By Rep. Todd Akin Why would the most expensive defense acquisition program in American history not be required to follow the rules? The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the future fighter for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The program has been repeatedly reorganized due to growing costs and schedule delays. This year the… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: At 10 o’clock today, the Administration’s push to pass the Law of the Sea treaty will come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If history is any guide, that’s as far as it will ever get. Committee chairman Sen. John Kerry declined to give odds on ratification, saying that would be “premature”: “I just… Keep reading →

The U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers flight decks are some of the most chaotic and deadly real estate in the world. Teeming with scores of high-performance aircraft, wheeled vehicles and up to a thousand sailors generating up to several hundred sorties per day, flight decks “are fraught with danger,” the Naval Safety Center warned in… Keep reading →

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA: The American military is intrigued by the offensive uses for cyber-warfare, but it is struggling to figure out how to do it. What impact can cyber weapons have on the battlefield? What organizations should take the lead? And who makes the decision to pull the trigger? “We’ve been thinking 90% defense, 10%… Keep reading →

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA: Coping with China and Iran at the same time is stretching the Navy thin, and it will soon have to choose which theater to prioritize, warned Peter Daly, the recently retired admiral who now heads the prestigious US Naval Institute. The Obama administration’s new strategic guidance said the US would boost its… Keep reading →

There is broad bipartisan agreement that few national security issues are as critical as how to deal with America’s crippling debt. This means we should spend scarce dollars on the weapons we need for current threats and not on programs with diminishing strategic relevance. Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee, however, apparently are still… Keep reading →

CHICAGO: With Pakistan continuing to send mixed signals about whether and when it would reopen supply routes to NATO, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta plans to meet tomorrow with representatives of five countries who make the so-called Northern Routes into and out of Afghanistan possible. Panetta “will meet tomorrow with five countries that support the… Keep reading →

CHICAGO: Where do we find the money to pay for defense in a time of austerity and how do we leave Afghanistan gracefully. That sums up the two main threads of the second NATO summit held in America. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters this morning that this is a “crucial summit at… Keep reading →

CHICAGO: Air shows and NATO summits deserve their own color coverage if only because they are often so much more interesting when viewed from the participant’s point of view, so here goes. First, in the interests of full disclosure, I am an unabashed Chicago lover and this summit looks, so far, to be good for… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The House passed the annual defense spending bill this afternoon, 299 votes to 120, after two days of amendments and debate that hit election-year hot buttons hard but largely ignored substantive military issues or the looming threat of sequestration. “If January comes and the Budget Control Act remains in effect as currently written, everything… Keep reading →