Colin Clark

Colin Clark

Contributing Editor (At Large)

Colin Clark, the founding editor of Breaking Defense, is now our Indo-Pacific Bureau Chief, based in Sydney, Australia. In addition to his foundational efforts at Breaking Defense, Colin also started DoDBuzz.com, the world’s first all-online defense news website. He’s covered Congress, intelligence and regulatory affairs for Space News; founded and edited the Washington Aerospace Briefing, a newsletter for the space industry; covered national security issues for Congressional Quarterly; and was editor of Defense News. Colin is an avid fisherman, grill genius and wine drinker, all of which are only part of the reason he relishes the opportunity to live in Australia. cclark@breakingmedia.com

Stories by Colin Clark

F-35C’s First Catapult Launches From USS Nimitz

F-35C’s First Catapult Launches From USS Nimitz
F-35C’s First Catapult Launches From USS Nimitz

SAN DIEGO: Yesterday, the F-35C made its first catapult takeoffs from the USS Nimitz. The video and photo have just been made available. No word on whether election shenanigans were involved… Make sure you go to the YouTube video settings and increase the resolution to 1080 for that high-def experience! Enjoy the photos — fine work…

Post Election: Kendall Glum On Chances To Scrap Sequestration

Post Election: Kendall Glum On Chances To Scrap Sequestration
Post Election: Kendall Glum On Chances To Scrap Sequestration

UPDATED: AEI’s Eaglen Argues Mini Budget Deal Likely DSAN DIEGO: The day after an election should be about hope. It should be — except maybe for the losers — a time to celebrate possibilities. Well, so much for the couple of hours of slumbering hope we all had after going to bed late last night. Frank…

Battle Rages For San Diego (Navy) House Seat

Battle Rages For San Diego (Navy) House Seat
Battle Rages For San Diego (Navy) House Seat

UPDATED: Incredibly Close Vote; DeMaio Leads Wednesday AM By 752 Votes SAN DIEGO: There’s a hot race on here to represent much of the home of naval aviation. Scott Peters, the incumbent Democrat from the 52nd district, faces a rare bird, an openly gay Republican — Carl DeMaio — who appears to have pledged his…

F-35C To Navy: Note My Lovely USS Nimitz Landings

F-35C To Navy: Note My Lovely USS Nimitz Landings
F-35C To Navy: Note My Lovely USS Nimitz Landings

ABOARD USS NIMITZ: The first F-35C seemed to float through the air toward the slowly pitching deck of the USS Nimitz, looking as if it was hanging by a wire and heading implacably to the ship’s arresting wires. The weather was gorgeous, with the massive carrier sailing some 40 miles off the San Diego coast through…

F-35 Ahoy! Navy Version Of JSF Faces Nimitz’s Tests

F-35 Ahoy! Navy Version Of JSF Faces Nimitz’s Tests
F-35 Ahoy! Navy Version Of JSF Faces Nimitz’s Tests

WASHINGTON: The next two weeks will be enormously important for the Navy’s carrier-based version of the Joint Strike Fighter as two F-35Cs undergo extensive testing operating from the USS Nimitz. The Navy has been the least committed of the three services buying versions of the Joint Strike Fighter, so if the two planes being tested…

Air Force F-35 IOC May Be In Peril; Pratt, DoD Shake On $1B F135 Deal

Air Force F-35 IOC May Be In Peril; Pratt, DoD Shake On $1B F135 Deal
Air Force F-35 IOC May Be In Peril; Pratt, DoD Shake On $1B F135 Deal

F-35 JOINT PROGRAM OFFICE: When Sen. Kelly Ayotte and her supporters blocked retirement of the A-10 fleet, it’s not likely they knew the F-35 program might suffer. But that’s exactly what Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, head of the huge F-35 program, told reporters this afternoon will happen unless something changes. In the conference room where the F-35 program…

Levin May Hand Off To McCain: Continuity for SASC?

