All-Domain Ops Require Rethinking Combatant Commands: Goldfein

All-Domain Ops Require Rethinking Combatant Commands: Goldfein
All-Domain Ops Require Rethinking Combatant Commands: Goldfein

“This is foundational to who we are,” Goldfein says of the new all-domain operations warfighting concept.

‘Bob, How Do We Bottle This?’ Making Infantry As Good As Special Ops

‘Bob, How Do We Bottle This?’ Making Infantry As Good As Special Ops
‘Bob, How Do We Bottle This?’ Making Infantry As Good As Special Ops

Our elite close combat forces are outnumbered. As a national priority we must increase the numbers of those capable of doing these hazardous jobs by transferring the skills of JSOC warriors to Army and Marine conventional infantrymen.

‘Thousands’ More Troops To US Border, But Colombia Deployment Unclear: Shanahan

‘Thousands’ More Troops To US Border, But Colombia Deployment Unclear: Shanahan
‘Thousands’ More Troops To US Border, But Colombia Deployment Unclear: Shanahan

Shanahan spent much of his first formal (albeit off-camera) Pentagon pressroom briefing as SecDef emphasizing continuity with his ousted predecessor, Gen. Jim Mattis. He made a point of praising Mattis’s National Defense Strategy, America’s allies, and even the press – not exactly favorites of President Donald Trump.

Trump’s Pick For Joint Chiefs Praises Allies, Kurds & Mattis Strategy

Trump’s Pick For Joint Chiefs Praises Allies, Kurds & Mattis Strategy
Trump’s Pick For Joint Chiefs Praises Allies, Kurds & Mattis Strategy

“The Army has aligned itself with Secretary Mattis’s National Defense Strategy, which we will not walk away from,” Gen. Milley told an Association of the US Army breakfast. “It’s a solid strategy, it’s written in history, it’s written in the blood of generations past, and we subscribe to it.” And allies are key to the strategy.

‘Hold Fast, Alongside Our Allies’: Mattis Farewell Invokes Civil War

‘Hold Fast, Alongside Our Allies’: Mattis Farewell Invokes Civil War
‘Hold Fast, Alongside Our Allies’: Mattis Farewell Invokes Civil War

Mattis’s last message to the troops is three brief, carefully crafted paragraphs packed with historical references and political messages — which are implicitly critical of President Trump.

After Mattis: Strategic Challenge & Opportunity For President Trump

After Mattis: Strategic Challenge & Opportunity For President Trump
After Mattis: Strategic Challenge & Opportunity For President Trump

Whatever you think of Jim Mattis, his resignation and the outflow of officials that will follow create a major foreign policy problem for the United States. There is not one ally who is applauding Mattis’s departure — but depart he will, all the same. So what must President Trump and his next defense secretary do,…

Trump Tries to Take Control of Mattis Narrative

Trump Tries to Take Control of Mattis Narrative
Trump Tries to Take Control of Mattis Narrative

The relationship went through a messy ending. Will the president now try and give Mattis the Rex Tillerson treatment?

The Secretary Of Reassurance Has Resigned: Farewell To Mattis

The Secretary Of Reassurance Has Resigned: Farewell To Mattis
The Secretary Of Reassurance Has Resigned: Farewell To Mattis

WASHINGTON: After two years of reassuring US allies that Donald Trump’s America would not abandon them, Jim Mattis finally had enough. Even before Trump was sworn in as president, the announcement that he would pick Mattis as his Secretary of Defense was met with delighted relief “from the right, from the left, and from overseas.”…

$750 Billion Or Bust? Trump’s (Latest) Big Defense Budget Bound For Big Fights

$750 Billion Or Bust? Trump’s (Latest) Big Defense Budget Bound For Big Fights
$750 Billion Or Bust? Trump’s (Latest) Big Defense Budget Bound For Big Fights

Few of the experts we spoke to expect the administration to actually see the full $750 billion President Trump will reportedly propose this week. Between Trump himself calling the figure a “negotiating tactic” and the potential for it driving a $1.2 trillion deficit, the odds are awfully long.

Mattis Vs. Mulvaney: The Coming Budget Clash & The Reagan Legacy

Mattis Vs. Mulvaney: The Coming Budget Clash & The Reagan Legacy
Mattis Vs. Mulvaney: The Coming Budget Clash & The Reagan Legacy

We have been here before. In 1982 Caspar Weinberger and David Stockman had a similar showdown referred by President Reagan. DOD won that time. What does that have to tell us about the impending Mulvaney–Mattis showdown? And if OMB wins this time, would Mattis stay on?

Mattis’s Infantry Task Force: Righting ‘A Generational Wrong’

Mattis’s Infantry Task Force: Righting ‘A Generational Wrong’
Mattis’s Infantry Task Force: Righting ‘A Generational Wrong’

Retired Maj. Gen. Bob Scales is the former commandant of the Army War College, a Vietnam veteran (and recipient of the Silver Star for valor) turned military historian and futurist. He’s also one of the fathers of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s Close Combat Lethality Task Force to reform the infantry. In this op-ed, Scales goes…

The Pentagon’s First-Ever Audit: A Big Disappointment?

The Pentagon’s First-Ever Audit: A Big Disappointment?
The Pentagon’s First-Ever Audit: A Big Disappointment?

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is preparing to release its first-ever audit as soon as this week, making it the last federal agency to complete a top-to-bottom scrubbing of its processes, business practices and finances. The fallout is likely to be messy. While expectations have built over the years that the audit will uncover large savings and…

Joint Experiments Will Pick Budget Winners & Losers: Dunford

Joint Experiments Will Pick Budget Winners & Losers: Dunford
Joint Experiments Will Pick Budget Winners & Losers: Dunford

ARLINGTON: To cut $33 billion from the 2020 budget – as President Trump has ordered – and still compete against Russia and China, the Pentagon’s political and joint leadership must take a firmer hand with the four armed services, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said this afternoon. [Read how a Tea Party congressman turned…

DIB Calls BS On Buzzwords: Defense Innovation Board

DIB Calls BS On Buzzwords: Defense Innovation Board
DIB Calls BS On Buzzwords: Defense Innovation Board

Besides digging out ineptitude with a sharp spade, the DIB guide also offers constructive suggestions, even including 16 specific software programs to use for specific purposes, from version control to bug reports.