We’re partnering with the Center for Strategic and International Studies to bring you their fab Bad Ideas series through the Christmas holiday season. We don’t usually pay much attention to this sort of operational policy decision — where to operate and with what — but each new location for drone operations can mean a larger… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: For the first time, an important United States military base, one where a great deal of highly classified communications, intelligence and operations occur, sits within a few miles of a military competitor, China. Where? Djibouti, the tiny African state that sits on the Horn of Africa across from Yemen and sits astride the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: As the Army grapples with new concepts such as Multi-Domain Battle, Congress continues to avoid its constitutional responsibilities to pass spending bills, and the world grows ever more complex, the leaders of the Army gather here for the annual tribal event known as the Association of the US Army’s annual conference. Retired Gen. Carter… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Two US special operators assisted with this morning’s hostage rescue operation in Bamako, Mali, a US Africa Command spokesman confirmed. The operators were in Mali already as advisors and so could swiftly respond to support the local forces, Col. Mark Cheadle told me. The Americans advised their Malian counterparts, who conducted the rescue, and physically helped… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Some 45 football fields and gear worth $5 billion. That’s how much excess inventory and storage room the Defense Logistics Agency has sold or destroyed since the height of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it’s not finished. DLA’s first sale of surplus equipment to local businesses in Afghanistan is scheduled for next… Keep reading →

France has been hailed by the people of Mali for driving al Qaeda-linked thugs from their country. Malians greeted French President Francois Hollande with cheers of Vive la France when he recently visited Timbuktu. But the rebels and al Qaeda are not yet crushed, though they have been forced to cede most inhabited territory. The… Keep reading →

Washington: The United States must help secure caches of Libyan military hardware, including chemical and biological weapons, so they do not fall into terrorist hands, the head of the House intelligence committee said today. “There are things that should still be done” by American forces in Libya, despite the fact that the U.S. handed over… Keep reading →

Washington: The American battle plan executed in Libya will not be the blueprint for how the U.S. military wages war in the future, the Army general who was in charge of that effort said today. There were key lessons that U.S. forces did pick up during the Libyan mission that DoD can use in future… Keep reading →