WASHINGTON: Oops. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James sounded a tad peeved and seemed to pretty much put the kibosh on plans to buy two replacements for the A-10 Close Air Support (CAS) plane. Why? “You just put your finger on it. Where do we get the money,” she told me at a DefenseOne event this… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: In theory, the Navy and the Air Force could save money and reduce risk by using common, proven components on both services’ nuclear missiles. In practice, Air Force decisions in the coming months will “make or break the effective implementation of commonality,” said Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, head of the Navy Strategic Systems Programs. “I… Keep reading →

UPDATED: Adds Air Force Statement  WASHINGTON: The administration’s nominee for Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. David Goldfein, came before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning promising to improve Air Force relations with Congress. And Goldfein delivered, to the point of apparently agreeing with a pleased SASC chairman John McCain that the service should… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Air Force wants to replace the aging but beloved A-10 “Warthog” with a robotic “flying coke machine” that loiters over the battlefield, dispensing firepower at the touch of a button, the outgoing Chief of Staff said this morning. (More on that concept below). Gen. Mark Welsh also wants a “sixth-generation fighter” that can… Keep reading →

  Some anti-nuclear groups along with former Secretary of Defense William Perry suggest eliminating ICBMs in part to save money on upcoming nuclear modernization. Getting rid of ICBMs would be a serious mistake. The U.S. nuclear triad protects the U.S. homeland and allies from a surprise nuclear attack with three types of nuclear delivery systems:… Keep reading →

Our coverage of deterrence and the roles of using weapons for signaling continues to elicit strong and pertinent reactions from readers and practitioners in these days when North Korea, China and Russia so robustly challenge the United States and its allies. As you read on, you’ll see the author of this latest piece is a… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Air Force’s top priority programs — the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Long Range Strike Bomber, and the KC-46 tanker — will cause Pentagon procurement spending to balloon in the early 2020s, says one of the capital’s leading defense budget experts. Army ground combat programs are also increasing rapidly, but they are rising from such… Keep reading →

Lost in much of the initial coverage of the $80 billion Long Range Strike Bomber about specs and jobs is that the contract award is the latest step forward in an unnecessary and unsustainable projected spending binge to rebuild the U.S. nuclear arsenal in its current image. According to a January 2015 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, the direct costs of the… Keep reading →

HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: Three years after the Missile Defense Agency mothballed its massive Airborne Laser, MDA is planning to reboot the concept for a new era. The old ABL was Boeing 747 with a human crew and tanks of toxic chemicals to generate power. The new idea a high-altitude, long-endurance drone armed with a more compact… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Nuclear weapons are expensive. So are the bombers, missiles, and submarines used to deliver them. But in the context of total defense spending, budget guru Todd Harrison argues, they’re a relatively affordable — and strategically critical — part of our armed forces. Even a package of radical cuts to nuclear forces — reducing submarines… Keep reading →