Army Must Forge New Path on Weapons Spending

Army Should Break With DoD’s Modernization Strategy

Army Should Break With DoD’s Modernization Strategy
Army Should Break With DoD’s Modernization Strategy

The Army needs to break with DoD’s modernization strategy or risk being broken itself. Simply stated, the Army cannot afford to cut end strength and units in order to free up resources for modernization. This is all the more true if the modernization programs are complex, expensive and will take years to reach IOC. The…

Grim World May Help Ease Grim Army Budget

Grim World May Help Ease Grim Army Budget
Grim World May Help Ease Grim Army Budget

WASHINGTON: Alice in Wonderland‘s White Queen could believe in “six impossible things before breakfast.” The Army may not be that nimble but its leaked budget plan for 2017-2021 (first reported by Inside Defense) does make a whole string of assumptions: Budget Control Act cuts won’t happen, despite the lack of encouraging signs of a sequestration deal.…

‘Enormously Energetic’ Carter May Replace A Weary Hagel

‘Enormously Energetic’ Carter May Replace A Weary Hagel
‘Enormously Energetic’ Carter May Replace A Weary Hagel

WASHINGTON: If confirmed as Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter will be “more energetic” than outgoing Sec. Chuck Hagel, a top Pentagon official said today. The rational and mild-mannered Jamie Morin, the Pentagon’s director of cost assessment and program evaluation (CAPE), of course put it more politely than that in his remarks this afternoon at the…

US Military Could Not Handle One Major Theater Operation If Sequester Sticks

US Military Could Not Handle One Major Theater Operation If Sequester Sticks
US Military Could Not Handle One Major Theater Operation If Sequester Sticks

CAPITOL HILL:  Even the cameras stopped clicking in a hushed Armed Services hearing room today as Rep. Jim Cooper told the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his colleagues on the biggest committee in Congress today that America’s lawmakers had failed the country. “You gentlemen make life and death decisions in the Tank almost every day,”…

The Pentagon’s Own Road to Damascus

The Pentagon’s Own Road to Damascus
The Pentagon’s Own Road to Damascus

It’s not often that people close to the military come out and critique current policy, especially as it is taking shape. When it happens, it is often newsworthy either because of what they say or because of who they are. Today, we offer an in-depth critique of US strategy and our evolving policies toward Syria…

Why America Needs The Air Force: Rebuttal To Prof. Farley

Why America Needs The Air Force: Rebuttal To Prof. Farley
Why America Needs The Air Force: Rebuttal To Prof. Farley

As sequestration forces the Pentagon to consider truly transformative cuts to the U.S. military, the knives are coming out even more readily than usual in a town known for fierce infighting. Today’s budget environment has created an open season on traditional concepts of roles and missions. Service leaders have become far more vocal in warning…

Pentagon Takes Second Look At Strategy; Where Are The Holes?

WASHINGTON: The strategic guidance issued to much fanfare by President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last January is getting a “relook” because the senior leadership has “found some problems” with it, according to the Defense Department’s head of acquisition, Frank Kendall. What are the holes? As one might expect, Kendall didn’t outline them,…

Obama Drops Two MRCs; Invests In ISR, Counter-Terror and Pacific

PENTAGON: The United States will police the globe, respond to disasters and shape the international environment much as it has –though our sharpest focus will be on China and the western Pacific — but it will do all that with a significantly smaller land force than it currently has. That was the essential message offered…