[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcerPCn3MlA]
We’ve all seen the airplane-sized Predator and Reaper drones now flying and fighting over Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan and Yemen. They’re fairly big (the Predator has a 48-foot [15-m.] wingspan) and costly ($5 million each). But there are fleets of smaller and cheaper man-launched …
In my continuing role as Head Judge for the online strategy community Wikistrat‘s month-long International Grand Strategy Competition featuring roughly 30 teams from top-flight universities and think tanks around the world, I get to peruse all manner of provocative thought from some of tomorrow’s best and brightest thinkers. And …
The fighting season in Afghanistan is in full swing, and the early reports indicate this one will be tough. After last year’s surge, American units, and the Afghan Army and police they’re partnered with, will be fighting to hold the areas they paid for dearly a year ago. One of the key provinces will be Kandahar.
In the months …
The U.S. military is the world’s pre-eminent military force — by far — and most of that is because of its people and the way they train and led. But they’re none to shabby on the hardware side of the house, either. I just cobbled together a menu of the weapons systems used in recent U.S. military actions for Time.com and it has …
When charts like the one above surface inside the Pentagon, they’re generally some action officer’s guesstimate about how much her program’s top-line budget is going to grow in the out years (also known as the FYDP [pronounced fidd-IP], for future years defense program) Or, as we call it: the future.
But this chart is different. …
The self-licking ice cream cone continues: over at Small Wars Journal, Robert Haddick explains why the days are numbered for the mainstay of the U.S. drone fleet.
