No service can fight on its own: JADC2 demands move from self-sufficiency to interdependency

No service can fight on its own: JADC2 demands move from self-sufficiency to interdependency
No service can fight on its own: JADC2 demands move from self-sufficiency to interdependency

Making all-domain operations a warfighting capability means integrating, fusing, and disseminating a sensor picture appropriate for a particular theater segment, not all of them, says the Mitchell Institute’s David Deptula.

On Its Birthday, The Air Force Needs To Fight For What It Deserves

On Its Birthday, The Air Force Needs To Fight For What It Deserves
On Its Birthday, The Air Force Needs To Fight For What It Deserves

On Sept. 17th, the Air Force celebrated its birthday with pomp, circumstance and cake. Behind the celebration, however, there are dangerous trends seen within the service, including a number of key platforms that are aging out and major expenses about to hit. David Deptula, the dean of the Mitchell Institute, says the service needs to…

ACK, STITCHES And The Air Force’s Networking Hopes

ACK, STITCHES And The Air Force’s Networking Hopes
ACK, STITCHES And The Air Force’s Networking Hopes

“Believe it or not, we found that the primary barriers to being able to field the software tools are bureaucratic, said Heather Penney of the Mitchell Institute.

Aerospace Industrial Base Can’t Handle The Future: Mitchell Institute

Aerospace Industrial Base Can’t Handle The Future: Mitchell Institute
Aerospace Industrial Base Can’t Handle The Future: Mitchell Institute

The F-35 aside, the report recommends that the Air Force “resist future participation in any joint aircraft procurement or development programs.”

Air Force Leaders Exits ‘Business As Usual, Experts Say; Roper Rumors

Air Force Leaders Exits ‘Business As Usual, Experts Say; Roper Rumors
Air Force Leaders Exits ‘Business As Usual, Experts Say; Roper Rumors

Outgoing AF acquisition head Will Roper is rumored “to be in the mix” to take DoD acquisition czar Ellen Lord’s place, along with CSIS’s Andrew Hunter.

Top 10 Stories Of 2020: DARPA Dogfights To Polish Bridges

Top 10 Stories Of 2020: DARPA Dogfights To Polish Bridges
Top 10 Stories Of 2020: DARPA Dogfights To Polish Bridges

The list is an impressive marker of the breadth of topics we cover as we chronicle the strategy, policy and politics that decide the weapons America and its allies buy, and how we use them.

Combatant Commanders Want Reaper To Stay

Combatant Commanders Want Reaper To Stay
Combatant Commanders Want Reaper To Stay

The Air Force wants to cut its workhorse drone, the MQ-9 Reaper. The combatant commanders that use the MQ-9 don’t want to see that happen.

Army Says Long Range Missiles Will Help Air Force, Not Compete

Army Says Long Range Missiles Will Help Air Force, Not Compete
Army Says Long Range Missiles Will Help Air Force, Not Compete

The military services are working together on how to use long-range, land-based missiles to destroy enemy anti-aircraft defenses, says the director of artillery modernization at Army Futures Command.

Long-Range All-Domain Prompts Roles & Missions Debate

Long-Range All-Domain Prompts Roles & Missions Debate
Long-Range All-Domain Prompts Roles & Missions Debate

“It’s ridiculous, to be quite candid. It is encroachment on roles and missions,” says Mitchell Institute’s Dave Deptula about Army plans for super long-range weapons that rival the capabilities of Air Force combat aircraft.

New DoD Policy To Ease Space Secrecy Near: Raymond

New DoD Policy To Ease Space Secrecy Near: Raymond
New DoD Policy To Ease Space Secrecy Near: Raymond

Raymond said that by next year “there will be a separate officer that would command US Space Command; I would be focused as the CSO for the Space Force.”

War With Iran Could Be Sharp & Short With Fifth Gen Aircraft: Deptula

War With Iran Could Be Sharp & Short With Fifth Gen Aircraft: Deptula
War With Iran Could Be Sharp & Short With Fifth Gen Aircraft: Deptula

PRELUDE: Early morning, 0240 Baghdad time on January 17, 2020 (1840 EST 16 Jan 2020), marked the 29th anniversary of the start of Operation Desert Storm. It was a turning point in the conduct of warfare and set the conditions for modern warfare. The recent hostilities between Iran and the United States reinforce the importance…

Budget Battles: IC Costs Mean Air Force Gets Short Straw, Say Advocates

Budget Battles: IC Costs Mean Air Force Gets Short Straw, Say Advocates
Budget Battles: IC Costs Mean Air Force Gets Short Straw, Say Advocates

While service in-fighting for budget share is a perennial fact of political life, this year’s version resembles the fictional, to-the-death “Hunger Games,” as all the services struggle with an essentially flat 2021 DoD top line and a mandate to shift gears away from fighting against low-level insurgencies toward global competition with Russia and China.

Hands Off, Budgeteers! DoD Must Fund Our Small Bomber Fleet

Hands Off, Budgeteers! DoD Must Fund Our Small Bomber Fleet
Hands Off, Budgeteers! DoD Must Fund Our Small Bomber Fleet

If an aircraft like the B-1 was taxed so hard due to high demand, the appropriate lesson is that the nation needs more bombers, not less.

DARPA’s Mosaic Warfare — Multi Domain Ops, But Faster

DARPA’s Mosaic Warfare — Multi Domain Ops, But Faster
DARPA’s Mosaic Warfare — Multi Domain Ops, But Faster

“Kill webs,” not kill chains. Instead of exquisite platforms like the F-35 fighter, exquisite functional technology nodes (such as an advanced infrared sensor) that can be mixed and matched via AI-enhanced networks.