally....China Adopts Russian Anti-BMD Rhetoric: China has followed Russia's lead in recent broad statements about missile defense efforts by "relevant countries." On…

Insect bots coming... Inside missile defense Marines tire of "boring" Iraq, seek employment in Afghanistan Ivan warships embark on Caribbean Cruise American ICBMS: Build New or Buy? Video: Drunk Russian tank driver pwns house

President Jimmy Carter, the man who insisted that the Zimbabwe-Rhodesian government allow the Soviet backed Zanu paramilitary liberation movement to participate in national elections, has been denied entry into Zimbabwe by.... Zanu-PF leader and dictator Robert Mugabe. The former United Nations…

iskander.jpg Russia's plan for the new Iskander theater ballistic missile doesn't stop with their proposed Kaliningrad deployment. Aviation Week reports that once domestic requirements are met, Russia may export the weapon to Syria, India, and the UAE -- to start. Algeria, Belarus, Kuwait, and…

Flournoy.jpg Senator Clinton isn't the only female in the hunt for a major cabinet position in the Obama administration. Word on the street is that Michèle Flournoy is under strong consideration for the Secretary of Defense post. Ms. Flournoy, a graduate of Harvard and Oxford, made her bones as a…

President-elect Obama's most confounding national security challenge may not lie with our enemies, but rather our allies. Michael Yon writes Most of our allies are not very helpful. With the exception of the British, Canadians, Dutch, and a few others such as the Aussies, we are not fighting this…

Say what you want about the New York Times, at least they're consistent. Whenever there's a highly classified military operation that needs to be leaked to the masses, the Old Gray Lady is there. President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special…

Red State breaks down Palin v. Obama

So laments Ukraine's President in the Washington Post. He has some harsh words for Old Europe and the UN as well -- The conflict in Georgia revealed problems that extend well beyond our region. Recent events have made clear how perilous it is for the international community to ignore "frozen…

Exactly right. If you take away Iraq's severe record of human rights abuses, defiance of UN resolutions, invasion of Kuwait, the use of chemical weapons on its own citizens, and belligerent threats against its neighbors, we're wrestling with exactly the same bear. [Obama's] opposition to the Iraq…

Never hurts to be prepared: CBS4 News has learned if mass arrests happen at the Democratic Convention, those taken into custody will be jailed in a warehouse owned by the City of Denver. Investigator Rick Sallinger discovered the location and managed to get inside for a look. The newly created…

Fighting between the Russian Federation and Republic of Georgia appears to be winding down. As Russia consolidates its gains in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, it's time to consider appropriate and proportional responses to Russia's violation of Georgia's sovereignty. -Move quickly and decisively to…

Normally I enjoy Fred Kaplan's columns. But here, we part ways: Bush pressed the other NATO powers to place Georgia's application for membership on the fast track. The Europeans rejected the idea, understanding the geo-strategic implications of pushing NATO's boundaries right up to Russia's border.…

Earlier this year, President Bush strongly advocated Georgian assimilation into the NATO alliance. European diplomats, fearing--well, exactly what's going down in the Caucasus right now--voted down the fiercely pro-American nation's request to join the Western powers. Let this be another lesson in…

Eh, sort of. Michael Yon sends: The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a relatively violent place long before Coalition forces moved in. I would go so far as to say that barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on…

The missile shield that was designed and (partially) fielded under the Bush Administration consists of several highly sophisticated weapon platforms and C2 assets that were intended to function in unison. In the strange world of Obama defense policy (the same that allows for a miraculous 16 month…

When Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki deployed his Army to pacify Basra earlier this year, naysayers insisted that the fledgling Iraqi military would be plagued by defections, cowardice, and general incompetency. Today, Basra is stable and secure. In fact, the conditions have become so favorable, a…

From the strangest of places, the WaPo editorial page: What's missing in our debate," Mr. Obama said yesterday, "is a discussion of the strategic consequences of Iraq." Indeed: The message that the Democrat sends is that he is ultimately indifferent to the war's outcome -- that Iraq "distracts us…

The AP dares to ask: which candidate would you rather grill burgers with? People would rather barbecue burgers with Barack Obama than with John McCain. While many are still deciding who should be president, by 52 percent to 45 percent they would prefer having Obama than McCain to their summer…

From The New Yorker In February, 2007, when Barack Obama declared that he was running for President, violence in Iraq had reached apocalyptic levels, and he based his candidacy, in part, on a bold promise to begin a rapid withdrawal of American forces upon taking office. At the time, this pledge…

France's reunification into the NATO command hierarchy seems to be just a small part of an ambitious new defense plan. Last week Sarkozy announced a radical restructuring of the French armed forces, and at the beginning of July, France will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union…

