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WASHINGTON: The US Army has the most disruptive space technology right now. So says the head of Air Force Space Command, Gen. John Hyten. Hyten was asked about the technology in the space domain at breakfast this morning by my colleague Mark Thompson of Time magazine. Now in the good old days, the head of Space…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: After years during which Lockheed Martin bore the brunt of barbs from various government watchdogs, the Government Accountability Office and the Pentagon’s Inspector General about the failures of the F-35 program. it is now Pratt & Whitney’s turn. First came the April 14 GAO report aimed at the F135, as the plane’s engine program is known.…
By Colin ClarkAir dominance requires first establishing a layered approach
Real-time, integrated command and control and networking services enables Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control.
WASHINGTON: If anyone at the White House had hoped the new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee would be more compliant than his predecessor, the defense bill out today should end their illusions. Sure, Rep. Mac Thornberry has consulted closely with the Pentagon and his ranking member on issues like acquisition reform. But Thornberry’s draft…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: The most senior Marine on the Navy staff is going home to Quantico. It’s just 35 miles down I-95, but it’s a world away. Sometime this summer — the exact date’s still to be determined a Marine spokesman told me — Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh should pin on a third star and move from the…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Tactical fighter radars: They’re more lethal yet getting smaller
There’s a new fire-control radar that’s air-cooled and small enough for light-attack aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aircraft systems.
Multi-Domain Operations: Global C2 and Joint Operations
Amidst rising anxieties over Russia, one of the last US combat units still based in Europe, the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, has asked for bigger guns. The House Armed Services Committee is already setting aside money for the urgent upgrade, which the Army staff officially approved yesterday in a memo obtained by Breaking Defense: In brief,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
UPDATED: Lamborn Amendment passes CAPITOL HILL: Concern about the increasingly grumpy Russian bear drives much of this year’s Strategic Forces subcommittee mark-up, from space launch rockets to nuclear warheads. But Rep. Doug Lamborn doesn’t think the draft language does enough about the resurgent threat of Russia or the rising threat of China. So when the subcommittee…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The ways troops are using new technologies to train for today’s threats
Here’s how training for readiness in digitally immersive training environments is enabling multi-domain operations.
CAPITOL HILL: More ships. More weapons. Less waiting. That’s the essential philosophy of Rep. Randy Forbes, chairman of the House subcommittee on seapower. In the draft National Defense Authorization Act headed for mark-up next week, he certainly seems to have gotten his way — on amphibious assault ships, submarines, land-based cruise missiles, and more. “My…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
CAPITOL HILL: The House Armed Services Committee wants to add up to six F-35B STOVL jets to the Marine Corps budget, even as it demands new oversight into Lockheed Martin’s long-troubled F-35 program. The House draft National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2016 would not add any F-35Cs, the Navy variant. Instead, it will include up to a…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
UPDATED: HASC StratForces Moves To “Protect” Space Control; Designates Space An MFP WASHINGTON: When the United States government writ large — the military and the Intelligence Community — thinks something is important enough to spend $5 billion in new money from existing sources that’s a strategic commitment and is worth paying very close attention to. The…
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This week, the Republican Congress is expected to unveil its fiscal year 2016 budget resolution just as House defense authorizers start marking up their annual bill. What will that mean for the US military? Bottom line, the Pentagon should realistically expect no more than $569 billion from Congress in the final, enacted 2016 budget between base…
By Mackenzie Eaglen
WASHINGTON: After 15 months of bitter public debate between regular Army leadership and National Guard advocates, the commission Congress created to settle the matter met for the first time Friday and chose its chair and vice-chair, announced today. Heading the commission will be Gen. Carter Ham, a retired regular officer, while his No. 2 will…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
CAPITOL HILL: House Armed Services chairman Mac Thornberry is hurtling cautiously ahead on the annual defense policy bill. He’s hurtling, because this week’s subcommittee mark-ups of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act are the earliest HASC has starting marking the bill in living memory. But he’s also characteristically cautious, promising little in public and consulting…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
A high-level cybersecurity task force will present its plan to the Chief of Naval Operations sometime tomorrow. Called CYBERSAFE (one word, all caps), the initiative is intended to overhaul information technology in the comprehensive way the SUBSAFE instruction overhauled all submarine safety after the USS Thresher disaster. Fixing up IT procurement, though, is just one step towards a larger…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Seconds save lives, UX can be the differentiator
Reducing system complexity through user experience design saves time, training and lives.
Supporters of the Obama administration Iran deal have had a rough couple weeks. The bipartisan passage of the Corker-Mendez bill (the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015) out of the Foreign Relations Committee, conveyed in no uncertain terms that Congress is concerned enough about this deal to insist it have a voice. It also raises the question: how…
By Rebeccah Heinrichs