NEW YORK: The Pentagon official who oversees the defense industrial base told Wall Street investors this morning that the upcoming defense budget will include funding for weapons prototypes. And Elana Broitman, deputy assistant defense secretary for manufacturing and industrial base policy (DASD industrial base to most Pentagon wonks), cautioned that the absence of lawmakers with military… Keep reading →

Chinese and Russian hackers have everybody running scared. So whatever else happens with the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2015, we know it will include more money for things cyber, from purely defensive network security to black-budget “offensive cyber weapons” such as the Stuxnet worm. But one big thing remains in doubt: the role… Keep reading →

This is James Kitfield’s first piece for Breaking Defense since his departure from his award-winning tenure at National Journal. As one of the best defense reporters around, Kitfield’s specialty has always been spotting the big strategic trend first and writing clearly, simply and persuasively about it. Following is a classic example of his work, which… Keep reading →

Islamists are regrouping in Mali, but France wants to draw its forces down to 1,000 troops, so who will fill the gap? The UN, which already has 5,500 soldiers on the ground? A fragile truce holds in the Central Africa Republic, where more than one million people have been displaced by gruesome fighting between Muslims… Keep reading →

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has done the nation a service by writing his memoirs, “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,” providing useful insights into his thinking and approach, as well as giving us a unique look at the working styles of two very different presidents. The book demonstrates why and how Gates has navigated… Keep reading →

After our story yesterday on Robert Work and Shawn Brimley‘s disconcerting vision of future robotic war, we got a thoughtful response from Brimley that, with his permission, we’ve published below. The Editors. Bob and I wrote the paper because we feel strongly that there are some powerful trends affecting the relationship between technology and military… Keep reading →

Yesterday, four mid-grade military officers — one from each armed service — made a remarkable public recommendation to their boss, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel: It’s time to force the four services back into clearly demarcated “lanes” and reduce overlap between them as budgets shrink and competition escalates. They focused on three high-priority areas: Cybersecurity, the… Keep reading →

    Iran’s decision to accept and implement the nuclear deal struck in November has undercut the US Congress’s drive for new sanctions designed to increase the pressure on the Islamic Republic. President Barack Obama said the deal should be given a chance to work and that sanctions could alienate Iran and torpedo the diplomacy. Congress, so… Keep reading →

She’s baaack! After having the temerity to give birth to a child and thus deprive us of her insights for several months, Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute has penned an op-ed on the 2015 budget. She casts it in a fairly gloomy light, pointing to the haunting possibility of a hollow force in the… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: In a speech that demonstrated just how important SIGINT really is, President Obama issued a new policy directive today that essentially says, we’ll be more careful in the future about containing leaks, making allies mad at us and giving American’s reason to think we might be violating their privacy. Perhaps most importantly, the new… Keep reading →