This is a list of the most important stories and opinion pieces we ran at Breaking Defense in 2017. It’s a bit like our coverage: freewheeling, often unexpected and, hopefully, poking at the spots where policymakers in the US, NATO, Australia, Japan, South Korea and our other treaty allies and partners need to look. We… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Jim Inhofe is probably the next chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee – but he definitely doesn’t want to talk about it. The Oklahoma conservative’s refusal to talk, even in private, about succeeding the ailing Sen. John McCain speaks both to Inhofe’s character and the rapidly vanishing senatorial decorum he tries to preserve.… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: Amidst a bipartisan lovefest of a confirmation hearing, Navy Secretary nominee Richard  Spencer quietly and consistently downplayed the idea of a 355-ship fleet. The Navy now has 276 ships from supercarriers to minesweepers, President Trump promised 350 on the campaign trail, and the Chief of Naval Operations has officially assessed that he needs 355.… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: What began with a tiny artificial island built by China to stake a concrete claim in the South China Sea is fast on its way to becoming 600 acres of at least seven islands spread across the South China Sea. One of the most impressive is so-called Fiery Cross Island, the permanent structure above complete with… Keep reading →

UPDATE: President Obama Warns Russia Against “Military Intervention” In Ukraine “There will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine,” Obama said in a rare unplanned appearance this evening in the White House press room. “We need strong American and European leadership now to forestall any further threats to international peace and stability. Russia’s leaders must… Keep reading →

Bill Greenwalt played a major role in crafting the defense policy bill — the National Defense Authorization Act — each year for almost a decade, helping to squire the bill through the personalities and politics of the ever-fractious Senate. Now the muzzle is off — he’s a defense expert at the American Enterprise Institute —… Keep reading →

[updated 2:30 pm with Hagel, Hale, & Ramsey briefings; Republican responses; and Sharp analysis] PENTAGON: “NOTE: These program descriptions and dollar values do not reflect potential sequester impacts.” That disclaimer — in boldface italic type and a different color of ink, just to make sure you can’t possibly miss it — blazes across the top… Keep reading →

UPDATED: With Obama Statement WASHINGTON: Regardless of how sequestration happens, Chuck Hagel will have the honor of serving as the Defense Secretary who presides over the beginning of the major drawdown that will be the single defining characteristic of the American military for much of the next decade. The Senate just approved Hagel by a… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: Senate Republicans have mounted a filibuster against former senator Chuck Hagel, the president’s nominee for Defense Secretary. That’s according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Senate’s top Democrat made an impassioned speech decrying the move, calling it “tragic” and noting this had never happened before. Initially, it looked as if a GOP… Keep reading →

[UPDATED with details on carriers] THE CAPITOL: With the Obama Pentagon excoriating federal lawmakers for their apparent inability to avoid sequestration or to pass a defense spending bill, and the Navy going down to one carrier in the Persian Gulf for lack of funds, GOP lawmakers today defended the latest Republican proposal to stop the… Keep reading →