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 →

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lift the probationary status tomorrow that the F-35B has labored under since his predecessor imposed it one year ago. This lifts a dark veil from the program, which many have critics have targeted for elimination. The Pentagon has been rife with rumors about this for two weeks but a… Keep reading →

UPDATED CAPITOL HILL: The $669 billion set aside by defense lawmakers for fiscal 2012 is $24 billion short of the White House’s initial request but will be enough to finance several of the Pentagon’s high-profile programs. The Pentagon will get $554 billion in its baseline budget and $115.5 billion to continue fighting the wars in… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The job of detecting deadly roadside bombs for the Marine Corps is going to the dogs. And that is just the way the Marines want it. The Office of Naval Research wants all Marines — active duty, reserve or retired — who served alongside the Corps’ real-life devil dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan to… 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: 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 →

After the year 2020 ground wars will be more intense and concentrated in the world’s crowded coastal cities. That’s the consensus from a panel of experts including current and retired Army officers and professional analysts. Over the past decade, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps have adapted to the low-intensity wars in Iraq and Afghanistan… Keep reading →

Washington: It’s only a matter of time before Marines and special operations forces get their piece of the Navy’s newest combat vessel. Mission packages built just for the Marines and special forces will be on the Littoral Combat Ship within the next few years, Rear Adm. James Murdoch, program executive officer for LCS, said yesterday.… Keep reading →

The French operational experience in and off of Libya has neatly dovetailed with that of the U.S. Marines and suggests a way forward for American thinking about littoral operations. With the decision of the U.S. national command authority to “lead from behind,” the Marines were almost inadvertently given a leading role. What “lead from behind”… Keep reading →

CORRECTED Indianapolis: One day after the Marines successfully landed a Joint Strike Fighter on a ship for the first time, Rolls-Royce executives showed off a new factory built to produce the complex lift fan system that is key to the F-35B STOVL variant. The new plant, near the Indianapolis airport, is a large, antiseptically clean… Keep reading →