CAPITOL HILL: The House named its conferees to handle negotiations over H.R. 1540, as this year’s defense authorization act is fondly known, and lawmakers from the opposite sides of the Capitol met this afternoon to hammer out a final bill. One Hill source said the discussions were, “moving quickly. We hope to have the language… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Navy’s decision to cut its future amphibious fleet from 38 ships to 33 has left the Marines clamoring for any and all options on how to close that gap, Assistant Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford said today. The typically stoic and reserved Dunford got a little gung-ho when I asked him what… Keep reading →

Robbin Laird, a member of the AOL Board of Contributors, is a well known supporter of the F-35. When he read Sen. McCain’s recent criticism of the program Laird immediately began to pen a rebuttal. We present his analysis and commentary. The whirling dervish of the Senate has struck again. Rather than rebuilding US and… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The U.S must change its standards on what kinds of military hardware it won’t ship to its allies or risk being outgunned and out-manned in future wars, according to a top defense analyst. The Defense and State departments have ramped up cooperation with its allies in recent years through Foreign Military Sales and international… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon thinks it may have found a way to build weapon systems five times faster than it does now and wants to test it with the Marine Corps. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking industry partners to run the Fast Adaptable, Next-Generation vehicle program. The FANG program will basically use this… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: One of the most entertaining, compelling and raucous battles ever to rock the Pentagon and Capitol Hill is officially over. General Electric and Rolls Royce today formally declared dead the F-136 engine program for the Joint Strike Fighter. Those who supported the “alternate” or “second” engine will never shy sway from pledging their troth,… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: President Obama’s defense budget for 2013 implements the start of the $500 billion in budget cuts required by the Budget Control Act but does not address the additional $600 billion in cuts triggered by the Super Committee’s failure. The most important implication deduced from the chart above would be that the administration has begun… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Fatigue testing and analysis are turning up so many potential cracks and “hot spots” in the Joint Strike Fighter’s airframe that the production rate of the F-35 should be slowed further over the next few years, the program’s head declared in an interview. “The analyzed hot spots that have arisen in the last 12… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: There are two anchors of conventional views on the U.S. DoD budget outlook. The first is that it is cyclical and headed down and will follow the same trajectory as defense budgets in the last four cycles since the late 1940s. The second anchor is that the U.S. can and should “pivot” its strategy… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: The dynamic duo who run the House Intelligence Committee unveiled an interesting bill today designed to curb the wholesale online theft of America’s ideas and inventions by China, Russia and other countries. Gen. Keith Alexander, head of Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, has estimated that the U.S. has lost $1 trillion… Keep reading →