“I don’t think that Vladimir Putin, who I think is a realist, wants to destroy us or our democracy, (though) they did meddle… and they will do it again if they can,” Bearden said. “They will continue to stir the pot, (but) I think they’re as amazed by what we’re doing to ourselves as perhaps we are.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Better user interface and experience create faster decision-making in multi-domain operations
Improved UX and UI can enable smarter use of AI and automation, helping warfighters manage data-rich environments and make faster, more informed decisions.
WASHINGTON: Hope for the best; prepare for the worst. It’s a standard military prescription for dealing with a sometimes hostile and usually unpredictable world. It’s also what an African-American chum told me this morning was his plan for life under President Trump. This guy is a fellow Chicagoan and Cubs fan, so he knows how to…
By Colin Clark
- Air Warfare, budget, Congress, Land Warfare, Naval Warfare, Networks & Digital Warfare, Space, Threats
The Case for Donald Trump on National Defense
Throughout this presidential campaign, the candidates have barely discussed the most important elements of national security, the United States’ armed forces. We’ve tried to flesh things out, with the excellent force structure and budget analyses done by Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Analyses. But Mark had to work with very few…
By Mike Wynne
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…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. When Donald Trump discussed his defense program in Philadelphia on Wednesday, the bluster and lunacy of the primary season were gone and he offered a scripted position paper that reflected (mostly) mainstream Republican ideas. There is still lots one might disagree with, but the discipline of the teleprompter meant that he read a staff-prepared paper that put…
By Mark Cancian
WASHINGTON: In the face of a lot of what he called “catastrophizing” about the “very volatile time for the country” known as the presidential transition, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper offers a simple message: “It’ll be OK.” Of course, that reassurance came after Clapper outlined the dark precautions that are taken on Inauguration Day, including the designation of…
By Colin Clark
Autonomy changes everything about combat engineering
Sending robotic vehicles into the breach saves lives by removing humans from one of the most dangerous places on the battlefield.
NAVAL STATION GREAT LAKES, ILL: As Russian cyber espionage heats up the presidential campaign, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said his Pentagon reforms will endure under the next president, whoever he or she may be. “These things that we’re doing, we the leadership collectively discuss them, invent them, so everybody understands why we’re doing these things,”…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
This presidential primary process has been a huge (or, yuge) disappointment. The most disappointing aspect, perhaps, is the failure of the candidates to address the details of their budgetary and defense strategies, and in particular, the cyber security policies they will pursue as Commander-in-Chief. The party platforms may offer more information about Donald Trump’s and Hillary…
By John B. Wood
- Air Warfare, budget, Congress, Land Warfare, Naval Warfare, Networks & Digital Warfare, Space, Threats
Clinton’s Defense Spending: Vague But More Hawkish Than Obama
This completes our series on the initial defense plans of the major presidential contenders for the 2016 election. Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies will keep his eye on Clinton and Trump’s campaign as we get more details (presuming we do) and analyze them. Read on. The Editor Hillary Clinton really,…
By Mark Cancian
We are approaching the presidential primaries, the silliest of the political silly seasons. Magical thinking abounds as candidates appeal to their bases with few constraints on the promises they make or the sentiments they espouse. So it is with defense issues, as the presidential candidates, a group of highly accomplished people (yes, even Donald Trump),…
By Mark Cancian
Mitt Romney recently offered a PowerPoint presentation at his annual ideas festival in Park City, Utah to highlight President Barack Obama’s 20 worst foreign policy mistakes, grist for his argument that Obama is “the worst foreign policy president in history,” and Hillary Clinton a well-traveled but mistake-prone former “Secretary of Schlep.” In this election season…
By James KitfieldWASHINGTON: After months of deadlock and $2.1 billion in extra costs to the Pentagon, Pakistan agreed to reopen NATO supply lines to Afghanistan after getting the high-level civilian apology it had long sought from the US. The price besides American pride? Zero. Top Afghanistan commander Gen. John Allen and other military officers had expressed regret…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: At 10 o’clock today, the Administration’s push to pass the Law of the Sea treaty will come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If history is any guide, that’s as far as it will ever get. Committee chairman Sen. John Kerry declined to give odds on ratification, saying that would be “premature”: “I just…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
No one has done a better job of predicting the final outcomes of deals on the defense budget since sequestration was made law than Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute. So we asked her to predict what this election will mean to the 2018 defense budget. With the election tomorrow, we couldn’t think of a…
By Mackenzie Eaglen