WASHINGTON: The January grounding of the minesweeper USS Guardian in a Philippine coral reef was caused in large part by a National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) map that was, quite simply, wrong by eight nautical miles, Breaking Defense has learned. “It really was just a terrible fluke that caused the error,” NGA spokeswoman Christine Phillips said… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: To rephrase Doctor Johnson for the 21st century, there’s nothing that concentrates the mind so wonderfully as the prospect of being hacked. In cyberspace, though, that threat goes both ways. While Americans are outraged over Chinese theft of US secrets both commercial and military, a leading expert told Congress yesterday, the Chinese are… Keep reading →

UPDATED: With Great Rep. Turner Quote On Snowden WASHINGTON: “The damage assessment is still underway,” about the effects of Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency’s monitoring of web and email traffic, a typically cool and careful commander of US Strategic Command told me this morning. But it’s definitely bad. “It’s going to take… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: After years of grudging refusal to do much more than discuss the possibility of talks on a space code of conduct, China has begun discussions on a multilateral code as part of a larger UN effort, as well as committed to specific goals known in the trade as “transparency and confidence-building measures” (TCBMs). “It is… Keep reading →

Tomorrow is the forty-fourth anniversary of the day a human first walked on another celestial body, our Moon. So it’s only fitting and proper that we do this — offer our readers a spectacular shot of a heavy rocket, the Atlas V, carrying an enormous military communications satellite into orbit. The Navy satellite built by Lockheed… Keep reading →

PENTAGON: In intellectual terms, Air-Sea Battle is the biggest of the military’s big ideas for its post-Afghanistan future. But what is it, really? It’s a constantly evolving concept for high-tech, high-intensity conflict that touches on everything from cyberwar to nuclear escalation to the rise of China. In practical terms, however, the beating heart of AirSea… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The United States military will meet next week with People’s Liberation Army officials to begin the challenging process of hammering out cyber rules of the road, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said today. So far, Dempsey told an audience of several hundred at the Brookings Institution, Chinese officials… Keep reading →

http://youtu.be/anKApO6aM-0 Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. (1 Samuel 18:7) The web is abuzz over Dillard Johnson, a retired Army sergeant first class whose newly released memoir, Carnivore, claims he killed 2,746 enemy combatants in Iraq with everything from a .25 mm chain gun to a sniper rifle to a hunting… Keep reading →

Yesterday, at a subcommittee hearing attended by just half a dozen Senators, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer made a blunt admission: The military’s most expensive program, the stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, has been hacked and the stolen data used by America’s adversaries. Under Secretary Frank Kendall didn’t say by whom, but the answer is… Keep reading →

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to address the subtleties that are being missed or ignored by most critics of the NSA’s recently revealed PRISM program, but it’s gotten lost in the process of readying for the Paris Air Show and covering those things that the famous Washington journalism pack isn’t following in… Keep reading →