McMaster: Russian Info Ops Major Focus Of New National Security Strategy

WASHINGTON: Fact. China controls 90 percent of the world’s trade with North Korea. When President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar a Lago club there was, “frank recognition that China does have a great deal of control — a great deal of control over that situation, mainly through the coercive power…

Chinese Missiles Can Wipe Out US Bases In Japan: Aegis, THAAD Can Stop Em

Chinese Missiles Can Wipe Out US Bases In Japan: Aegis, THAAD Can Stop Em
Chinese Missiles Can Wipe Out US Bases In Japan: Aegis, THAAD Can Stop Em

WASHINGTON: A Chinese surprise attack tomorrow could annihilate US forces and bases in Japan, two Navy officers found. But deploying more missile defenses — Army THAAD and Navy Aegis — would protect most targets north of Okinawa, Commanders Thomas Shugart and Javier Gonzalez found in simulations. Such a stronger defense, in turn, would reduce the…

Navy Must Boost Carrier Air Wings’ Range, Size & Lethality

Navy Must Boost Carrier Air Wings’ Range, Size & Lethality
Navy Must Boost Carrier Air Wings’ Range, Size & Lethality

Paris Air Show attendees take note. The Navy needs more new strike fighters to cope with falling readiness rates. Will they be Super Hornets, F-35s or Block III Super Hornets? What mix does the US Navy need as it grapples with boosting the size of the fleet to 355 ships? And what about the MQ-25…

Artificial Stupidity: Fumbling The Handoff From AI To Human Control

Artificial Stupidity: Fumbling The Handoff From AI To Human Control
Artificial Stupidity: Fumbling The Handoff From AI To Human Control

Science fiction taught us to fear smart machines we can’t control. But reality should teach us to fear smart machines that need us to take control when we’re not ready. From Patriot missiles to Tesla cars to Airbus jets, automated systems have killed human beings, not out of malice, but because the humans operating them…

Aircraft Carrier: The Nation’s Trump Card Reborn

Aircraft Carrier: The Nation’s Trump Card Reborn
Aircraft Carrier: The Nation’s Trump Card Reborn

The usefulness of the aircraft carrier, long the centerpiece of American naval power in the world, was in serious question, even by me, one year ago. Chronic underfunding, poor strategic assumptions and bad acquisition decisions had left the carrier defensively unprotected and offensively underpowered as its airwing both shrank in size and striking range. President Trump’s election and…

McCain’s Excellent White Paper: Smaller Carriers, High-Low Weapons Mix, Frigates, Cheap Fighters

McCain’s Excellent White Paper: Smaller Carriers, High-Low Weapons Mix, Frigates, Cheap Fighters
McCain’s Excellent White Paper: Smaller Carriers, High-Low Weapons Mix, Frigates, Cheap Fighters

Sen. John McCain issued a provocative and comprehensive alternative budget for the Pentagon on Monday, Restoring American Power: Recommendations for the FY 2018-FY 2022 Defense Budget. Jerry Hendrix, a strategy and naval expert at the Center for New American Security, crunched the numbers from McCain’s White Paper and authored this analysis for our readers. Read…

Marines Seek To Outnumber Enemies With Robots

Marines Seek To Outnumber Enemies With Robots
Marines Seek To Outnumber Enemies With Robots

PENTAGON CITY: Since World War II, the US military has always expected to fight outnumbered. Soon, however, expendable unmanned systems may change that. For the first time in 70 years, America could have numbers on its side. That turns traditional assumptions about tactics, technology, and budgets upside down. “It does flip things,” said Lt. Gen.…

Day One: Next Prez Must Be Ready For Crisis

Day One: Next Prez Must Be Ready For Crisis
Day One: Next Prez Must Be Ready For Crisis

WASHINGTON: Whoever is elected the next president of the United States must stand ready for crisis to strike “at 12:01 on January 20th,” the Secretary of the Navy warned today, lest America’s adversaries see a window of opportunity. What Ray Mabus and his fellow service secretaries didn’t say, at least out loud, speaks volumes. With Russia meddling in…

New Threats Spark DoD Spending Debate: Thinktanks Ponder $2 Trillion In Options

New Threats Spark DoD Spending Debate: Thinktanks Ponder $2 Trillion In Options
New Threats Spark DoD Spending Debate: Thinktanks Ponder $2 Trillion In Options

WASHINGTON: If you were hoping, after a bitterly contentious presidential campaign, that at least we’d have consensus on national defense spending…tough luck. Instead, teams from five leading thinktanks — spanning the political spectrum but all using the same budget simulator — came up with a more than $2 trillion spread of options. They debated their plans…

UN Ruling Won’t End South China Sea Dispute: Navy Studies Next Clash

UN Ruling Won’t End South China Sea Dispute: Navy Studies Next Clash
UN Ruling Won’t End South China Sea Dispute: Navy Studies Next Clash

A UN tribunal ruling could trigger the next round of brinksmanship in the South China Sea as early as next week. But don’t expect the ruling to end the dispute, especially since the Chinese have already vowed to ignore an adverse ruling. “It’s…not likely to be resolved this year or by one international ruling, no matter how brilliant…

SecDef Carter Unveils DIUX 2.0; Cans Current Leadership

SecDef Carter Unveils DIUX 2.0; Cans Current Leadership
SecDef Carter Unveils DIUX 2.0; Cans Current Leadership

SILICON VALLEY: Defense Secretary Ash Carter changed the leadership today of his flagship office trying to improve relations with entrepreneurs and major companies here. At the same time, Carter reorganized the Defense Innovation Unit (Experimental) — DIU(X) — to link it directly to his office, largely bypassing the traditional Pentagon acquisition system. In a prepared statement…

Carter: ‘Yes’ To Arms Sales To Vietnam; DoD Won’t Elaborate

Carter: ‘Yes’ To Arms Sales To Vietnam; DoD Won’t Elaborate
Carter: ‘Yes’ To Arms Sales To Vietnam; DoD Won’t Elaborate

WASHINGTON: One word from Defense Secretary Ash Carter yesterday opened the door to US arms sales to Vietnam, a former enemy turned potential ally against a rising China. The administration has tiptoed towards easing the ban on lethal weapons sales ever since Vietnamese president Truong Tan Sang met with Obama in 2013, but Carter’s statement…

Wargame Warns NATO Unready For Baltic Crisis

Wargame Warns NATO Unready For Baltic Crisis
Wargame Warns NATO Unready For Baltic Crisis

WASHINGTON: NATO would be dangerously slow to respond to a crisis scenario in the Baltics, warns a new report on a closed-doors wargame. That raises the unsettling possibility that in a Crimean-style land grab, Russia could simply seize what it wants before the US and its allies react. Compared to Vladimir Putin’s nimble mix of…

CBARS Drone Under OSD Review; Can A Tanker Become A Bomber?

CBARS Drone Under OSD Review; Can A Tanker Become A Bomber?
CBARS Drone Under OSD Review; Can A Tanker Become A Bomber?

WASHINGTON: The Navy’s new flying robot fuel truck, CBARS, is being reviewed by senior officials in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Breaking Defense has learned. Details about the current review are hard to come by. But our regular readers may be getting déjà vu, because the predecessor program, the UCLASS recon/strike drone, was stuck in OSD…