As the Pentagon rushes to implement defenses against advanced hypersonic weapons, it’s battling the old way of doing acquisition and requirements.

Let a hundred hypersonic flowers bloom, Pentagon officials say, instead of a single cumbersome mega-program.

What happens when the Pentagon’s new ballistic missile defeat program doesn’t work? They keep using the old one, which has a spotty track record.

For all the talk of major changes, the Pentagon is pouring money into some pretty traditional priorities.

Offensive missiles are much cheaper than missile defenses. So is the best defense a good offense?

Warships sink. Bases burn. F-35s die on the runway. Can $24 billion a year — 3.3 % of the Pentagon budget — fix the problem?

CAPITOL HILL: The Air Force and other services, after decades during which America often built a highly capable military satellite but didn’t have the ground equipment to use it, are trying to claw back years and dollars of often wasted effort by holding joint experiments to test satellites and ground equipment at the same time.… Keep reading →

The Pentagon has quietly asked defense contractors for ways to spot enemy missile launchers — so the US can destroy them before they even fire.

WASHINGTON: The first concrete step to creating an independent force of trained and equipped space warriors occurred today — but that’s not the most important step on space the nation should take, the Air Force Chief of Staff said today. Setting up Space Command, so the US can more effectively fight any war that involves space assets,… Keep reading →

Most of the system that allows the president to launch nuclear weapons and to know what the enemy is doing with theirs is ancient. No one yet agrees what it must replaced with. And no one knows how much it will cost, although late last month the Congressional Budget Office issued an estimate of $77 billion.