Brig. Gen. Patrick Ellis, I Corps chief of staff, said his team was able to send mission command information from a Stryker, in mid-air transit aboard a C-17 headed to Guam, back to Joint Base Lewis-McChord using the airplane’s antenna.
By Andrew EversdenIntegrating commercial off-the-shelf computing on military platforms and how to make it work
The systems may be off-the-shelf, but the packaging for integration on vehicles and ships provides cradle-to-grave resiliency.
In a massive simulated conflict, the human players adapted rapidly to futuristic technologies and tactics. But their command-and-control software couldn’t keep up.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The massive Army Materiel Command needs to get a lot lighter on its feet for future conflicts, its four-star chief says.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
HUNTSVILLE: Modernizing the Army is about much more than equipment. To defeat Russia and China in future multi-domain warfare — or better yet, deter them — the service is contemplating cultural revolutions as ripe for controversy as any multi-billion dollar weapons program. They include allowing junior officers more initiative, ending chronic micromanagement; creating long-term “regimental” affiliations…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“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.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“The Battle of Guadalcanal was a brutal campaign, but shows us what the next fight could be like,” Vice Adm. Brown said. “Usually, the CO (skipper), XO (executive officer) and senior officers – even admirals – were killed immediately – but what happened?”
By Paul McLeary
But while the skies are quiet today, US Pacific Air Forces are preparing for possible conflict: fielding new weapons like the F-35 stealth fighter and the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), adding more space-operations planners to theater staffs, and reemphasizing that old-fashioned initiative so junior commanders can act when an enemy cuts off their communications with higher headquarters.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Top defense insights from 2024
A curated look at standout opinions and analysis covering topics like uncrewed systems, NATO partnerships, US-Saudi defense dynamics, and evolving warfare strategies, spotlighting key issues shaping the global defense landscape.
AUSA: After a generation of centralized control and absolute air superiority, the US Air Force needs to decentralize to handle high-tech adversaries, the head of Air Combat Command said Wednesday. Top-down direction won’t always work against enemies who can hack or jam our communications networks, Gen. Mike Holmes said. That means we need to devolve…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Hate updating the software on your smart phone? Then have compassion for the Army, which is trying to standardize its computer systems across more than 400 units in the next 28 months. The objective is a “single software baseline,” where every unit has the same set of information technologies. Such standardization should simplify everything from…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
CAPITOL HILL: The Army is conducting a wide-ranging review of “a whole series of vulnerabilities” in its communications systems that extends far beyond the troubled WIN-T program, the Chief of Staff and acting secretary told reporters today. The review will make recommendations on streamlining IT acquisition in general, not just on specific technologies, Gen. Mark…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
ARMY & NAVY CLUB: To win the fast-paced and brutal battles of the future, Army generals must let their subordinates off the leash, the Chief of Staff said here yesterday. “What we do, in practice, is we micromanage and overly specify everything the subordinate has to do, all the time,”Gen. Mark Milley told an Atlantic…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: Shipbuilding is under pressure in the 2017 budget, but that didn’t stop the Chief of Naval Operations from sketching out his service’s “next warship” this morning. He wants ships built from the keel up for cyber and electronic warfare. He wants modular designs that can be updated at the speed of Moore’s Law. And…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: In the brutal naval battles of the future, the first clash of arms will be a clash of electrons. If you don’t win the invisible battle of the airwaves, you can’t win the visible battle of missiles. Before warships can concentrate their fire on the enemy, they first must communicate with each other. Before they…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
CRYSTAL CITY: Left with a patchwork of field and homebase systems as military networking exploded after 9/11, the Army is striving to rationalize its systems so troops can train with the same systems they fight with. “During the last 12-13 years at war, units were buying capabilities that were not consistent across the board at home station just to…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
