RIAT: The F-35’s international debut here at RIAT isn’t just about NATO, Russia, China and other threats. It’s also about the Air Force’s future as Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of US Air Forces Europe, knows. His son, Lt. Col. Stephen Nichols, was one of the F-35A pilots who deployed to Mountain Home Air Force Base […]
WASHINGTON: President Barrack Obama promised this morning to keep 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan through the end of his term. The relatively modest cut of 14 percent (down from today’s 9,800) is much less of a drawdown than Obama had once hoped for, especially as US commitments creep upward in Iraq and Syria. But leading pro-defense […]
As threats rapidly evolve, digital engineering, manufacturing capacity and robust supply chains are critical to meeting challenges.
Cyberspace is likely be declared a domain of warfare at NATO’s Warsaw Summit. The cyber domain is an integral part of modern wars, conflicts and crises, and therefore also a key part of NATO´s current and future operative security environment. Since cyber topics should primarily be approached from the perspective of multidisciplinarity and strategy, NATO member […]
PENTAGON: He won’t be there for long, less than half a day, but Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work will attend the Farnborough Air Show and discuss his Third Offset Strategy in closed-door meetings. It marks a boost in firepower for the air show, which has usually seen Frank Kendall, the head of Pentagon acquisition, there as […]
WASHINGTON: America’s Pacific partners are building up their amphibious forces, but they can’t storm a beach against a high-tech adversary like China. Even the most advanced allies — Australia, Japan, and South Korea — would need US support for a raid against a well-armed terrorist group, especially in command & control, logistics, and helicopters, reports the […]
WASHINGTON: In theory, the Navy and the Air Force could save money and reduce risk by using common, proven components on both services’ nuclear missiles. In practice, Air Force decisions in the coming months will “make or break the effective implementation of commonality,” said Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, head of the Navy Strategic Systems Programs. “I […]
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
The United Kingdom is likely to need a new name after yesterday’s shocking vote by the British people to leave the European Union. Scottish leaders have made clear for some time that they were likely to hold a second referendum on independence should their erstwhile countrymen vote to leave the EU, and the equivalent of the blue […]
NATO HQ: As Central Command continues to hammer Daesh with bombs, rockets, bullets, and more, that’s straining the limited supply of AWACS, the airborne radar/command post aircraft that form the backbone of a modern air campaign. “That’s a capability under stress,” a senior NATO diplomat told reporters here. AWACS is one of those classic “high-demand, low-density” […]
NATO HQ: It’s taken a while, but NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced here that the 28-member alliance has agreed to declare cyber an operational domain, much as the sea, air and land are. The really important result of this is that, for the first time, a cyber attack could trigger Article 5, the core NATO […]
NATO HQ: If there’s one undercurrent to all the discussions here and on Ash Carter‘s flight from Washington about NATO, it is that the US is — once again — calling on Europe to do more to defend itself. With the current imbalance of spending at stark levels — America provides 75 percent of NATO […]
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
WASHINGTON: Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, just weeks after retiring as NATO’s Supreme Commander, Europe, urged the alliance to reopen “a line of communication” with the Kremlin. While Breedlove’s tenure as SACEUR was wracked by the annexation of Crimea, the invasion of eastern Ukraine, and NATO’s race to strengthen its defenses, his focus was not on […]
Japan and the US just threw open the door to arms sales between the two longtime allies, something Japan had long resisted. The deal is the latest sign of how fear of a rising China is pushing Japan away from its post-World War II pacifism. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani quietly […]
OVER THE MALACCA STRAIT: Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his host, Singaporean Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen, made a stark and clear statement to China before the Shangri-La summit began, boarding America’s preeminent sub-hunting and surveillance plane, the P-8 Poseidon. “How do you like this aircraft?” asked Carter as they boarded the P-8. “I love this […]
SINGAPORE: In his speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue here, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter laid out a cautious and carefully crafted vision for security in Asia. Carter called for an “inclusive (and) principled security network,” one that would try to include China and encourage it to abide by international law, rather than seeking to confront and […]