New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte already publicly congratulated President-elect Donald Trump, praising his push to get more members towards spending more on defense.
By Ashley Roque“The contradictions and the flaws in this report are so blatant that I think it’s a pretty weak reed to lean on…given the fact that [the Trump administration] basically were just doing Obama’s shipbuilding plan up until this point,” says Rep. Joe Courtney
By Paul McLeary“If anything, the provocations are coming from Beijing. The bullying behavior…is where the provocateurs lie, not with Taiwan [which is] maintaining its own self defense,” a top State Department official says.
By Paul McLearyIt’s unclear if Robert O’Brien’s calls for hypersonic missiles on destroyers and building more frigates indicate he is inserting himself in Pentagon budget planning.
By Paul McLeary“This is a terrible idea for several reasons,” Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute said. The oldest ships would need to undergo a service life extension, while the newer ships would have to undergo expensive upgrades for a complex new mission.
By Paul McLearyAs Trump takes heat from his own party over a proposed troop drawdown in Germany, new US drone and armor bases in Poland are in the works.
By Paul McLeary
President Donald Trump has identified a fact few of his recent predecessors have understood: the Defense Industrial Base of the United States (DIB) is a critical component of our national security. The DIB is more important than any individual weapons program – be it an aircraft carrier, long range bomber, or high-tech tank. But for too…
By Jerry Hendrix and Robert O'Brien