Gordon Brown wasn't the only recipient of recent presidential radness. One bold Air Force Academy cadet, during the USAFA's commencement ceremonies, decided that he'd join his Command-in-Chief in a celebratory gesture normally reserved for the end zone. Behold the mighty chest bump. chest bump.jpg…

CENTCOM reports In an effort to revive the local economy, the Baghdad-7 ePRT worked in conjunction with 2nd BCT Civil Affairs, using money as their main tool. Armed with U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development funds, Soldiers and civilians on the Baghdad-7 ePRT looked…

From Defense Tech With his decision to tap Gen. Norton Schwartz to be the next Air Force chief of staff, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has done two things. First, he has smashed an Air Force culture ceiling by putting into the top job a pilot who does not come out of the fighter or bomber…

Iraqpatton.jpg

A note from a recently retired Air Force reader: Believe it or not, the recent SNAFU with the Air Force's strategic assets can be traced directly back to Barack Obama's military advisor General Merrill McPeak. The changes that McPeak set in motion 15 years ago eventually came back to bite the USAF…

Back in the days of old, USAF fighter jocks served in a support capacity. Their primary mission was to keep the bad guys off our B-52 bombers and away from our nine ICBM fields. Vietnam changed all that. After the bomber community took horrendous losses during Operations Linebacker I & II and some…

A word on today's purging of USAF leadership. Official line is that Air Force brass let the nuclear mission slip in the years since the Berlin wall fell. That's true, for a variety of reasons. Standing down Strategic Air Command, the post-Vietnam leadership handoff from nuclear bomber pilots to…

The Wall Street Journal reports: As we content ourselves with the fallacy that never again shall we have to fight large, technological opponents, China is transforming its forces into a full-spectrum military capable of major operations and remote power projection. Eventually the twain shall meet.…

The GI Film Festival in Washington, DC: The GI Film Festival (GIFF), a 501 c(3) non-profit organization, is the first film festival in the nation to exclusively celebrate the successes and sacrifices of the American military through the medium of film. The four-day festival will be held on May…

The latest victim is the T-38 Talon, the Air Force's half-century old fighter-trainer: The Air Force grounded all T-38C training jets Thursday, after the second fatal crash involving the aircraft in eight days, officials said. Two airmen were killed when their T-38C Talon went down during a routine…

LCS Indy2.jpg Photo courtesy of Navy blogger Instapinch.

And here I thought it was Pershing Missiles and the Strategic Defense Initiative, not boring soap operas. After a long hip parade of unironic countercultural icons such as Luke of "Cool Hand Luke" and Randle Patrick McMurphy of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Dallas" created a new archetype of…

In Afghanistan. I hope this one involves member states actually...y'know, fighting. NATO will be changing tactics and strategy in Afghanistan, according to the head of the alliance's Operations Section. "We've learned the lessons and we're refocusing [ISAF's campaign]," said Brett, adding that one…

Creepy orangutan proves it's only a matter of time.... hunting ape.jpg A male orangutan, clinging precariously to overhanging branches, flails the water with a pole, trying desperately to spear a passing fish. It is the first time one has been seen using a tool to hunt. I, for one, welcome our new…

An Air Force intel wonk responds to my post on Secretary Gates: I wanted to provide a bit of commentary on the SECDEF's comments about the Air Force, particularly about UAVs. He and most of the press have focused on the "front end" of the problem - aircraft and pilots. This is a red herring. The…

The latest salvo? The SECDEF says that the Air Force is sandbaggin' it in Afghanistan and Iraq. "In my view we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt," he said. "My concern is that our services are…

Air Force news story here. But I was more taken with this delightful quote from General Gary Harencack: "The B-2 is airpower at its purest, most elegant and deadliest form," the general said. Open admiration for air-delivered death and destruction is rare in this day and age of politically correct…

From a Bay Area protestor's sign: Would we allow Nazi Germany to host the Olympics? No. Of course not. ....except for that one time.

From Centcom: Use silenced guns to kill Coalition forces at Iraqi security checkpoints, smuggle weapons in gradual shipments to reduce the risk of detection, and poison Iraq's water supply with nitric acid to spread disease and death. Such tactics were fleshed out in a terrorist letter intended for…

I take it the Associated Press is not a fan of the "Dirty Dozen" approach. Under pressure to meet combat needs, the Army and Marine Corps brought in significantly more recruits with felony convictions last year than in 2006, including some with manslaughter and sex crime convictions. Data released…

Infamous Taliban leader assumes room temperature: A senior Taliban commander who became a hero to Islamic militants for his role in shooting down a U.S. helicopter in 2005, killing all 16 special forces troops aboard, has been killed by Pakistani security forces, officials and Taliban militants…

Wired's David Axe makes Canberra's case The F-22's long range and twin engines make it a good choice for replacing aged Australia's F-111s and F/A-18s. On a recent visit, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said there was no reason Canberra couldn't be trusted with the radar-evading Raptor. "The…

