The Military’s Real Readiness Crisis; Petraeus & O’Hanlon Are Wrong

The Military’s Real Readiness Crisis; Petraeus & O’Hanlon Are Wrong
The Military’s Real Readiness Crisis; Petraeus & O’Hanlon Are Wrong

It’s no news to Breaking Defense readers that the U.S. military faces a readiness crisis. But retired Gen. David Petraeus apparently disagrees. Yes, the military’s budget has been cut by 25 percent in real terms since 2011—much of it coming from accounts used to maintain and build combat readiness. Yes, leaders from the Army, Navy,…

Grim World May Help Ease Grim Army Budget

Grim World May Help Ease Grim Army Budget
Grim World May Help Ease Grim Army Budget

WASHINGTON: Alice in Wonderland‘s White Queen could believe in “six impossible things before breakfast.” The Army may not be that nimble but its leaked budget plan for 2017-2021 (first reported by Inside Defense) does make a whole string of assumptions: Budget Control Act cuts won’t happen, despite the lack of encouraging signs of a sequestration deal.…

Hill Hurts Innovation, Just Like DoD – But We Can Change: Forbes, Langevin

Hill Hurts Innovation, Just Like DoD – But We Can Change: Forbes, Langevin
Hill Hurts Innovation, Just Like DoD – But We Can Change: Forbes, Langevin

WASHINGTON: “We have the presumption we’re going to have the competitive edge when it comes to technology,” said Rep. Randy Forbes, “[that] just because we’ve had it in the last several decades that somehow or other we’re destined to have it in the future.” That’s a dangerous mistake, Forbes said Thursday at the Carnegie Endowment,…

Wall Street Journal Scrambles To Catch Up With Breaking D

We don’t do this very often, mostly because it’s just so declasse to note the difficulty one’s competitors may have in matching one’s content, but today’s Wall Street Journal op-ed on the grim and crucial conflict between the two contracts America has with its troops leaves us almost too satisfied to speak. The op-ed, by…

Closing Bases Can Be Good For Business, Brookings Scholars Say; Some Locals May Want Them Shuttered

Closing Bases Can Be Good For Business, Brookings Scholars Say; Some Locals May Want Them Shuttered
Closing Bases Can Be Good For Business, Brookings Scholars Say; Some Locals May Want Them Shuttered

Technicians work on a Pratt & Whitney 2000 engine, used by both commercial and military aircraft. WASHINGTON: Close bases. It’s often good for the local economy. Yes, sequester’s a disaster and the federal government is gridlocked. But as a country, “we’re still kicking ass in a lot of areas,” Brookings Institution expert Michael O’Hanlon told…

F-35 Sails Through Crucial Senate Hearing; Witnesses Testify There’s No Alternative

F-35 Sails Through Crucial Senate Hearing; Witnesses Testify There’s No Alternative
F-35 Sails Through Crucial Senate Hearing; Witnesses Testify There’s No Alternative

CAPITOL HILL: The Pentagon’s most expensive conventional weapon program emerged largely unscathed from perhaps its most intensive review before the crucial congressional subcommittee that controls military funding. As over budget and behind schedule as the $391 billion, 2,443-plane F-35 program has fallen since initial promises of a low-cost, multi-service Joint Strike Fighter, two high-powered panels…

Bipartisan Defense Experts Urge Congress, Sec Def Hagel To Close Bases, Change DoD Pay

UPDATED THROUGHOUT WITH COMMENTS FROM CAPITOL HILL EVENT CAPITOL HILL: In an extraordinary letter to defense lawmakers and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, experts from nine Washington think tanks on the left and the right call for fundamental fixes to the defense budgets that, left undone, “threaten the health and long-term viability of America’s volunteer military.” The…

Pay Afghanistan, Boost Drone Strikes In Pakistan, Experts Tell House

CAPITOL HILL: The US must not go ahead with planned cuts to the Afghan National Army and police, a panel of experts urged the House Armed Services Committee today. Instead, we must keep spending $6 billion a year to support 350,000 Afghan security personnel, go slowly on drawing down our own forces — and escalate…