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.
"Given our poor record against the Chinese,” a former senior intelligence official said, “maybe we should start with good tradecraft and attention to CI [counterintelligence]. Basics. There is no silver bullet.”
The Chinese flights are not likely to abate any time soon, Dean Cheng, a top Chinese military expert at the Heritage Foundation, says.
It’s fuel cells, not batteries, that let Group 2 unmanned VTOLS fulfill many missions of larger Group 3s.
“The idea of a loaded spring released by a latch is a staple in mechanical design, but the research team cleverly observed that engineers have yet to achieve the same performance out of a Latch-Mediated Spring Actuator that we find in nature,” Dean Culver, program manager at the lab, writes. “By more closely mimicking the geometry of a mantis shrimp's physiology, the team was able to exceed accelerations produced by limbs in other robotic devices by more than tenfold.”
WASHINGTON: When Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall used his Sept. 20 keynote speech at the annual Air Force Association conference to claim that China is developing the ability to launch “global strikes from space” against US targets, it raised more than a few eyebrows and sent military analysts scrambling. After all, the decision to bring up […]
The anguish of dealing with the aftermath of the end of the Afghan war came through clearly in some of Defense Secretary Austin's testimony. "Did we have the right strategy? Did we have too many strategies? Did we put too much faith in our ability to build effective Afghan institutions, an army, an air force, the police force, and government ministries? We built a state, Mr. Chairman, but we could not forge a nation."
WASHINGTON: The first face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the so-called Quad — Australia, India, Japan and the United States — has spawned several initiatives designed to help moderate or crack the hold China has on certain technologies, including semiconductor chips and 5G networks. It also includes a new civil space initiative and an […]
As NATO and European governments accelerate investment in space-based intelligence, decision advantage will depend on how quickly sovereign and commercial capabilities can be fused into a trusted operational picture.
"The notion is, you have an embarrassment of riches, and you're falling behind on speed and magnitude. This is what is sometimes called Schumpeter's Gale. The notion is, it's not about the competition -- it's about you," said Jeffrey DeGraff, of the University of Michigan.
The head of Pacific Air Force said he had no objections to India buying Russia's S-400 system "in the current environment." But -- and this is a big but -- he said India's action "will perhaps affect a future purchase by India, if they were interested in purchasing other defense equipment from us. But that's out of my lane, and I don't really talk about that, because it's tomorrow stuff."
"This does not mean there are not constructive areas of engagement with China," Australia Foreign Minister Foreign Minister Marise Payne said at the State Department today. She then noted that "US leadership within the Indo-Pacific remains indispensable."
A US official called the move the "biggest strategic step Australia has taken in generations."
Defending a country the size of the US from threats requires advanced sensing, communications and interception capabilities.
"It is going to take us 10 to 15 years to modernize 400 silos that already exist. And China is basically building almost that many overnight. So the speed of difference in that threat is what really concerns me most," Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs says.
"Well, I think there are going to be places where we're probably going to have to make choices that we're not thrilled about," Army Secretary Christine Wormuth says.
COLORADO SPRINGS: The House Armed Services Committee’s draft policy bill calls for the head of the Space Force to review all classification of space systems “to determine if any programs should be reclassified or declassified.” The chairman’s mark of the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), obtained by Breaking Defense, is the latest in […]
"Firefly Alpha will provide a unique capability to the US Government that is not currently available: a 1,000 kg to orbit, commercial, domestic, launch vehicle that can be used for a wide variety of missions," says Firefly spokesperson Kim Jennett.