SecAF: Don’t Expect Large Budget Increases After 2019; $2.4B Set For Light Attack

SecAF: Don’t Expect Large Budget Increases After 2019; $2.4B Set For Light Attack
SecAF: Don’t Expect Large Budget Increases After 2019; $2.4B Set For Light Attack

The Air Force placed a $2.4 billion placeholder in the 2019 budget to buy Light Attack Aircraft over the next five years, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters this morning.

HASC EW Expert Bacon: US ‘Not Prepared’ For Electronic Warfare Vs. Russia, China

HASC EW Expert Bacon: US ‘Not Prepared’ For Electronic Warfare Vs. Russia, China
HASC EW Expert Bacon: US ‘Not Prepared’ For Electronic Warfare Vs. Russia, China

WASHINGTON: The US military is “not prepared” to conduct radio and radar jamming against high-end adversaries, a veteran electronic warfare officer now in Congress says. We have made major progress jamming terrorist communications in Afghanistan and Iraq, says Rep. Don Bacon, a retired one-star general who recently visited both countries. But even against such low-tech foes,…

All Active Combat Brigades Trained Vs. New Russian Tactics: FORSCOM

All Active Combat Brigades Trained Vs. New Russian Tactics: FORSCOM
All Active Combat Brigades Trained Vs. New Russian Tactics: FORSCOM

AUSA: In February 2014, when Russian troops seized Crimea, almost no one in the US Army had trained for great power war. But since then, the head of Forces Command told me, every active-duty combat brigade has gone through at least one high-intensity wargame at the famed Combat Training Centers on Fort Irwin, Calif. and…

Air Force Cautions On Light Attack Combat Test: AF1 Refueling Update

Air Force Cautions On Light Attack Combat Test: AF1 Refueling Update
Air Force Cautions On Light Attack Combat Test: AF1 Refueling Update

PENTAGON: It’s always difficult to tell when the military is covering its tuckus and when it’s just being careful. So when the outgoing head of the Air Force press desk, Col. Patrick Ryder, told reporters this afternoon that the service had not made any decision about whether to go ahead with a combat test of…

Light Attack Competition: Air Force, McCain Tout Acquisition Experiment

Light Attack Competition: Air Force, McCain Tout Acquisition Experiment
Light Attack Competition: Air Force, McCain Tout Acquisition Experiment

CORRECTED: TACO GILBERT’S AFFILIATION HOLLOMAN AFB: It may be hard to believe but the future of the Air Force may depend on three turboprop planes and a $20 million spec-built attack jet. They are the entries in what the service calls the Light Attack Experiment, a back-to-the-future attempt to rekindle the sort of innovation and…

Contractors in Afghanistan: What Erik Prince Gets Right

Contractors in Afghanistan: What Erik Prince Gets Right
Contractors in Afghanistan: What Erik Prince Gets Right

Eric Prince, the former CEO of Blackwater, argues for expanded use of contractors in Afghanistan. Some of his proposals deserve attention. The idea apparently resonated with the White House (though not with Secretary of Defense Mattis) and has continued to get attention. Prince is widely regarded as the spawn of Satan because of the many…

Army Chief’s Thinktank Studies Major War

Army Chief’s Thinktank Studies Major War
Army Chief’s Thinktank Studies Major War

ARMY WAR COLLEGE: If you want to know what the Army Chief of Staff is thinking, don’t just ask around the Pentagon. Drive a couple hours north through rural Pennsylvania — passing the Gettysburg battlefield on the way — to the Army War College here in quiet Carlisle. An institution whose influence has waxed and…

Army Builds Advisor Brigades: Counterinsurgency Is Here To Stay

Army Builds Advisor Brigades: Counterinsurgency Is Here To Stay
Army Builds Advisor Brigades: Counterinsurgency Is Here To Stay

WASHINGTON: After a decade of debate, the US Army is finally creating permanent units dedicated to advising foreign forces. The six new Security Force Assistance Brigades will be a marked departure from the ad hoc training teams used throughout the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They would also be well suited to build up local…

McCain’s 300 Low-End Fighters A ‘Great Idea:’ CSAF Gen. Goldfein

McCain’s 300 Low-End Fighters A ‘Great Idea:’ CSAF Gen. Goldfein
McCain’s 300 Low-End Fighters A ‘Great Idea:’ CSAF Gen. Goldfein

WASHINGTON: A key part of Sen. John McCain’s alternative defense budget proposal is the rapid purchase of 300 “low-cost, light-attack fighters that would require minimal work to develop.” I asked Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein today what he thought of McCain’s proposal, contained in Restoring American Power. “Great idea,” he said, pointing…

2017 Forecast: What Does Trump Want The Army To Do? ISIS, Russia, Or China?

2017 Forecast: What Does Trump Want The Army To Do? ISIS, Russia, Or China?
2017 Forecast: What Does Trump Want The Army To Do? ISIS, Russia, Or China?

WASHINGTON: More than any other service, the Army’s future is uncertain under Trump. On the upside, the President-Elect has promised to boost the Army‘s budget and grow its ranks by almost 15 percent. On the downside, Trump seems deeply skeptical of what has become the service’s driving mission: deterring Russian aggression in Europe. [We rolled…

Trump’s Generals: How Wartime Service Shaped Mattis, Kelly, & Flynn

Trump’s Generals: How Wartime Service Shaped Mattis, Kelly, & Flynn
Trump’s Generals: How Wartime Service Shaped Mattis, Kelly, & Flynn

Among the many anxieties inspired by the rise of Trump, one of the most profound is his fondness for generals. Does naming so many retired military men to top positions undermine the principal of civilian control? How might their shared experiences in our post-9/11 conflicts shape the way they govern? This week, award-winning defense reporter…

A-10, Then A-11 And A-12? Air Force Ponders CAS Future

A-10, Then A-11 And A-12? Air Force Ponders CAS Future
A-10, Then A-11 And A-12? Air Force Ponders CAS Future

UPDATED: Adds Ayotte Comment WASHINGTON: The Air Force is considering not one, but two replacements for the aging A-10 Warthog close air support plane. But analysts wonder why, given that the service is already building a new bomber (the B-21), a new tanker (the KC-46), a new fighter (the F-35A), they would want to build two Close…

Obama Keeps 8,400 Troops In Afghanistan: McCain Lukewarm, Thornberry Scathing

Obama Keeps 8,400 Troops In Afghanistan: McCain Lukewarm, Thornberry Scathing
Obama Keeps 8,400 Troops In Afghanistan: McCain Lukewarm, Thornberry Scathing

WASHINGTON: President Barrack Obama promised this morning to keep 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan through the end of his term. The relatively modest cut of 14 percent (down from today’s 9,800) is much less of a drawdown than Obama had once hoped for, especially as US commitments creep upward in Iraq and Syria. But leading pro-defense…

Confronting Conflict In The ‘Gray Zone’

Confronting Conflict In The ‘Gray Zone’
Confronting Conflict In The ‘Gray Zone’

A new Army War College report, Outplayed: Regaining Strategic Initiative in the Gray Zone, argues that the United States should adopt innovative approaches against a new and more complex set of international security challenges. “Outplayed” is the culmination of a nine-month study effort that was sanctioned by the Army Chief of Staff and sponsored by…