Washington: The White House’s decision to send U.S. troops to help the Ugandan military curb a violent separatist group had Washington buzzing last week. Many inside the Beltway feared the mission, in which American special forces would support Ugandan forces in their war against the Lord’s Resistance Army, could be a first step into a… Keep reading →

Washington: Army acquisition is facing the largest financial crunch since the infamous defense drawdown of the 1990s. To meet that challenge, service officials today rolled out a list of seven “commandments” it will follow to get the Army through these tough times. The problem is these “commandments” — increased focus on cost and schedule, increased… Keep reading →

Americans paused recently to remember the tenth anniversary of 9/11. In years ahead they will remember and debate the wisdom of American policy and actions in Afghanistan. Far fewer will reflect on the significance of 10/7/2001; the date marking the start of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)-the U.S. and coalition attacks to wipe out Al Qaeda.… Keep reading →

Washington: The Army uses Native American tribe names as nicknames for its helicopters – Black Hawk, Kiowa Warrior and Lakota, for instance — but Boeing Co. officials at the Association of the United States Army’s annual convention in Washington are joshing that the service may want to start calling the company’s AH-64D Apache attack helicopter… Keep reading →

July 4, 2010, was a bad day for Tyler Southern. He dreamed he was with his older brothers, playing sandlot football, running and laughing, horsing around just like they used to when they were together as kids in Jacksonville, Fla. In his dream, he was whole again. Then he awoke in his hospital bed at… Keep reading →

As the war in Afghanistan passed its tenth anniversary this week, many news outlets repeated the frequently repeated claim that the conflict there has replaced Vietnam as America’s longest war. That is a questionable assertion. Even if you count only from the first “official” U.S. combat operations in Vietnam — the Gulf of Tonkin air… Keep reading →

The Marine Corps is taking the use of unmanned air systems to the next level, deploying pilotless cargo helicopters to Afghanistan to test their ability to supply troops in the field without trucks facing the risk of deadly IEDs. The six-month demonstration of the feasibility of a cargo UAS in a combat environment will involve… Keep reading →

With defense spending cuts looming, Pentagon leaders and their Beltway boosters are using strategy to stall. They argue that cuts must follow program changes that flow in turn from revised national security strategy. Cutting without a strategy, they say, means cutting foolishly and overburdening the shrunken force. So decide the strategy first and then make… Keep reading →

Arlington, Va: The Navy and Marine Corps have a plan in place to squeeze more flight time from their older F-18 Hornets, and could use funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program to pay for it. Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, deputy assistant commandant for Marine Corps aviation, said today that the services plan to… Keep reading →

Washington: Millions in unspent reconstruction dollars could be left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan if DoD does not fix its contracting review process, a new Government Accountability Office says. The Defense Department’s acquisition office is facing a review backlog of nearly 58,000 contracts awarded to Iraqis between 2003 and 2010, according to the report. Of… Keep reading →