Russia has a military professionalism problem, and it is costing them in Ukraine

Russia has a military professionalism problem, and it is costing them in Ukraine
Russia has a military professionalism problem, and it is costing them in Ukraine

Even if Russia “manages to take control of the territory of Ukraine, the Russian military’s underlying problems with professionalization may handicap these occupiers in their efforts to maintain control over that country for the long-term,” write two RAND experts.

AI To Fly In Dogfight Tests By 2024: SecDef

AI To Fly In Dogfight Tests By 2024: SecDef
AI To Fly In Dogfight Tests By 2024: SecDef

After an AI beat humans 5-0 in AlphaDogfight simulations this summer, Mark Esper announced, a future version will be installed in actual airplanes for “a real-world competition.” But military AI will adhere to strict ethical limits, he said.

Mission First: US Military Must Train & Recruit During Pandemic

Mission First: US Military Must Train & Recruit During Pandemic
Mission First: US Military Must Train & Recruit During Pandemic

Without recruit training, the services will lose .5 percent of their end strength every month (unless stop loss is imposed, and that has its own costs). Because the training pipeline is several months long, units will not feel that gap for several months, but when the pipeline begins to runs dry, units will shrink.

Sergeant Silicon: Lessons From An Army Cyber NCO

Sergeant Silicon: Lessons From An Army Cyber NCO
Sergeant Silicon: Lessons From An Army Cyber NCO

As old-school Sergeant Rock types give way to NCOs with advanced degrees, ARSOUTH Command Sgt. Maj. William Rinehart is helping build up both US and allied cyber forces.

Too Many Generals In Trump Administration?

Too Many Generals In Trump Administration?
Too Many Generals In Trump Administration?

President Donald Trump named retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis as Defense Secretary, the highest-ranking civilian position in the Pentagon. Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly was named first to head the Homeland Security Department and then replaced Reince Priebus as White House Chief of Staff. Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster replaced Air Force Gen. Mike Flynn…

Army Chief’s Thinktank Studies Major War

Army Chief’s Thinktank Studies Major War
Army Chief’s Thinktank Studies Major War

ARMY WAR COLLEGE: If you want to know what the Army Chief of Staff is thinking, don’t just ask around the Pentagon. Drive a couple hours north through rural Pennsylvania — passing the Gettysburg battlefield on the way — to the Army War College here in quiet Carlisle. An institution whose influence has waxed and…

Chinese Navy: ‘So Long As It Is Blue, There We Will Be On Guard’

Chinese Navy: ‘So Long As It Is Blue, There We Will Be On Guard’
Chinese Navy: ‘So Long As It Is Blue, There We Will Be On Guard’

https://youtu.be/1Z8_KRMdbbs WASHINGTON: In an intriguing and potentially significant declaration, the Chinese military declares: “Regardless of what corner of the earth, so long as it is blue there we will be on guard.” The declaration comes in an impressive recruiting video for the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). “It’s beautifully done; really tugs at the heartstrings,” says Dean Cheng,…

How To Get Best Military Leaders: CNAS Says Split Warriors From Managers

How To Get Best Military Leaders: CNAS Says Split Warriors From Managers
How To Get Best Military Leaders: CNAS Says Split Warriors From Managers

….and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats…. -–  Matthew 25:32 (King James Version) The military’s personnel system does lots of stupid things, like sending Arabic speakers to Korea or forcing out skilled commanders at age 50. But of all our self-inflicted wounds, argues a forthcoming…

Shutdown Hits Military Thinkers, Planners

Shutdown Hits Military Thinkers, Planners
Shutdown Hits Military Thinkers, Planners

  So how hard is the federal shutdown hitting the US military? “Walking around the building, I would say we’re probably at about a third of our staff right now,” said one military officer. (About half the Defense Department’s civil servants have been furloughed, but military personnel are still on duty). Of 26 people in…

Marines, Army Stare Into Face Of Future War; Afghan Lessons Relevant?

QUANTICO, Va: Even though the administration’s strategic guidance swears off “large-scale, prolonged stability operations” while emphasizing air and naval forces, the lessons that ground troops learned in Afghanistan and Iraq will remain vitally relevant, both because we will still do stability operations in the future and because those skills apply to other kinds of conflicts…

Army Looks Beyond Budget Cuts To The ‘Deep Future’

WASHINGTON: Forget sequestration. Never mind fiscal 2013. The Army knows it’s in for a tough decade, not just a tough year — but it’s already thinking way ahead, past 2020. With the Iraq war over, Afghanistan (slowly) winding down, and a new strategy that emphasizes Navy and Marine Corps operations in the Pacific, the Army…

CJCS Dempsey Got It Wrong: Strategic Interests Trump Human Relationships

Are personal relationships a strategic asset? Last week, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey gave a speech at the National Defense University arguing that they are. It’s a theme hammered recently by other military leaders, especially in Dempsey’s own service, the Army, which argues it is uniquely capable of building…