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Archive for the ‘Services’ Category
Beware the Easy Answer of Just Arming Others
It is perhaps not a surprise that the strategy for conflict management coming from the war-weary US has been trending towards a transfer of responsibility to foreign partners. Indeed, President Obama’s May 2010 National Security Plan outlines four initiatives for ensuring international order: Ensure Strong Allies, Build Cooperation with Other Centers of Influence, Strengthen Institutions, […]
F-35 and F-18; Changing fortunes
Not so long ago, the days of the F-18 seemed numbered. At least on paper, the Navy was committed to the carrier variant of the F-35, and production of the F-18 was ramping down. But aging of the current fleet and F-35 delays have created a very different picture. The two charts below illustrate the […]
The Navy’s High-Tech $50,000 Kitty-cat Removal System
The Navy’s High-Tech $50,000 Kitty-cat Removal System It is almost too easy to mock the six-agency, 18 month, $3 million effort to clear 59 cats off of a Navy-owned island. The island of San Nicolas hosts a launch platform for short and medium missile testing, and radar observation facilities for missile testing. At […]
Cutting defense spending responsibly
Diligent’s J. Michael Barrett had an article entitled, “Cutting defense spending responsibly” in todays Congress Blog over in The Hill newspaper. A link to it at their site is here: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/209505-j-michael-barrett-principal-diligent-innovations.
BRAC should be based on sound military strategy, not jobs creation
As part of the overall effort to significantly reduce defense spending President Obama will soon ask congress to establish a Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Commission. While some analysts are concerned about losing military infrastructure and the ability to quickly reconstitute our forces should war require it, many other military decision makers have acknowledged this […]
Beware the False Economies of Smart Strategies
The basic tenets of the 16-page DoD overview released last week (available here) appear relatively sound on the surface. The devil is in both the details and in the actually doing, not the saying – but a focus on Asia and the Middle East is reasonable, and hopefully the concepts of rapid forward-deployable ‘lily-pads’ will […]
Affordability–the new watchword
On the heels of the new strategy, DoD has now released a white paper on what the programmatic implications are, and a condensed Programmatic Decisions List. The actions are extensive and represent real cuts to force structure and formerly projected acquisitions. However, many decisions with major fiscal implications are deferred, fudged or ignored, for now. […]
The “Joint Operational Access Concept” – first look disappoints
On January 17th, the Pentagon released version 1.0 of the Joint Operational Access Concept (1.5 MB PDF file). By the standards of joint doctrine, it makes for interesting reading and introduces new ideas. By most other standards, it disappoints, and perhaps raises more questions than it answers. Its stated purpose is to be an overarching concept […]
Acting out, Iran sentences former US Marine to death as a “spy”
Commentary by Diligent’s J. Michael Barrett: Today’s news of the death sentence for a former U.S. Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, as a “spy” is yet another example of Iran’s clumsy way of sending the message that they are serious about the simmering conflict brewing between Iran and the West. The 28-year-old former military translator was […]
Defense spending: people versus things
As the Defense Department prepares to release a new strategy in January and confronts the harsh realities of a flat or even declining budget, one of the little-mentioned complications is the large and growing cost of active duty military personnel. Baker Spring of the Heritage Foundation has just published a piece on this: “An Unacceptable […]