AFRICOM chief warns China attempting to ‘replicate’ US assistance as Washington pulls back
Gen. Michael Langley's warning comes amid the Pentagon's rebalancing of priorities and drastic cuts to foreign aid programs.
Help The Afghan Air Force To Blunt Taliban Attacks
At the NATO Summit in Brussels, the United States should finalize a plan with its allies to ensure the Afghan air force has the maintenance and logistical support it requires to remain combat effective. The United States and our international partners have worked for years to build an Afghan air force capable of providing effective […]
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Navigation warfare is about the battle to assure positioning, navigation, and timing
The U.S. Army’s MAPS Gen II program of record for assured PNT provides an authoritative and reliable source of truth for combat vehicles in a highly contested battlespace.
DoD Readies Counterterror Plan For Post Afghanistan Withdrawal
"Our budget accounts for 'over the horizon' requirements -- it creates some space there as we determine what that will look like," DepSec Kathleen Hicks said.
Mr. President, Leave Syria
No one knows precisely what happened inside the White House that resulted in President Trump’s sudden about-face on Syria. One day he was planning to extricate American ground troops from Syria; then he wasn't. Regardless, whoever is urging the president to leave a small contingent of 2,000 lightly armed soldiers and Marines in a remote corner of Syria is doing the president and the nation a grave disservice.
Counterterror Costs Since 911: $2.8 TRILLION And Climbing
WASHINGTON: After a small group of forlorn men huddled in the middle of Afghanistan succeeded in their plan to strike the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, America declared a global war against them. That war has sucked almost $3 trillion dollars from the US, according to a study by the respected Stimson Center […]
Heroism on Robert’s Ridge: Trump Awards Second Medal Of Honor
This week the White House will issue its second Medal of Honor in recent months for extreme valor in the Battle for Robert’s Ridge, recognizing one of the most intense and influential firefights of the post-9/11 era. It will be awarded posthumously to Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman. Sometimes at night they huddled over a […]
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Meeting modern airpower needs with faster R&D cycles for propulsion
As aircraft shrink, threats expand, and technology accelerates, aircraft engines must iterate along with the threats.
The Great Afghan Paradox
By most metrics the war in Afghanistan is going badly.
EXCLUSIVE Interview With Britt Slabinski, Medal Of Honor Recipient
President Trump will present the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, to Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Britt Slabinski for embodying the U.S. military’s code of “leave no man behind.” The “Battle of Robert’s Ridge” claimed the lives of seven U.S. elite troops and was one of the bloodiest engagements for Special Forces up to that point in the post-9/11 Global War On Terror.
Washington Must Tell Saudi Prince No More Help For Yemen
The Saudi intervention in Yemen is a strategic catastrophe that has added to regional chaos and fostered the most acute humanitarian crisis on the globe. President Trump must stop making the Saudi intervention in Yemen possible.
Hard Lessons from America’s Longest Wars
This is one of two pieces by our contributor James Kitfield, who’s won more Gerald Ford Defense Reporting awards than anyone else (3), on the challenges and mistakes America has made in grappling with the complex threat of global terrorism. As James puts it in his summary sentence: U.S. counterterrorism forces continue to learn and adapt […]
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AI is transforming pilot training and the aircraft they fly
Modeling and simulation get an AI upgrade for more realistic training and improved autonomous platforms.
Bad Idea: Armed Drones in West Africa
We’re partnering with the Center for Strategic and International Studies to bring you their fab Bad Ideas series through the Christmas holiday season. We don’t usually pay much attention to this sort of operational policy decision — where to operate and with what — but each new location for drone operations can mean a larger […]
Syria: Just Say No (To Regime Change)
Sen. John McCain said in early February that, it “is time for the international community to abandon the absurd fiction of a political solution that leaves Assad in power (in Syria).” McCain, who was reacting to Amnesty International’s report about mass executions by Bashar al Assad’s regime, argued: “Bashar Assad does not belong in a […]
Trump’s Generals, Part 3: Mike Flynn vs. Al-Qaeda
Who are Trump’s generals? Earlier this week, James Kitfield showed us the common crucible that shaped as a group and then profiled James Mattis, the prospective Secretary of Defense. Today, Kitfield tackles Trump’s most controversial general, intelligence officer turned political firebrand Michael Flynn. “Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will not be defeated in […]
Former NSC Cyber Head Clarke Calls For Global Cyber Treaty
Former National Security Council cyber security director Richard Clarke says the military hasn’t done enough to secure today’s networked weapons systems against hacking and is likely to find out what they’ve missed the hard way once a conflict with a sophisticated adversary begins. “The nightmare scenario that I hear a lot of flag officers worrying about is, […]