US Needs New Strategy To Combat Russian, Chinese ‘Political Warfare’: CSBA

US Needs New Strategy To Combat Russian, Chinese ‘Political Warfare’: CSBA
US Needs New Strategy To Combat Russian, Chinese ‘Political Warfare’: CSBA

If war is politics by other means, then politics is war by other means, Chinese and Russian leaders believe. And political warfare must be conducted with the same ruthless ingenuity as open war because the stakes are equally high: the survival or destruction of the regime.

Allies Must Develop Own Robots, Not Just ‘Copy’ US: Aussie War College Chief

Allies Must Develop Own Robots, Not Just ‘Copy’ US: Aussie War College Chief
Allies Must Develop Own Robots, Not Just ‘Copy’ US: Aussie War College Chief

“If at some point in future, you need to expand your capability, expand your military,” Maj. Gen. Ryan said, “Australia’s at the end of a very long line of industrial resupply, and we might want to have the capacity ourselves.”

The End Of The American Way of War; The Cold War Really Is Over

The End Of The American Way of War; The Cold War Really Is Over
The End Of The American Way of War; The Cold War Really Is Over

The American way of war — using overpowering industrial might, crushing firepower, and owning the sea and skies — may have come to an end, a top Pentagon official says. For the past two decades, “the Chinese and the Russians have been working to undermine that model,” said Elbridge Colby, deputy assistant secretary of defense…

Manpower, Parts Shortages Would Hinder Navy In Wartime

Manpower, Parts Shortages Would Hinder Navy In Wartime
Manpower, Parts Shortages Would Hinder Navy In Wartime

Faced with erratic funding from Congress, the Navy has pursued cost-efficiency so rigorously that it has cut corners and compromised peacetime safety and, very possibly, wartime performance. Crews are shorthanded and spare parts stockpiles are low.

No ‘Automaticity,’ But Yes To Low Yield Nukes: NPR

No ‘Automaticity,’ But Yes To Low Yield Nukes: NPR
No ‘Automaticity,’ But Yes To Low Yield Nukes: NPR

PENTAGON: The United States government sees a fundamentally more threatening world today, one that requires a more nuanced balance of delivery systems than we’ve deployed since the end of the Cold War. That’s really the change that has driven the results of the Trump Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, officially released today. Careful transparency continues to…

Congress Must Protect Tech From DoD Bureaucracy, And Itself: Experts

Congress Must Protect Tech From DoD Bureaucracy, And Itself: Experts
Congress Must Protect Tech From DoD Bureaucracy, And Itself: Experts

UPDATED w/ Mahnken interview CAPITOL HILL: The US military is not ready for war against Russia or China, leading experts told the House Armed Services Committee this morning. How can Congress help? Champion new technologies that would otherwise drown in the Pentagon bureaucracy, they said, the way it did with the Predator drone and Tomahawk missile in…

Reviewing The Navy’s Strategic Readiness Review: What’s Right, What’s Missing

Reviewing The Navy’s Strategic Readiness Review: What’s Right, What’s Missing
Reviewing The Navy’s Strategic Readiness Review: What’s Right, What’s Missing

The Navy’s new Strategic Readiness Review lays out a bold program to fix the fleet after a summer of deadly collisions. Commissioned and championed by Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, the SSR (as it’s already initialized) will shape the debate in the Pentagon and in Congress for 2018. So we asked submariner-turned-thinktanker Bryan Clark to review…

Trump’s New National Security Strategy: Economics Trumps Military, Human Rights

Trump’s New National Security Strategy: Economics Trumps Military, Human Rights
Trump’s New National Security Strategy: Economics Trumps Military, Human Rights

UPDATED: Adds Mattis Comment On Allies WASHINGTON: While partisans on both sides will try to recast President Trump’s new legally-mandated National Security Strategy in their own terms, we’re going to try and analyze it in terms of what it actually means. One of the wisest and most rational defense strategists in this country, Anthony Cordesman,…

Boost The US Bomber Force: Dollars vs. Operational Needs

Boost The US Bomber Force: Dollars vs. Operational Needs
Boost The US Bomber Force: Dollars vs. Operational Needs

The United States Air Force should consider shifting its balance of its strike forces from fighters to long-range bombers. At the end of the Cold War, the Air Force’s combat aircraft inventory included 411 bombers. Today, it has a total of 158 B-1, B-52, and B-2 bombers, of which only 96 are designated as Primary…

Why America Needs A Nuclear Air Launched Cruise Missile

Why America Needs A Nuclear Air Launched Cruise Missile
Why America Needs A Nuclear Air Launched Cruise Missile

UPDATED: We Run Op-Ed; Pentagon Announces LRSO Contract The Pentagon just awarded the third major contract in the modernization of the nuclear triad. First came the B-21 bomber. Then the Columbia-class submarine, to replace the Ohio class boomers. Two days ago they awarded Boeing and Northrop Grumman contracts to begin work on the new version…

Is The Arctic The Next South China Sea? Not Likely

Is The Arctic The Next South China Sea? Not Likely
Is The Arctic The Next South China Sea? Not Likely

WASHINGTON: Oil, gas, and minerals on the seabed. Disputed territorial claims. An increasingly aggressive China. Are we talking about the South China Sea or the Arctic Ocean? “As I look at what is playing out in the Arctic, it looks eerily familiar to what we’re seeing in the East and South China Sea,” Adm. Paul…

Underwater Bloodhounds: DARPA’s Robot Subs

Underwater Bloodhounds: DARPA’s Robot Subs
Underwater Bloodhounds: DARPA’s Robot Subs

Run silent, run deep — and now, run in packs? Submarines are traditionally lone wolves, but the rise of robotics is starting to change that. Just yesterday, defense contractor BAE announced a $4.6 million award from DARPA to build an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) to accompany manned submarines, helping them spot targets by sending out…

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Army Boosting Laser Weapons Power Tenfold

Army Boosting Laser Weapons Power Tenfold
Army Boosting Laser Weapons Power Tenfold

ARLINGTON: The Army is dialing up its lasers, from 5 to 10 kilowatt weapons that torched quadcopters in successful tests to 50 to 100 kW weapons that could kill helicopters and low-flying airplanes — and, possibly, blind cruise missiles as well. Given rising anxiety over Russia’s Hind gunships, Frogfoot fighters, and Kalibr missiles, the technology…

Navy Steers Well Away From An LCS Frigate

Navy Steers Well Away From An LCS Frigate
Navy Steers Well Away From An LCS Frigate

UPDATED w/ Sen. McCain’s “optimism,” Cdr. Clark’s analysis WASHINGTON: At 1:10 pm today, the Navy issued its official wishlist for its future frigate and set a 45-day deadline for shipbuilders to respond. As acting Navy Secretary Sean Stackley had promised, today’s Request For Information (RFI) opens the door wide to both US and foreign designs. It…