Iranian F-14.jpg

Eh, I suppose that's one way to conduct counterinsurgency operations: The US Air Force wanted to use nuclear weapons against Vietnam in 1959 and 1968, and Laos in 1961, to obliterate communist guerrillas, according to newly declassified secret US Air Force documents. In 1959, US Air Force chief of…

So says ABC News: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, seemed to give a thumbs down to bipartisan legislation that would greatly expand educational benefits for members of the military returning from Iraq and Afghanistan under the GI Bill. McCain indicated he…

Haven't seen news like this since the Cold War... New B-52 Squadron Coming to Minot AFB: North Dakota's congressional delegation announced Tuesday that the Air Force has informed them Minot Air Force Base will get a second squadron of B-52 bombers and about 1,090 more personnel. The Air Force…

From the UK's Daily Mail, top brass force Brown to review £1bn defence cuts: An emergency review of the country's defences is due to take place following a crisis meeting between the heads of all three armed services and Gordon Brown. The chiefs are understood to have said that cuts ordered by the…

While the worldwide media has been focusing their attention on the torch and Tibet, I think we're ignoring a greater travesty. Namely, the awful pandas that will serve as the official mascots of the 2008 games. A taste... china panda.jpg Beijing 2008 Like all antelopes, Yingying is fast and agile…

In anticipation of the first May Day Parade since the Soviet-era, a panel of U.S. and Russian defense experts has an important message for Ivan: you're weak. A panel of U.S. and Russian defense experts yesterday painted a deeply pessimistic portrait of the state of Russia's military and defense…

Air Force Cyber Command's mission remains unclear: While the U.S. Air Force is busy setting up a cyber command, defense experts are busy debating what, exactly, a cyber command should do... When describing the new command's mission, its chief, Air Force Maj. Gen. William Lord, said it is defending…

Just when you thought MoveOn.org's massive PR blunder was fading into the shadows, HuffPo rescues it from irrelevancy: General Betray Us? Of course he has. MoveOn.org can hardly be expected to recycle its slogan from last September, when Gen. David Petraeus testified in support of escalating the…

The concept of grand strategy certainly does escape the left, doesn't it? From a strictly military point of view, the Democrats' position on Iraq can be maddening. We have to stop fighting the enemy in one theater so that we can fight them in another? We have to cease action mid-battle so that we…

So sayeth two official biographers of the Bush presidency. Faster than usual for an Oliver Stone movie, the film hasn't even entered production and it's already being sharply criticized for favoring left-wing talking points over historical accuracy. Reactions to the script from the biographers were…

I know a few venerable Strategic Air Command warriors who will be more than a little peeved when they see the new Air Force Cyber Command unit patch.

Air Force cuts totally awesome flyovers by over 50 percent: ...it can seem there's hardly an event without a flyover these days. The roar of jet engines is heard at everything from Major League Baseball games to NASCAR races to town fairs and community parades. With requests for flyovers rocketing…

Armed Forces Journal reports: It might be tempting to dismiss the U.S. Navy's potential focus on China as a passing fad - part of the now-familiar phenomena of "China fever." Another perspective holds that this focus can best be explained by a simple case of enemy deprivation syndrome. While there…

Like most members of the defense community, I've grown tired of hearing about Chinese hacks against DoD databases. To live out a military campaign (cyber or otherwise) solely on the defensive is every soldier's nightmare. So I found this to be most welcome news: U.S. military officials seeking to…

David Axe over at Danger Room, in a fine display of alliteration, puts the latest mishap into perspective. B-1 Crash: Bad Year for Bombers The B-2 crash was the type's first, and took out a full five percent of the fleet. Today's crash is the ninth for the currently 70-strong B-1 fleet. Prior to…

In case you missed it, PBS has been airing a superb, grunt-level documentary on the War in Iraq called Bad Voodoo's War. Director Deborah Scranton, employing her revolutionary "virtual embedding" process made famous by The War Tapes, masterfully weaves an inside-out story of the "Bad Voodoo"…

Mixed bag at the big NATO Summit this week: NATO leaders agreed Thursday to endorse a United States missile defense system based in Europe and to provide more troops for Afghanistan, but they refused to back President Bush's proposal to bring Ukraine and Georgia closer to NATO membership.…

Seems like they've been cleaning up lately. This time from across the channel: French electronics firm Thales announced here April 1 that it had won a multi-million-pound contract to provide submarine support services to Britain's Royal Navy. The deal, worth an initial 35 million pounds (44 million…

Interesting discussion from Tom Ricks at the Washington Post: As the experts poke the ashes, I think the emerging consensus is that Moqtada al-Sadr won more than he lost, because he and the government agreed to a cease-fire. That makes him 3 for 3 in taking on state powers (the U.S. in the previous…