Levin May Hand Off To McCain: Continuity for SASC?
Levin May Hand Off To McCain: Continuity for SASC?

CAPITOL HILL: This is a story of ifs. If the GOP wins the Senate. If the GOP wins they still have to woo six Democrats to get important legislation passed. If the Obama administration decides to play hardball after the election. It’s a lot of ifs. But as of now, the New York Times electoral…

DoD, Lockheed Shake On 29 F-35s; Price Drops 3.6%

WASHINGTON: It’s finally official. After months of senior program and Pentagon officials saying they were really close to a deal, Lockheed Martin and the Joint Program Office just announced they’ve got agreement in principle for the Defense Department to buy another 29 Joint Strike Fighters. The eighth Low Rate Initial Production contract includes 19 F-35As, six F-35Bs…

Biometrics May Mean End Of The Spy’s Disguise

Biometrics May Mean End Of The Spy’s Disguise
Biometrics May Mean End Of The Spy’s Disguise

SOMEWHERE IN WASHINGTON: Spy movie makers love retinal scans and ever-more inventive ways to steal or modify fingerprints. Former CIA Director David Petraeus and the Joint Special Operations Command relied heavily on retinal scans, DNA sampling, fingerprints, facial and body recognition — all cross referenced with other intelligence — to build enormous cross-linked databases that helped track and…

Shyu On GCV, Upgrades, Sequestration; US ‘Overmatch’ At Stake

Shyu On GCV, Upgrades, Sequestration; US ‘Overmatch’ At Stake
Shyu On GCV, Upgrades, Sequestration; US ‘Overmatch’ At Stake

AUSA: The Honorable Shyu, as everyone in the military calls the head of Army acquisition, is often bright, humorous and insightful. Today, she got passionate in public, clearly frustrated at the painful limits that the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration have forced her to adopt. American military power has traditionally rested on technological overmatch. We…

New Weapons Spell Death For Drones; The Countermeasure Dance

New Weapons Spell Death For Drones; The Countermeasure Dance
New Weapons Spell Death For Drones; The Countermeasure Dance

AUSA: For years, Predator drones have been able to fly unopposed through most of their missions. If we can do that, you can be sure other countries are working hard to deploy drones to do to us as we have done to them. Taking the classic dance of measure and countermeasure, strike and counterstrike, the Army and other…

DRS Unveils Very Small SIGINT Sensor

DRS Unveils Very Small SIGINT Sensor
DRS Unveils Very Small SIGINT Sensor

WASHINGTON: Imagine reconnaissance teams operating in enemy territory being able to hump in their own tiny  signals intelligence (SIGINT) sensors, able to gather intel on both electronic emissions (ELINT) and communications (COMINT). Ok, they don’t have to hump them in because each one weighs roughly two-and-half pounds. Sound like science fiction? Well, DRS, the American…

First Woman To Head Intel Agency Passes Torch; Cardillo Takes NGA Reins

First Woman To Head Intel Agency Passes Torch; Cardillo Takes NGA Reins
First Woman To Head Intel Agency Passes Torch; Cardillo Takes NGA Reins

NGA HEADQUARTERS: It’s not often defense reporters listen to a beautifully restrained brass quintet while working. But Tish Long, the outgoing director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, brought that kind of glamor to the increasingly crucial NGA, so we did get to listen to a unique and pleasing rendition of God Bless America, among other…

DoD IG Criticizes Air Force Reaper Buy

DoD IG Criticizes Air Force Reaper Buy
DoD IG Criticizes Air Force Reaper Buy

UPDATED: Head of Air Force ISR, Lt. Gen. Otto,  Says IG Info Out of Date WASHINGTON: The Air Force planned to buy 401 Reaper drones for $76.8 billion but didn’t know why it was going to buy that many, the Pentagon’s Inspector General says in a new report. “This occurred because Air Combat Command officials did not: follow…

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