UPDATED: NRO Confirms SpaceX Launch Buy  GEOINT: The Pentagon’s Third Offset strategy puts much faith in artificial intelligence and machine-to-machine communications. The National Reconnaissance Office is already working on making those a reality, deploying prototypes of its new next-generation ground systems, Director Betty Sapp said here this morning. “We anticipate fielding a ground system able to direct… Keep reading →

GEOINT: If you’re not an American citizen and you walk the halls of CIA headquarters and other U.S. intelligence agencies, lights flash alerting workers that a foreign national is walking by so that any secrets on their screens or desks can be protected from prying eyes. The main reason for this is that much intelligence is… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: China, which continues to militarize the fake islands it’s creating in the South China Sea, may get uninvited to RIMPAC, the biggest naval exercise in the world. Rep. Mark Takai of Hawaii told Defense Secretary Ash Carter during yesterday’s House Armed Services Committee posture hearing that he will introduce language into the House version of… Keep reading →

Western democracies and their military instruments of power are struggling with what seems to be the novel and dangerous apparition of radical global extremism. This headline-grabbing new threat, whether called the Islamic State, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Boku Haram or something else, captivates both our military’s and the public’s attention. Yet for all the emphasis on dissecting… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The British have released their Strategic Defense Review, declaring they will plug the gaping hole in their anti-submarine warfare capabilities by buying nine P-8s from Boeing and showing considerable confidence in Lockheed Martin’s F-35 as they pledge to buy more earlier. The “National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review” also restated its commitment to… Keep reading →

President Francois Hollande of France arrives Tuesday in Washington for talks with President Obama. Top of the list will be how much America is willing to commit to destroying Daesh, the terrorist group we used to call ISIL. Robbin Laird, Ed Timperlake and Harald Malmgren explore in detail what America’s options are, what France wants and… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Vatican remains one of the world’s great powers. Pope Francis can’t deploy divisions, so Stalin might dismiss him and his organization. However, I’ve never forgotten a comment by Doug Simon, one of my Drew University political science professors at a semester I spent studying the United Nations. “Who do you think has the best intelligence organization in… Keep reading →

When Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work unveiled what we are now, unfortunately, calling the JICSPOC, there were many many questions and few answers. Among the most important questions was: if spy and military satellites are being flown and monitored from the same place and a satellite appears to be under attack, who will command — the Intelligence… Keep reading →

Canada-based Bombardier joined the Lockheed-Raytheon team to build a replacement for the aging JSTARS (Joint Surveillance Targeting and Attack Radar System) aircraft during the Paris Air Show. Northrop Grumman, announced the week before that it would team with General Dynamics, Gulfstream, and L-3. Boeing is going big, with a 737. The Air Force recently announced the first JSTARS contracts, and… Keep reading →

GEOINT: Director of National Intelligence James Clapper identified China today as “the leading suspect” in the two sweeping hacks of the Office of Personnel Management, one day after NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers dodged the issue. In Clapper’s first answer to a question about who is responsible for the OPM hacks, he laid the blame squarely on China. “On the… Keep reading →