Boy the Aussies weren't kidding when they said that they wanted the F-22, were they? DEFENCE Minister Joel Fitzgibbon will step up pressure on the US to overturn its ban on the sale of the F-22 Raptor fighter, amid growing federal government concern about delays and cost increases affecting the…

Because it sounds a lot like "insurgent" to me. The report from CENTCOM: Soldiers from 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, were traveling in a combat patrol to investigate a possible point of origin for an indirect fire attack when their Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle was…

The Guardian reports: For years now, Nato nations have been committed to reach a minimum defence spending target of 2% of GDP. Yet 20 of them, including Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, have fallen far short. Among the six that have reached the target, the shares of four…

The president signals his support for Georgia to join NATO: President Bush indicated support yesterday for Georgia's aspirations to join NATO eventually, but left uncertain whether he will try to start the process at the alliance summit next month in Bucharest, Romania. Russian President Vladimir…

Though the Ruskies still aren't happy about it: Russia's foreign ministry said March 19 it was studying written proposals from the U.S. aimed at allaying Moscow's concerns over Washington's missile defense plans in Europe. The proposals came after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and…

super hornets2.jpg

More evidence that AQI gravely miscalculated in their decision to take the fight to the Iraqi people: Information gleaned from 48 foreign fighters detained in Iraq offers insight into al Qaeda's methods, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman told reporters during a briefing today in Baghdad. "The…

And here I thought Obama was supposed to be the hip candidate: Democrat Barack Obama on Monday promised Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans help with their grievances - save one. "I know it drives you nuts. But I'm not going to lower the drinking age," the presidential candidate said. Army veteran…

From National Journal, The Bills Come Due: Since 1991, the United States has been the world's sole superpower. Now, 17 years later, the armed forces that underwrite that status have begun to fray. Nowhere are the limits of the U.S. military more evident than on the ground in Iraq, and so Congress…

Probably not, but it's still an interesting "what-if." In the face of Iran's race to obtain nuclear weapons, defense officials who will visit the US next week plan to ask the Pentagon to reconsider its decision not to sell Israel the F-22 fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, The Jerusalem Post has…

One of Her Majesty's Finest vs. 150 Taliban. Good odds, it appears. A BRITISH soldier who almost single-handedly took on 150 Taliban after he and his 50-man convoy were ambushed in Afghanistan has been awarded the Military Cross. Fusilier Damien Hields used his grenade machinegun to destroy seven…

It's official. Boeing is going to the mattresses. Boeing Co. said it plans to protest the Air Force's decision to award a $40 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers to a team comprising Northrop Grumman Corp. and the parent company of rival Airbus. The move sets up a protracted political…

F22ClimbingWithAfterburner_1.jpg

After World War II, Congress passed what I consider to be one of the most important pieces of legislation in U.S. history, the GI Bill. The bill, which provided college benefits for troops returning from the war, quite literally built the American middle class. Today the GI Bill is still alive…

Lockheed hits all the right notes: versatile attack/reconnaissance ability, budget concerns, the need for a long-range loitering bird, all while playing out the sort-of obvious attack on a hypothetical "WMD base." Honestly though, all they would have needed to do to sell me on this thing would be…

CJCS to Military: Ditch the peacetime mentality... In a broad-ranging all-hands meeting with Joint Staff members here today, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen discussed the stand-up of U.S. Africa Command, the challenges of leadership in a changing world, and the increased speed of war. Military officials need…

A GWOT draft has been a left-wing fantasy for some time now, most notably pushed by Charlie Rangel to the cheers of the nutroots. The idea is to fill the streets with thousands of kids burning draft cards and recreate the antiwar movement of the 1960s. So even though neither Senator McCain nor the…

China and the United States have agreed to establish a Cold War style hotline: The U.S. and China aim to set up a telephone hot line between their militaries within a month after an agreement signed Feb. 29, the U.S. defense department said. The deal was signed in Shanghai alongside a deal giving…

Northrop Grumman and EADS have somehow managed to defeat heavy-favorite Boeing in the battle to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers. The initial contract for 80 aircraft is valued at $40 billion, and the service has plans to purchase as many as 100 more at an as yet…

There's a great story about General George C. Marshall, who--while posturing the nation for war--took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to hear out some gentleman from the automotive industry. After listening to them for about 5 minutes, Marshall nodded and said "Ok, do it." And so the Army…

Cat's out of the bag: Prince Harry has been serving on the front line with his British army unit in one of Afghanistan's most lawless and barren provinces. Harry is the first royal to serve in a combat zone since his uncle Prince Andrew flew helicopters during Britain's war with Argentina over the…

The Air Force, which needs all the help it can get on the public relations front, has banned access to blogs: The Air Force is tightening restrictions on which blogs its troops can read, cutting off access to just about any independent site with the word "blog" in its web address. It's the latest…

