Navy and Air Force missile expert Thomas S. Amlie has died at 85. His fingerprints – he was part of the simple-is-better school that waxes and wanes in the U.S. military — date back to the Eisenhower Administration:
Tom Amlie worked on the Sidewinder project as a young Navy lieutenant, and he later became technical director at
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No program better illustrates the pathologies of the weapons acquisition process as it is currently practiced by the Military – Industrial – Congressional Complex (MICC) than the entirely predictable, and in this case, predicted, …
Thursday’s budget details contained several sky-high decisions worth noting:
— New unmanned aircraft aren’t necessarily cheaper and/or better than old – and Battleland means very old – manned aircraft. (Interesting how the military seems to be able to go back to the future with reconnaissance aircraft, but not fighters or …
The Pentagon wants to build a new front door for itself for folks, like Battleland, who usually arrive via the capital’s once-great Metro subway system. Estimated cost, given the security requirements of the “Pentagon Sentry …
One of the reasons Battleland thinks there might be some fat yet to carve from the U.S. military’s budget are charts like this, buried in reports like this. It’s a final draft of Army Field Manual 3-13, Inform and Influence Activities. It’s a 67-page document explaining how the Army can make people think differently. Can you …
Most Department of Defense inspector general’s reports are pretty dry reading, full of green-eyeshade mumbo-jumbo that – while undoubtedly important and vital (remember: the Pentagon’s books remain officially unauditable) …
…the Navy awarded this $15 million contract (click on it to enlarge) Thursday. “The program seeks to maximize the financial value of the properties and leverage that value with private sector expertise to offset the cost of ongoing operations or obviate the need for capital investments,” the announcement says. Obviate the need for …
It’s progress, of a sort, when the Navy’s tailhook woes are linked to an actual tailhook – the hook that grabs the arresting cable on an aircraft carrier and lets the plane land safely – and not the debauchery that was common at the Tailhook Assocation’s annual gatherings. That kind of Tailhook trouble exploded into a …
Suzanne Kelly over at CNN’s Security Clearance blog pulls back the curtains on what it’s like to be a private contractor toiling in Iraq or Afghanistan. Hint: the big-money dreams seem to be just that.
