‘We’ll Work Our Asses Off,’ Air Force Chief Pledges In Wake of Super Tucano Fiasco

‘We’ll Work Our Asses Off,’ Air Force Chief Pledges In Wake of Super Tucano Fiasco
‘We’ll Work Our Asses Off,’ Air Force Chief Pledges In Wake of Super Tucano Fiasco

WASHINGTON: The Air Force leadership is hurting in the wake of another botched acquisition and the continuing Dover Air Force Base burial scandal, and you could see it in the face of Gen. Norton Schwartz this morning. The latest cock-up forced the Air Force to set aside, effective March 2, the $355 million contract for…

Air Force to Axe Super Tucano, Investigate Choice Of Brazilian Plane For Afghanistan

BREAKING [updated 4:15 pm with new contractor responses]: The Air Force will terminate its contract to buy a new Light Air Support plane for the fledgling Afghan air force, and it will launch an investigation into the original decision to select the Brazilian-designed Super Tucano aircraft being provided by Sierra Nevada Corporation. Rival contractor Hawker…

Boeing’s ‘Hummingbird’ Out of Mix For New Marine Corps Drone

CORRECTED We deeply regret the several corrections this story has required. We spoke with NavAir to ensure it now accurately reflects events at the time. FT. LAUDERDALE: Boeing’s premiere helicopter drone is out of the mix to become the Marine Corps’ new unmanned aerial cargo hauler. Company officials are negotiating with their NAVAIR counterparts to…

A Glimpse Inside Special Forces Training of Top Afghan Cops; Rule of Law Vs. Corruption

AFGHANISTAN: International Special Operations Forces play an important but largely unheralded role in Afghanistan. American Army Rangers, Green Berets and Delta Force, along with Navy SEALs and Air Force specialists work with the best from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and a host of other allied nations to kill and capture insurgents and terrorists. They also…

Army Shifting Combat Stockpiles To Pacific: Army Chief Odierno

CAPITOL HILL: The Army is in the midst of a service-wide review on how it will shift its mountain of metal from Southwest Asia to the Pacific, according to Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno. Army leaders, working with combat commanders, are studying what options exist to store the Army’s stockpiles of prepositioned equipment in…

Marines Test Helo Drone To Haul MREs and H2O to FOBs

WASHINGTON: The proposition can’t be proven yet, but it’s likely some Marines in Afghanistan who might have been killed or wounded since mid-December by roadside bombs, aka IEDs, are alive and well today thanks to an experimental unmanned helicopter the Corps is testing. Between Dec. 17 and Jan. 12, two remotely piloted but largely automated…

Direct Action Mission Likely To Decline for Special Operators

WASHINGTON: Over the next few years, Special Operations forces will gradually revert to the role that has been their bread and butter for much of their existence: training and assisting local forces around the globe to strengthen partners militaries. The global Special Operations presence will be large, some 12,000 troops around the world, according to…

Afghan Village Fight Illustrates More Lethal COIN Strategy

MARZAK, Afghanistan — In the middle of the night on July 23, U.S. Special Forces infiltrated a bowl-shaped valley in Paktika Province in remote eastern Afghanistan. Their target: a major Taliban encampment just outside this, which hadn’t had a government presence in decades. Taliban fighters had been using Marzak as a rest stop on the…

New DoD Strategy Quietly Targets Africa, South America

WASHINGTON: The White House’s newly-minted national security strategy is full of big ideas. But among all these big ideas is a much smaller one that could draw the Pentagon much deeper into the small wars that have defined America’s global counterterrorism campaign. U.S. special operations forces and counterinsurgency specialists returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are…

Northrop Pitches New Fire Scout To Marine Corps

WASHINGTON: The Navy’s newest Fire Scout drone may also become the Marine Corps newest aerial cargo drone if prime contractor Northrop Grumman has its way. The Marines are currently testing Lockheed Martin’s KMAX aerial drone and Boeing’s A160 Hummingbird as potential candidates for the unmanned airlift mission. Naval Air Systems Command recently decided to stop…

Air Force Buys Light Attack Planes For Afghans — Not U.S.

Air Force Buys Light Attack Planes For Afghans — Not U.S.
Air Force Buys Light Attack Planes For Afghans — Not U.S.

Just before the New Year, the U.S. Air Force finally selected a new Light Air Support plane for ground attack in counterinsurgency, picking the Brazilian Super Tucano over the American AT-6– whose manufacturer, Wichita, Kan.-based Hawker Beechcraft, is filing suit over the decision [update: leading the Air Force to issue a stop-work order on the…

Did Cyberattack Bring Down The ‘Beast Of Kandahar’?

WASHINGTON: Speculation on how Iran was able to capture the Pentagon’s stealthy RQ-170 unmanned aircraft has consumed defense and intelligence insiders for weeks. But recent reports based on sources in Tehran claim the highly-classified drone was brought down by an Iranian cyberattack. Iranian engineers were allegedly able to hack into the unmanned aircraft’s control systems…

Army Seeks Answers, Combs Through ‘Alternative Futures’

Escalating cyber threats, a struggling economy, the rise of China, and the unpredictable impact of the Arab Spring will dominate the next decade. At least, that’s the best collective guess of a conclave of academic experts, government officials, and military officers from the U.S. and abroad, convened by the United States Army. Their objective: This…

Army To Slash Light Combat Vehicle Fleet; Review Underway

Washington: The Army’s fleet of light tactical vehicles is about to get a lot smaller once a service-wide review wraps up. Army Training and Doctrine Command is fine-tuning a plan to cut a significant number of light armored vehicles and replace them with the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, according to an Army official with knowledge…