Military.com has the details: One of the pilots of the B-2 stealth bomber, Spirit of Kansas, reported a fire at takeoff from Andersen AFB, Guam which was followed quickly by loss of control of the bomber, according to a senior Air Combat Command official. The stealth bomber rolled uncontrollably to…

Sounds like the rumors of French forces bolstering NATO lines in Afghanistan were true: France may send hundreds of ground troops to east Afghanistan where NATO-led forces are fighting al Qaeda-backed insurgents, Le Monde newspaper reported on Tuesday. It said the move would be part of a new Afghan…

But they still can't have it: Australia could be trusted with the United States' Lockheed F-22 Raptor fighter, US defence secretary Robert Gates says. Currently an Act of the US Congress bars any foreign sales of the Raptor. The aircraft is the US Air Force's most advanced fighter and its sale is…

The truth about Castro: Cuba features a universal health care system, a minuscule 1.9 percent unemployment rate, near-total literacy, complete political "unity" - and hundreds of thousands of people ready to risk their lives to get the hell out.

The "habit" being the Indian Armed Forces' addiction to Russian military gear. I'd love to see the West drive a wedge between India and the Russia-China defense partnership, this seems to be a start: India is likely to make a formal announcement on the awarding of a one-billion dollar contract to…

Let this be a lesson to potentially hostile North Korean and Chinese fishermen: Experts sounded alarm on Feb. 20 over the Japanese military's ability to defend the country after one of its most advanced naval destroyers crashed into a fishing boat, leaving two missing. The collision on Feb. 19 came…

Russia: NATO expansion is such a grave threat to us, we're selling arms to its member states: Russia is eyeing a major arms sale to Greece, which would become the biggest sale to a NATO member country. In December, several Russian media outlets, including the government RIA-Novosti news agency,…

Slate explains "why the Air Force doesn't need more F-22s": On Feb. 13, according to today's issue of Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, Gen. Bruce Carlson, chief of the Air Force's materiel command, told a group of reporters, "We think that [187 planes] is the wrong number" and that the Air Force…

Normally I wouldn't throw such an enormous block quote out at the masses, but today I'm firing for effect. Dear Ministry of Defense Bureaucrats, It is worth remembering that on 6th June 1940 the evacuation from Dunkirk of the BEF had finished two days earlier, with the bulk of their equipment being…

I've long felt that--after several decades of maintaining a peacetime military--Pentagon bureaucracy has become as great of a threat to our Armed Forces as terrorists or insurgents. Looking for a related reference, I stumbled upon a section of Robert Kaplan's Imperial Grunts that I think most…

He gets to that point at the end of his column, titled "Getting the Military Out of the Nuclear Business." The bulk of the piece isn't so much dedicated to defending the title as it is Arkin clumsily fumbling around the findings of an Air Force Blue Ribbon commission. An example: While all the…

I've been remiss in linking to one of my favorite gee-whiz websites, Maps of War. What makes the site so absorbing is their evolutionary approach to cartography. Instead of focusing on a single map of a single battle, MoW tracks ideologies and political movements as they rise and fall over the…

Joel Surnow's decision to walk away from 24 has prompted an outstanding requiem, of sorts, from conservative writer/director Jason Apuzzo: Before Hollywood started working for al-Queda [sic] my biggest complaint with them was how left-wing cliches were killing films and television. Once you know…

The AP reports: The chief of Hezbollah vowed Thursday to retaliate against Israeli targets anywhere in the world after accusing the Jewish state of killing the militant Imad Mughniyeh in Syria. Israel ordered its military, embassies and Jewish institutions overseas to go on alert Thursday, fearing…

Dragons.jpg

4_61_NIMITZ_Bear.jpg An F-18 escorts a Russian bomber near the Nimitz.

There's been much hand-wringing in the Pentagon over the Air Force's role in this new war. As I've said before, the Air Force has about a dozen secondary (and no primary) missions, and is still struggling to find its niche in the military's new small wars and soft power movements. Writing in the…

So General Petraeus appears to be reaping the sweet rewards of his successful pacification efforts:

I'm reluctant to say that Canada's "destroy NATO in order to save it" plan is working, but it doesn't seem to be failing either: A Canadian ultimatum on Afghanistan is forcing allies to take seriously the troubling question of why some countries are being forced to shed more blood than others in…

Hugh Hewitt: The campaign ahead is first and foremost about victory in the war. As Romney argued today, Senators Clinton and Obama are committed to retreat, and Senator McCain to victory in that war. That's all the reason any conservative should need to fully support Senator McCain now that his…

Classy exit from Romney, seems like he hit all the right conservative notes in his concession speech. Here, he hits one out of the park: And finally, let's consider the greatest challenge facing America-and facing the entire civilized world: the threat of violent, radical Jihad. In one wing of the…

