AFGHANISTAN: International Special Operations Forces play an important but largely unheralded role in Afghanistan. American Army Rangers, Green Berets and Delta Force, along with Navy SEALs and Air Force specialists work with the best from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and a host of other allied nations to kill and capture insurgents and terrorists. They also… Keep reading →

THE PENTAGON: While multi-billion dollar programs dominate the defense debate, the U.S. Army is quietly placing a big bet on a very small part of the Pentagon budget. The service’s strategy? Leverage the administration’s interest in rebuilding military-to-military relationships around the world – long overshadowed by the simultaneous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – by… Keep reading →

It’s budget day, so keep your eye on the cups as budgeteers move them round and round. In real life, the Army will shrink steadily from its peak of almost 570,000 soldiers to 490,000 by 2017. But, on paper, in the Pentagon’s base budget for 2013, that shrinkage will happen overnight at the beginning of… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Over the next few years, Special Operations forces will gradually revert to the role that has been their bread and butter for much of their existence: training and assisting local forces around the globe to strengthen partners militaries. The global Special Operations presence will be large, some 12,000 troops around the world, according to… Keep reading →

ABOARD THE USS WASP: For the first time, Marine and Navy planners have melded a carrier strike group into the Marine Corps’ premiere amphibious operations wargame known as Bold Alligator. This appears to bridge what had appeared to be a growing divide between a Marine Corps eager to build more amphibious ships and a Navy… Keep reading →

Soldiers might be able to ditch awkward goggles or helmets to access data while in the battlefield in favor of virtual reality contact lenses. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to enhance soldiers’ vision with virtual reality contact lenses, according to Federal Computer Week. The technology involves contact lenses with built-in systems that would… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: One lesson the Army has taken to heart from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the value — and often the necessity — of aviation to soldiers fighting on the ground. This is one reason that, even as the Army shrinks by a reported 80,000 or more troops under President Obama’s new military… Keep reading →

The U.S. Army has always struggled with what the elder George Bush once called “the vision thing.” Now that struggle is boiling over. At the latest of a series of conferences on the future of the Army, junior officers openly debated with top generals over how to sell the service to the Congress, the country,… Keep reading →

Before designing and articulating a new defense strategy, DoD officials must answer an important question: Will the most dangerous twenty-first century threats emerge more from unfavorable order or unacceptable disorder? Unfavorable order is rooted in military competition with rising powers like China or Iran and conforms well to emerging concepts like Air-Sea Battle. Unacceptable disorder… Keep reading →

Americans paused recently to remember the tenth anniversary of 9/11. In years ahead they will remember and debate the wisdom of American policy and actions in Afghanistan. Far fewer will reflect on the significance of 10/7/2001; the date marking the start of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)-the U.S. and coalition attacks to wipe out Al Qaeda.… Keep reading →