“The worst I’ve ever seen.”
Navy
Japan Frets over U.S. Support in China Dispute
TOKYO – When the U.S. Defense Secretary arrives in Asia this weekend, his biggest challenge may not be convincing China that America will give its full support to longtime ally Japan in the escalating dispute over islands …
Calls for Phantom Defense Cuts Must Stop
Fiscal restraint is en vogue and increasingly the cover many are using to push other agendas. Republicans spent a week in Tampa monitoring America’s mounting national debt at their recent convention. Democrats included a call …
Of Reunions, Remembrances, and Such
This past weekend was spent in Portland, Oregon, at a reunion of sailors from the USS Hector (AR-7), my first ship.
I served from December 1980 until November 1982 as Diving Officer. There were several folks from my time on …
A (Former) SEAL Speaks Out…About (Former) SEALs Speaking Out
No Easy Day is different.
SEAL Team Six operators have, until now, always been very tight-lipped about current operations. Yes, there have been revealing books about SEAL Team Six — Rogue Warrior and Inside SEAL Team Six are …
Graduating Into War
The U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 2002 was just beginning its senior year on September 11, 2001. Thirty-three of its 965 members this week will be publishing In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and …
He NOEs What He’s Doing…
When helicopter pilots deftly hug the earth at treetop level, it’s called nap-of-the-earth – NOE – flying. It’s a technique designed to avoid enemy detection – flying under the radar, as it’s sometimes called.
It’s altogether something else to do it in a Navy F-18 jet fighter as in this video, anonymously posted on …
The Country Whose Name Dare Not Be Spoken
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke to the sailors of the carrier USS John C. Stennis on Wednesday in Bremerton, Wash. He lauded their their service, but warned of the threats still out there:
We have threats of nuclear
…
Two Peas In a Pod
Battleland recently noted that Rep. Roscoe Bartlett – chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s tactical air and land forces subcommittee – has a strange fascination with survivalship (a word we just made up). We …
Bigger Bang For The Buck
The Navy has just authorized full-rate production of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System, a laser-guided rocket system that manufacturer BAE Systems says costs only a third as much the Hellfire missile commonly …
AirSea Battle: The Military-Industrial Complex’s Self-Serving Fantasy
Nice Washington Post piece (by Greg Jaffe, of course) on the great COIN counterattack that is the Pentagon’s AirSea Battle.
As scenario work goes, what the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis has done in its war-games …
Firing for Effect 2.0
Back in January, Battleland reported on 157 Air Force majors the service was booting out after 15 years in uniform. There had been a policy of letting such airmen make their 20 years to be eligible for a pension, but budget cutting had made that impossible in their case, the Air Force said.
Such bad-tasting medicine is increasingly …
The Navy SEALS’ Dying Words
Monday, August 6 marks the first anniversary of the Afghan crash of a U.S. military CH-47 Chinook helicopter that killed 30 Americans, including 17 Navy SEALS. It was the worst single loss-of-life day for the U.S. in the war in …