KC767.jpg

Bill Ardolino tries to make sense of the kaleidescope of political parties that make up the Iraqi government: The first and arguably most important area of political progress, the "ground-up" aspect, has been a linchpin of US military strategy and is significantly responsible for the large security…

eagles soar.jpg

Cuts "Likely" to UK defense equipment: The UK House of Commons Defence Select Committee has warned of impending defence cuts and is "deeply concerned" that continued operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are eroding the UK armed forces' ability to react to any new contingent operations. In a report…

Cuts "Likely" to UK defense equipment: The UK House of Commons Defence Select Committee has warned of impending defence cuts and is "deeply concerned" that continued operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are eroding the UK armed forces' ability to react to any new contingent operations. In a report…

Artist's conception of 2018 bomber by Erik Simonsen.

Goldfarb already linked this article from General William Caldwell on "changing organizational culture," but it's worth revisiting: The technology of the Twenty-first Century - the "new media" - has made it possible for virtually anyone to have immediate access to an audience of millions around the…

How livid? Well, mad enough to do something that I've never heard of the CIA doing before: publishing a book review on their government website. The offending title is Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA, a Pulitzer Prize winning account of the 60+ year history of the Agency. From…

Blogger Former Spook wrote: ...the Thanksgiving intercept may have been an inadvertent gift from the Russians. The Air Force will use the mission as proof of an escalating threat, that must be met by state-of-the-art fighters like the F-22. True. But we returned the favor. The Russians got what was…

nuclear-explosion.jpg

Back when this violence occurred daily, I thought I understood al Qaeda's strategy: dominate western newspapers with negative headlines and eject Coalition forces from Iraq by riding the wave of the resulting domestic outcry. Now, with the success of the surge, it just seems like AQI is clinging to…

I received this yesterday from a Lt. Col. in the California National Guard: Hi John- I'm one of those a$$hole battalion commanders mentioned in "The Army's Other Crisis." Speaking only for myself, from talking to my guys - National Guard cav troopers - it's pretty clear that the main retention…

Our "clear vision for the future" post of the day comes courtesy of the United States Navy. CNO says Littoral Combat Ship will be the "workhorse" of the Navy: "The Navy has a gap we need to fill in the littoral and that is what LCS is going to do for us," [Admiral Gary] Roughead said. "This ship is…

plebe pile.jpg

69d860abcefee50b19b74a42dbc08c81.jpg

Is retention. In December's Washington Monthly, Andrew Tilghman tries to find out why: In Philadelphia, I met Zeke Austin, a twenty-eight-year-old former captain at Fort Hood, Texas, who left the Army after five years to look for a private-sector job. Austin first explained that he quit because his…

Hot off the presses, the USAF just released the much anticipated (though clumsily named) Roadmap to the Future. I'm including the link to the Air Force's press release, though I won't bother quoting from it, as the Zoomies are notorious for churning out awful canned statements that do nothing but…

Eighteen years after its maiden flight, Russia is starting full production of the Su-34. Russia's Air Force will receive at least five advanced Su-34 fighter bombers in 2008, the Sukhoi plane maker said on Monday. Russia has started this year the full-scale production of the Su-34 Fullback fighter…

I'm back to agreeing with Ralph Peters (sans his use of "mini-surge," blech): As you read these lines, our troops are in the midst of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a "mini-surge" to squeeze al Qaeda and its fast-dwindling band of allies out of their few remaining safe havens in Iraq. Iraqi troops…

B1 bomber Iraq.jpg

f15a2.jpg

So much for NATO. From Fox News, Request made to send 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan: A request has been made by top commanders in Afghanistan to send 3,000 Marines to the country, FOX News has learned. The goal would be to have the Marines in the region by April, the time of year when offensive…

Still fighting the important battles, I see. To coincide with the six-year anniversary of the arrival of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, the American Civil Liberties Union today announced its Close Guantánamo campaign. The ACLU is hosting more than 20 events across the country this week from…

No. And I'm surprised that Ralph Peters--who is a razor sharp strategist--argued otherwise. If the U.S. Navy is to be in the statement-making business, as Peters suggests, better we choose a battle on our own terms rather than Iran's. While I normally enjoy Peters' writing, I found the following to…

Of course the Iranians are calling it a simple "miscommunication," which is BS. Unless you think that I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes doesn't translate clearly from Persian to English. Nothing is official yet, but it sounds like an obvious jab at our naval perimeter.…

olmsted.jpg Major Andrew Olmstead.

