PENTAGON: House Republicans will probably be seething after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta scolded them today for adding several billion dollars money to the defense budget. “If we’re prevented from retiring aging ships and aircraft that no longer fit strategic requirements, then Congress would be forcing us to look elsewhere for savings,” Panetta said at a… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Since 2001 America’s share of NATO’s budget has climbed steadily upwards from 50 percent to 75 percent. With the NATO summit coming to Chicago in less than three weeks and the Obama White House’s top NATO advisor speaking publicly about the alliance’s goals, it seemed a good time to ask when the enormous gap… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The House Armed Services Committee is giving the US Air Force both marching orders and money to operate its eighteen “Block 30” Global Hawk UAVs instead of warehousing them as the service proposed. The Administration’s fiscal 2013 budget request cancelled the Block 30 program and provided no funds to operate the 18 drones already… Keep reading →

The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jonathan Greenert, detailed the Navy’s build-up in the Persian Gulf today, but he downplayed the prospects of any immediate conflict with Iran – even as the fleet develops new weapons for coastal combat and plans to double its deployment of minesweepers and upgunned patrol craft to Bahrain. “I will… Keep reading →

If you take the Administration’s word for it, the most recent defense budget represents a sober-minded and far-thinking strategic shift from the Middle East to Asia, creating a smaller, high-tech force oriented increasingly towards inter-state conflict and deterrence. Many are even comparing the Pentagon’s current vision with that of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,… Keep reading →

The Air Force’s MC-12 Liberty surveillance plane, in heavy use in Afghanistan, is one of the scarce assets Southern Command chief Gen. Doug Fraser hopes to see freed up for drug interdiction as the war winds down. The U.S. military command covering South America intercepts only about a third of the drug shipments and other… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: The congressional fight over the fate of Northrop Grumman’s 18 Global Hawk Block 30s is on, led so far by Rep. Norm Dicks on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. “The idea we would spend all this money to buy them and then put them in a hangar is just unacceptable,” said Dicks, ranking… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: Even though Global Hawk is built in his district, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon told me today that he would not personally push to save the Block 30s from oblivion. “I will not be involved in trying to force something just because it’s best for my district,” McKeon said today… Keep reading →

THE PENTAGON: The Air Force is attempting to buy and build its way out of the hole it created by canceling the latest variant of the Global Hawk program, service officials said today. Service officials want to pour billions into new unmanned aircraft and revamp its current intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance fleet as part of… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Despite the tremendous impact unmanned systems are having on the battlefield, military leaders still struggle to get intelligence gathered from these systems into the hands of those who need it. The systems designed to stream raw data collected by the diverse fleet of unmanned systems in the field continued to hamstring combatant commanders and… Keep reading →