“I want to go fast. I want to go fast. I want to go fast,” says CSAF Gen. Charles Brown about revamping the Air Force to meet Russian and Chinese threats.
By Theresa HitchensTransforming Missile Defense With Digital Twins
Smart tools and emerging technologies can deliver the Next-Gen Interceptor more affordably and faster than any other missile defense system.
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The congressional calendar and strategic inertia may come together to keep the defense budget relatively high. The calendar helps because the fiscal 2021 defense budget will likely be passed while Congress is in a free-spending mood.
By Mark Cancian
Mac Thornberry, the top Republican on the largest committee in Congress, has long pressed for changes his colleagues didn’t yet see as necessary. I’ve covered him for a long, long time and remember when he pressed hard with then-Sen. Dan Coats to make the services fight and train much more closely together. Their vision resulted…
By Rep. Mac Thornberry
“When the services say that 2022 is really the year of NDS implementation, they are putting lipstick on a pig,” says one analyst.
By Paul McLeary and Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
“Creating a more range-balanced, survivable, and lethal force will require a commitment by DoD and the Congress to significantly increase the Air Force’s annual budgets,” CSBA says.
By Theresa Hitchens
While Washington warns of conflict with Iran, some former Trump administration officials complain the persistent problems in the Middle East are hurting the promised reset to meet Chinese, Russian challenges.
By Paul McLeary
Air Base Air Defense – Connecting the Domains
Vulnerability to missile threat has led the U.S. Air Force to reassess defensive options for a full-spectrum defense network across its bases in Europe and Africa.
“We need that partnership with customers on the DoD side where they’re willing to take a step forward with us in understanding that neither one of us knows the ultimate answer.”
By Paul McLeary
The Army’s rebuilding to face China and Russia. That may leave programs designed over the past decade for COIN operations in the dust.
By Paul McLeary
The Air Force is too small for what it is being asked to do. Here’s what it needs to do to grow.
By John Lehman
In 2006, a relatively obscure book caused a major stir among the U.S. Air Force leadership. Why Air Forces Fail, edited by Robin Higham and Stephen J. Harris, lays out the determinants of failure: deficiencies in the industrial base, misguided technology and tactical picks, inattention to logistics and neglect of training. The case studies are broken…
By Lani Kass
The White House defense budget for 2020 falls short of commitments made and actual requirements to meet the military’s strategy, but it begins to shift priorities and start the long process of investing in long-term competition with China and Russia. Washington still lacks the budget details for another week, but here are some initial reflections…
By Mackenzie Eaglen
Fifth gen or fourth gen? F-35A or F-15X. Stealth, sensors and fusion or lots of missiles? Lockheed or Boeing? See what the Mitchell Institute says.
By David Deptula and Doug Birkey
That’s $6 billion more than previously announced — but it all comes at the cost of almost 200 cut, cancelled, or slowed-down programs, each with backers in Congress.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Opponents of defense spending may cite the economic consequences of COVID-19 — huge deficits and ballooning national debt— in an effort to slash the Department of Defense’s budget. If they succeed, American military supremacy will erode further, inviting aggression from adversaries and decisively undermining American security.
By Bradley Bowman