How do they stack up? Or, more specifically, which candidate wants to undo 16 uninterrupted years of cuts to our Armed Forces? All of them, actually (sans weird Ron Paul). An overview of their defense proposals follows, but I think the best prescription comes from Fred Thompson. All of the…

Giuliani on his plan to expand the military: ...[one]voter asked Giuliani what spending he would cut to make up for the increase in the military budget. He explained his plan to trim the federal workforce by not replacing workers who retire and to ask most federal agencies to scale back their…

Marine milblogger "Slab" reports from western Iraq: As for my personal end of this little fracas, it's been distressingly quiet. I'm certainly pleased about our progress in this little slice of the province, but ANGLICO is an organization that specializes in delivering large quantities of…

No one set to replace the 1600 man contingent yet, either. From the AFP: The Netherlands announced that Dutch troops would leave Afghanistan from July 2010, though it remained uncertain whether other nations would send enough soldiers to replace them. "I do not have assurances that other countries…

Just posted at Michael Yon's website is a superb memo from retired General Barry McCaffrey on the state of affairs in Iraq. You won't find a more honest assessment that better summarizes what went right and what went wrong in 2007. Read the whole thing here. While the focus of the memo is justly…

vcomm.jpg

reaper6.jpg

Israeli Air Force to Lockheed: Hurry it up: Israel plans to keep its aerial domination of the Middle East intact, and that includes buying Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, accelerating its first deliveries, and deciding whose advanced equipment will be packed into the stealthy strike…

Iran Kicks off War Games in 7,000-Mile Persian Gulf Area: TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran began four-days of war games in the Persian Gulf Monday, designed to ensure it can protect the nation's territorial waters, islands and coastlines, as well as neighboring countries, from foreign threats.…

From Aviation Week, Dutch airpower fighting the good fight in Afghanistan: The Netherlands defense ministry has released photos showing the preparations for the large airmobile operation conducted Dec. 7 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, by mainly Afghan, American and British troops of the NATO-led…

Google sets its sights on the moon: It has been many decades since we explored the Moon from the lunar surface, and it could be another 6 - 8 years before any government returns. Even then, it will be at a large expense, and probably with little public involvement. The Google Lunar X PRIZE seeks to…

Positive Trends in Anbar Permanent, Coalition Commander Says: Positive trends in Iraq's Anbar province are permanent, the commander of coalition forces in western Iraq said today. Iraqi security forces in the province are shouldering the security burden, and they are 19 months away from assuming…

The Joint Cargo Aircraft plot thickens: The Senate has made a case that the Air Force and Army, which have been sharing the C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft program, should begin to part company on the project. The Army sought $157 million in Fiscal 2008 for JCA work. Senators, in their 2008 defense…

There was a time when C-130s had to deploy countermeasures just to land at Baghdad International Airport. CENTCOM: For the first time in 14 years, a commercial airlines flight departed the Mosul Airport Dec. 2, carrying Muslim religious pilgrims on their annual trek to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The…

Last Friday, U.S., British, and Afghani forces started chipping away at the new Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala (see Bill Roggio's coverage here). The battle has turned into a real bar fight, though--after a three days of intense combat--it's looking like the bad guys are starting to knuckle under.…

The US Air Force isn't the only one with planes falling out of the sky. British MoD officials report that the September Nimrod crash that killed 14 RAF members was caused by a leaky fuel line. Both the Royal and US Air Forces operate archaic fleets of aircraft, both are trying to modernize, and…

Check aim before you fire, Stanford: Nearly the entire faculty of Stanford Law School has signed an e-mail to students encouraging those interested in a career in the military to meet recruiters off campus, a move that one Stanford alum argues puts the school at risk of violating the Solomon…

Jane's reports that Pakistan is considering hybrid weapons package for ugliest fighter ever. JF17.jpg Photo courtesy of Defence Talk. I don't toss around "worse than the Saegeh" lightly, folks.

No, not really. From the Air & Space Power Journal: First, the USAF has operated with some success in COIN environments before but has lost the peculiar capacities associated with COIN following drawdowns or conversions after each conflict. This is an unsurprising result, given the fact that…

Despite promises to remove "some" troops from Iraq, new Aussie PM Kevin Rudd says that defense procurement plans will remain on track. Few major defense-policy changes are expected in the wake of the Nov. 24 general election that brought to power Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd. Rudd…

Israel enters the NIE fray: Israeli officials, who've been warning that Iran would soon pose a nuclear threat to the world, reacted angrily Tuesday to a new U.S. intelligence finding that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons development program in 2003 and to date hasn't resumed trying to produce…

In what should be the last time Code Pink visits Pakistan: Pakistan authorities today ordered the deportation of the leader of the feminist U.S. antiwar group Code Pink, who was in Lahore to join protests against the emergency rule imposed by President Pervez Musharraf, according to a spokeswoman…

BBC took terror trainers....paintballing? The BBC funded a paintballing trip for men later accused of Islamic terrorism and failed to pass on information about the 21/7 bombers to police, a court was told yesterday. Mohammed Hamid, who is charged with overseeing a two-year radicalisation programme…

