Colin Clark, the founding editor of Breaking Defense, is now our Indo-Pacific Bureau Chief, based in Sydney, Australia. In addition to his foundational efforts at Breaking Defense, Colin also started DoDBuzz.com, the world’s first all-online defense news website. He’s covered Congress, intelligence and regulatory affairs for Space News; founded and edited the Washington Aerospace Briefing, a newsletter for the space industry; covered national security issues for Congressional Quarterly; and was editor of Defense News. Colin is an avid fisherman, grill genius and wine drinker, all of which are only part of the reason he relishes the opportunity to live in Australia.
ORLANDO: America’s new long-range bomber program is “underway,” will involve somewhere between 80 and 100 planes and will be delivered sometime in the mid-2020’s. “And that’s about all we’re saying,” Air Force Secretary Mike Donley told reporters. It’s been known for some time that the bombers will not fly alone but will be part of […]
ORLANDO: It is the most expensive conventional weapon system ever built. At least one government estimate puts the total cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at roughly $1 trillion over the presumed 50-year life of the aircraft. The three F-35’s variants — one each for the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines — […]
The GPS network continues to prove its unmatched reliability, and it’s only getting stronger.
ORLANDO: He didn’t use the word sequestration — perhaps because the Air Force is still trying to explain the C-27’s “divestiture” — but Gen. Norton Schwartz told the Air Force Association’s winter conference today that “we fully expect we will be making further tough [budget] calls.” It wasn’t completely clear whether Schwartz was referring to […]
WASHINGTON: It has all the hallmarks of what could have become a very embarrassing political and technical scandal. A company called LightSquared got provisional permission from the chairman of the FCC to go ahead with a 4G system that the military said — unequivocally — would jam the crucial signals from Global Positioning System satellites. […]
CAPITOL HILL: The Obama administration’s defense budget raises the risks to American security to an “unacceptable” level, if you believe Sen. Joseph Lieberman and a number of Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. If you believe Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the risks are […]
CAPITOL HILL: The U.S. relationship with China is not the top priority for the likely commander of Pacific Command. Instead, North Korea tops the list, followed by America’s ties with its Pacific allies. China, as a country, comes third. The listing of priorities clearly reflects the volatile nature of the North Korean regime, made only […]
The network transport architecture for NGC2 could be a hybrid approach that combines high assurance communications with 5G, WiFi, and multi-orbit satellites.
WASHINGTON: Defense conferences rarely attract much notice from the American public but we saw a spark today as a demonstrator leapt onto the stage while Rep. Buck McKeon spoke in favor of a strong defense and robust funding for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. “These drones are playing God,” the slight, middle-aged woman shouted, trying to unfurl […]
WASHINGTON: Over the next few years, Special Operations forces will gradually revert to the role that has been their bread and butter for much of their existence: training and assisting local forces around the globe to strengthen partners militaries. The global Special Operations presence will be large, some 12,000 troops around the world, according to […]
WASHINGTON: Given earlier comments by the F-35 program head, today’s remarks by the acting head of Pentagon acquisition that “putting the F-35 into production years before the first test flight was acquisition malpractice,” isn’t really news so much as confirmation that senior Pentagon leaders know mistakes were made. Frank Kendall, who has been nominated to […]
PENTAGON: One of the longest-running debates between the Air Force and the Army centers on close air support. Historically, the Air Force hates supplying CAS and doesn’t like buying or maintaining the planes that do it. But the white scarf boys wouldn’t let the Army do the job either, since it involved fixed-wing aircraft and […]
Why edge and endpoint security can’t be an afterthought.
Soldiers might be able to ditch awkward goggles or helmets to access data while in the battlefield in favor of virtual reality contact lenses. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to enhance soldiers’ vision with virtual reality contact lenses, according to Federal Computer Week. The technology involves contact lenses with built-in systems that would […]
Good insight on Senate fm Inouye’s earmark remarks: Earmarks leave Senators “open to unseemly bargaining with Executive branch.” Unseemly! colinclarkaol
Think Hill doesn’t know what vermin Americans think they r? Sen. Inouye sez “trust in Congress is at all time low” in extending earmark ban colinclarkaol
Election news & NOTE to #defense contractors: “Senate Appropriations Committee Announces Extension of Earmark Moratorium.” Smart politics colinclarkaol