Colin Clark
Contributing Editor (At Large)
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. cclark@breakingmedia.comStories by Colin Clark
PENTAGON: The services’ draft budgets delivered to the Office of Secretary of Defense early this month are probably being shredded in light of the campaign in Iraq and Syria against the terrorist group known as ISIL. “If you’re asking me, are we going to have budget problems, the answer is yes,” the president’s top military advisor told reporters this…
By Colin Clark
PENTAGON; The outlines of the campaign against ISIL are beginning to come into focus. The bombings and missile attacks against ISIL in Iraq are largely tactical, designed to provide the Iraqi military with some breathing room until they and the Kurdish peshmerga can mount effective counterattacks to drive ISIL out of their territory. But the bombings and missile strikes in…
By Colin Clark
PENTAGON: The primary target of last night’s air strikes in Syria appears to have been the Khorasan group, an al Qaeda offshoot that was plotting what appeared to be “imminent attacks” against Western targets that may have included the United States. The Khorasan group received “the majority of” the 47 Tomahawk cruise missile strikes launched by the United…
By Colin Clark
UPDATED: Official Confirmation F-22s Were Used. Flew From Regional Base. WASHINGTON: While we don’t yet have much detail on how many were used, what munitions were used or what targets they hit, F-22s were used in last night’s air strikes in Syria against ISIL and al Qaeda. F-22s flew in the second of three waves…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: The F-35’s long-term costs may “not be affordable” and appear to be substantially higher than those of the existing combat aircraft fleets that the Joint Strike Fighter will replace, the Government Acocuntability Office says in a draft report. “The annual F-35 operating and support costs are estimated to be considerably higher than the combined…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: We’ve got bus-sized satellites that can probably see any blemishes on Chairman Mao’s badly rebuilt face from space (didn’t know about that, did you?). We’ve got U-2s with their superb sensors watching the Chinese coast (for now). We’ve got P-8s scanning the seas for Chinese submarines and testing their radar. Our subs — hopefully — cruise…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: How well did the American Intelligence Community do in its most fundamental job: providing strategic warning of war and major strategic events to the president when it came to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and ISIL’s invasion of Iraq? The heads of the Central Intelligence, Defense Intelligence, National Geospatial Intelligence and National Security agencies claimed today…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: The deputy director of the National Security Agency said today that the Intelligence Community should declassify the existence of more cyber attacks to improve the agency’s ability to mobilize the private sector and to get help when needed. I asked Richard Ledgett at the end of a session at the Intelligence and National Security Summit…
By Colin Clark
NATIONAL HARBOR: When the F-35A exploded June 23 on the runway, it took about 10 days before the Pentagon had worked out how to communicate to the public, to the Navy, Marines and Air Force and to its international partners what had happened, was happening and would happen. Today, Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said that his…
By Colin Clark
Rick Whittle’s superb book on the creation and uses of the Predator drone needs to be read by the Pentagon’s head of acquisition, Frank Kendall, and everyone else who decides what weapons America buys, including the professional staff on Capitol Hill who tell their congressional bosses what’s real and why. Whittle, who seems to be making a habit out…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: While the talkerati focused intently on the fairly narrow issue of the presidential strategy to degrade and destroy ISIL, they may have missed the larger message President Obama sent: America is preeminent economically and militarily and has not backed away from the world stage. For almost two years — from the time he declared a…
By Colin Clark
It is with great sadness I must tell our readers of the untimely death of Michael Adler, our most excellent reporter on the long-running Iranian nuclear crisis. Sigh. Even though we write about war and its relatives here at Breaking Defense, it never really entered my mind that one day I’d have to write about…
By Colin Clark
PENTAGON: The services’ draft budgets delivered to the Office of Secretary of Defense early this month are probably being shredded in light of the campaign in Iraq and Syria against the terrorist group known as ISIL. “If you’re asking me, are we going to have budget problems, the answer is yes,” the president’s top military advisor told reporters this…
By Colin ClarkPENTAGON; The outlines of the campaign against ISIL are beginning to come into focus. The bombings and missile attacks against ISIL in Iraq are largely tactical, designed to provide the Iraqi military with some breathing room until they and the Kurdish peshmerga can mount effective counterattacks to drive ISIL out of their territory. But the bombings and missile strikes in…
By Colin ClarkPENTAGON: The primary target of last night’s air strikes in Syria appears to have been the Khorasan group, an al Qaeda offshoot that was plotting what appeared to be “imminent attacks” against Western targets that may have included the United States. The Khorasan group received “the majority of” the 47 Tomahawk cruise missile strikes launched by the United…
By Colin ClarkUPDATED: Official Confirmation F-22s Were Used. Flew From Regional Base. WASHINGTON: While we don’t yet have much detail on how many were used, what munitions were used or what targets they hit, F-22s were used in last night’s air strikes in Syria against ISIL and al Qaeda. F-22s flew in the second of three waves…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: The F-35’s long-term costs may “not be affordable” and appear to be substantially higher than those of the existing combat aircraft fleets that the Joint Strike Fighter will replace, the Government Acocuntability Office says in a draft report. “The annual F-35 operating and support costs are estimated to be considerably higher than the combined…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: We’ve got bus-sized satellites that can probably see any blemishes on Chairman Mao’s badly rebuilt face from space (didn’t know about that, did you?). We’ve got U-2s with their superb sensors watching the Chinese coast (for now). We’ve got P-8s scanning the seas for Chinese submarines and testing their radar. Our subs — hopefully — cruise…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: How well did the American Intelligence Community do in its most fundamental job: providing strategic warning of war and major strategic events to the president when it came to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and ISIL’s invasion of Iraq? The heads of the Central Intelligence, Defense Intelligence, National Geospatial Intelligence and National Security agencies claimed today…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: The deputy director of the National Security Agency said today that the Intelligence Community should declassify the existence of more cyber attacks to improve the agency’s ability to mobilize the private sector and to get help when needed. I asked Richard Ledgett at the end of a session at the Intelligence and National Security Summit…
By Colin ClarkNATIONAL HARBOR: When the F-35A exploded June 23 on the runway, it took about 10 days before the Pentagon had worked out how to communicate to the public, to the Navy, Marines and Air Force and to its international partners what had happened, was happening and would happen. Today, Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said that his…
By Colin ClarkRick Whittle’s superb book on the creation and uses of the Predator drone needs to be read by the Pentagon’s head of acquisition, Frank Kendall, and everyone else who decides what weapons America buys, including the professional staff on Capitol Hill who tell their congressional bosses what’s real and why. Whittle, who seems to be making a habit out…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: While the talkerati focused intently on the fairly narrow issue of the presidential strategy to degrade and destroy ISIL, they may have missed the larger message President Obama sent: America is preeminent economically and militarily and has not backed away from the world stage. For almost two years — from the time he declared a…
By Colin ClarkIt is with great sadness I must tell our readers of the untimely death of Michael Adler, our most excellent reporter on the long-running Iranian nuclear crisis. Sigh. Even though we write about war and its relatives here at Breaking Defense, it never really entered my mind that one day I’d have to write about…
By Colin Clark