The UK's internal war over defense spending is heating up: Proposals to slice up to £15bn from the defence budget over the next decade have been drawn up by the Treasury, provoking bitter rows within Whitehall and the cabinet at a time when the military are under enormous pressure to meet…

Just to add to Tom Joscelyn's excellent post on the National Intelligence Estimate, Cliff May offers this note from a former CIA insider: [While this NIE] does confirm Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons in 2002 and 2003, its conclusions that as to why it may have stopped the program and why this…

From the "Hey we're still relevant!" files comes the Air Force's airpower summary report. SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- Coalition airpower integrated with coalition ground forces in Iraq and the International Security Assistance Force troops in Afghanistan during operations Dec. 1, according to Combined…

In a superb piece from the Wall Street Journal, Michael M. Phillips illustrates just how profoundly the Army's new COIN evolution has transformed the force. A natural-born insurgent, Sgt. First Class Jacob Stockdill was brimming with malicious suggestions when a group of American soldiers and…

I've heard rumblings in the defense community that the India was going to start self-manufacturing defense equipment, and buy up what they couldn't produce on their own from the West. I guess injecting your military with legions of cheap Russian goods is a tough habit to break: Despite Russia's…

The Army's strategic vision for their own UAV force has been more or less in motion for the past few years. First they wanted four classes of unmanned vehicles, each tasked with supporting a unique level of command (platoon, company, battalion, brigade). Smelling redundancy, Army leadership burned…

The Norwegians are reporting that Russian submarine and bomber sorties jumped in the latter half of 2007. While this isn't exactly breaking news, the "hey, it's cool guys" reaction from the Norwegians--a nation that once postured its entire military against Soviet land, air, and sea incursions--is…

The wonders of nuclear fission never cease. Discharge from nuclear power plant turns Lake Anna into hot springs: MINERAL, Va. -- As fisherman Roger A. Hanna Sr. sped across Lake Anna one morning this month, the air temperature hovered barely above freezing. But his digital water gauge registered a…

Crotch Crisis Cripples Army is the headline: The Army is retrofitting 1 million uniforms to bolster pants that have been tearing during the rigors of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers in Iraq began reporting "crotch durability problems" with their combat uniforms in July 2005, according to…

ugly bride.jpg The honeymooners pose for a candid.

Albeit 3,300 years ago. The New Scientist asks, Were Cursed Rams the First Biological Weapon?: Ancient written texts from the Middle East may reveal that the use of biological weapons dates back more than 3300 years, according to a new review. The historical documents hint that the Hittites - whose…

Not as honorable as you might think. STATEN ISLAND (CBS) ― A man who dresses from head-to-toe as a ninja, complete with samurai-style weapons, and burglarizes homes in mostly upscale areas of Staten Island, has struck again, police believe, twice over the weekend. That would bring the total…

Reuters reports U.S. Navy steps up fuel deliveries to Gulf forces: The U.S. military has stepped up chartering of tankers and requests for extra fuel in the U.S. Central Command area, which includes the Gulf, shipping and oil industry sources say. A Gulf oil industry source said the charters…

Historically, when nations shift from a peacetime to a wartime footing, defense spending and force size increase. But in the United Kingdom, forces and spending have actually shrunk since 9/11. The Telegraph reports British Forces Underfunded and Overstreched: General Lord Guthrie, Admiral Lord…

Chris Hedges of the Nation seems to fancy himself a reincarnation of Henry David Thoreau. Only Thoreau was protesting a war that actually existed. From his latest, "Hands Off Iran": I will not pay my income tax if we go to war with Iran. I realize this is a desperate and perhaps futile gesture. But…

From the AP, Hailstorm Sets Off Bomblets: BEIRUT - The season's first hailstorm Tuesday was a blessing in disguise for cluster bomb-infested parts of southern Lebanon, triggering blasts from previously unexploded bomblets. No injuries were reported. After a long dry spell across Lebanon, hailstones…

Are the Ruskies reading from the book of Rumsfeld? Russian Army Chief of Staff Yuri Baluyevsky says da. In a press conference last week, Baluyevsky said that: Russia's Armed Forces, like all militaries in the world, would be putting an emphasis on quality, not quantity. "It will be a leaner but…

Petraeus is helping pick new Generals: The Army has summoned the top U.S. commander in Iraq back to Washington to preside over a board that will pick some of the next generation of Army leaders, an unusual decision that officials say represents a vote of confidence in Gen. David H. Petraeus's…

It's that time of the year, folks. Project Valour-IT has turned into a blogosphere monster, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy voice-activated laptops for soldiers' who have lost the use of their limbs. coxforkumvalourit.gif

FOR NEARLY 200 years, cadets at the United States Military Academy have been guided by the "Thayer System," a rigid structure of unyielding regulation, austere discipline, fierce loyalty, and strong emphasis on math, science, and engineering. The method is calculated to produce Army officers of the…